Part I: A Power Trip Benefiting One Man
Save Our Land, Save Pottstown – Just Say No
Part I of a three part series of articles on Tom Hylton and why he should not be reappointed to a fourth term on the Pottstown Planning Commission
POTTSTOWN, PA – Members of Pottstown Borough Council have a unique opportunity on tap for their February meeting that can help to usher in a new era of progress and teamwork in Pottstown. One of the agenda items is to fill an expiring term on the borough’s planning commission. Does council bring on a new member to the commission, someone with new ideas, new enthusiasm and possibly professional planning credentials? Or do they continue with the direction Pottstown has been going in for the past 12 years, having every single project funneled through the planning commission for critiquing and manipulation, as a result, choking off Pottstown’s much needed economic success?
The seat of current planning commission member Thomas Hylton is up for reappointment. Hylton, a cantankerous and self-righteous non-team playing member of the commission for the past 12 years, has expressed interest in being reappointed to a fourth term.
This series of articles will examine Hylton’s 12-year tenure on the commission and we’ll let our readers decide whether he has Pottstown’s best interests at heart…or whether he’s only in it for his own selfish pursuits (money and control most notably).
So…the question is…should council re-appoint Hylton to a fourth term on the planning commission?
This three-part series of articles has been broken down into four year time frames. Our article today will focus on the 1999-2002 period of Tom Hylton’s reign of self-righteousness.
So let’s set the WABAC Machine to 1999.
4th Time Around
In February of 1999, Tom Hylton was named to the Pottstown Planning Commission (after three previous unsuccessful attempts) and served as its chair from 2001-2008. Hylton was named to the commission to replace former councilman (and good old boy) Bill Krause, who council chose not to reappoint.
What kind of progress has Hylton brought to Pottstown during his 12-year tenure? And we’re not talking about progress to Hylton’s personal bank account…which has grown considerably as a result of the hundreds of speaking engagements he has performed to unsuspecting communities nationwide. Hylton will talk to any group that will hire him (and be forced to buy his 15 year old book) about all the successful land use planning and community building he’s done for Pottstown and how his “expertise” has helped our town become un-sustainable.
New Borough Hall
Just prior to Hylton being named to the planning commission, borough council was wrestling with the geographic placement of its new borough hall. Should it be built on its existing lot on King Street or on a legal straitjacketed parcel on High Street?
To no one’s surprise, Hylton, who at the time was Vice President of Preservation Pottstown*, was foaming at the mouth to have the new borough hall built on High Street, on a lot that was the subject of a legal catfight between his former employer Peerless Publications (the former owners of The Mercury) and the Montgomery County Commissioners. In a marketing tactic only known all too well to Pottstown residents (especially during election cycles), Preservation Pottstown mailed out several glossy mailers in an attempt to sway the debate in favor of the High Street location (hmmm…sending out glossy mailers chock full of half-truths to residents…that doesn’t sound like anything Tom Hylton would ever do). Here are two examples of Preservation Pottstown mailers supporting the High Street location:
Preservation Pottstown Eyesore Brochure
Preservation Pottstown Q&A Brochure
The Q&A brochure had a perforated mail-in section, where the receiver could fill out their personal information indicating their “support” to build the new borough hall on High Street. The completed form could then be mailed to borough hall (so a new borough hall could be built on High Street where it “will bring more people downtown who will patronize stores and businesses in the immediate area.”)
Of course, everyone knows how the story ends. The new borough hall was built on High Street…and the old borough hall was left empty…and droves of shoppers never materialized. It’s funny…you wouldn’t think that Tom Hylton would support the abandonment of an old historic building in favor of new construction…but he did…and that’s just the first of his many hypocritical decisions made over the years.
In a March 16, 1998 article that appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Tom Hylton was quoted as saying, “If we put the borough hall on High Street, we are going to have a tremendous civic boost and encourage downtown investment.”
So…here we are…almost 13 years later…where is the tremendous civic boost and downtown investment??
Tom Hylton 1. Pottstown Taxpayers 0.
Save a School, Screw the Taxpayers
Since being named to the Pottstown Planning Commission in 1999, Tom Hylton has worked non-stop to try to keep open the crumbling 84-year-old Rupert Elementary School.
Shortly after Hylton was named to the planning commission, he set his sights on saving an old building in Pottstown (and no…it was not the old borough hall building). It was…surprise!…Rupert Elementary School.
