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Free School Supplies at Community Fun Day Aug. 13

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Higher Ground International church, located at 1126 South Street in Pottstown, will hold a Community Fun Day on Sunday, Aug. 14 at 12 noon.

In addition to activities like a dunk tank and moonbounces, free school supplies will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

Call the church at 610-970-3938 for more information.




Region Picks Up $1M in 4-K State Funding Grants

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Four early education programs in the Greater Pottstown Area have received an additional $1 million through the new state budget which remains unbalanced.

According to a spreadsheet of the grant awards provided by State Rep. Thomas Quigley, R-146th Dist. programs in Chester and Montgomery counties have received a total of $1,020,000 in Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts grants.

No grants were issued in Berks County.

Pre-K Counts provides quality half-day and full-day pre-kindergarten to eligible 3- and 4-year-olds and is designed for children who are at risk of school failure; living in families earning up to 300 percent of the federal income poverty level (such as a family of four earning $72,900); and, or who may also be English language learners or have special needs.

At $357,000, Pottstown School District received the region’s largest grant, which is in addition to the grant money it already receives from that program

Owen J. Roberts School District has received a grant of $170,000.

The two others issued in Montgomery County are for the county’s Intermediate Unit, which provides services throughout the county and received $340,000; and Montgomery Early Learning Centers, which has five locations, including one at Emanuel Lutheran Church in Pottstown, and which received $153,000.

Pottstown Schools Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez said he had not expected to receive word so soon, given the uncertain state of the budget, which has yet to be the benefit of a revenue package agreed to by Gov. Tom Wolf and the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

The upshot for Pottstown is the district can now offer a full day Pre-K Counts classroom at Franklin, Lincoln and Rupert elementary schools, in addition to the Barth 4K classroom that started last year.

The grant funding, combined with district funds, means the district can now offer a full-day 4K classroom experience to all families of 4-year-old children regardless of income, as long as they reside in Pottstown School District.

Rodriguez explained that during the last school year, a full-day 4-K program was set up at Barth Elementary School, but only had 20 seats, all of which were filled.

Now an additional 60 seats — 20 at each of the other three elementary schools — will be funded thanks to the grant

Kathryn Soeder, Assistant Superintendent at Owen J. Roberts School District said the district has taken advantage of the Pre-K Counts program for the last 10 years by passing the grant money through to programs at two locations run by Warwick Child Care.

The program offers child care and instruction “aligned with our kindergarten and pre-K program.

“We started with 20 seats, ten in each of Warick’s two locations, and added 20 more in 2016,” she said.

The additional $170,000 brings the district’s Pre-K Counts grant to $516,000 and will allow for services to be provided to 60 children from low-income families, she said.

Valerie Jackson Named as New PEAK Coordinator

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Valerie Jacxkson
Blogger's Note:The following was provided by the Pottstown School District.

Valerie Jackson has been promoted to PEAK Coordinator upon retirement of Mary Rieck. 

Prior to this position, Jackson was the part-time Community Parent Organizer, and was promoted to Community Engagement Coordinator.

“I know the bus. I’m ready to drive the bus,” Jackson said, regarding this latest promotion.

Jackson wants to build upon and strengthen the great work that PEAK has already done. A specific goal of hers is to forge a relationship between Pottstown and Pottsgrove School District because there is a high transiency between the two districts and “we use the same reading curriculum, Reading Wonders.” By working with a neighboring district, Jackson hopes to ease transitions for students and families.

Increasing family involvement that will strengthen families and Pottstown School District as a whole is important to Jackson. Prior to being promoted to PEAK Coordinator, she co-facilitated meetings and helped with leadership-skills training for the Family Advisory Committee, a collaboration to provide a space for open communication between the school district and families. Forming new partnerships with the community in the district is another key area for PEAK’s focus.

The annual event Pottstown Celebrates Young Children/YMCA Healthy Kids Day has grown under Jackson’s leadership. Vendor participation increased by 40 percent in 2017.

“This is my community, so it’s important to me,” Jackson said. “My early beginnings were here in Pottstown School District, and now I want to give back to help the children, because it’s all about the kids and families.”

PEAK (Pottstown Early Action for Kindergarten Readiness) is a collaboration of Pottstown School District and community organizations that are working together to design and implement strategies that enable children to enter kindergarten ready to learn, and to engage Pottstown’s families. PEAK focuses its work in five inter-related areas: community outreach, family engagement, quality improvement, kindergarten transition, and health/wellness. PEAK’s overarching goal is to build an infrastructure that ensures all children in Pottstown enter kindergarten ready to learn.

Grants, Country Stars, Parking and a Withdrawal

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Photo by Evan Brandt
Members of Pottstown Borough Council and staff celebrate the receipt of a $10,000 grant from PECO's Green Region program during last night's work session.


It was a busy night at borough council last night, with the announcement in $40,000 in grants being received, all for work in the borough's two largest parks, and a musical event planned for Memorial Park that will feature country star Hunter Hayes.

All of which is good news for Pottstown.

But the big surprise of the evening came at the end.

Council Vice President Sheryl Miller announced she will not seek reelection to another four-year term. She represents the Third Ward and was running unopposed.

She said the effort of being on borough council -- and the many ancillary activities she has taken on as a result of that role -- have proven too exhausting.

"I don't think I have another term in me," she said, adding that she had already alerted the elections board in Norristown of her withdrawal.

That means there is currently no candidate running for the Third Ward seat on council.

Must be time for all the loudmouths on Facebook who say they will "remember this at election time" to step up and show everyone how they can do it better.

I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

Also of interest was a presentation by the stalwart folks at Rockwell Development Group who are trying to overcome the obstacles the borough building code puts in their way and redevelop the derelict shirt factory at the corner of Cherry and South Charlotte streets.

And by obstacles I mean the only thing that is always an issue in Pottstown -- parking.

