Tag Archives: Coatesville

church farms school latest to deal with touchy-feely adults

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Sign me disgusted on this one. The news has broken with yet another teacher/guidance counselor/coach/school employee having inappropriate relationships with students. What is wrong with people? And what is wrong with the education system and both public and private schools that they can’t screen out potential problems?

The news broke last night about Sarah O’Neill of Coatesville, previously employed by the august Church Farms School right on Route 30 in Exton. This elite boys boarding school says on their website “inspiring boys, fulfilling dreams”. Somehow a touchy feely past female employee charged with having a full blown affair with an underage male student is not exactly what they had in mind, don’t you think?

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I do not get what motivates these purported “adults” basically every single time one of these stories hits the media. This story, like the others, totally grosses me out and skeeves me. A couple of years ago my alma mater Shipley went through this. Within the past few years there was also that incident at Bayard Rustin high school in West Chester with the swim coach.

Of course the Shipley story/issue/perversion made the news again last summer when authorities discovered that the guy who was the former coach had been living with the student he was never supposed to have contact with again. Mind you when I read that article I wondered what the hell was wrong with the girl’s parents in addition to this creepy guy?

And then there was the Valley Forge Military Academy and College guidance counselor who also got caught in a “compromising position” around 2012. The list seems somewhat endless over the past few years and I don’t get it. With all the background checks that are supposed to be done for people who want to be in the education field and so on I don’t understand how these people fall through the cracks? These things just happen magically? Or have they been happening all along and it’s just because the world we live in that the issues are finally coming to light?

I guess I just don’t get people that are entrusted with the lives and minds of our children doing these things. I don’t understand the motivation. I am sure there is a litany of excuses but surely these adults know the difference between right and wrong? How do they betray the trust of the students and the parents?

So this developing case shows again why people should support non-profits dedicated to fighting sexual abuse and exploitation of children. One is local to Chester County. It’s a wonderful organization called Justice4PAkids. You can click on hyperlink to view their website and find them on Facebook.

Anyway, here’s the early media coverage on this so made for a ridiculous Lifetime TV movie linked below.

Add Sarah O’Neill 35 of Coatesville to the touchy-feely wall of shame in Pennsylvania.

NBC10 Philadelphia : Chester County Teacher Accused of Having Sex, Relationship With Student

A Chester County teacher is accused of having sex with one of her students during a relationship that lasted nearly a year.

“The thought that I could love so deeply and so wrongly pervaded before you and I even officially began,” Sarah O’Neill allegedly wrote the teen. “It was quite a long winter break before my lips even attempted yours and I wondered if you were as affected as I.”

O’Neill, 35, of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, was a teacher at Church Farm School, an all-boys private school in Exton, Pennsylvania. The teen, who is now 17, told police he began a relationship with O’Neill in January, 2014, when he was 16 and she was his teacher. The two expressed their love for one another and began a relationship that lasted 10 months, according to investigators.

Daily Local : Church Farm School teacher arrested for alleged sexual relationship with student

…..Sarah O’Neill, of Coatesville, was arrested on four counts of corruption of minors on Tuesday for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old student. Police said the relationship began in January 2014 and lasted for about 10 months.

Police said O’Neill was charged for four separate incidents that allegedly occurred in her car and at area hotels

MORE media is covering barn-gate in upper uwchlan! save picking in rural chester county!

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I have been horribly sick all week so I completely missed the fact that The Daily Local has also picked up on The Smithfield Barn!

I am thrilled. The article is fair and unfortunately (once again) Upper Uwchlan doesn’t really sound so nice, do they?

Upper Uwchlan, farmer at odds over barn sales Daily Local By Kendal Gapinski, Daily Local News POSTED: 01/09/14, 5:49 PM EST |

UPPER UWCHLAN – The Smithfield Barn, a spot where residents can pick through antiques, toys, furniture and collectibles at barn sales, has been asked by the township to stop the sales.

