Walking the Line
POTTSTOWN, PA – Did you hear the one about the picketers and the school board president?
If not, check out the video posted on The Mercury’s website:
Pottstown School Board President Announces Task Force Committee to Picketers
Yesterday morning a group of concerned citizens made an unannounced stop at Pottstown School Board President Rick Huss’ Feist Avenue home to voice their concerns on runaway spending proposals that will most likely be presented at tonight’s general board meeting.
Huss told the group that at tonight’s school board meeting he plans to introduce a concept he calls the President’s Task Force Commission, which will be comprised of a group of school district leaders, community leaders and Pottstown citizens to help make the much needed changes to our schools. You can read more about that in today’s Mercury article:
Board president responds to protesters
Sounds like a great idea! Get everyone together, exchange ideas and assemble a comprehensive plan to help better our schools and community.
We’re certainly looking forward to it!
Is it okay if I show up at Amy’s house with a group of concerned citizens and picket? The answer is the same one that should have been given when someone came up with this idea, NO! Shame.
Actually, sir, in the United States of America the First Amendment of the Constitution gives every U.S. citizen the right to assembly.
Check it out, it’s a rather marvelous document…
Pottstown Guy, I couldn’t agree more! This is a free country and citizens have the right to peaceful protest. Mr. Huss is an elected official and from the looks of the Mercury video he handled the entire situation quite well. He didn’t seem upset, so I wonder why this has ‘Eddieshore’ so twisted in knots?
I’m ‘twisted up in knots’ because it is not socially acceptable to picket a guys house, unless its the president of the U.S. I am quite familiar w/ the constitution. If you wanted to demonstrate all your rights, you should have been carrying firearms, a bottle of whiskey, and a ballot in your hand while picketing the head of the school boards house (an elected unpaid official). Just because its allowed in the constitution does not make it morally acceptable.
Answer me this: If I showed up on your sidewalk with a group of protesters because I don’t like your stance, would you deem it ok?
Would I deem it okay…I might not be happy BUT as long as it was respectful and non-riotous I couldn’t say much of anything. Would I invite you to do it, no. I don’t have jurisdiction over public property and leave the enforcement and judgement to law enforcement. I see nowhere that it was mentioned that police were called – so why the need to suggest something about firearms and whiskey as if the people were retrobates?
Obviously, you wouldn’t deem it okay if someone showed up at your house. Could you behave as classy as Mr. Huss seemed to or would you ‘flip out’?
Eddieshore, if you did not like my public stance as an elected public official, you are certainly free to express yourself by getting a group of like minded folks, making some signs, and showing up at my house to engage in a peaceful informational picket. That is democracy in action. Try to picket a school board meeting, you will be removed. Try to picket the persons place of employment, you will be removed. As the organizer of this peaceful event we were happy to engage Mr.Huss in meaningful and respectful dialog. There was no anger, animosity, name calling or violence involved. I disagree with your objections to our protest, but I accept that you have the right to voice your opinion.
If you have an opinion that opposes Mr.Hylton, try purchasing an ad on the op ed page of the Mercury like he does. Guaranteed your democratic rights will not get you the same space for the same rate in the same time frame as he gets.
Code Blue welcomes all opinions in all forums, that is the democratic way. Can the same be said for all opinions in forums other than this one?
So, if we can please move past the narrow-minded opinion that everyone involved today is now a hardended criminal, let’s get back to the real topic. Tomorrow’s meeting.
I would like to hear an assurance that no work of ANY kind will happen while this newly formed task force does their thing. And once their recommendations go to the Facilities Committee (the proper committee for this, not the NSC) and then to the final SB for a vote – only then should ANY work take place. All of this will take some time to meet, discuss, brainstorm, etc. so what happens to the money during all this time. Remember, there is still a vote tomorrow night to apply for it. Will it sit untouched earning interest? Is it even a known fact yet that this money can be given back? Is it possible to just blindly apply for this 14 million dollars? Does the fact that this task force will be convened to look at all viable options render Mr. Hylton’s plan null and void??
Will we know any of this before tomorrow night?
At this point I cannot argue with you; It is pointless. If you think picketing a man’s house is preferable to calling him up and asking for a meeting, or voicing your concerns during public comment at regularly scheduled school board meetings, then there is nothing more to say. Your idea of acceptable behavior and mine vary far too much to have a discussion on the same plane. I’m so happy that I’m the one who will teach our sons right from wrong — and not any of you.
