Friday, November 27, 2015

Shop Small, Norristown

It's a holiday weekend, so there's not too much scheduled around town. Take advantage of the lull to catch a performance at Theatre Horizon or shop at Norristown's small businesses.

Tonight, Friday November 27, at 7:30 pm, "Black Nativity" continues at Theatre Horizon (401 Dekalb), featuring the writings of Langston Hughes and West African and modern dance. Shows this week also on Saturday (3 and 8 pm), Sunday (3 pm), Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 pm. The show has been extended through December 13. FREE TICKETS AVAILABLE for Norristown residents. Check out the schedule at this link. For free tickets, call 610-283-2230 ext 1. For info, email ticket@theatrehorizon.org.

November 28th is Small Business Saturday. Please patronize Norristown's small businesses and restaurants on that day and throughout the holiday season. Places like Plymouth Produce and Genuardi's Greenhouse have trees and evergreen decorations. Lots of our markets and bakeries will be selling holiday food items. We have a thriving business district on West Marshall. You can get gift cards and certificates from many of our restaurants. Or how about Theatre Horizon tickets for someone on your gift list? Spend your holiday shopping dollars in N-town and give our economy a boost.

Tuesday, December 1st is Giving Tuesday. Support your favorite non-profit organization in Norristown by making a contribution on Tuesday.

Tuesday night at 7:30 pm at Municipal Hall, Council Meeting. The agenda is at this link. (Thanks to Council or whoever for posting it promptly this week.) They'll be voting on the 2016 Community Development Block Grant budget, the 2016 Municipal Budget, and establishing the 2016 tax rate.

Next Friday, Dec 4, at 5:30 pm at the Centre Theater, the Centre Theater Music School will present their Winter Concert. Information at this link. Admission is free. Donations accepted. Please reserve tickets at this link


Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Results of Zoning Hearing

Just a short entry with some notes and the result of the Zoning Hearing last night regarding the proposed development of 1529 Dekalb.

The board's vote was split, 2 to 2, so no approval was given. Progressive Housing Ventures will go back next month with a modified plan, possibly with less units. The next meeting, I believe, will be on Dec 15th.

The audience wasn't allowed to view the plan during the hearing. That's never happened before. In past hearings I've been to, even if all the developer had was a poster on an easel (and even if the developer was Ms. Peck), they always voluntarily turned it at the beginning to give the audience a look. Last night Ms. Peck told the audience we could look at the plans at the end of the hearing. I wish the board had instructed her to let the audience see the plan even temporarily, but they didn't.

Here's what I got from her presentation without seeing it. She plans to build 34 units with 1-car garages underneath them. Some of the units will have 3 bedrooms for families or condo-owners who want to have a roommate to defray costs, but she's not providing extra parking for those units. The frontages on Dekalb and Willow would be 25 feet. On either side of each unit, 10 foot distance, though balconies and porches will bump out from that (the houses next door on the Freedley side will have no more than maybe 12 feet from their walls to the development walls, less where there are balconies and porches) . The total height of the units will be no more than 35 feet.

One main problem I saw was that Ms. Peck is asking for an increase in allowed impervious surfaces (surfaces that don't absorb water) from the 65% allowed by zoning to 75%, which means 75% of all the stormwater runoff that now soaks into that grass filled basin will be drained away from the site. This is one of the highest points in town, so all that extra water (we're talking thousands of gallons in a NORMAL rainstorm) will head downhill to the creeks. Those of us who live at the bottom of that hill, like me, already have enough problems with flooding during a heavy rain.

One thing that really angered me last night was that Ms. Peck's lawyer asked that negative comments be stricken from the record if the commenter didn't live in the neighborhood adjacent to the proposed development. This after Ms. Peck stated in her testimony that she intended to use public funding (ie, our tax dollars). The person who was commenting at the time was from East Norriton, but he rightly pointed out that he was a taxpayer in the NASD district and had every right to speak on the matter. The Zoning chair agreed and I thank her for that.