According to Phil Smith, owner of the Smithfield Barn at 425 Little Conestoga Road, the township made the request at the end of November because it said he was running a business on a property zoned residential.

Smith said the barn sales are held occasionally, once or twice a month in the spring and fall, and should not be considered a business.

“There’s no heating or air conditioning, it’s a barn,” said Smith.

However, the township disputes the claim that sales are held only “occasionally.”

Township Manager Cary Vargo said it had become apparent the sales were happening more frequently.

In October, Vargo said, the township’s zoning officer spoke with Smith and advised him “it was a retail establishment.”

“It was clearly a successful business,” said Vargo, who added the township believed sales were held nearly every weekend.

The meeting was followed up with an official letter in November telling Smith to stop the sales or be fined $500 a day, Smith said.

Smith said the barn sales, which he said are similar to garage sales, have been going on for nearly five years without objection from the township.

I have only posted an excerpt. Read the whole article and comments.

All of the people leaving comments on this have been IN support of the barn except for a poster named “Elizabeth McGill”. Her comment profile on the Daily Local shows a photo of an older lady who looks like a cookie baking, scarf knitting grandma. Her profile description says she became a widow in July after being married fifty years. Her comments, however, are negative and also untrue. She says (and I quote):


I was there last summer looking for unique antique treasures. All I found was junk obviously obtained through “dumpster diving.” His garage sale/store is open to the public every day in fair weather….What if your next door neighbor turned his house into a strip club, gas station, or retail store? This man is operating a store in a residential area. If anything goes, and everyone is allowed to do this, fine. But don’t blame the township for ‘sticking their nose’ into THEIR business which is enforcing the rules

Since when are their rules for yard sales, garage sales, and barn sales? And wow has this lady every been to the super fabulous and super popular Clover Market? You go there and you will see sometimes priced at hundreds of dollars things like the ones you might find at the barn for literally pennies.

How can you compare a barn sale or garage sale to a strip club? Unless of course designer stripper poles are developer add on options in these “communities” gobbling up farm land in Chester County LOL? And how can this woman outright fib and say the barn is open “every day in Fair weather”? The Smith family lives on that property and just because a barn door is open, it doesn’t make it a barn sale day does it?

It’s like the rumor that was heard when this barn-gate issue first surfaced that a complaint was supposedly made from Green Valley Road. At first I could not figure out what road this was. Then I looked at the map. It is the little spit of road that is in front of the barn, but isn’t Little Conestoga Road. It sort of dead ends a bit past the edge of the Smithfield Farm property. It looks like it runs to the Frame property. But the thing is this, those are the most immediate neighbors of the barn, aren’t they? And these are the people who are supportive of the Smith family so who would start such a rumor?

But back to this whole negative comment thing.

When I asked Kristin at the barn if she knew who this woman might be, do you know what she said? Not what you might think for someone who is in a sense under siege from the township she calls home. What she said to me was (and I quote):

We live in a world filled with hatred and poverty and crime, but someone attacks the barn for in essence recycling. That makes me feel bad because I feel sad for her.

You see, that is a prime example of the kind of people the Smiths are. They are good people who even now when someone is literally casting stones at them would turn the other cheek and feel badly and feel concern for this person leaving comments like this.

Good people like the Smiths deserve better than they are getting. The residents of Upper Uwchlan deserve better.

Barn sales and yard sales are part of Chester County life and a lot of fun. Picking is as American as Apple pie and fireworks on the 4th of July! They should be allowed to continue. And this is a very nice family that I feel is being victimized by local government most unfairly.

Please help Save The Barn! Barn Picking hurts no one. And again I say there are a lot of very poor people in parts of Chester County who need places like the Smithfield Barn so they can just get stuff for their homes – you know the basics like a kitchen table and chairs that aren’t over priced?

Save picking in rural Pennsylvania. It is as American as Apple Pie. Contact Upper Uwchlan or your favorite TV station or heck even American Pickers or the Institute for Justice and tell them the Smithfield Barn and their OCCASIONAL barn sales should live on just the way they are until the Smith family doesn’t want to do it any more.