Your bad behavior would actually be tolerable, were you not crowing at the same time about bad behavior by others. You whine and complain about how rude Hylton is in the same breath as you poke fun at him. So don’t delude yourselves into thinking that you are somehow above him, somehow better. That moral high horse you are perched on? It is a farce. Your actions tell a different story entirely, and this website is a testament to just how low some people will go.
Good luck and I hope you stay the course. It should drive more people away from your organization.
If Rick Huss was just a private citizen and not a public official, I might have more empathy for you, Eddie. But Mr. Huss chose to run for public office, and he won. There are even many cases where I think private citizens are justifiably targeted by pickets, like executives of corporations that put profits before the public good. I have no problem with their homes getting picketed. It HAS happened and WILL happen in a country with Freedom of Assembly.
I think you would do more for your cause of advancing Mr. Hylton’s plan by arguing for Mr. Hylton’s plan instead of focusing so much time and energy on a perfectly legal, responsibly executed protest. But I don’t claim to know everything. I’m not Mr. Hylton. I am human. I could be wrong.
Eddieshore,
Clearly our views differ on the free right to assemble. On this issue, as you put it, there is nothing more to say. We simply agree to disagree. However, my friend, to say that because we differ on this one particular issue that you can no longer have any further discussion with me shows exactly what a closed-minded indivdual you truly are. It would seem the only person to be “on a perch” is you with your holier-than-thou, ‘my way is the only way’ attitude. If today’s peaceful event has driven like-minded people such as yourself away from our organization, I presume we are better off.
Our growing organization is full of people who have all kinds of differing views across a wide spectrum of issues. It doesn’t stop us from sitting down and having meaningful discussion. Some of us have even changed our views because of this civil and respectful discussion. We all consider this a necessary consequence of having an open mind. You should give it a try.
Thanks for visiting.
If Eddieshore is happy to be one to teach future generations, then I submit that our freedoms and very lifestyles will be in jeopardy. He may be “quite familiar” with the Constitution, whatever that means, but he obviously doesn’t understand it or live by it and will very certainly not teach it appropriately. His narrow mindedness and self-importance are NOT what future generations want to emulate!
Besides, it is quite obvious to me that we have a “Hyltonite” here. (Funny – sounds alot like “Kryptonite” doesn’t it?) We were bound to encounter a few.
Hypocrasy is everywhere. Far be it from me to suggest that it only exists on one side or in one person. But one can’t help but notice that it is often the poster who is the most condescending and judgemental who suggests that others are up on a high horse. I have to confess using that same phrase to Maple Missy in a post to an article on The Mercury on line. Now her husband throws it back. My point is that we should be able to agree to disagree. No one has the moral high ground in this discussion.
At its essence, this is an argument over what is best for the students and the taxpayers of Pottstown. If we keep it to that, I think we will all do fine. What is best for the students? If you think the existing situation is best, then say so. If you think the existing situation is best only if we have new windows and heating systems, make that case, but remember to make it in a way that is logical to the taxpayers, too. Will spending $13 million today in the hopes of saving that much over a 20- or 30-year life expectancy honor the expectations of both students and taxpayers? Will cutting staff by – what was it? 300? – in order to make the capital expenditure more palatable to taxpayers honor the needs and expectations of our students? How might that affect the tax base if many of those cut from the payroll live and work in Pottstown, as many of the lesser-compensated aides and assistants do?
There are lots of questions we can ask in a civil manner without the morality play.
And I feel I have to mention every time I post that the defeated “centers” plan was designed to solve the problem with the ailing tax base WHILE providing improved education/opportunity to our students. Why does that always seem to be ignored? Why does no one acknowledge that eliminating 12 square blocks of slum and blight could possibly have had an immensely positive impact on our town? Why have I never heard one single word from Tom Hylton or The Mercury on what rehabbing 12 square blocks over night at little to no expense to Pottstown taxpayers might have done for this town? It is as if such benefits cannot even be acknowledged, let alone considered. Instead, TH and The Merc choose to focus massive amounts of attention on the potential benefits of new windows in one school or diagonal parking or a Euro-park.
In my business experience, the best way to make huge advances, is to consider the possibility of EVERYTHING and ANYTHING. Leave it all on the table. Begin the brainstorming THERE. I’m willing to consider Mr. Hylton’s plan. When will he be willing to consider mine – or any one of the many others that are attempting to have their voices heard? It is not sacreligious to listen to all ideas before acting. It is not failure. It may just be the key to our success.