Evidently the Zoning Hearing Board rejected the developer's request for a variance from the parking requirements, but they're still plugging, although they did confess this was their "last swing."

So the solution being proposed is to make Charlotte Street between Cherry Street and Industrial Highway one-way headed south. That would allow 18-parking spaces on each side of the road, and get them closer to the 54 spaces they need -- lowered since they eliminated one apartment from their project.

They're asking for support from council and we'll all find out Monday whether they get it.

In the meantime, here are the Tweets from last night's meeting.

Pottstown Community Field Day Set for Aug. 19

Hopewell Free Program Sunday Highlights Archaeologists' Race Against Time at Philly Project

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Blogger's Note:The following was provided by the Friends of Hopewell Furnace.

On Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, the Friends of Hopewell Furnace will host Rutgers Archeologist Kimberlee Sue Moran’s presentation “The First Baptist Church of Philadelphia’s Burial Ground: the problem, project, and people of the past encountered at 218 Arch Street”. 

The free program will commence at 2 p.m. in the Hopewell Furnace Conference Room.

In November of 2016, the Philadelphia Inquirer published an article about bones found at a construction site on Arch Street. 

 The problem was that, as a private project, no city office was “in charge” of the human remains. The Mutter Institute, as a collaborative research organization associated with the study of historic human remains, approached the property developer with an interest to learn more about the bones found at the site. 

 What ensued was a race-against-time excavation of 218 Arch Street, part of the First Baptist Church cemetery, supposedly moved in 1860, and a continuing analysis of the people buried there between 1707 and 1859. 

This presentation will provide an overview of the project, what is currently known about the site, and the recovered human remains, and the future work of our multi-disciplinary team.

Kimberlee Sue Moran has been a practicing forensic archaeologist since 2002. She holds an undergraduate degree in Classical and Near Eastern archaeology from Bryn Mawr College and a Master’s of Science in forensic archaeological science from the Institute of Archaeology at University College, London. 

Her doctoral research is in the field of ancient fingerprints. Kimberlee worked as a contract archaeologist for a CRM firm based in Trenton, NJ, prior to moving to the UK. She moved back to New Jersey in 2010 and now works at Rutgers-Camden. She is an active member of the Society for American Archaeology and is a member of the Register of Professional Archaeologists (RPA).

While at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site visitors are encouraged to explore Hopewell Furnace’s own Bethesda Baptist Church and graveyard, tour the village, hike the trails and learn about iron making and why Hopewell Furnace is important to our nation’s history. 

Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily (now seven days a week thru October), the park is located five miles south of Birdsboro, PA, off of Route 345. For more information stop by the park's visitor center, call 610-582-8773, visit the park's web site at www.nps.gov/hofu, or contact the park by e-mail at hofu_superintendent@nps.gov.

Country Star Hunter Hayes to Play Memorial Park

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Hunter Hayes



Memorial Park will play host to country music star and five-time Grammy nominee Hunter Hayes in October as he headlines the first-ever “Citadel Palooza.”

Sponsored by Citadel credit union, 100 percent of concert ticket tales will be donated to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

On Wednesday night, Scott Mirkin from ESM Productions asked borough council to approve a Sly Fox Beer biergarten for the concert.

“We like to work with local vendors whenever we can,” he told council.

Council will vote Monday on the request.

Citadel is celebrating its 80th anniversary and the Oct. 7 concert is being billed as “Citadel Palooza.”

The inspiration behind Citadel Palooza is the credit union philosophy of “People Helping People.”

“Citadel Palooza is Citadel’s celebration for our community, and we are honored to have Hunter Hayes, who is such an inspirational artist, be a part of it,” said Jeff March, president and CEO, Citadel. “The people of the Greater Philadelphia area have supported Citadel for 80 years, and we want to give back in a big way. We especially want to thank our members for making this event possible.”

During Citadel Palooza, concert attendees will enjoy a variety of food trucks and libations. The official schedule of events and opening acts will be announced in September, along with food and beverage vendors.

General Lawn Seating tickets will cost $25, and VIP-level tickets cost $50.

Tickets can be purchased at CitadelPalooza.com with the option to donate additional money to CHOP.

For more Citadel Palooza updates, follow @CitadelBanking and @HunterHayes on Twitter.

U.S. Reps Costello, Boyle Form Caucus to Protect Public Service Student Loan Foregiveness Program

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Blogger's Note:The following was provided by U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello's office.

U.S. Reps. Ryan Costello , R-6th Dist. and Brendan F. Boyle, D-13th Dist., have formed the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Caucus to focus congressional efforts on protecting the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. 

Created in 2007 to encourage more Americans to pursue public service careers despite the financial burdens of their student debt, this program promises to forgive the remaining balance of federal Direct Loans owed by our teachers, firefighters, police officers and other full-time public service workers after they have faithfully paid on those loans for 10 years – 120 on-time payments – during public service employment.
U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello


“Many teachers, first responders, and public health specialists are working hard to make a difference in their local communities while relying on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program,” said Costello. “We must fulfill the promise made to these student borrowers over the past decade. As the 10-year anniversary of the program approaches, I’m pleased to be a co-founding member of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Caucus to advocate on behalf of these public servants.”

“We must do more to help folks drowning in student loan debt, and to prevent the burdens of student loan debt from making one’s desire to serve his or her community unattainable," said Boyle. 

"The PSLF Caucus will focus on making good on our collective promise to public servants who have served their communities for years, often for low pay in positions that may have otherwise not been financially manageable, with the understanding that the 10-year-old Public Service Loan Forgiveness program would eventually help them lighten their burden of student debt," said Boyle. "Current threats to end or limit the program are shortsighted, to say the least. PSLF is an incentive to our students, and an investment in our future.”
U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle

The PSLF Caucus is broadly supported by a coalition of more than fifty organizations led by the National Education Association (NEA). Marc Egan, NEA Director of Government Relations, commended the caucus. 