The Smithfield Barn is not a retail store and if you suddenly need a zoning variance for yard sales, garage sales, and barn sales wow so Big Brother and how is that even American?

Upper Uwchlan

Guy A. Donatelli Chairperson 78 Stonehedge Drive Glenmoore, PA 19343

GDonatelli@upperuwchlan-pa.gov

Catherine A. Tomlinson Vice-Chairperson 788 North Reeds Road Downingtown, PA 19335

CTomlinson@upperuwchlan-pa.gov

Kevin C. Kerr Supervisor 16 Heron Hill Drive Downingtown, PA 19335

KKerr@upperuwchlan-pa.gov

140 Pottstown Pike Chester Springs, PA 19425 Phone: (610) 458-9400 Fax: (610) 458-0307
Cary Vargo Township Manager (610) 646-7008
cvargo@upperuwchlan-pa.gov

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a world gone mad: bombs at boston marathon

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boston april 15 2013Once again, the world has gone mad.  When I saw the news break yesterday about bombs at the Boston Marathon, I thought there must be some mistake.  Who would do such a thing?

Why does violence happen in April in this country?  NBC news is reporting that a lot of this craziness happens in April  – Virginia Tech (2007), Columbine (1999), Waco siege (1993) , Oklahoma City (1995)

Yesterday was also Patriot’s Day in Boston.

And yesterday the world went mad and someone blew up Boston during the Boston Marathon.

Among the victims an 8 year boy.  Thanks to something reporter Karen Hepp from Fox 29 said, I found the Daily Beast and two additional articles in both the Boston Globe:

A perfect Marathon day, then the unimaginable

 

By Kevin Cullen|  Globe Columnist    April 16, 2013

It was as good a ­Patriots Day, as good a Marathon day, as any, dry and seasonably warm but not hot like last year. The buzz was great. While the runners climbed Heartbreak Hill, the Red Sox were locked in another white-knuckle duel with the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park. The only thing missing was Lou Reed crooning “Perfect Day” in the background….In an instant, a perfect day had morphed into something viscerally evil.

The location and timing of the bombs was sinister beyond belief, done purposely to maximize death and destruction. Among those who watched in horror as a fireball belched out across the sidewalk on Boylston were the parents of the schoolkids murdered in Newtown, Conn…This is how bad this is. I went out Monday night and bumped into some firefighters I know. They said one of the dead was an 8-year-old boy from Dorchester who had gone out to hug his dad after he crossed the finish line. The dad walked on; the boy went back to the sidewalk to join his mom and his little sister. And then the bomb went off. The boy was killed. His sister’s leg was blown off. His mother was badly injured. That’s just one ­family, one story.

That little boy’s name was Martin Richard. He had his whole life ahead of him.  What the hell did that innocent child do to deserve to die?  Also among the injured were two brothers who each had a leg blown off as per the Boston Globe. Can you imagine being the mother who got this call?

There were hundreds of Pennsylvania residents in Boston running the marathon, including those from Chester County (all of whom The Daily Local is reporting to be o.k. and safe).  One such person was Kathie Iacabone Redmond who many know simply as Kathie who works for Yellow Springs Inn. Kathie had safely crossed the finish line twenty minutes before the explosions began as per the Inn and her family.

ESPN has this list of PA runners posted and here are some runners from Chester County as per that list (not sure if this is all of them or not they quantify this list as PA runners who finished the marathon):

4188, Kathie Redmond, Coatesville, 3:45:23.

8653, Robert C. Mauch, Phoenixville, 3:46:46.

4406, Barbara J Lombardo, Chester Springs, 3:46:58.

4793, Kelly A. Fisher, West Chester, 3:49:52

5051, Mary E Suplee, Phoenixville, 3:51:52.

5547, Jennie D. Brown, West Chester, 3:55:28.

5781, Page C Greenberg, Malvern, 3:57:26.