I agree What Are You Fighting to Protect…there are many terrific ideas and concepts out there. And even within Mr.Hylton’s plan there is a nugget or 2 that seems like a good idea. Lets start off with everything on the table, including the centers concept. Take the time to do the due diligence with input from all the stakeholders, come up with a final solution that works for all, then implement it once we are past this pension fund mess. Too many people render themselves irrelevant by focusing on being anti-Hylton or anti-Code Blue and ignoring the issues which are reaching crisis stage. When we all just focus on the personalities, we lose focus of the big picture-the right education for our kids at a cost that does not bankrupt the entire community.
WAYFTP,
I thoroughly enjoy reading many of your posts. Your points, as usual, are common sensically right on target and well made.
I agree with many in the fact that yes, there are some parts of this plan that appear to be decent. There are parts I just don’t know enough about to comment on yet. There are parts I think are flat out terrible.
What I object to the most is the way this whole debacle has unfolded up to this point. I sincerely hope this new Task Force is the start of the exact dialog and discussion that most have been calling for. Until we hear some more about it, I’m inclined to keep my guard up. I have many questions still, some of which I asked in an earlier post.
Can’t wait to see what’s hiding behind Door #3 this evening…
I think your caution is commendable, Pottstown Guy. Based on the way Hylton and The Mercury have chosen to manipulate or omit facts, to apply pejoratives, and to monger fear, we all must keep our guards up as to what might be going on behind the scenes (especially with regard to the NSC).
An interesting side note: The Mercury has apparently deleted my user name from its web site. I can no longer sign in to post comments to articles. My guess is that they think I am Save Pottstown and this action will somehow hurt your blog. I think it’s simply indicative of the depths to which they will go to squelch any criticism of Mr. Hylton – especially intelligent, articulate, fact-based criticism. I wonder if anyone else has been banished from the site???
Not banished (keeping fingers crossed), sorry that you were!!! VERY!!
Well, now that we have the promise of a Task Force we must realize the burden rests on us (all of us) to be active and present to come up with the thing for the community. Partnership Pottstown is critical to this equation…they will help to provide a perspective that is mostly ‘on the outsdie looking in’. This is what is TRULY needed. While we are all emotionally tied to some of these issues they may be able to center our efforts to complete a circle that will begin and end with what is best for the town!!
The HARD work begins, NOW!!
A BIG thanks to, President Huss for his renewed commitment and spirit of collaboration – it takes a lot for a person to stand in a time of conflict and commit to putting yourself ‘in the thick of it’. WAY TO GO, Mr. President!!!!!!
Challenges ahead and many miles till we can sleep but it’s looking better, for sure!! With vision and caution we can get to the ‘good work’ and lead the charge to revitallize our town.
The other thing I must note, here, is that after making a commitment to the community Mr. Huss sounded stronger!! His vocal tone improved as did his sense of purpose to set the tone at the meeting. I think this meeting ran well and was orderly and productive and that is the DIRECT RESULT of Mr. Huss taking control and listening – realizing this is a collaborative undertaking and should not be rushed into at any time, more so now w/ the PSER crisis. The existing deficit obligating taxpayers will hurt the SD, Borough and spirit of the people which will impact our youth and the schools with which we are charged for caring for and nuturing.
Please, Mr. Huss, continue to ‘reach for the stars’ – be a visionary and continue to bring the town together; we have your word!!
BRAVO, BRAVO, Sir!!
Hi folks,
About 12:30 a.m. For the night owls out there, this is a link to the story just posted on The Mercury Web site.
http://www.pottsmerc.com/articles/2010/03/18/news/doc4ba2fd2534c1d260542620.txt
WAYFTP, I presume when you speak of The Mercury manipulating or omitting facts, you are referring to Mr. Hylton’s paid advertisements.
If so, I hope you know that is not something I intend to comment on, given that people can whatever they like in their paid advertising.
If not, please let me know, specifically and not in vague insinuations, if you think there’s something I’ve missed in covering this story. Be happy to address it.
After I get some sleep, I will look into you being banned from our Web site and try to get you an answer.
By way of fair dinkum, perhaps readers of this site would like to know I have been contacted by someone (via e-mail, I do not know the identify of this person) who makes the same complaint about this site, that he/she has been banned.
Not having seen what they tried to post, I will not make claims about whether or not it was as intelligent, articulate or fact-based as your comments WAYFTP.
Good night all. See you in the morning.
Thank you Evan for the post.
Just to clarify. To date, only one individual (and their IP address) has been blacklisted from our site. And that was due to that individual’s unethical creation of bogus registration information. And yes…it is the same individual posting to The Mercury’s site crying the blues about not being able to submit comments to our site. This is one individual folks. Only one.
SP has received close to 700 comments since we launched our revised site in January.