I'll cover some other points about this development in the coming weeks.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Ask The Questions That Council Won't


I attended the roundtable "discussion" at the Centre Theater last week. I put discussion in quotes because it wasn't that at all. It was a Q&A session where it seemed mostly that the people with the most interesting insights barely got the chance to express themselves while the more practiced political orators kept feeding us the same old promises/excuses.

Maybe in another Diary entry I'll cover it further--I haven't decided if it's worth my time yet--but today I just want to tell you about an answer to the question I asked that night. I wanted to hear any ideas the panel had for how our downtown could be brought back to life, or how could we learn from what was working on West Marshall and apply it to the Main Street.

Bill Caldwell said we can't learn from the West End district. He said the difference was that people lived close enough to West Marshall Street to patronize those businesses, but no one lives downtown. He said until we increase the number of residents living downtown, it can't thrive again.

First of all, the teacher in me balks when someone says we can't learn from something. You can learn from ANY situation. All you have to do is open your mind and think creatively.

Second of all, someone explain to me who owns all the cars that are parked on the streets downtown overnight and on weekends? Try going to a Sunday matinee at our theaters. Finding a parking space on the street is next to impossible. If no one lives downtown, where do all these cars come from?

But just for the sake of argument, let's say Mr. Caldwell is right. If we need residents downtown, then last week when Sarah Peck of Progressive Ventures proposed yet another ultra dense development--34 stacked condos on 1.2 acres in another residential area--why didn't Mr. Caldwell or any other Council rep ask Sarah why she can't build these big behemoths of hers downtown where we supposedly need more residents?

The proposed development will be at 1529 Dekalb between Freedley and Brown. Never mind that this marks another historical building slated for demolition, and that the lot is some of the only green space left at a high point in town where it right now efficiently collects stormwater and lets it drain slowly. Let's ask instead what Norristown businesses will the residents of this new development support? How likely is it that they'll buy groceries and gas in Norristown? Where will they go for a fast meal? It's about 3/4 mile from 1529 Dekalb to Eve's Lunch or Sessano's or Zachary's, and all routes involve some pretty steep hills. Even Jules is a half mile walk.

Meanwhile we've got loads of vacant space downtown, and lots of restaurants and a few other businesses who would love to have condos within a block or three of their doors. Why isn't Council trying to get developers interested in Main Street, instead of letting people like Sarah Peck build where it will only cause annoyance to the existing neighbors, worse floods for those downhill (like me) and no boost whatsoever to our businesses? (Did Arbor Heights or Arbor Mews help our any of our businesses? No.) AND here's the destruction of yet another architectural landmark, coming so soon on the heels of Montgomery Hospital.

Tonight is the Zoning Board Hearing at 7 pm at Municipal Hall. The 1529 Dekalb condos will be voted on. As I said in my Diary last week, this development will use public funding--our tax dollars--so we need to have a say in it. One would assume we DO have a say, through our elected officials, but besides Olivia Brady, none of them so much as asked questions last week before approving the project. I suspect it might be no coincidence that this zoning issue was scheduled for a holiday week when people will have trouble attending, but PLEASE, go to the hearing if you can. Get up and voice an opinion for the record.

And next election, we need to start asking our candidates upfront if they intend to sit on Council like silent bumps on a log while outsiders walk all over them and our community.

Friday, November 20, 2015

March Tonight, then Theater, Zoning and Shopping

Tonight, Friday (Nov 20) starting at 7 pm at George and Marshall Sts, Norristown Rebels would like to invite everyone, family and friends, to the Norristown Stop The Violence March. They'll end at Willow and Spruce for a candlelight vigil in remembrance of the ones we have lost in our community. Join in and support peace in our town. If you can't walk, come for the vigil at the end.
Also tonight at 7:30 pm, "Black Nativity" continues at Theatre Horizon (401 Dekalb), featuring the writings of Langston Hughes and West African and modern dance. Shows this week also on Saturday (8 pm) and Sunday (3 pm). The show has been extended through December 13. FREE TICKETS AVAILABLE for Norristown residents. Go to this link to see the schedule. For free tickets, call 610-283-2230 ext 1. For info, email ticket@theatrehorizon.org.