“NEA members — from future teachers to retirees — have been sounding the alarm on student debt. Many of our members are struggling with more than $50,000, and sometimes much more, in student loan debt. Their debt is bigger than their annual salaries, and their monthly loan payments often are bigger than their home and car loans," Egan said. "We commend Congressmen Boyle and Costello for stepping up and forming a caucus to tackle the college debt issue and to fight to protect the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.”

The PSLF Caucus will also foster member discussion and legislative ideas focused on encouraging young people in college today to pursue careers in public service, such as teachers, firefighters, prosecutors and public defenders, and public health nurses. 

Under PSLF, an individual’s outstanding federal student debt is forgiven after 120 on-time, qualifying monthly payments — 10 years’ worth of payments. More than half a million people have enrolled over the last decade. President Trump’s budget proposed ending the program.

Council Supports Concept of Parking Plan for Both Sides of South Charlotte Street Making it One-Way

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Maria Bleile, left, was honored by a borough council resolution Monday night, recognizing her 15 years of service to Pottstown Borough. From left are Mayor Sharon Thomas, Council President Dan Weand and Borough Manager Mark Flanders.


If you blinked Monday night, you might have missed the council meeting.

It was only 35 minutes long and the only discussion of note was about the parking proposal for South Charlotte Street.

Rockwell Development Group, which is trying to convert the long-vacant shirt factory at Cherry and South Charlotte streets into market-rate apartments, wants to make South Charlotte Street one-way so parking can be allowed on both sides of the street.

Two residents spoke against it, saying it could hinder fire trucks to have vehicles parked on both sides of the street.

Council Vice President Sheryl Miller, who said she supports re-development, said she had too many questions to vote in favor of the concept as it proceeds to the zoning hearing board in pursuit of a variance.

"Developers are here to make money, and they're going to develop," said Miller, who announced last week she is dropping out of the race for a second term. "It's council's job to hold them accountable."

Council voted 6-1 to support the concept.

Here are the Tweets from the meeting.

Free Back to School Hair Cuts for Pottstown Kids

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Although the student in your house probably doesn't want to think about it, back to school is creeping up on us.

We all want to look our best when we're making a first impression.

That's why Tony Betts, owner
Blade's Edge is located at the corner of Walnut and Charlotte streets.
of The Blade's Edge salon is once again offering free basic even or shape-up haircuts for free for kids headed back to school.

He is asking that parents bring in contributions of school supplies.

Last year, Betts gave out more than 100 free haircuts and donated a box of school supplies to his son's school, Franklin Elementary School.

This year, he is setting his sights higher.

Not only does he want to increase the number of free hair cuts to 200, "we want to have enough school supplies to deliver to all four elementary schools," said Betts.

His shop is located on the southwest corner of Walnut and North Charlotte streets.

For more information, call 484-752-9577,




Library Painting Party Gets You Eclipse Glasses

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As anyone who has tried to buy the special glasses needed to safely watch the upcoming solar eclipse on Aug. 21 knows, they are not easy to find.

But fear not, your friendly Pottstown Regional Public Library is coming to the rescue.

Just bring a dark short to the library tomorrow between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and use library-provided supplies to participate in a community art project and make your own "galaxy shirt" and you'll get a pair of glasses.



New Lights, New Hires and New Pottstown Homes

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Photo courtesy of Foundation for Pottstown Education
Lincoln Elementary School Second Grade Teacher Heather Kurtz, stands with Daniel Zipay outside the North Evans Street home where she grew up. She is the first Pottstown teacher to use the $10,000 forgivable loan program to buy a home in the district. And she bought this one from her parents.


It was a quick but action-packed school board meeting Thursday which had some welcome news from the Foundation for Pottstown Education.

Joe Rusiewicz, the foundation director, announced that since the Home Ownership Initiative -- which provides $10,000 forgivable loans to school district employees who buy homes in the borough -- was approved in April six inquiries have been made.

At the end of July, the first of those inquiries was transformed into a house closing when Lincoln Elementary School teacher Heather Kurtz closed on the North Evans Street home once owned by her parents, Ronald and Connie Downie.

"We welcome her home to Pottstown and wish her many happy new memories," Rusiewicz said.

He also announced a new scholarship named after the foundation's first director, Myra Forrest, for students who complete the early college program in partnership with the Pottstown campus of Montgomery County Community College, which the foundation funds.

There was, of course, also much excitement about the new stadium lights being erected this week and next at Grigg Memorial Stadium. Board member Polly Weand was thanked for her fund-raising efforts and said the lights represent a symbol of how the town can come together.

Also on the agenda of interest to Weand was a matter to provide a 3 percent pay increase across the board to support workers, building principals and mid-level administrators. She asked that it be sent back to the finance committee which has res in this to for approval "because of the finances in this town."

It remains to be seen Monday if that will happen.

The board will also vote on a bond re-financing expected to save the district $400,000.

And finally, the board will vote on whether to double its annual contribution to the Pottstown Area Industrial Development Inc., from $10,000 to $20,000.

Here are the Tweets from the meeting.

Pottstown Rotary Club to Recognize Twila Fisher as 'Person of the Year' on Sept. 13 in Riverfront Park

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Twila Fisher
Blogger's Note:The following was provided by The Pottstown Rotary Club

The Pottstown Rotary Club annually recognizes a member of the greater Pottstown community for outstanding contributions in areas such as the arts, business, education, health care, non-profit public service, and government service.

This year the Rotary Club is pleased to announce Twila Fisher as its 2017 Person of the Year award recipient. 

Members of the community are invited to the ceremony scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 13, at the Rotary Pavilion in Riverfront Park. 

The ceremony, followed by dinner, will begin at 6 p.m. Tickets for adults are $25 and $10 for children. 