5884, Sarah E. Weddle, West Chester, 3:58:18

10195, Bill Conway, Downingtown, 4:03:37

6733, Johanna Hantel, Malvern, 4:08:34

Kathie Redmond was mentioned in conjunction with 2011 coverage of the Boston Marathon too:

Scenes from the Boston Marathon route

By Staff reports
Posted Apr  18, 2011 @ 08:41 PM
Hopkinton —

A friend in spirit in Hopkinton

When 2011 Boston Marathon registration shattered previous records and closed  in just over eight hours last October, one of those shut out was veteran  qualifier Kathie Redmond of Coatesville, Pa.

But Redmond’s running partners got in, and they made sure she didn’t miss  this year’s race – sort of.

Out on a training run one day, Nancy Stoltzfus of Parkesburg, Pa., struck  upon an idea: bringing a blow-up doll to represent their friend. After some  Internet searching, she found a source: a website for bachelor party  supplies.

“We don’t want her to feel left out,” Stoltzfus said at the starting line  before the race. “She was heartbroken she didn’t get in.”

After Redmond finished a Pennsylvania marathon last weekend, Redmond and  fellow Marathoner Amy Barcus of Atglen, Pa., took her neon green jersey and  shorts and turquoise bandana and put them on the doll, before pasting on a  printout of their friend’s face. The doll made the weekend rounds up north,  including the runners’ expo in Boston, but was going back on a shuttle  bus.

I have friends from high school who now live in Boston.  I spoke with one last night.  She had some anxious moments because the exchange students living with her were down in Copley Square.  But thankfully they had left about twenty minutes before the bombs exploded.

My personal opinion is this was an act of domestic terrorism.  And I hope they capture whomever quickly.  And I could do without the Obama side debates on guns for the time being.  These weren’t guns, these were bombs.

Do we have to wonder now every time we go to a street fair or a local festival if we will all come home?  Is this the objective of these people? That everyday Americans living their lives must live in fear?

Screw that. As someone who walked out of the World Trade Center in February 1993 just seconds before the truck bomb went off in that garage and as a less than two-year survivor of breast cancer I will live my life.  As best as I can.

My heart goes out to anyone waiting to hear from loved ones after the Boston Marathon and to the people of Boston.  How someone could defile yet another of America’s finest cities escapes me.  But Boston is made of tougher stuff than the cowards who tried to blow her up.

You can follow developments in the story  via their NPR station in Boston WBUR, along with major media outlets – who of course have descended on Boston like a hoard of locusts already. I am following the Boston Globe and the NBC affiliate up there WHDH Channel 7 and the New York Times:

WHDH: Feds search apartment, seek clues in Boston attack

BOSTON (AP) — FBI agents searched a suburban Boston apartment overnight and  appealed to the public for amateur video and photos that might yield clues to  who carried out the Boston Marathon bombing, while a doctor treating the wounded  said one of the victims was maimed by what looked like ball bearings or BBs.

Two bombs blew up seconds apart Monday at the finish line of one of the  world’s most storied races, tearing off limbs and leaving the streets spattered  with blood and strewn with broken glass. Three people were killed, including an  8-year-old boy, and more than 140 were wounded.

Federal investigators said no one had claimed responsibility for the  bombings on one of the city’s biggest civic holidays, Patriots Day. But the  blasts raised the specter of another terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

Investigation of Boston Marathon bombings continues

Some areas of downtown Boston reopen Tuesday

By John R. Ellement|  Globe Staff    April 16, 2013

sandy storm photos – send them in for posting!

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Hi there gentle readers.  I hope everyone has battened down the hatches for however Hurricane Sandy turns out?

I have a proposition for all of my readers: send me storm photos for posting.  I learned a long time ago that if you want to enact change, photos help. The photos you are CURRENTLY looking at are photos I took where I used to live in Lower Merion Township and one from Conshohocken. The snapped tree was courtesy of Irene last year.

