Backing Into Rupert
POTTSTOWN, PA – Remember in 2001 when the Borough of Pottstown approved the plan to reconfigure High Street with back-in angel parking? The reasoning for creating back-in parking was that it would revitalize High Street and the downtown business community.
It’s almost ten years later and we’re still waiting for that downtown revitalization.
Why are we raising this issue?
Simple.
The back-in parking debacle is a case study of how school board member Thomas Hylton operates. And it’s a bad warning sign of things to come for the taxpayers of Pottstown.
Hylton looks for loopholes in the system. As he did when he pitched his idea for back-in angel parking. Hylton had been working on reconfiguring High Street for some 17 years (that’s according to Hylton as posted on his Save Our Land website). The only reason that back-in angel parking was approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation was because there was nothing in their books against the idea.
Let’s fast forward to 2010. Hylton is now proposing new energy efficient windows at Edgewood and Rupert Elementary schools (and we can only assume that he will demand cost prohibitive “hi$torically accurate” windows for Rupert). By moving forward with spending money on our schools…down the line…when the issue comes up to get rid of the five tax gouging schools, Hylton will retort: “But jeepers Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer…can’t you plainly see that we’ve already spent soooo much money to upgrade the schools…how can we possibly close them now?…it would be fiscally irresponsible.”
Do you see a pattern here?
With the current proposals for new school renovation projects on the table, Hylton is backing the taxpayers into the idea that he will be continuing to sink money into these schools…so he can use that as his argument for keeping them open…as they continue to be our tax ball and chain. Continuing to maintain five 40+ year old crumbling elementary schools will continue the downward spiral for Pottstown taxpayers.
The sooner Hylton’s idea of sinking money into these schools is stopped, the sooner the school board can concentrate on the real issues affecting our children – improving their education and raising test score numbers. Something that we wish they would pursue as doggedly as maintaining five soulless buildings.
As a side note, when Pottstown Borough Council approved the idea of back-in angel parking for High Street in 2001, Dennis Wausnock was Council Vice President, Veronika White was President of the Pottstown Downtown Improvement District Authority (Veronika’s husband Nat sits with Hylton on the Neighborhood Schools Committee) and Rick Huss was a member of the Pottstown School Board.
So, we’re seeing the same old people involved trying the fix the same old problems…and we’re still in the same old mess.
Is it any wonder why Pottstown isn’t moving forward?
Absolutely Correct!
Back in angled parking has been a dissaster for Pottstown. Everyone I’ve ever talked to about it hates it, includeing all the business on High Street. Residents no longer go downtown for fear of being rear-ended while stopped in the line of traffic to try to back into a slanted parking space when they can’t see the lines, or the trees and signs behind them. I personally know dozens of people who absolutly refuse to park downtown for this reason. As a result, our businesses have lost significant amounts of business and several have even gone out of business as a result.
Obviously Hylton didn’t care about those business any more than he now cares about all the property owners of Pottstown who will have to pay to update and then maintain five old elementary buildings – not to mention staffing them and heating them. (That’s five eleminatary schools, plus a high school, a middle school, and two administration buildings.) This is an absolutely rediculous concept when we no longer can afford, or need, five old buildings with rooms that are too small for todays educational needs. Yet Hylton will not listen to reason. He only hears the voices in his own head, which tell him that our town should be the model town for his 20+ year old book. Since he is the “smartest man in Pottstown”, nobody else’s opinion matters anyway.
Philip Thees was correct when he said that if Hylton gets his own way (and it looks like he has the 5 votes), our tax rates will be such that soon no one will be able to live in Pottstown except the rich, and families living in government subsidized housing. When that happens, I certainly hope we change the name of this town to Hyltonville. I’d be embarrased to call it Pottstown.
I don’t know why I should even care. I won’t be living here then, as I’m neither rich nor living in subsidized housing.
However, if YOU care, and you don’t want to live in “Hyltonville”, then come to the School Board meeting on Thursday, Jan 21, at the Middle School, and address the Board.
absolutely correct! loop-holes seem to be hylton’s true specialty! i would suspect he secretly gloats with frances over his super-honed loop-hole finding skills. i believe this has to be his one very special gift…he is like pottstown’s very own loop-hole whisperer. i wish nat. geo. would discover him already so we could live in peace!
????? Does tommy boy have a real job that actually contributes to the American economy or does he live off his grants and wifes pension. Maybe if he had to go to work at a real job he wouldn’t have as much time on his hands.Or is he secrectly being subsidized by his friends of monkey county.either way he on the dole.
I know it is not witty or really contributing much to the general nature of this web site but I’m guessing that Tom can make a pretty penny off his speaking engagements and writing (his actual true skill as evidenced by a prize he won for it). Both of these forms of “employment” allow him to make money while pushing his idealistic agenda to the masses.
The idea of back-in angel parking has destroyed our downtown just like the five $chool$ will destroy our borough. A vote should be taken by ALL the taxpayer$(parents or not)of Pottstown so they can decide if a new school gets built or two new schools. The children of this community deserve a state of art education in a state of the art eductaional center, not broken down old buildings that are way too expensive to maintain. A new eductional center (or two) would encourage growth and learning for all who attend. It would also help improve relationships amomg all residents of our borough. The same people have been holding Pottstown back for years, it’s time to stop them before our borough is taken over by the state. Call the Education Board in Harrisburg, let them know what is going on in Pottstown.
informus, i assume you had some success in calling the educ. board? i think that is a great idea!
the contact info. that i came up with for that is:
Gwen Vitale, Executive Director, PSBA
[email protected]
Phone (717) 506-2450
is that correct? how did that dialogue go for you…if you felt that it got you somewhere, i’ll do it in a heartbeat, too! i would think some others on this site would, as well – after all, many of us seem to be here to help stop the madness.
Let’s stop the politics of every school board in Pa, especially in Pottstown. Call Senator Dimiman’s office at 610-692-2112 to inquire and support the “School Board Election Reform bill” now.