Though tickets can be purchased at the event, Rotary is asking that interested members of the community RSVP to Jennifer Isett (jisett@barryisett.com) or Nicole Matz (Nicole.matz1@gmail.com).

Bringing her experience in community organizing and economic development, Fisher was appointed in 2015 as the Hill School’s first-ever Manager of Community and Economic Development, a full-time position created to advance Hill School’s engagement with Pottstown to support a new, collaborative neighborhood initiative called Hobart’s Run. 

The mission of Hobart's Run is to create a clean, safe, and inclusive community; strengthen residential development; and generate positive, sustainable commercial and retail development.

Fisher began leading the Hobart’s Run initiative in January, 2016 and during the short time under her leadership the initiative has successes under its belt including implementation of the Mobile Ambassador Program, the Mid-Day Café’s held every Wednesday in downtown Pottstown during the summer, numerous block cleanups and the first investor's conference with the aim of drawing new investments from Hill School Alumni and interested investors to the Pottstown area.

Fisher previously served the ReDesign Reading Community Development Corporation as a Public Leadership and Service Fellow of the University of Pennsylvania organizing downtown revitalization projects, community organizing and project development, and aiding in policy for various economic development initiatives. 

Fisher earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University and received her master’s degree in Public Administration and certificate in Economic Development from the University of Pennsylvania in December of 2015.

The Pottstown Rotary is a local and international service organization comprised of men and women committed to making a positive contribution in their community and the world. 

The Rotary Club of Pottstown supports a number of programs in Pottstown, including, literacy building, the Pottstown Halloween and July 4th Parades, student scholarships, Operation Backpack, and Meals on Wheels. The club also sponsors the Pottstown High School Interact Club, a service club for high school students and recently launched its first Rotaract service club in partnership with MCCC. 

To learn more about The Rotary Club of Pottstown, please www.PottstownRotary.org.

Statues, Racism and the Re-Writing of History

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Photo Shamelessly filched from The Washington Post.
No, it's not the Grand Army of the Republic Statue on High Street in Pottstown, although it could be. One is of a Union soldier in Westfield, N.J., the other is a statue in Windsor, N.C. Seem similar? Well, read on and discover the unfamiliar history of Civil War statues now at the center of so much strife.

To say that the current racial strife in America is all about a statue is to miss the larger picture.

As I have watched the violence, the hot rhetoric and the "whataboutism" flood the Internet and the airwaves, I have thought long and hard about writing anything on the subject as I'm not sure I have anything worth saying that hasn't already been said by someone somewhere.

But I suppose anything worth saying is worth repeating so let's start with some basics, philosophical ruminations to be found below notwithstanding.

Photo by Evan Brandt
Chris Brickhouse, right, holds the banner he brought to
an anti-hate rally in Phoenixville Friday night.
Racism is wrong.

There is nothing inherently superior about white people other, perhaps, than their historical willingness to subjugate or eliminate people who look differently than they do or who have something they want -- most often, land.

Nazis are bad and nothing good will happen from associating with them. It's hard to believe this needs repeating in 2017.

Our parents and grandparents fought a war to defeat them. Nazis performed some of the most horrific acts human beings have ever organized themselves to undertake and their resurgence in our nation is reason for amazement and great sorrow.

Now for the gray areas.

In 1995, I saw Michael Douglas make a speech on screen playing President Andrew Shepherd in Rob Reiner's great film, "The American President."

(I was surprised, then immediately unsurprised to discover yesterday it was written by Aaron Sorkin, the creator of "The West Wing.")

At the end of the film Shepherd finally defends himself and I remember being struck by this passage:
America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.
You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms.
Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.
And so as I ponder the arguments now raging on the Internet, and on the increasing useless television programs where the person who yells the loudest wins the day, I think about another movie. In "Minority Report," the police prosecute "future crime," which is, in other words, "crimes you're thinking about perpetrating."

Because one of the arguments now popular among the left-leaning is the idea that violence perpetrated by antifa protesters is somehow more acceptable than that committed by the KKK, Nazis, et al because "at least they're doing it for the right reason, opposing Nazis."

It's an emotionally comforting argument that rests on a slippery slope. As Americans, we should always be wary of "right thinking." It is antithetical to freedom which, sadly, also includes the freedom to hate.

Actions -- not motives or thoughts -- are what should be prosecuted in courts.

This is why, although I laud the sentiment behind them and understand their historical justification, I am not entirely OK with the idea of a "hate crime" law.

Should we, as a nation and culture, punish a murderer motivated by money less severely than we should a murderer motivated by hatred of the victim's skin color, or political philosophy? Is the victim any less dead? Is their family any less traumatized?

I have always puzzled about why it is a war crime to kill people with one method on the battlefield, but acceptable in another way? Again, are they any less dead?

People have attacked President Trump, rightly, for equating violence by "both
sides."

And here's where it gets a little dicey, I admit. Remember, none of this is black and white, it's just about black and white.

I encourage the public condemnation, in the strongest possible words, as the politicians like say, the motives for violence by the racist marchers because of their reason for doing it. Social condemnation is one of the ways racism has been held in check. It's why the KKK hide their identities behind hoods -- at least until the era of David Duke.

But when it comes to the criminal justice system and the consequences for those involved, I am leery of any sentence that is made more harsh because of someone's beliefs -- no matter how heinous they may be to society at large.

Which brings us to what society at large thinks about all this. As it turns out, like everything else, it's complicated.

On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that according to a recent poll, when it comes to Confederate monuments, "The Public Stands with Trump."

"A survey by the Economist and YouGov earlier this week found that, by more than 2 to 1, Americans believe that Confederate monuments are symbols of Southern pride rather than of white supremacy," wrote reporter Christopher Ingraham.