Saturday, 2-4 pm -- Norristown Public Library (Powell and Swede) has a new Third Saturday Book Club that meets monthly. If you are an avid reader and would like to discuss a book a month with other adults, contact Asha Verma, 610-278-5100, averma@mclinc.org. (Remember that the library also has regular events for kids and adults nearly every day. Click on their calendar link to the right of this article.)

Saturday at 8 pm. ACPPA Community Arts Center (506 Haws Ave) presents "Naughty Nutcracker." A satirical burlesque show exploring what really happens in Drosselmeyer's magic box once everybody falls asleep. More silly than sexy, Naughty Nutcracker is a variety show of dance, music, trivia, and fairytales like you've never seen or heard before. For the 18 and up crowd. Food, drink mixers (BYOB), and swag will be available for purchase before, during, and after the performance. Doors open at 8 pm, show starts at 8:30. Admission is $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Purchase tickets at this link. Proceeds support the arts in Norristown.

Tuesday at 7 pm at Municipal Hall, Zoning Board Hearing. The agenda is available at this link. 2 properties are involved. 637 Markley is the Mexican market near W. Marshall. The agenda doesn't say what the owner wants to do with it, only that he wants a variance. The other is 1529 Dekalb, the Tennis Club property. Sarah Peck's Progressive Ventures wants to build 34 housing units on 1.2 acres.

On Thursday, have a good and safe Thanksgiving.

November 28th is Small Business Saturday. I'd hoped that Norristown's Better Block Project would happen that day to encourage everyone to go downtown, but as usual, our government paid out good money, then let the ball drop. The Norristown Business Association's leadership also let us down this year by dissolving the organization without even consulting with its members. For Small Business Saturday, we're on our own. So I'm going to challenge you. Go to your favorite small businesses in N-town--restaurants, shops, whatever--and post a photo to Facebook or other social media site. Let's spread the word about West Marshall, and about our great food places. And remember, spending your shopping dollars in N-town this holiday season will give our economy a boost.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Community Walk Against Violence

I wanted to give a few days notice of a special event happening in Norristown this Friday evening--a Community Walk Against Violence, starting at 7 pm at George and West Marshall. It will end with a Candlelight Vigil at Spruce and Willow. The map showing the route is below.

Actually, on average, crime in Norristown is WAY down this past year. Still, this past month, we've had 33 assaults and two murders. The murders were by the same person the same night and it was a crime of passion, but I don't know what's sparked the recent assaults. I just know that many of our residents aren't about to let the thugs take over N-town again. Hence this walk.

Anyone who shows up for the walk will be welcomed, all ages, races, backgrounds, religions.

The route is about 1.1 miles, and remember, you'll have to walk back unless someone can pick you up. If you can't walk the whole distance, walk part of it or just come to the candlelight vigil at Spruce and Willow. I'm guessing they'll walk slow, so figure the vigil will begin 40 minutes to an hour after the walk starts. Or you can wait anywhere along the route to show your support.

Let's come together as a community, Norristown. Show the world we believe in peace.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Council's Agenda--Leveling The Tennis Club


Tonight starting at 6:30 pm will be a Council Workshop Meeting at Municipal Hall. The full agenda is at this link, but I wanted to touch on one item in particular.

Sarah Peck, the infamous developer of Arbor Heights and Arbor Mews, will do a presentation on her latest project--the demolition of a Norristown architectural landmark, the Ersine Tennis Club building and grounds at 1529 Dekalb, to put up "housing."

Ms. Peck's definition of housing is stacked condos so dense, that if she were allowed to develop every block of town and managed to sell all of her condos, our population would increase twelve fold. Her projects put a powerful strain on the infrastructures of their surrounding neighborhoods--electrical grid, water pressure, roads, etc. They never include the requisite 2 parking spots per unit. When snow comes to the Arbor Mews parking lot this winter, rest assured Mews residents will put their cars on the streets before the storm to avoid being plowed in.

Her proposals totally violate our zoning code, which says that proposed houses must match the existing housing in the neighborhood. If a block has only single houses on it, you can only build single houses there. If it only has twins, you can only build twins, etc. Yet, somehow, she always manages to get zoning approval.