So if you have flooding photos and you want them out there, send them to me via sandysnaps <at> spamex <dot> com

That is sandysnaps @ spamex . com – Sorry due to spammers, I will not have this as just a hyperlink to click and go.

Alternately you can tweet me at @gossipgirl19380

I am happy to attribute photos, tell me who gets credit, and *MOST* importantly give me precise locations. Or I will post photos anonymously if you live in a municipality that has shall we say, issues?

I am particulalrly interested in photos where development may be occuring or is currently occuring or has just been completed. I am also interested in areas that chronically flood and often wait until the bitter end for help to arrive.

One spot  of particular curiousity which should not be overlooked by anyone is where the Borough of Phoenixville is building their over-priced new municipal hall.  I passed it last night while in Phoenixville and thought I should defininately put that location out there as a site for good storm photos because it always floods, doesn’t it? And correct me if I am wrong, but the plans for that needlessly overpriced new borough hall doesn’t really have proper flood remediation built in, does it?  Wasn’t that the plan where the plan is put the garage underneath so everyone’s cars drown and there is lots of potential litigation from that?  Anyway, I figure a way to preserve the taxpayer investment and future costs here is to have irrefutable proof that they need a real plan or they should stop and move sites.

Phoenixville has a fun downtown at night.  They need better parking and I notice they have the parking authority people out chalking tires on a Saturday night, and truthfully, most municipalities don’t do that.  They leave it as the police can tow people from certain zones and are done with it.  But then again, people tend to question how Phoenixville spends money – they spend way too much on a manager, they spend way too much on a school superintendant – seriously for a borough barely squeaking by in any economy they pay Main Line prices.

But enough picking on Phoenixville which always floods so badly, from Tredyffrin through to West Vincent and Oxford and wherever, if you have storm photos, or storm info, send it in.   Also feel free to leave comments about where the power is out and if roads are blocked.

Hopefully Sandy will be a non-event for Chester County.

My final note is DO NOT PUT YOURSELVES IN HARM’S WAY TO SEND ME PHOTOS. 

But do document flooding and damage.  It is helpful for getting things corrected so situations do not repeat themselves. I will also take Main Line storm photos if it will help any of you out there near where I used to live.

Thanks and stay dry!

 

 

tredyffrin has hired a new manager…

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So, Tredyffrin has a new manager.  I still have a bad taste in my mouth from what the exiting manager Mimi Gleason and VP of the Board of Supervisors John P. DiBuonaventuro did to fellow blogger and friend and all around awesome lady, Pattye Benson who authors Community Matters.

Tredyffrin has hired one of their hometown boys, Bill Martin, formerly of Radnor Township fame and the Bashore years.  Not that Bill Martin was a particular fan of Bashore’s (I was told he wasn’t), he was just from that truly unfortunate era.  An era which took the fortitude of some persistent residents, commissioners, and others who were on the up and up to correct.  It was not, however, without blood shed.

Bill Martin went from assistant township manager (and vartious other positions) in Radnor to interim township manager in Radnor in early 2010 when Radnor was saved from the debacle of almost hiring problematic ex-Coatesville manager Paul G. Janssen Jr. as interim township manager.  Martin, however, was ultimately passed over for the permanent manager position when Bob Zienkowski was bought in from Ohio.

I will tell you honestly I am of the Radnor Bob Zienkowski fan club and with good reason – he is amazing. He doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk.   That man walked in to a hot mess, rolled up his sleeves, and got busy.

As an aside, some timely news about Radnor as it relates to Chester County is Bob Zienkowski suggested at the October 15th, 2012 public meeting that Radnor consider studying to leave Delaware County and to join either Chester or Montgomery County.  Yes, municipal secession (see Radnor meeting on You Tube for 10/15/12 and start listening just before 9 minutes 42 seconds to catch this.) The irony is I have always felt Radnor Township had more in common with Chester County versus Delaware County,  but I digress.