Perhaps most amazingly, although African-Americans are the most likely to say Confederate statues are symbols of white supremacy, less than half (47 percent) say so, according to the survey.
Steve Bannon
And only 30 percent of all Americans support the removal of Lee's statue in Charlottesville, according to the survey.

More worrisome, in an interview with the New York Times, now-ousted chief political strategist and right-wing stalwart Steve Bannon says tearing them down, only energizes his base more.

“Just give me more,” Bannon said. “Tear down more statues. Say the revolution is coming. I can’t get enough of it,” he told the Times.

These are not easy questions and I don't pretend to have the answers.

So what's the right path?

Some have said, look at Germany, the birthplace of Nazism.

They have outlawed the party and their monuments are to that philosophy's victims, not its champions. And Germany is arguably the leader of the free world currently, so where's the harm?

Even some in the famously absolutist American Civil Liberties Union, which stood by its absolute belief in the Constitution and defended in the court the Nazis' right to march in public, are re-thinking this position in the wake of hatred's rise.

(By the way, while many blame President Trump for this rise in hatred and its increased brazenness, and he is certainly no innocent and bears ultimate responsibility for the role he has played, I believe he has merely been a catalyst for what has, I'm sad to conclude, been laying unspoken in far too many American hearts these many years.)

As I so often remind my teen son, now headed to college armed with an 18-year-old's mile-wide and inch-deep certitude in his knowledge of what's right and what's wrong, "everything is shades of gray. People who see everything in black and white struggle to make sense of a complex world where everything is connected."

Photo by Evan Brandt
This attendee at Phoenixville's anti-hate rally Friday
has made her choice.
I'm not telling him not to take sides. I'm advising him to look ahead and be aware of the consequences of that choice and understand the choices made by others.

Don't make excuses for choices like hate or bigotry, we are all responsible for our choices, but understand where they came from if you want to get to the heart of the matter.

Because ultimately, while you have to oppose hatred with vigor, you don't eliminate it by shouting at a hater. That just makes you feel good about yourself and serves as an example of your opposition, while giving them someone else to hate.

You truly eliminate hate with understanding, and that has to begin with understanding why they hate in the first place. No one is born that way.

Which leaves us with a problem in trying to be true to our free speech credo. How can we espouse free speech, yet condemn violence by those who think one way, and justify it by those who think another?

I have no easy answer other than to observe we've been doing it for the entire history of our species.

It's called war.

As I so often do in difficult times, I turn to history to look for lessons from similar circumstances.

I came to history through politics, although the fact that my father is a historian probably made it inevitable.

My particular interest is the founders and it is rooted in my irritation at those I disagree with throwing quotes from George Washington or John Adams  in our collective face to justify their political position. I decided I needed to learn more.

As the Broadway hit has now made
popularly plain, there was no love lost 
between Thomas Jefferson and
Alexander Hamilton.
And like everything, I learned that it's complicated, that the founders were not a monolithic agreement engine who came together, lifted their hands loftily and
bespoke our founding documents in a single voice to awe-struck scribes (as some monuments would have us believe).

Rather, they were educated, egotistical, imperfect, squabbling white men with property who, as the last inheritors of the Enlightenment period, set aside as many of their differences as they could stomach to try, once and for all, to create a Republic that could last.

It has always been a work in progress. And from the beginning, it has struggled to reconcile one of those differences that could not be overcome by the founders, the poison pill that has infected this nation's discourse and history ever since -- slavery.

The pill ultimately grew into the Civil War, and we all know how that went.

Those opposed to the tearing down of statues to Confederate heroes are right that to do so is to eliminate a footnote in our history.

But it's not the history they think it is.

For the majority of these statues were not erected in the wake of the Civil War.

Rather, they were erected decades later, during the Jim Crow era, and in the 1950s and 1960s during the Civil Rights, era mostly as symbols of white power and intimidation.
Although it's very hard to read here, this graphic shows when the majority of Confederate statues were erected in the United States. The most active year was 1910, two years after the founding of the NAACP. Five years later, the Ky Klux Klan experienced the resurgence of "The Invisible Empire." Another high point was 1963, the same year Gov. George Wallace stood in opposition to the desegregation of the University of Alabama.


This is obviously less true of union statues, but it was part of a craze made possible by an unexpected factor -- economics. In other words, they were cheap, just a couple hundred dollars as opposed to a marble or granite statue, and most were cast by the Monument Bronze Co. of Bridgeport, Conn.

Makers of bronze cannons during the war, the company saw a market for monuments and shifted gears, marketing as "white bronze" what was in reality primarily the soft metal zinc. That's why the video of the statue pulled down in North Carolina shows it folding so easily, as you can see in this Mic video on the subject.

Gosh, the Grand Army of
the Republic statue in 
Pottstown sure looks 
familiar...
In a great piece in The Washington Post Friday, reporter Marc Fisher further reveals that many of the statues of the common soldier on both sides -- often referred to as "the Silent Sentinel" -- were literally cast from the same mold.

(This is where the GAR statues is relevant as anyone who has seen it will recognize the description of the Silent Sentinel: "Civil War statues of a mustachioed infantryman standing at rest, wearing a greatcoat and holding a rifle barrel.")

Often, the only thing difference is the belt buckle, which either reads "US" of "CS."

Fisher further writes:
"It took some years before Southern customers caught on and sought to buy statues of soldiers who were more obviously Grays rather than Blues. Statue manufacturers eventually gave their Confederate models a slouch hat instead of the Union topper that looked more like a baseball cap, and a short shell jacket rather than the North’s greatcoat, and a bedroll to replace the Union man’s knapsack."
And if your town couldn't afford one, the "United Daughters of the Confederacy" were more than happy to chip in and cover the cost. Check the plaque on many of these statues and you will see them there.