I've sat in on Sarah Peck's past conversations with Council. She asks for money continually. She expects Norristown and the county to find the money to fund her projects, instead of investing some of her profits like a normal businessperson would. She usually refuses to compromise on design to settle conflicts with the surrounding neighborhood unless she's given even more money. And once when she was speaking to me, not knowing who I was, she actually said Norristown was a soft touch.

At last night's roundtable discussion at the Centre Theater, Buck Jones stood up and asked how developments like Arbor Heights have changed Norristown for the better. No one answered his question. Our economy hasn't improved since Arbor Heights opened. That neighborhood hasn't changed in any fundamental way, other than being more crowded. Her designs certainly don't improve the look of the street much (though the final Arbor Mews design was MUCH better than the proposed warehouse look, but it still doesn't match the rest of the neighborhood).

Now Ms. Peck's proposing to level a landmark. The structure was originally built to be a mansion in 1892, then the Ersine Tennis Club bought it in 1895. Weddings, music concerts and other social events were held there for decades. Tennis was played on lawn courts, the grassy expanse to the left of the building. It was a vital part of Norristown's North End community.

Sure, the building's been empty for a while, but it's still a loss to the architectural character of the borough. The last group to level a landmark--Einstein--at least donated funds toward architectural preservation in Norristown to somewhat compensate for the loss of Montgomery Hospital. I'm guessing Ms. Peck would bawk at such a suggestion. Her M.O. is asking for money, not giving it or anything else to our community.


Last night Bill Caldwell tried once more to convince us that Norristown ought to be considered a city. Thing is, Council doesn't seem to have any intention of updating our sagging infrastructure and solving our parking problems to accommodate the population increase. But they don't even talk about that. How can they approve one overly dense development after another--how can they put our tax money toward it?--when the town as it stands can't handle the extra residents?

Friday, November 13, 2015

Bazaar, Theater, Health, Arts, Roundtable Talk and More

Tonight (Nov 13) from 5-8:30 pm and Saturday from 10 am to 8 pm, St. Patrick's Church (Dekalb and Chestnut), will have their Christmas Festival of Lights Bazaar in the basement of the church. Kids can visit with Santa and play children's games. Baked goods, tombola, silent auction, basket raffles, jewelry, baby booth, gifts, etc., plus delicious hot food that will include the Davis family's famous soul food (chicken, mac and cheese, green beans, etc.), roast beef and other sandwiches, soups, authentic Mexican tostadas, posole, tacos and more.

Also tonight at 7:30 pm, Theatre Horizon (401 Dekalb) continues their run of "Black Nativity," featuring the writings of Langstan Hughes and West African and modern dance. Shows this week also on Saturday, Sunday and Thursday. The show has been extended through December 13. FREE TICKETS AVAILABLE for Norristown residents. Go to this link to see the schedule. For free tickets, call 610-283-2230 ext 1. For info, email ticket@theatrehorizon.org.

Saturday from 9 am to noon at Municipal Hall, 1st floor Conference Room, Norristown 2016 Budget Workshop. Open to the public.

Saturday (Nov 14) from 10 am to 1 pm at the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit (2 West Lafayette), Montgomery County Integrated Health and Wellness Fair. Health screenings, massage therapy, snacks, giveaways, crafts, face painting, and more. For info, contact Lauren Cruttenden (215) 504-3900, ext 63860 or LCruttenden@MagellanHealth.com

Also Saturday, 11 am-1 pm, at Norristown New Life (3 E Marshall--corner of Swede St.), A November to Remember--Norristown CTC in collaboration with the Phi Beta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha will be giving away warm hats, gloves and socks, as well as hot chocolate. Families will receive a healthy lunch and tips for making healthy meals and seasonal wraps.

Saturday night, 8-11 pm at August Moon (300 E Main), Second Saturday Jazz presents The Rhenda Fearrington Experience. Sets starting on each hour. 2 drink minimum.