Ok back to Bill Martin.  After Radnor, he went to Bridgeport – a very tiny municipality in Montgomery County.  He has been there about a year as per newspaper article I found. Of course, Bill Martin joins another mid level Radnor refugee of the Bashore era, Matt Baumann, who is Tredyffrin’s current Director of Planning and Zoning.  Matt helped me when I got the historical marker for the Wayne Natatorium.  He’s a heck of a nice guy.

Bill Martin is also a nice guy from what I have always heard told.  But truthfully, Tredyfrrin as I see it is a municipality in need of serious remediation ASAP.  And choosing a manager who may or may not be a politically connected local resident may not be the way to go here.  I am actually going to disagree somewhat with my esteemed blogging colleague Pattye Benson ever so slightly.

Pattye comments that this is the first time a Tredyffrin Township Manager is a  Tredyffrin resident and lives in the township.  Now I agree with the residency part, and I think the departing and in the end disappointing Mimi Gleason is actually a West Chester area resident.  What I do not agree with is choosing someone who lives in Tredyffrin now as a manager.  I think the best thing that could have happened to Tredyffrin would have been a new Township Manager coming in from waaaay outside Tredyffrin and the area, truthfully.

I hope I am wrong, but I wonder if Bill Martin will have the chops in the end to take on what needs doing in Tredyffrin.  Tredyffrin has historically been subject to whispers – people are afraid of retribution. And before you poo poo me here, look what happened to Pattye Benson when she spoke up?  That still does not sit right with me, and I still believe that troll of a supervisor John P. DiBuonaventuro as well as Tredyffrin Township’s administration owes her an apology, don’t you?  In true lettergate fashion, I say a written apology.

Insular politics and politics of one party rule without much balance is bad for a community – just look at the snarl of tangled politics that is Lower Merion Township.

So I will be looking for Bill Martin to be an independent voice, beholden to no one.  I hope he can accomplish that.  I hope after what he saw and experienced at Radnor Township during the Bashore years that he can bring a different tone to Tredyffrin.

Congratulations Bill Martin, but my oh my you have a large job ahead of you.

Tredyffrin Appoints New Township Manager/Something about the new manager is very different than his predecessors.

ByBob Byrne  Email the author  5:56 am

Community Matters and TE Patch Blogger Pattye Benson reports that Tredyffrin Township’s Board of Supervisors has appointed a new Township Manager to replace Mimi Gleason, who left the position in September 17 after ten years with Tredyffrin Township…..What sets him apart from Gleason and others who have served as Tredyffrin Township Manager is that Martin is a resident of the township.

Full details on the new manager can be found here on Pattye Benson’s Community Matters/TE Patch Local Voices blog post.

former district attorney wants to help coatesville

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It was a relatively small blip in The Daily Local and worth a conversation.  Former District Attorney Joseph Carroll, now of “Of Counsel” at Obermayer, Rebmann, Maxwell & Hippel  has announced that he is interested in helping Coatesville.

COATESVILLE — A former Chester County district attorney has applied with the city to become both a temporary city manager and temporary public safety coordinator for less pay than the last city manager was making.

Former District Attorney Joseph Carroll said Monday during a City Council meeting that he handed his application into the city earlier that day. He said a public safety coordinator would have the same responsibilities as a police chief but would be a civilian.
“I have a lot of fond memories of the way Coatesville was,” Carroll said after the meeting. “The people here now are just as good as the people were when this city was very successful. I would like to help council make that happen again, and I think it’s possible.”
Coatesville to an outsider looking in, has seemed so lost for years.  It has also been a victim of bad municipal management, failed bids for eminent domain for private gain, crime, and so on.
It is home to a lot of people, and is this something to be considered?  Look at what Jean Krack and Paul Jannsen did and didn’t do before they moved on to wreak havoc in other municipalities, so why not look at someone who actually has a brain and a spine?
Any thoughts out there on this?
Coatesville deserves better than it has gotten for decades, so is Joseph Carroll the man to get the ball rolling?
Another thing, look at what he is willing to do it for.  He has the knowledge base, and would be willing to do this at a reduced rate of pay so isn’t this a good thing to consider?
Now if there was only someone willing to do this for Phoenixville.

well, when you hire what coatesville ejects, what do you expect phoenixville?