As we’ve stated before, it’s a privilege that we allow our readers to post on our site…not a democratic right. When you abuse that privilege, you have to sit in the time out chair. Some folks just can’t handle that. If you can’t play nice with others…you play alone.
Hi Everyone,
I’m new to this so I hope that my questions aren’t taken for more than what they are- just questions.
I realize some people like the centers concept- but won’t building a new center cost the tax payers money too? Right now, I don’t really want to pay more in taxes and I don’t want to do a bunch of work on the schools that are not needed. But I also don’t want to tear down or have empty schools sitting and build a new one. I’m sure I’m jumping into this blind and I admit I don’t know/ remember many of the details of the centers concept. But according to the voters, they didn’t want it. The same voters may not want to actually pay to maintain the current 5 schools. Which is where I am so confused! What am I missing?
I like that Rick Huss is taking charge- but I’m concerned that he’ll waiver again with more pressure. I worry that he doesn’t have his own stance. If I’m off base- someone please clear that up for me. Anyway- I thank SavePottstown for the site and the ability to ask these questions. Everyone seems very welcoming so it gives me the courage to ask! I feel like a dope trying to sort it all out, and not having all of the facts.
readytomove…you aren’t the only one confused!! I wonder the same things myself…2 (central compus and 3 school) progressive plans out there (well-researched and planned) defeated. Then on the other hand we have 5 schools that people seem to want to keep but the fact is it will take millions of dollars to bring them ‘up-to-snuff’ and that’s really only the buildings and systems no space concerns to provide better learning environments or student/teacher resources – and they don’t want to do that either. There are the do-nothings and the save my school people that when talk of consolidating (even minor) comes up it can’t possibly their school that gets closed or repurposed for non-student related district programs; what argument is best? I think all the head scratching should stop AND we ALL need to listen to the implementations and recommendations front the ULI report from the newly formed Partnership Pottstown – how can ideas be bad when they come from neutral observers and concerned stakeholders from all walks of life w/in the Borough?
IF we can commit to listening and being receptive to change we’d already be there!!! It is imperative to do it this time around or we will do something for the sake of doing something and that stinks!!!
Patient and purposeful, open and honest, thoughtful and considerate, respectful and flexible – these are the things we can control and use to make our situation better. There will be costs…taxes will go up BUT if done in stages it won’t hit us like a freight train, ya know?!?
Thank Rick voice your encouragement to him via email or snail mail – he has demonstrated a level of ease with taking back his power and he truly, deeply wants to leave a mark on the town. Let’s help him make a positive impact and continue to support him and question him when it seems like there might be indecision or waivering. Pressuring someone is Hylton’s game and to make it ineffective you have to have enough support on the side of the ‘victim’.
Dare to dream, welcome to the forum!! Invite your friends, too!!
The central campus plan called for closing and selling the 5 elementary schools. That would bring in revenue and put these properties on the tax rolls. That plan was the best possible solution and we would not be in the situations we are in today. That plan was derailed by Mr.Hylton’s Save Our Schools propaganda push. Why? I will tell you. The same plan that was almost rammed through (but failed last night) is the same plan that was presented to the SB during the central campus discussions as an alternative. the Save Our Schools propaganda used tactics like telling the African American community that they were all going to be kicked out of their homes. They convinced folks that the central campus was going to be a haven for criminals since it would be located downtown (by the way, these same neighborhoods were being extolled as safe corridors for our kids to walk through daily to go to their neighborhood elementary school).
I suspect that the long term solution lies somewhere between a 2 to 3 school centers approach and the full 5 school traditional approach.
As far as what the voters wanted, a few individuals funded cross filing campaigns for people who agreed to run on preserving 5 schools. The TOP vote getter in the election received 2,100 votes. There are more than 21,000 people in this town. I don’t see this as any kind of mandate. The 5 walkable school lobby bought the election. By the way, the folks with the least amount of votes in the election had just about 150 votes less than the top vote getter.
Without a strong mandate, all voices and opinions should be included. There are s few good aspects to Mr.Hylton’s plan, I applaud him for caring about this town and the good points from his plan should be considered along with everyone else’s good ideas.
Thank you so much for the explainations and info!
Good morning,
Well the video is done, and posted on The Mercury site, so you can have a look now.
On to writing the story for the print edition.
Anyway, before I get started on that, I wanted to let What Are You Fighting to Protect know that I checked into her/his contention that he/she had been banned from making comments on The Mercury site.
Since this is where I responded before, I’ll keep it here in the same string for simplicity’s sake.
Eileen Faust, our on-line editor informs me that is not the case, you are not banned, so there may be a technical problem.
