POTTSTOWN, PA – A number of significant articles relating to Pottstown’s future appear in today’s print and online editions of The Mercury.  We’re sure that the Brandt family garden is suffering as Evan has been a very busy boy lately.

Here are the articles, in no particular order.  All concern issues facing us as taxpayers and property owners.

This one discusses the Borough’s movement on 122 recommendations it’s currently implementing in order to head off a predicted 75% tax increase in the next five years:

Pottstown works on streamlining practices

This article discusses events from last Thursday’s Committee of the Whole School Board meeting related to the Understanding for Economic Development for Pottstown, which was brought to the board by Retired Marine Major General Doug O’Dell and David Leinbach, president of Pottstown Area Industrial Development Inc. (PAID):

New revitalization effort explained to Pottstown school board

And this article discusses the absence of the TriCounty Area Chamber of Commerce from the new economic development partnership which was discussed during last week’s Borough Council and School Board meetings:

Absence of chamber from Pottstown economic development effort questioned

Whew!  Now that’s a lot of reading to catch up on!

Let’s start with the easy one.  Why was the Chamber left in the dark on the new economic partnership being developed in Pottstown?  The politically correct answer is that the Chamber serves not only Pottstown, but businesses in all parts of the tri-county area.  Which is true.  Basically, the Chamber is a private business club.  You have to pay to play.  Chambers of Commerce only do things benefitting their members.  Members not operating businesses in Pottstown really don’t care about Pottstown (otherwise they’d operate their businesses here and take an active part in helping to improve Pottstown).  Since TCACOC is not a “Pottstown only” private club…it makes perfect sense that it not be involved in the economic partnership.  And besides, we understand that there is a pretty tight relationship between the executive director of the chamber and a certain school board member that we all know.  Another good reason to excuse the Chamber from this new partnership.

In the article discussing the new revitalization effort during last Thursday’s Committee of the Whole Meeting, we were curious why school board member Thomas Hylton was quoted in the article.  Who really cares what he thinks?  After all, one of the reasons that non-elected entities are heading up the new economic development partnership was to exclude buttinskies like Hylton from becoming involved and hijacking the revitalization efforts.  It’s interesting that Hylton once again tries to use a quote in The Mercury to his own benefit.  Hylton’s quote: “I think the mistake that was made was that the borough hired an economic director and that inevitably got wrapped up in politics,” throws verbal daggers at Terri Lampe, the current Pottstown School District Director of Development (and former Economic Developer with the Borough).  Remember back in January of 2009 when Hylton placed an advertisement on The Mercury’s opinion page lambasting Ms. Lampe?  It was Hylton who got Ms. Lampe eventually fired from her position with the borough.  If you don’t remember, check out this link:

Pottstown Schools staffed by commuters

Which brings up another issue…what’s the deal with Hylton constantly picking on women?  Have you ever noticed that whenever Hylton mentions a female in any of his paid advertisements, he’s always railing against them (and we’re not counting his wife or mother in those stats)?  God forbid if you’re a female elected official in Pottstown and have to “work” with Hylton.  We here at Save Pottstown!! have absolutely zero tolerance for male chauvinists.  And who is Hylton to give a quote on “mistakes made” and “wrapped up in politics”?  Heck, isn’t that what Hylton is all about??

We’re glad that Borough Manager Jason Bobst continues to get the Borough’s financial portrait to hang straight on the wall.  Getting a hold of track code violations, unpaid bills and permit applications through the conversion of the borough’s financial tracking software is definitely a sorely needed upgrade.  Maybe we’ll start getting our long overdue monies owed by those serial deadbeats who continue to plague our town and cost us money.

Tags: Board, Borough, Brandt, brandt family, Chamber, David Leinbach, Development, economic development effort, economic development partnership, economic partnership, Evan, God, Heck, Major General Doug O'Dell, Manager Jason Bobst, Ms. Lampe, new economic development, Partnership, Pottstown, School, school board meetings, Terri Lampe, Thomas Hylton, tri county area

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 11th, 2010 at 17:17 and is filed under Borough of Pottstown, Montgomery County, Pottstown School District, The Pottstown Fishwrap. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.