Lopez Chosen Lower Pottsgrove Board President

Lower Pottsgrove commissioners (from left) Ray Lopez, Early Swavely Jr., and Bob Mohollen confer before the start of Tuesday’s board meeting

LOWER POTTSGROVE PA – Ray Lopez, who has worked since 2014 as Lower Pottsgrove’s emergency management coordinator and who joined the township Board of Commissioners in November 2016, on Tuesday (Sept. 6, 2022) was unanimously selected by his board colleagues as their president.

The choice was made during a re-organization over which township Manager Ed Wagner presided. It followed the board’s approval of William Keohane to fill the vacancy left by former Commissioner Bruce Foltz, who moved out of the township. Its members witnessed Keohane take his oath of office, then turned their attention to fill the gap of Foltz’s decades-long leadership.

Vice President Earl Swavely Jr. presented Lopez, most recently re-elected in last November’s general election, as the sole nominee for the president’s role.

Fellow commissioners have praised Lopez over several years as one of the hardest workers among them. In his emergency management role they’ve said he’s spent overnight hours on many occasions at the township building on Buchert Road, monitoring and helping to direct responses to weather-related and other crises. Although its construction has been stalled by higher-than-expected costs, Lopez was instrumental in assembling materials, plans, and designs for a new township municipal campus.

Board members also have publicly said they rely on his expertise in municipal government. For more than 8 years he was a project manager for Dallas Data Systems in Pottstown, which specializes in computer software for municipal finance, utility management, and payroll and human resources. Lopez also served as Pottstown borough manager between 2006 and 2009, and earlier as the borough codes enforcement officer and acting finance director.

Lopez was roundly congratulated and thanked by his colleagues at the close of Tuesday’s board meeting during its commissioners’ comments segment.

Board member appointments

Obviously anticipating his successful nomination, Lopez came to the meeting with a list of changes to member representation for what its agenda referred to as its “board officers and conference groups:”

• Swavely remains as vice president.
• Newly installed Keohane, with an extensive background in Lower Pottsgrove and Pottstown regional parks and recreation, will be Lower Pottsgrove’s appointee to the three-township Pottsgrove Recreation Board. He succeeds Commissioner Mike McGroarty in that role.
• McGroarty will serve on the township infrastructure committee.
• Lopez and Commissioner Robert Mohollen will serve the board on its economic development committee.

Photo by The Post