Monday, 5:30-7:30 pm at Centre Theater (208 Dekalb), a roundtable discussion about Norristown's revitalization, hosted by Stan Husky of the Times Herald. The invited officials include Norristown Police Chief Mark Talbot Sr.; NASD Superintendent Janet Samuels; Montco Commissioner Josh Shapiro; Montco Sheriff Russell Bono; Nelly Jimenez-Arevalo from ACLAMO Family Centers; Norristown Municipal Administrator Crandall Jones; the Rev. Gus Puleo; Norristown Council President Sonya Sanders; Norristown Councilman William Caldwell; state Rep. Matt Bradford, D-70th Dist.; Kirklyn Berry, of Norristown Men of Excellence; and Shae Ashe, the founder of the Norristown Project.

Tuesday, 6:30 pm. Council Workshop meeting. The Council meetings aren't listed on the town calendar anymore--not sure why (I suspect that Linda Christian was doing that part and maybe our new president hasn't figured it out yet)--but I did find the meetings in another place on Norristown.org. Here's the link for a list of all the November meetings. Agendas will also, supposedly, be posted there, but there's no agenda for the upcoming meeting yet.

Thursday, 6-8 pm at Montgomery County Intermediate Unit (2 W Lafayette), Valley Forge Room C, 1st Floor. Law Enforcement Explorers Program Open House. Open to teens aged 14-20 who are interested in a career in law enforcement and who maintain acceptable grades. For info, contact Captain Rich Clowser, Norristown Police Department, 610-270-0496, rclowser@norristown.org

Next Saturday (Nov 21) at 8 pm at ACPPA Community Arts Center (506 Haws Ave), come see "Naughty Nutcracker," a satirical burlesque show exploring what really happens in Drosselmeyer's magic box once everybody falls asleep. More silly than sexy, Naughty Nutcracker is a variety show of dance, music, trivia, and fairytales like you've never seen or heard before. For the 18 and up crowd. Doors open at 8:00pm, show starts at 8:30pm. Admission is $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Purchase tickets at naughtynutcracker.eventbrite.com  Food, drink mixers (byob), and swag will be available for purchase before, during, and after the performance. All proceeds support the arts in Norristown!


From now to January 31st, you can get help with Health Insurance Open Enrollment at Norristown Regional Health Center, 1401 Dekalb. If signing up or making changes to Health Insurance, please bring the following: your username and password (if you already have a Marketplace account), proof of household income, ID and SS cards, legal immigrant docs, employers coverage info.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Our Theatres Reawaken and Other Events

There have been less and less events listed on the Town Calendar and the Montco OIC calendar. Even council meetings aren't listed. These are easy ways to publicize your events. You can enter the info yourself online. And I check both sites every week before posting my Friday Diary, so if you want to make sure I know about your event, put it on both these calendars and I'll definitely see it. I don't always see events listed on Facebook because of FB's annoying way of filtering information.

Saturday, November 7, 8-10 am, Applebee's (2700 Dekalb, East Norriton), Flapjack Fundraiser Breakfast to support Roosevelt Campus of NAHS, $7 per person, Kids $4.50. For more info call main office 610-275-9720. Hosted by the Roosevelt Campus of the NAHS "Parent Faculty Club."

Saturday night, 8:30 pm at Centre Theater (208 Dekalb), The Starving Artist Prevention Comedy Show, featuring comedians Matt Durkin and others. Doors open at 7:45 pm. Tickets are $20. For more information, call 484-809-4216.

Tuesday, 7-9 pm, Planning Commission Meeting at Municipal Hall. No agenda available yet.

The Annual Veterans Day Memorial Ceremony downtown is listed for Tuesday, the 10th, 7 pm, at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Main and Swede. Usually this ceremony takes place on Veterans Day, the 11th, so I'm not sure if it was changed this year or if the listing on the town calendar is wrong. It's hosted by the Valley Forge Chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America #349. VietnamVeterans349@comcast.net is the email listed on their facebook page.

Wednesday at 1 pm, the Norristown Library (Swede and Powell) is showing their Wednesday Matinee Movie: High Society. Contact Asha Verma at 610-278-5100 or averma@mclinc.org for info. See the Library Calendar link at the right for other library events.

Thursday at 5:30 pm in the 4th floor Schuylkill Room of the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit (2 West Lafayette), The Norristown Police Department will hold a public COMSTAT meeting.