For example, she said people who access the Internet from the djazzed (sp?) server have reported problems.
Eileen also reports that in all the time The Mercury has been taking comments, only five people have been banned.
One for registering under multiples names; two for literally trying to set up, through our site, a physical fight to settle issues (OJR-related); one who some of you may be familiar with here for a year-long campaign of harassment and one for a consistent stream of abusive comments.
She said she does not recall refusing any recent comments from you. The last one we could find (our database is not searchable by name) was from February and it was taken down because someone filed an “abuse” complaint.
Eileen notes that often comments are posted under, say “breaking news” and then are updated as separate stories, and so while it may deal with the same subject, the comment is posted under the older version.
As of this morning, that is the only explanation available, but Eileen says you are not banned, so comment away.
Hope that helps.
Now, back to the salt mines.
Mr. Brandt,
I have been trying to log in to The Mercury’s site for a week to no avail. I chalk this up to me not remembering the proper password more than anything, however, last Friday I posted a comment with no problem. There is no link anywhere on the site to request your password. And creating a whole new login would place me in the ‘registering multiple names’ category which seems to get you banned.
In addition to allowing readers to post comments to individual story posts, has anyone there considered maybe a bulletin board type forum for registered users? That style format would alleviate a lot of the issues with scouring back through buried old stories to see posted comments as well as the issue of posting across the same story that is later updated. Just a thought.
Mr. Brandt, while I may not agree with every policy, action and story focus of The Mercury, I certainly have always appreciated your openness and candidness in these comments on SP.
Pottstown guy,
That’s an interesting idea.
In case any of you are interested, there has recently been a sea change in the leadership of the company that owns The Mercury.
I just returned from a two-day conference which focused almost entirely in getting, encouraging and using feedback from our readers.
And although technically, all I know is you are a reader of this site, I think you know what I mean.
I will certainly bring that idea back to the folks at this end.
— BTW, I would be surprised if you agreed with every policy, action and story focus of ours.
Heck I don’t agree with some of them myself.
Just so long as you agree with and enjoy some of them… then I hope we’ll keep you in the fold.
If you have any other suggestions or comments about how we can make our products (Web, print, video, etc) better, please share them and feel free to share them here for all to see, or privately with any of our staff.
– PPS, you have my sympathy about all the passwords in our life. I can’t keep track of mine either. (Took me three tries to log on here.)
I would so love to be able to explain the very complicated concept of leveraging public investment to improve the tax base and attract private investment. I’m afraid I might fail miserably – but, what the heck, why not give it a try?
I would not blame anyone who stopped reading right here. But maybe this post will help to enlighten ReadyToMove, while also giving Evan Brandt an idea of what I am talking about when I say that The Mercury sometimes omits facts in its reporting. (And I don’t mean to say the paper omits what color shoes the speaker was wearing…. I’m talking about facts essential to an informed opinion.) Anyway, here goes….
Pottstown’s tax base is screwed. It’s screwed for a couple of reasons. For one thing, a HUGE percentage of Pottstown property is tax exempt. We have more churches and non-profits in our town than any of the surrounding areas. We also have way more schools per square mile, especially when you include not only all of our public schools but also The Hill, St. Al’s, and Wyndcroft. None of those schools or churches or non-profits pays taxes (although in recent years The Hill has started to pay taxes on some small portion of its property). Again, for the most part, schools, churches, and non-profits do not contribute anything to the tax base. That’s not to say they don’t contribute to quality of life – of course they do. But they don’t pay taxes into the pool needed to support the town.
So… if 12% of the properties in Pottstown are non-profits (and I’m guessing here, but The Mercury could do a story and fill in the real numbers, if it wanted to educate Pottstown residents and voters on this subject), then we are already down to 88% of the properties providing 100% of the taxes needed to support the town.
Keep in mind that in many other communities something far closer to 99% of the properties provide 100% of the taxes needed to support those communities.
Now consider the quality of properties in Pottstown. We have some beautiful, grand homes. We have some homes in deplorable condition. And we have many homes in between those two extremes. The problem is that every year more and more of the properties in Pottstown have been falling from the “middle” into the “low” end. That is to say, that what was once a very small blighted area has been growing. Over the years, as more and more properties became undesireable (or the neighborhoods in which they are located have become less desireable), the property values there have either fallen or stayed low. Since taxes are based on assessed value, when a large percentage of property is of compromised value, that means the other properties – the ones that have been maintained and improved – have to pick up more and more of the share of the tax burden for the properties that contribute less to the tax base than what they are consuming or using.