As he has done several times during his tenure on the planning commission, Tom Hylton overstepped his authority by penning a letter (from the planning commission) to send to the Pottstown School Board urging the board to maintain its current “neighborhood schools” configuration for the elementary schools by re$toring Rupert (it was the planners’ opinion that a “$en$itive renovation” would “probably co$t le$$ than a new building”).
Wouldn’t you just love to know what Tom Hylton’s definition of a “$en$itive renovation” is? Does he mean hi$torically $en$itive…or sensitive to the taxpayers?
In the same letter, Hylton suggested building yet another elementary school in the borough on the corner of High and Evans Streets (which would bring the count to six elementary schools for Pottstown). The Pennsylvania Department of Education notes that during the five-year period of 2005-2010, Pottstown’s enrollments declined by 233 children. Why on earth would Tom Hylton suggest building another school when school enrollments in the district dropped the size of an entire grade???
Remember this High Street school idea folks…as it will play out later when the school board works on developing and implementing its innovative Washington Street Initiative.
At the same time Hylton wrote the planning commission letter, he also wrote a similar letter to the school board wearing his Preservation Pottstown hat. Hylton took it upon himself to submit an application to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s Bureau for Historic Preservation in an attempt to have Rupert listed on the National Register of Historic Places (thinking that would save it from the wrecking ball).
It’s been ten years since he wrote his series of letters to the Pottstown School Board. So how is that Save Rupert project coming along Tom? Are you running into difficulties trying to trick Pottstown taxpayers into financing your overpriced re$toration proposals of a crumbling, cramped and outdated elementary school that needs to be retired? The children of Pottstown certainly deserve a new modern learning facility, instead of one that is literally falling apart.
As we’ve seen over and over again, Tom Hylton uses his seat on the planning commission as a bully pulpit to dictate educational policy in Pottstown as he sees fit (even though he has no children that attend the district schools, nor does he possess an education or planning degree…his only degree is a bachelor’s in history from Kutztown University). His endless quest to have us taxpayers foot the bill for an expen$ive re$toration of Rupert is tiresome and has absolutely nothing to do with the mission and goals of a municipal planning commission.
Back-In Parking on High Street
The controversial scheme to reconfigure High Street and chase away downtown shoppers was orchestrated by Tom Hylton and implemented in 2003.
In 2000, the Pottstown Planning Commission started scheming on a plan to reconfigure High Street in order to make it more “pedestrian friendly” and thus more conducive to shoppers. The controversial parking plan was approved by borough council in April of 2001.
The whole idea of the reconfiguration was to help revitalize downtown, provide more parking spaces, encourage bicycling, and make it easier for pedestrians to cross the street.
So…how has this scheme helped revitalize Pottstown? How many new businesses have come to the downtown as a result of Tom Hylton’s parking plan? Take a look around at the empty storefronts along High Street. You tell us.
Did the reconfiguration add more parking to the downtown? Nope. Parking is still a major hindrance to shopping in the downtown, which is why folks gravitate to nearby shopping centers where parking is plentiful and free.
Does the reconfiguration encourage bicycling? Sure it does. Although it would be nice to have residents in Pottstown who want to bicycle…instead of those who have to bicycle.
How has the reconfiguration helped the existing businesses on High Street? Are they happy now that more bicyclists can come to spend money in their stores? Have they experienced more shoppers coming into their places of business? Once again…head downtown during any time of day and you tell us.
Tom Hylton highlights the “success” of High Street’s back-in parking on his Save Our Land, Save Our Towns website in order to continue his lucrative speaking engagements and to sell more of his 15 year old books. Too bad Pottstown hasn’t financially benefited from the idea like Hylton has.
Stay tuned for the remaining two articles of our three part series on why Tom Hylton should not be reappointed to a fourth term on the Pottstown Planning Commission.
* – Preservation Pottstown is currently headed up by Tom Carroll, its current president. The organization’s mission today is to build community vitality, foster healthy lifestyles, a clean environment, arts and culture, education, and economic development throughout Pottstown and the surrounding communities. Tom Hylton and George Wausnock (along with former mayor and school board president Barry Robertson) founded the organization and are no longer involved in its day-to-day operations.
Oh, my! What a trip down Memory Lane!
I wish you had gone into that “Mercury lot” deal in a little more detail. The specifics escape me. But I seem to remember that The Mercury was not a good neighbor at that time.
Didn’t The Merc get the lot for like nothing… $40,000 or $50,000? And didn’t it then force the taxpayers to foot the bill for a very expensive clean-up of the ground soil? I can’t remember – but maybe $200,000 or some number that was way more than The Mercury paid for the lot.