Thursday at 7 pm at Norristown Area High School Auditorium, Annual Induction Ceremony into the Hall of Champions and the Hall of Fame. This year's honorees will be Thomas Patterson, Derrick Perry, Jeffery Fiss, James Wolfe, Kristina Moore, Marvin Bachrad, Walter Wieland, James Clayton, and Rev. Augustus Puleo. All are welcome to attend.

Thursday, at 7:30 pm, Theatre Horizon (401 Dekalb) opens their fall season with "Black Nativity," featuring the writings of Langstan Hughes and West African and modern dance. The show will run through Dec 6. FREE TICKETS AVAILABLE for Norristown residents. Go to this link to see the schedule. For free tickets, call 610-283-2230 ext 1. For info, email ticket@theatrehorizon.org.

Next Friday (Nov 13) from 5-8:30 pm and Saturday (Nov 14) from 10 am to 8 pm, St. Patrick's Church (Dekalb and Chestnut), will have their Christmas Festival of Lights Bazaar in the basement of the church. Kids can visit with Santa, children's games, baked goods, tombola, silent auction, basket raffles, jewelry, baby booth, gifts, etc., plus really delicious hot food (I can vouch for this personally).

Next Saturday (Nov 14) from 10 am to 1 pm at the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit (2 West Lafayette), Montgomery County Integrated Health and Wellness Fair. Health screenings, snacks, giveaways, and more. For info, contact Lauren Cruttenden, 215-504-3900, ext 63860 or LCruttenden@MagellanHealth.com

From November 1st to January 31st, you can get help with Health Insurance Open Enrollment at Norristown Regional Health Center, 1401 Dekalb. If signing up or making changes to Health Insurance, please bring the following: your username and password (if you already have a Marketplace account), proof of household income, ID and SS cards, legal immigrant docs, employers coverage info.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Council's Agenda Tonight

Sorry for the short notice, but there's a Council Meeting tonight at Municipal Hall at 7:30 pm. You can read the whole agenda at this link. A note to Council: please put the remainder of your meetings for the year on the town calendar at Norristown.org and publish your agendas promptly so we don't miss others.

The big item is the naming and swearing in of Linda Christian's replacement as District 3 Council Rep. Let me take this opportunity to say that Linda has been the BEST Council Rep we ever had in the 3rd District-- possibly the best in any council post in Norristown--in my lifetime. Never before has anyone made such a priority of communicating with her constituents. I've had residents across Norristown ask me to forward Linda's newsletters to them so they could be as well informed as we here in the 3rd. We also had a few district town hall meetings each year. Linda went out of her way to let us know what was happening and listened fairly to all our opinions. I hope her replacement and the rest of Council will take a lesson from her and we don't go back to the old days of silence from Borough Hall.

Also scheduled is a presentation from "PFM" which I think is a finance management company.

The rest of the agenda seems pretty routine. Read it for yourself.




Monday, November 2, 2015

County Courthouse Candidates

Here are some of the rest of the candidates for races in tomorrow's election. In my opinion, some of these shouldn't be elected offices, they should be hired instead--the clerical ones, for instance. They shouldn't have anything to do with party politics. If we have individuals in those posts doing them well, their jobs shouldn't be endangered every few years simply because, as behind-the-scenes workers, voters don't know their names. But our state has an archaic system. So I've at least tried to explain the offices and indicate if one of the candidates is an incumbent and what qualifications, if any, the opponent has.


Clerk of Courts -- This person is the chief clerk of criminal cases. Her office maintains the records of all cases and collects court costs, restitution, bail money, etc.

Ann Thornburg Weiss is the incumbent Clerk of Courts, serving 2 terms so far. She's streamlined the system and collected more than a million dollars in old fees from as far back as 1986.

Jason Showmaker is currently Rockledge Borough Council President and a banking analyst


Controller is the office that oversees all fiscal affairs of the county, including payroll, accounts payable, retirement, and audits. Neither candidate is the incumbent, and neither seems to have any hands-on accounting experience. I think I'm probably more qualified for this office than either of these two.

Karen Geld Sanchez is a business lawyer with an MBA.