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So the other day I wrote a post about Phoenixville and their governmental quest for a Platinum-clad multi-million dollar borough hall.

And today as I am reading an article in Phoenixville Patch, a name literally leapt off the page: Phoenixville Borough manager Jean Krack .  As in former Coatesville Redevelopment Authority head and  acting city manager then City Manager of Coatesville Jean Krack.

Lordy how do these old Coatesville people keep getting jobs?  I started to pay attention to Coatesville years ago when under Paul Janssen they tried to sieze the farm of my friends Dick and Nancy Saha via eminent domain for private gain. (Don’t remember? See Save Our Farm’s website.)

Now I thought it was bad enough when Radnor in the midst of the Bashore drama thought about bringing in Paul Janssen in 2010 as a then temporary township manager.

So if my memory serves, didn’t Jean Krack fill in as acting city manager of Coatesville when Paul Janssen went buh bye?  First they hailed him as the second coming of something or another, and then wasn’t their some fuzzy math about some $7 million borrowed from some sort of trust fund to keep Coatesville going circa 2005? And then there was some sort of blame game in Coatesville in the first few months of 2006? And then on March 14, 2006 the Times Herald reported under Ann Pickering that Jean Krack was fired as Coatesville’s City Manager? And then he turns up again in Phoenixville in 2008?

OMG it all makes sense now.  When will people stop hiring people Coatesville gets rid of??? I mean let’s get real, for years can it be said that Jean Krack talks a good game but doesn’t quite have the follow-thru in the end?  He is good at spending money, however. Haven’t taxes gone up under Krack? Wasn’t it reported in The Phoenix at the end of 2011 that taxes were going up 19%? And the year before that didn’t the Phoenix report a 24% increase?

(Oh and as a Phoenixville aside don’t forget about those condos that did not sell.  They get auctioned off on April 15th as per the Mercury.)

Now part of the discussion surrounding this new Phoenixville Borough Hall isn’t just the cost but the stormwater/flooding concerns.  Remember the thing in the Inquirer in September about water stuff?

Sleep in not in the forecast for borough officials in Phoenixville, which is braced for more flooding and steamed over inaccurate rumors about its water supply.

“We have not had this level of water in recorded history,” said Borough Manager Jean Krack. He said residents who have never had water in their basements before do now, and some trees have toppled because the ground holding them is so saturated. The Schuylkill is expected to continue rising after dark, but Krack said the borough is as prepared as it can be. “We’ve got a great emergency crew,” he said. “When you have a creek (French) going east and west, and a river (Schuylkill) going north and south, you have to take this sort of thing seriously.”

So they are taking this all so seriously now that they are moving forward with the Phoenixville Pagoda? Nice.

So back to Phoenixville in the news.  Here’s a little article from 2008  I found amusing on a couple of different levels:

Planners: Limit public comments?

Published: Saturday, August 16, 2008

PHOENIXVILLE — The relationship between Borough Council and its Planning Commission has been tested — and testy — over the last months, marked by multiple divergences of opinion and procedural snares.

But Borough Manager E. Jean Krack came before the Planning Commission Thursday evening with initial proposals for organizational reform.

“There’s a relationship that’s a little fractured,” Krack acknowledged. “If you allow me to participate as a conduit” between agencies, he said, “I may be able to foster the symbiotic relationship that should occur between bodies. “I was seven years in that role” in Coatesville, he said, “and I was able to shortcut a lot of things” because of it.

“There are some ideas I want to put on the table,” Krack said. He was concerned first with “my responsibility to the budget,” ….”The Municipal Planning Code requires open meetings but does not require public participation. The governing body [Council] is required to have public participation, not you.”
The issue, he said, was efficiency of public decision-making. “You all are here to do a job; I want to get you involved in what you need to, not what you don’t. With the exception of the magnitude of issues like the Master Plan, French Creek, you may want to limit public participation.