So… if a town has 100 houses and needs $100 to support public services, and if each of the 100 houses has the same basic value, then each house will pay $1 in taxes to support the town.
If 12 of the 100 houses belong to non-profits, then 88 houses will have to pay $1.14 to support the town, because the 88 will have to share the burden that the 12 are exempt from paying.
Now consider this:
What if not all of the 88 tax-paying houses are worth the same amount? What if 10 of them are in bad condition or bad neighborhoods and are worth only 30% as much as the other 78 houses? Then those houses only have to contribute 30% of the $11.40 that they were contributing in the above scenario. So those houses are going to contribute just $3.42 ($.34 each) to the taxes needed to support the town. That leaves an extra 7.98 to spread among the remaining 78 houses, upping their tax burden from $1.14 to $1.24 per house.
Every time a house falls in value, the tax burden for that property must be picked up by those that remain higher in value.
If 10 more of the remaining 78 houses are worth only 60% of the other houses in the group, then those 10 houses will contribute only $7.44 ($.74 each) to the tax base, leaving an extra $4.96 to be spread among the remaining 68. That ups the tax burden on the remaining 68 to $1.31 per house.
Does that make any sense?
In Pottstown, fewer and fewer houses are being asked to shoulder the burden for more and more residents. That is the problem. That is why our taxes are so much higher per $1 of assessed value than almost every other school district in Pennsylvania. Tom Hylton has editorialized on this many times.
I believe that any large capital expenditures that are going to happen in Pottstown should be spent in such a way to improve that tax disparity as far as possible. If we are going to spend $10 or $15 or $20 million dollars on schools, then let’s do it in a way that has the greatest impact on the tax base. Let’s solve more than one problem at a time. Let’s stop doing everything in a vacuum that excludes everything else. This is the beauty of the ULI task force. And this was the beauty of the Centers concept, which I’m afraid is dead, mainly because those millions of dollars from the state are not going to be there again, not in this economy. They were in the budget all those years ago, and Tom Hylton convinced people they would be a terrible thing, so now they are gone and I don’t see them coming back. But… you never know.
The centers concept invested the capital in property that was not contributing to the tax base, got free money from the state to improve the values of properties in the 10 blocks surrounding the schools, thereby causing those properties to carry a larger share of the tax burden, and that could easily have resulted in actually LOWERING the tax burden being shouldered by the 55 or 65% of Pottstown homes that are now footing the bill for 88 or 90% of the properties.
When you added in all of the tax benefits of returning other school property back to the tax rolls, the tax relief to Pottstown homeowners could have been significant.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda. I agree that it’s time to move on. That project is gone.
But that doesn’t mean we have to give up on the idea of leveraging investment in the schools to obtain a greater return than better schools and improved educational opportunities. I hope we will leverage that. I hope we will make the most of it.
I’m sorry I have rambled…. Evan, if you’ve made it this far… this is what I’m talking about. Why didn’t The Mercury EVER have an article with graphics and statistics explaining all of this? Instead it focused on tiny negatives and blew them out of proportion and scared the taxpayers and voters.
I do NOT accept assertions that “the centers concept was defeated at the polls.” One of the fallacies of logic is called “False Cause.” It is not possible to determine the cause without imperical evidence when there are many possible causes. You can’t say, “My sister had a car accident when she had a cold, therefore colds cause car accidents.” That’s false cause. Maybe my sister was dialing her cell phone. Maybe there was black ice. Maybe a sneeze did cause the accident. But we can’t say for sure without more PROOF.
We will never know what caused every voter to vote the way he or she did. Some may have voted against the centers. Some may have voted for neighborhood schools. Some might have voted to “throw the bums out.” Some might have voted to keep the slum as it was where it was because they felt safe in their neighborhood as long as the slum was 6 or 7 blocks away. Some might have voted to do nothing. We don’t know how they came to their choice. We won’t know. There was a lot of fear mongering and manipulation of emotion, as jwl003 discussed.
And I maintain that a huge percentage of Pottstown voters NEVER understood the Centers concept and what it would have done for the tax base, because The Mercury never attempted to explain it and Tom Hylton spent thousands of dollars on slick color brochures designed to dismiss and destroy any success the former board was having trying to explain it themselves.
Improving those 10 square blocks in the middle of town MIGHT HAVE had an incredible impact on the town. Eliminating blight often results in reduced crime. New, state-of-the-art schools in charming neighborhoods with affordable homes often attract young families. Owner occupied homes are generally considered to have a more positive impact on quality of life than rentals. We might have lowered our tax burden by decreasing the percentage of special education students or decreasing the need for things like police and social services. Perhaps it would have done none of those things. We will never know because we chose not to bother to have this conversation but to focus instead on small issues, small fears, small minds. I do so hope the conversation will be broader and more encompassing now that it has a new tact!