Tom Zipfel is an attorney and current President of the Board of Commissioners of Hatfield Township.


Coroner -- This is the office in charge of determining cause of death in cases where the death is unexpected, especially if it's violent, or suspected suicide or homicide, certain hospital deaths, anytime the cause is a mystery, or if the next of kin requests an autopsy. In Pennsylvania, the only requirements for the office of coroner is that you have to be a voter and breathing. It's a shame, really, because forensic science has come so far in the last 50 years, that you'd think the richest county in America would have state-of-the-art requirements for the office. I had the pleasure of meeting our current coroner, Walter Hoffman, last month. Most residents never knew it, but Dr.Hoffman did us proud. He's a board-certified Forensic Pathologist, the only one serving as coroner in the state. He's also consulted as a forensic pathologist for the states of New Jersey and Florida. He's performed over 10,000 autopsies and examined twice as many bodies. He's an amazing man. But he's retiring. Fortunately, both candidates running for Coroner are, at least, doctors, though neither seem to have any pathology experience at all, let alone forensics. I'd hope that, whichever one wins, he'll seek training in the area. Also fortunately, the Coroner's current staff includes, I think, 2 certified forensic pathologists and other experienced personnel.

Michael Millbourne is a Cardiovascular Disease specialist at Chestnut Hill Hospital. Bio at this link.

Phil Mandato is a board-certified anesthesiologist at Grandview hospital. His resume is at this link. Insists on being called "Dr. Phil."


District Attorney
-- This is the office that investigates and prosecutes all criminal activity in the county. Neither is the incumbent but both are qualified.

Kevin Steele is the current First Assistant District Attorney for the county (2nd in command to the DA). He's been with the Montco DA's Office since 1995.

Bruce Castor served as District Attorney in the county from 2000-08. He's currently a Montgomery County Commissioner.


Prothonotary -- Chances are, unless you've had to change your name or gotten a divorce or gone to the courthouse for a passport, you have no idea what a prothonotary does. He's essentially the clerk in charge of civil courts and procedures. He needs to have a love of paperwork.

Mark Levy is the current county Prothonotary and had served since 2007. He's been instrumental in the shift from paper to electronic court records.

Bill Whiteside is currently serving on Horsham Township Council. He's a former special administrator in the Prothonotary's office.


Recorder of Deeds maintains all the county's land ownership records and the monthly accounting of real estate transfers taxes and county/state fees. They currently operate at a profit and so are self-sustaining and don't use other taxpayer dollars.

Jeanne Sorg - Currently the Mayor of Ambler. Couldn't find out much more.

Nancy Becker is the incumbent. She's served as Recorder of Deeds for 3 terms. I personally had dealings with her while settling my dad's estate and I thought she was gracious, professional and efficient.


Sheriff -- This department is the law enforcement arm of the county court system. Basically, the Sheriff is responsible to see that judges' orders are carried out. His office serves supeonas and bench warrants, they go after people who don't show up for hearings or fail to pay family support or other court-administered debts. They escort prisoners to and from the Courthouse. They run Sheriff's Auctions for failure to pay property taxes.

Russell Bono is our current Sheriff. He has served as Norristown Chief of Police and Director of Public Safety. He has a long resume in law enforcement that you can read at his website. He lives in East Norriton.

Sean Kilkenny is a lawyer who served as Norristown borough solicitor (meaning he advised Council and the department heads of the legality of proposed actions). He's currently President of Jenkintown's borough council. He's the son of a police officer and a veteran of the US Army Judge Advocate General's Corps. His website is at this link.


County Treasurer -- The custodian of county funds. Different from the Controller in that he handles investments, etc.

Jason Salus is the current Treasurer for the county and has served in that post since 2011. He has a degree in finance and an MBA. See http://www.jasonsalus.com/ for his accomplishments while in office.

Chuck Wilson is a CPA with 20 years experience doing corporate accounting and finances. He's currently chairman of the Towamencin Board of Supervisors.


So that's it. Get out and vote so the good people can keep their jobs and the unqualified ones don't get in. If you vote at Eisenhower School, I'll be working at the 3-3 table. Stop by and say hello.