How very West Vincent of him, or maybe this was another place West Vincent looked for inspiration on the public comment debate? It doesn’t really matter – what matters is in my opinion government officials who seek to limit public comment are immediately suspect for that alone.  Of course in this case, I am amused by his touting his tour of duty in Coatesville since in the end they fired him as per all media reports, right?

But I digress.  My whole point is Phoenixville hired one of the managers that Coatesville fired.

Now I know Jean Krack like most municipal talking heads would like to take credit for all of the renaissance which has occurred in Phoenixville, but I think a lot of credit needs to go to the small business owners and residents themselves.

But back to Krack and his quest for a Platinum-clad Phoenixville Pagoda – check out the latest coverage in Phoenixville Patch:

New Borough Hall Causes Heated Discussion/Several council members express concerns over accessibility and office layout.  ByAlyson D’Alessandro  Email the author  5:45 am

Tuesday’s Phoenixville Borough Council meeting was punctuated by some serious discussion on the design of the new borough hall at 351 Bridge Street.

The subject was opened for debate because council needed to act to approve or deny the building’s Historical and Architectural Review Board (HARB) application. The issues also came up during committee reports, where it was mentioned during the infrastructure committee report….The motion before council was to hold a public meeting and open house, with renderings of the new building, in order to further discuss the project.

Council president Richard Kirkner and Council member Dana Dugan both expressed dismay……

Mayo gave an example of the layout of West Chester’s borough building. “You have to go up or down stairs to get to the offices, and not only that you have to cross a very busy street just to get there,” she said.

“With all due respect, this isn’t West Chester,” Dugan countered…..Borough manager Jean Krack said that in the most recent plan, that side of the building now has two windows….

“The interior is built on workflow, and to have people on different floors is wrong. This was built around working as a team,” Krack said.

Krack expressed concern that the council had set a finite budget amount for the building and that six thousand square feet had already been cut from the plans in order to stay within that budget.

“If we change anything, it will be several hundred thousand dollars [in cost],” Krack said…..Krack also said that holding another public meeting would push back the schedule of the building ….

Seems to me that Krack seems a little desperate to get this building shoved through?  That in and of itself is enough to make residents want to hit pause in my humble opinion.  I also think that Phoenixville needs to remember that the residents are the taxpayers and they in essence pay the Borough Manager’s salary.

I will say again I do not understand how Phoenixville’s Borough Manager and council people can justify the expense of this new borough hall in this economy. It was reported mid March by the Phoenixville Patch that they were considering cutting the police force. I don’t know about you, but if I lived in Phoenixville I would rather have the right sized police force, the necessary services, repaired roads (Phoenixville has lots of missing street signs and a lot of pot holes) versus a ginormous municipal building in an area they say floods.   Also at that meeting, Patch reported concerns from residents over a couple of development plans. (and don’t forget  that auction of  condos April 15th as per the Mercury.)

Well maybe it’s just me, but the design of this building isn’t much better than the giant Acme Market being built on Lancaster Avenue in Bryn Mawr.  But what do I know?  I am just a mere mortal and a female….now see if I was in Phoenixville I would talk to the folks in Radnor who inherited the mess of THAT too super-sized municipal building.  I am pretty sure they seem to think NOW that they built too large a temple of excess there too a few years ago.

No one wants a butt ugly municipal building.  But there should be a common sense approach as to what can really be afforded and a happy medium between a quonset hut and something along the lines of the Taj Mahal.

Now is not the time to build the Taj Mahal.  It’s a shame they can’t do an adaptive reuse of an existing building – or even part of that old steel site now being developed. (in that case, wouldn’t it have made an interesting argument to see what the developer who is doing the steel site development would have been willing to do?)  But again, I am but a mere mortal and a female on the outside looking in.