Let’s all work together to get everything on the table. Let’s think big and do something really positive for our students and our community and all taxpayers. It can be done. Today is a very good day!
For any Family Guy fans out there, when I read this the only thing I can say is, “Giggiddy Giggiddy!” Wow, WAYFTP, just Wow! A well written piece. There’s so many things to say on this I don’t know where to start. But I’m certain I could easily write a small novel dissecting and discussing it with you. If I didn’t have to leave for work shortly, I fear I would do just that!
Mr. Brandt, in the middle of this post a question was raised that I think may deserve an answer. Maybe you’re not the one who can give the answer, maybe you’re limited in exactly how you can answer it, maybe you feel that it’s simply not true but I’ll reiterate it anyways – Why didn’t The Mercury ever report on this side of the centers discussion? Why wasn’t this type of information given to your readers to help them formulate their own decisions? Why did it seem the paper only focused on one side of this discusson? I guess it doesn’t really matter. As perfectly stated, ‘coulda, woulda, shoulda.’ But, for the many people in town who only chose to educate themselves on this topic by following solely The Mercury, well, it’s easy to see how maybe their opinion might have been swayed.
I understand that these “paid (opinion) advertisements” run on the Opinion page may pay the bills – but does that make it ethical to do so? Can the common person spend $1500 (the price quoted to some by the paper to run one of these) to get their side of the discussion out there. The bigger question is, why should they have to? If The Mercury is fair and balanced, both sides of the discussion should have been clearly laid out for it’s readers without influence of who in town has money to run these things. Perhaps these are questions for the new leadership of JRC.
A very stimulating post here, indeed. I would hope this new task force would seek out the information to see if this centers concept is still worthwhile or not. If they are tasked to explore all options, then they almost have to revisit it. Surprisingly, I’m not for or against this concept, but would appreciate all the facts to be able to come to an educated, well thought out decision on it.
Good Morning!!
If I may add just a few more facts to WAYFTP’s post….
Pottstown has 25% of it’s land/properties which are tax exempt.
Not only does that cover EVERY church, place of worship, and school property, but every cemetery,and every non-profit, such as the Moose Lodge, where Ms. Harris’ apartment is listed. I’m not sure how much walking around you have been doing, but we have a lot of dead folks residing here in Pottstown!
Now let’s talk about the properties which are not a non-profit…
of the 75 % of properties left in Pottstown, 40 % are houses broken into rental units for anywhere from 1 family to Oh, let’s say 15 families, such as will be residing in one of those newly rebuilt apartment houses on High Street.
Those houses, when destroyed by fire, combined, housed 29 children.
Property tax on those 2 properties most likely did not cover the educational cost of 2 children in the PSD by the taxes generated.
Factor in 40% of Pottstown housing is producing anywhere from 0 to 15+
children from EACH property who need to be educated.
Then let us factor in the high number of Section 8 eligibility in those rental units. Families that are already coming from a socio-economically depressed background, most likely in greater need of government assistance, have statistically increased the number of children entering the district who are at an educational disadvantage,
which increases the costs of educating that child just to bring them up to the same level as their peers. In the district, in order to prevent the generation of yet another IEP, we have a program in place called Response to Intervention and Instruction.
Teachers are able to determine through assessment and data collection
where each child’s weaknesses and strong points are, and then enable the teacher to form small instruction groups to target skills that will help each student learn and succeed.
Unfortunately, Mr. Hylton was never in favor of this, and has been trying to shut that down since it’s inception.
However, the district has had great success in reducing the number of IEP’s due to RTII, which has reduced the cost of special education services to the taxpayers.
Anyway, getting back to the economically depressing discussion of our community…..
Business on High Street…..where are all of the businesses that were going to come to Pottstown once we went from 4 lanes to 2 with back-in parking and included a bike lane to make us a more pedestrian /bike friendly community?
Wayne PA has a lovely downtown/Main Street….lots of specialty shops and cafes, and pull in diagonal parking. I have yet to see a community where the back in diagonal parking has worked.
Business’ are literally moving across borough lines…what are the Pottsgrove’s promising as a tax incentive???
Anyway, I can’t deem that all bad, because if we want folks to move to our Community, we want them to have excellent HUGE shopping centers in close proximity….maybe this will be the draw for home buyers???