Although bronze statues of generals on horseback fall into a slightly different mold -- pun intended -- the history these edifices represent is less the valor of Confederate soldiers and leaders, and more a not-so-subtle reminder to African-Americans during the Jim Crow era of how fleeting their freedom truly was.

So those who want these statues torn down have a basis in history when they say they are in fact symbols of the history of oppression more than the history of a rebellion against the United States.

As such, it seems to me that if a community, or a community's government, votes to remove these statues, that this decision represents democracy in action, pure and simple.
The statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Va.
that is at the center of the controversy.

And while Charlottesville's city council intends to sell its statue of Robert E. Lee, I agree with their commission that studied the matter, it should instead be put in a museum where the timing and context of its erection can add to our understanding of its true history.

And while I agree with Baltimore's decision to removed theirs, I am less enamored of the method used there -- taking them down in the middle of the night, when no one was looking.

I understand the rationale -- to avoid trouble in a place that has already seen more than its share of trouble.

But ultimately, if you want to speak out against hatred and racism, I think it
Baltimore took down its Confederate statues
under cover of darkness.
should be done in the full glare of the sun, with the cameras rolling, with a community's leader saying loudly and proudly, "you want to know what we think of racism? Of hate? Of a history of repression? It's this."

There is a reason the Ku Klux Klan wore hoods to hide their faces, and I don't think racism is effectively opposed "quickly and quietly," as Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh advised other cities to remove their Confederate monuments.

Rather it is best opposed by exposure for what it truly is, hatred of other human beings. "There comes a time when we must choose between what is right, and what is easy."

So where does that leave us? In a bad place with no easy way out.

And once again, I find myself amazed at Aaron Sorkin's prescience. For here is what fictional president Andrew Shepherd had to say next:
We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle age, middle class, middle income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family, and American values and character, and you wave an old photo of the President's girlfriend and you scream about patriotism.
Tell me if that doesn't all sound uncomfortably familiar.

I don't know what the right thing is to do to get to the roots of this American disease and finally cleanse the body politic of this idea of inequality in a nation founded on the idea that all men are created equal.

But I do know what doing the right thing looks like.

And it looks like this:



A Quick Pottstown Meeting With Lots of New Hires

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And I didn't think Pottstown School Board meetings could get any faster than last Thursday's.

But Monday proved me wrong.

The meeting was done in 28 minutes.

One of the things that makes that easy is something called "consent items," which are things discussed at the Thursday work session about which there is no disagreement.

On Monday, that constituted 22 items on an agenda of 38 items.

Among them was the hiring of 11 teachers, a new director of technology; a new assistant director of technology; a new director of special education; a new principal, a new assistant principal and the promotion of a 10-month-a-year-assistant to 12 months per year -- all at the middle school; and other assorted hirings.

What didn't happen, was a scheduled 3 percent pay hike for mid-level administrators and principals, support staff and other workers.

That motion was tabled and sent back to the finance committee for further consideration by the request of board member Polly Weand, who last week said she is worried the community cannot afford the increase. The board voted unanimously to do as she asked.

The other item of interest was the 5-2 vote to double the district's contribution to the Pottstown Area Industrial Development Inc., from $10,000 to $20,000.

Board Vice President Emanuel Wilkerson and member Katina Bearden voted no. She said she could not justify the expense.

Board member Thomas Hylton said PAID had done useful things in the past, "but not so much lately. However, he said he was willing to give new director Peggy Lee-Clark a chance, particularly given that the increase would put PAID at a $150,000 contribution, which would then be matched with an equal amount from the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation.

Here are the Tweets from last night's meeting.



On the Trail of Higher Administrator Salaries

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The blue dotted line shows the planned path of the Pottsgrove Trail through Pottsgrove High School and Brookside Family Restaurant property.


The Pottsgrove School Board pondered a proposal to route a regional trail through the high school property.

And it gave two of its top administrators raises of two and three percent respectively. But that happened in one giant unanimous vote, which also gave raises of mostly 2.5 percent to 11 other employees.

So Superintendent William Shirk's salary, as of Sept. 1, will be $181,327.82, which Business Manager David Nester said is a two percent raise.

Nester will see a 3 percent raise to an annual salary of $169,331.58.

But the board didn't talk about that.

Instead it talked mostly about the presentation by Michael Lane, the regional recreation director, who outlined the plan for five major regional trails, and then specifically outlined plans for the Pottsgrove Trail.

He brought along Lower Pottsgrove Manager Ed Wagner, and Upper Pottsgrove Commissioner Herb Miller, both of whom endorsed the idea and answered questions from the school board.

Lane said plans for the trail's route through the Turnberry Farms development is already underway and the idea is for the trail to link the high school with Hollenbach Park, where Pottsgrove athletes practice and play.

Miller even said with the network now in place, the high school cross country team could run from the high school to the park at Prout Farm and back to the school, a 10-mile round trip -- almost entirely on the trails.

The board, after a few questions, seemed favorable to the idea and Lane said he would not need a decision from them until next year, and in the meantime, he would provide more information as it becomes available.

Now, if you weren't washed away by last night's storm, here are the Tweets from the meeting.

Foundation for Pottstown Education Awarded $90,000 grant from Health and Wellness Foundation

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Joe Rusiewicz, executive director of the Foundation for Pottstown Education, left, accepts a $50,000 grant check for "operational support" from David Kraybill, executive director of the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation.










Blogger's Note:The following was provided by the Foundation for Pottstown Education.

The Foundation for Pottstown Education was recently awarded a two-year grant totaling $90,000 from the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation. 

This grant is awarded in support of the Education Foundation’s Administrative Operations. A check for $50,000 was presented for year one of the approved grant.

Joe Rusiewicz, the foundation's executive director, stated that he is not only pleased with the acceptance of this grant but also in the working relationship that both Foundations have with each other. 