Then didn’t The Mercury fail to meet multiple deadlines when it was supposed to have reached certain stages of construction? I can remember that site the way Hylton describes it in his mailer: An eyesore, a hole in the ground with a chain link fence around it. The Mercury did that. It created that eyesore. Then it made the taxpayers pay some huge, crazy price to get the lot-turned-eyesore back from its inept hands.
It’s hard to lose sight of Tom Hylton’s relationship to The Mercury in all of this.
I’d like to know if what Tom promised in the brochure actually happened. Did Preservation Pottstown buy the lot with grant money and sell it to the borough for $1? I don’t remember the resolution…. but I could have sworn they were taxpayer dollars (maybe from the county?) that paid for that lot. Inquiring minds would love to know.
And I can’t help but note the irony you point out of how Hylton himself promoted Replace over Renovate when it suited his personal agenda. Nice catch, SP!
Bottom line: Hylton is like a spoiled child who wants what he wants when he wants it without regard for how his getting his way will affect the rest of the universe. Think of what he might have accomplished if he had ever found it in himself to work with and for the taxpayers of Pottstown instead of always working only for his own self interests.
Is there a qualified person to nominate in place of TH ?
Right on SP!! Thanks so much for the more than Cliff Notes version of the trip down memory lane! There are some things you pointed out I wasn’t aware of and more details on things that I did know.
WAYFTP makes a great observation on your catch about advocating replace vs renovate – convenient or inconvenient truths, humm?!? Inetesting, too (for me), is the support of the ULI study when it suits a purpose. Arguments to adhere to a study, paid for by taxpayers, isn’t a means to an end it is a growing and changing evolution toward continued progress – or so I think that’s its intended use. Creating a downtown accessible to all and a central place to ‘come together’ – I recall that was a perk of the centralized campus (isn’t that community building).
It is important to note that had Mr. Hylton wanted to work together rather than always find the opposition to a given plan (seemingly to support ULI findings) Pottstown could be a brighter place to live and work right now. If only one could harness the many hours of research and fact finding (sometimes twisted and inaccurate) to suit the town’s changing needs the days would be brighter, indeed. Time to stop pitting people against one another and find the common ground to make the town shine – fresh faces are the key to making this happen.
Yes, there are other applicants that could fill this seat and work toward preserving the past and growing to meet current and future needs – or so I hear, anyway.
While we fans of SP!! aren’t fond of pot stirring (much) this sauce (Planning Commission) is in need of some stirring so that it doesn’t stick to the pot. Sometimes stirring has a positive purpose. I hate it when the sauce gets too lunpy!
Thanks for this piece. As one who’s only lived in Pottstown for 5 years, it’s helpful to have some idea “how things got the way they are”. I’m looking forward to part 2. I know Tom Hylton has great ideas and a strong network, and like the last commenter, I keep hoping for the day we can all come together and get past our differences to get the work done to bring a safer, vital Pottstown to fruition.
Very informative. For newcomers this is a necessary history lesson. Great ideas are only half the battle. The challenges of diplomacy, transparency, cultivation of relationships, the desire and ability to work with others is at the heart of real progress. I see some trends in Pottstown, recently, that could lead us to meaningful change – a little cooperation goes a long way.
Thanks SP
An FYI:
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq_ed_board/Thomas_Hylton_Pa_can_save_on_schools.html
This was published in the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer.
WOW, thanks silent2long!! What a piece!! I am shocked and stunned to read such rhetoric – NOT! Well, folks, game on and here we go again. While the newly elected Governor of PA faces some serious budget challenges is this really the segway for PlanCon is (essentially) ‘stupid’?
A ‘pearl of wisdom’ from the piece:
“In theory, PlanCon encourages school districts to build and maintain top-quality facilities. In practice, PlanCon rewards districts for abandoning or demolishing perfectly good buildings and replacing them with lavish facilities that do little to improve learning but take decades to pay off.”
IF the thoery is to encourage top-quality facilities and the practice has strayed from that intent then refine the process. I fail to see how PlanCon (or one person) determines that ‘perfectly good buildings’ are being demolished. The state doesn’t reward SDs for abandoning buildings it gives them an opportunity to create something they feel will meet changing needs. What this is, simply put, is one person’s interpretation of recent history and trying to convince others that anything new is lavish and, by proxy, excessive spending. Again, we hop on the merry-go-round of save antiquated (my opinion, only) buildings and diminish their importance in terms of progressive education.