And I would like to know why Mr. Smart Growth himself could not stop these BIG BOX stores from bordering our community……
Regarding the street trees….
Lovely….especially all of the debris as it lies in the streets, from the spring time “bloom” to the seeds and the leaves.
Unless you OWN your home, MOST WON”T SWEEP IT OFF THEIR SIDEWALK OR OFF THE STREET. Where does it go?…wherever it lays.
Maybe Tree’s INC or one of those non-profits can buy a leaf vacuum machine to clean up the streets….Just a thought.
Because the tree debris added to all of the trash and garbage that
is tossed on the ground by people and their children who just don’t care enough to have a vested interested in the cleanliness of the community have made this a dirty community.
I can’t tell you how many days a week I walk up York Street, to and from my childrens’ school, picking up garbage and recycling each way.
I fill a bag of both each time….
I wonder if TH does any cleaning up of the streets he is walking on in this community…my guess is he is oblivious to what is blowing around at his feet and would not want to get his hands dirty.
Anyway, my thoughts wander….
BTW …is it any wonder that Councilwoman Allen presented the Board with a letter from the Montgomery County Housing Authority urging the district to keep Barth Elementary open as a “valuable asset” to the community…..(MERC)
OF COURSE NOT!!!! MCHA = low income housing=Section 8.
Unless the PAID folks come in and DRASTICALLY TAKE WHATEVER MEASURES NECESSARY to change the status of this community from a full-service
assistance program, then unfortunately, this is exactly where this community is going to stay.
I guess another alternative would be to just turn the district over to the state, all the homeowners can move out, and let the absentee landlords take over.
Or create an educational system comparable to the amount of taxes we are charging the residents, and start drawing middle income families into this community to buy our affordable housing while they enjoy the Arts development on High Street, and bring business here that those families can patronize. The Neighborhood schools concept
has not “revitalized” our community the way some advocates
have proclaimed they would. I believe that concept has outlived it’s usefulness as far as Pottstown is concerned.
Very disheartening……
All I can do is my part….
I can be one vote and one voice for the education of our children and
an advocate for student achievement, while filling my position on the PSB,
I can continue to mentor and challenge teenage girls to be service oriented individuals through my leadership responsibilities as a Girl Scout adviser,
I can continue to provide support to all of the Pottstown and Pottsgrove Girl Scouts in their fund raising endeavors to provide excellent programming as a member of the Service Unit Team of the Manatawny GS,
I can continue to pick up trash and recycling, one piece at a time, to help keep our streets and river clean,
and I can hopefully thwart the efforts of the Friends Of Montgomery County by becoming a Democratic Committee person for my Ward….
(my reasons for this decision stems from OUTRAGE, but that is another story)
Anyway, to wrap up, I am always willing to talk to anyone who stops me on the street or gives me a call.
I only shop at Weis or Walmart, so unless you shop Pottstown also, you will not run into me up at the Giant or the Target….
My phone number is listed on the district website.
Please feel free to call me at any time with the same or opposing views. I always listen. 610*326*6876
Regarding the TH proposal that was defeated at the past board meeting,
I had more than 8 messages on my machine the Tuesday after the flyer went out from the FPT. More than 15 additional phone calls and 5 emails from parents, senior citizens and concerned citizens w/o children in our community. I was also stopped on the street
4 times by people with questions. This was in addition to the numerous parents of Girl Scouts who approached me with their concerns
my Monday evening at Grace Lutheran Church.
Most of all the messages, phone calls, or conversations I had were in favor of the proposal, with the exception of one.
Michele Pargeon
aka Eyes Wide Open
( NOT outed or exposed by TH)
Correction….all but one were NOT in favor of TH’s Proposal…..mp
WOW,
This is all amazing info. I thank all of you for posting it. There is so much more info here than in the paper. At this point, with the task force being formed, it looks like everything is at a stand still for a while. Tax wise- that’s good. Progress wise….not sure.
I’ve been a homeowner (and taxpayer) for nearly 15 years and have always felt like the town could really be special. I see these other towns progressing and really want to drag Pottstown along with them! Now we aren’t even seeing the new mayor (did she move?).
Michelle, I may take you up on your offer to chat. I hope that is ok. Just to get some greater clarification on what is going on. I know you are a very busy person though.
Thanks again everyone- now I’m off to enjoy some of this delicious weather! I hope everyone else does too!
I am available every day between noon and 5 at the very least….
I often try to help out at the school in the mornings, if they need me.
I am NEVER to busy to speak on the phone with a fellow citizen
and taxpayer and welcome open dialogue.
Michele Pargeon
Eyes Wide Open
610*326*6876