“The support, not only financially, that the health and wellness foundation gives to us has been tremendous. The staff has always been available to answer questions or to offer advice when needed. I am looking forward to continuing this relationship,” Rusiewicz said.

The foundation recently provided funding towards the Middle School Environmental Education Club’s attendance at the Pocono Environmental Education Center, for the Early College Program, PEAK initiatives, Girls Today Leaders Tomorrow Program, equipment and computers for the Engineering Programs, AP Testing and has approved funding for the Rupert Elementary School Fourth Grade ropes program, as well as working on the Planning Committee for the 2017 Sports Carnival. Previously, 

Previously, the health and wellness foundation has provided funding to the Education Foundation to support Administrative Operations and for fund raising software.

The remainder of the grant, $40,000, will be issued in year two, 2018 contingent on submission and review of the year one report.

About PAHWF: The Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation’s (PAHWF) mission is to enhance the health and wellness of area residents, providing education, funding and programs that motivate people to adopt healthy lifestyles. Visit www.pottstownfoundation.org for more information about the Foundation. Discover Pottstown area’s online community, Mission Healthy
Living, an initiative of PAHWF, to learn and share great information on how to lead a healthier life. You can also follow the Foundation on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube.

About FPE: The Foundation for Pottstown Education’s (FPE) mission is to support, promote, sponsor and carry out educational, scientific or charitable activities and objectives within or related to the Pottstown School District. Visit www.foundationpottstowned.org for more information about the Foundation for Pottstown Education. You can also follow FPE on Facebook and Twitter.

Get Involved in Your Child's Education Pottsgrove

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One of the surest paths to a child's success in school is the involvement of their parents.

Whether its taking an interest in homework, or volunteering in the building, parent involvement is crucial to a student's success.

So here's how you can get started this year if you are the parent of a Pottsgrove school student.

The Pottsgrove School District Back to School Schedule is as follows:

Lower Pottsgrove Elementary

  • Tuesday, 9/5/17 -- 5th Grade 7 p.m.
  • Wednesday, 9/6/17 -- 4th Grade 7 p.m.
  • Thursday, 9/7/17 -- 3rd Grade 7 p.m.

Ringing Rocks Elementary

  • Monday, 9/11/17 -- 6:30 p.m.

West Pottsgrove Elementary

  • Thursday, 9/14/17  -- 6:30 p.m.

Pottsgrove Middle School

  • Wednesday, 9/13/17 -- 7 p.m.

Pottsgrove High School

  • Wednesday, 9/20/17 -- 7 p.m.

The first PTA meetings of the year are as follows: (Everyone is welcome)

  • Lower Pottsgrove Elementary, Wednesday, 8/30/17  -- 6:30 p.m. in the LPE Library.
  • Pottsgrove Music League, Wednesday, 9/6/17 -- 6:30 p.m. in the high school library.
  • West Pottsgrove Elementary, Monday, 9/11/17 -- 6:30 p.m. in the library.
  • High School PTSA, Monday, 9/18/17 7:30 p.m.in the high school library.
  • Ringing Rocks Elementary, Tuesday, 9/19/17 6 p.m. in the library.
  • Middle School, Thursday, 9/21/17 7 p.m.in the library

When Harvey Came Calling, Stormwater Lessons

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Photo from ABC News
Flooding in Texas as a result of Hurricane Harvey.


When it comes to flooding, pavement is the enemy.

Here in America, we love pavement, but pavement doesn't love us, particularly not when it rains.

Pavement, all development really, inserts an impermeable layer between the rain and the ground's ability to absorb it.

According to the Montgomery County Planning Commission, a one-acre parking lot can produce 16 times more water run-off than a one-acre meadow.


So stormwater that would have been absorbed from the soil by plants and trees is, if you're lucky, collected into retention basis to be released into area streams over a period of time.

If you're not lucky, or live in a community with poor planning, the water heads straight into the stream that is, in all likelihood, already struggling to handle the flow from the storm.

And soon enough, it overflows its banks and you're floating a boat down Manatawny Street or in Memorial Park.

In famously "un-zoned" Houston, they are now paying the price of paving as Hurricane Harvey dumps previously un-seen volumes of stormwater on a city that has paved over much of the prairie grass that would once have absorbed a significant portion of it.

CNBC Photo
Flooding from Harvey in Rockport, Texas.
Reading this excellent series of articles published last year by Pro Publica and The Texas Tribune Sunday as news of Harvey (sorry) flooded Twitter, I was reminded of the danger posed by development, and its ensuing pavement, and climate change, which is producing more frequent and more intense storms -- a combination that increases risk to life and property more and more every year.

As the series summarized: "Unchecked development remains a priority in the famously un-zoned city, creating short-term economic gains for some while increasing flood risks for everyone."

In the same way that increasing development near coastlines, or on the barrier islands geologists call "high speed real estate," increases the risk to life and property from increasingly more severe storms and flooding, paving and increased development in flood plains and even outside them along streams and rivers does the same.

Houston has done both and is now paying a price all U.S. taxpayers will share.

You can also read more in this Houston Chronicle series from 2016.

CNN Photo
Flooding in Houston is like nothing seen before.
Because when developers pave over a meadow or forest, they make money and the local tax base increases. But if it is residential development, it does not increase enough to cover the cost of educating the school children it houses, nor does it increase enough for municipalities to pay the clean-up costs for the flooding it causes.

That's when the U.S. taxpayer steps in, providing flood insurance and clean-ups where insurance companies will not because, as experts, they know it's a money loser.

And all too often, it isn't until the flood is your basement, that the risk is made evident. And that's when government is suddenly everybody's best friend, when it's in your own basement.

As the Dallas Morning News reported Saturday, Texas members of Congress are already asking for the federal storm aid they voted to deny the northeast after Superstorm Sandy hit just five years ago.