Decades to pay off new facilities pale in comparison to the ability to educate, progressively, AND draw people to your SD over another in the same area when looking to invest or purchase a home. Instead of looking at this debate as destuction of old neighborhoods why not look at it as redefining them?
Don’t even get me started on the busing and childhood obesity comparisons…suffice to say that there is a larger trend in education to stress the importance of a healthy lifestyle, dah!
This article makes me sick to think just what’s around the corner. If you can’t spew rhetoric in P’town, go bigger…really?!?! Mr. Hylton rarely sees the other side of the debate and many people have had enough and would meet in the middle – if only he wasn’t hell bent on having it ‘his way or the highway’.
Hi, SP — Just a point of clarification. As of the January Board meeting of Preservation Pottstown, Tom Carroll is no longer the president. It is David Jackson. Preservation Pottstown is undergoing a transition to become home to the Pottstown Community Land Trust. The mission and by-laws of Preservation Pottstown mesh really well with the goals of the new CLT, mainly to actively address the housing issues facing Pottstown today and increase homeownership. More about the CLT can be found at http://pottstownclt.wordpress.com/
Thanks!
Sue Repko
One can only hope that Hylton WILL NOT be a part of Pottstown Community Land Trust in any capacity. Where will all the rental fees ($500.00 per side annually) for the illegally installed bike racks by Preservation Pottstown go? Will Garner find a way to get Hylton on board? Hylton’s involvement in any future decisions for Pottstown must come to an end. Too much damage has already been done to Pottstown due to his involvement and decisions over the years. When Hylton’s term is up for the school board, he must be voted out! He has absolutely NO direct interest in the education or welfare of the students in this school district, only buildings and keeping the taxes high while maintaining at least four of the five antiquated school buildings for his little dream world of the past.
Informus, let me say this to you:
There is no disagreement that Hylton has marginalized this community and it is time to move on. In my observation, SP is providing important historic lessons for us to learn. One of the things I have come to understand is that Hylton did not operate in a bubble, he was aided and assisted by leaders of local government that deferred their responsibility to communicate with the taxpayers and do the hard work of scrutinizing every idea and concept that came before them. Tom offered them an easy out and they took it. This was, no doubt “heady” stuff for Hylton and most certainly positive reinforcement for his questionable logic. Psych 101 tells us that positive reenforcement will guarantee repeat performances.
So here we are now.
A Community Land Trust in Pottstown has tremendous potential. The initiatives that Mr. Bobst and Mr. Lindley are taking to develop community involvement is pointing the community in the right direction too. Now, a key ingredient that can insure the successes of these various initiatives is – forgiveness-that’s right.
The various personality conflicts that hold Pottstown back need to be resolved in the hearts and souls of everyone who has a history here and who remain invested in revitalization. The people of Pottstown are no less human and no less capable of making mistakes than anywhere human beings congregate. It is time to allow that lessons are learned from making mistakes. In fact, mistakes create opportunities for profoud insights and leaps forward. Be generous with praise for the good things, and good people here. Give the benefit of the doubt to those who have tried to make a difference in the past, if nothing else, give them credit for trying. These folks still have much to offer. Assume the best about each other.
Forgive. It is even possible to forgive Tom, at the same time, remember the lessons learned by allowing one individual to assume a position of power. Remember also that he was empowered because no one else took responsibility.
So let’s all put our best foot forward and allow that good things are happening and yes, mistakes will be made, but we don’t have to let them define us or interfere with nurturing personal and working relationships that are essential to our progress. Give to others what you want for yourself.
UpSideDown, your comments here are RightSideUp!!
There has been a large amount of momentum this past year in the goal of making Pottstown a better community. New initiatives, groups, faces, ideas and energy have breathed new life into the stagnant waters of a revitalized Pottstown.
Unfortunately, one big hinderance that still exists is the personality conflicts involved. Sadly, many of the debates in this town as to the merits of an issue, idea or solution are hardly ever about the intimate details of said issue, idea or solution. Rather, the debate surrounds the people, personalities and past behavior of those involved. We beat each other down to defeat, retreat, come up with a new idea and start the cycle all over again. This is one of the reasons Pottstown is in the shape that it is. We’ve lacked the ability to work together towards a common goal.
I think we can ALL agree that we want the best for our town. Higher property values, fair taxes, jobs, thriving residential neighborhoods, bustling commercial districts and decent schools. Why is it so hard to work together to achieve this if it’s the common goal shared by all??