"With the exception of Houston Rep. John Culberson, all Texas Republicans in Congress at the time voted against the bill. All but three are still in office today," the newspaper reported.

Everyone is happy to have government involvement after a disaster, but not always so much when it's preventing one.

Floodwater is famously filthy and so efforts to control flooding come from the federal government from the standpoint of clean drinking water.

Rainwater washing through streets and yards picks up a smorgasbord of lawn chemicals, car drippings, salt and grit left over from winter road treatments, 

After all, 1,000 square feet of those manicured lawns we all love requires 10,000 gallons of water
Manicured lawns are almost as bad as pavement when it comes
to sending storm run-off into the sewer system
.
every summer. Each year, about 80 million pounds of pesticides and more than 100 million tons of fertilizers are applied to American lawns, and suburban lawns shed most of their water, absorbing just a small percentage.

As for the driveways, roads and parking lots that accompany that type of development, their contribution to stormwater run-off includes PAH's -- a chemical sealant based on coal tar called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a suspected human carcinogen.


So under the authority provided in the Clean Water Act, the federal government, at least for now, is requiring municipalities to clean this filthy floodwater water before dumping it into area streams that ultimately provide drinking water to millions.

In Pottstown, that's a big potential cost given that, as Tom Hylton wrote in an essay published in The Mercury, 38 percent of the borough is covered by impervious surface.
Many kinds of coal tar-based pavement sealants
are adding suspected carcinogens to our drinking water.

That's to be expected in an urban setting that has been around for more than a century, but the requirement to clean its stormwater run-off is something new.

Pottstown faces two paths to deal with that requirement, engineering and/or planning. In other words, find ways to clean the water, or prevent it from getting to the streams in the first place.

The engineering side is already underway.

As The Mercury reported last month, the Pottstown Borough Authority is seeking funding for a $200,000 project to remove 52,197 pounds of sediment from Goose Run each year.

That will be accomplished with the installation of two sediment traps, one near Airy Street east of North Hanover Street, and one near Fourth Street, west of North Hanover Street.

And, perhaps more worrisome to those who insist on larger parking lots, the authority is also considering charging a fee for managing stormwater in the same way it charges for managing sewage.

And as aging infrastructure erodes and pollution control requirements increase, the price only escalates.

One 2016 estimate presented to the authority shows an annual cost of as much as $1.42 million to manage stormwater as soon as 11 years from now.
Rain gardens and street trees can absorb
a remarkable amount of stormwater.

As for the prevention side of the equation, one answer is a word often accompanied by expletives here in Pottstown -- trees, or, if you prefer, "green infrastructure/"

According to American Forrests, a non-profit conservation organization, "in one day, one large tree can absorb up to 100 gallons of water and release it into the air, cooling the surrounding area."

And cities around the world are recognizing this cheap and easy way to keep their water clean, and their air cooler.

According to the EPA, the more than half million trees New York City planted in 2007 absorbs more than 890 million gallons of stormwater run-off each year, saving the city more than $35 million a year in treatment costs.

Trees and open space -- like the natural meadow the Pottstown School Board has voted to establish at the former Edgewood Elementary School -- absorb water. It's as simple as that.

But will Pottstown take that step forward, ignore political arguments that have undermined such efforts in the past?

Only time will tell. If experience is any teacher, it may require a big storm for the powers that be to see the light.

Consuming New Hanover, One Parcel at a Time

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Although Township Supervisers lauded the proposed reduction of the 
approved 54-townhouse project to 29 single-family homes on 13 acres off 
Dotterer Road, they balked at the idea that the developers should be granted 
preliminary approval with so many unanswered questions.
Monday night's New Hanover Supervisors' meeting, coverage of which was possible by the fact that it was a fifth Monday in a month, was interesting from the standpoint of development "creep."

President James Madison once said "I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

And so it seems to be with development in New Hanover Township.

While the impact of the 700-residential unit Town Center continues to draw the eye of those concerned about the loss of the township's rural character, smaller projects, whose impacts are cumulative, slip along toward approval.

At least that seemed to be the sentiments expressed by Supervisor Charles D. Garner Jr., who told the board and audience at the end of Mondaty night's meeting that the very thing that attracts residents to so many new developments -- the township's rural character -- is the very thing threatened by the township's counter-intuitive ordinances and developer-accommodating officials allowing for the approval of so many such projects.

In a meeting where the collapse of one developer -- and the bank which had guaranteed the financing
The final, 40-townhouse phase of the Renninger Tract project was 

unanimously approved by the township supervisors Monday.
to- fix the roads the developer could not longer build -- were referred for further legal action, the supervisors were asked to approve two new developments with a total increase of 69 housing units in the township.

Although the supervisors balked at granting premature preliminary approval to a project off Dotterer Road known as Trotter's Gait, a reduction of units from 54 townhomes to 29 single-family homes, they did approval the final phase of a project known as the "Renninger Tract. which will add 40 attached homes to the township's housing stock -- and to Boyertown School District's student rolls.

Located on 33 acres between Middle Creek and Dotterer roads, the Gambone project has been in the works since 2012. Recommended for final approval by the planning commission, the supervisors followed suit and unanimously gave final approval to the final phase.

But afterward, Garner questioned the township's vision -- or lack thereof.

"I question the township ordinances that allow these projects of such extraordinarily high density," Garner said at the end of the meeting. "They are going to have impacts on traffic and parking issues that I would think people are moving here to get away from."

"I'm not so sure what the board's vision is for New Hanover, which we seem to be allowing to be turned piece by piece into something other than the rural character I think we all want," he said. "I am worried it's beginning to look like the eastern part of the county."

The board also put off the task of replacing Garner's wife, Connie Garner, who has tendered her resignation as the parks and recreation director; as well as being briefed on the township's new web site, and plans for the planting of 60 new trees to help control stormwater pollution.

But you can find all that in the Tweets down below.

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