Council's Nearly Useless Agenda

1029 W. Main St. 

The agenda is available for the Council Meeting, which will be on Wednesday night at 7:30 pm. You can view it at this link. I've read it through and I still have very little idea what's going to happen Wednesday night. Here's the gist:

Okay to be fair, the first item is fairly straight forward -- "Motion to award the contract for the Main & Marshall Street Lighting Improvement Project to AJM Electric of Chester, PA for a not to exceed price of $98,804." And the HARB certificates near the end are pretty standard.

But the rest is anyone's guess. Take the next 3 motions on the agenda, all listed under the vague sub-header "Council." The first is "Motion to approve the Waiver of Conflict regarding 1029 West Main Street." Like most reisdents of Norristown, I'm no lawyer. I'm not sure what a waiver of conflict is, let alone how it can apply to a place. 1029 West Main is owned by L & M Partners, a Philadelphia development firm. It's the only property they own in Norristown. The house is listed as about 3333 square feet of dwelling, 787 s.f. office, and the rest unfinished basement. Would it have been that difficult to put an extra sentence on the agenda explaining what residents need to know about this item? For instance, what is the conflict that's being waived? What if anything is L & M proposing to do with the property?

Next item: "Motion to approve the Waiver of Conflict regarding Laborers' Local 135." I DO know this union local is headquartered on Sandy Street in Norristown and they seem to be involved with the building trades. Otherwise, I have no idea what this item means.

Next: "Motion to approve Resolution 14-139--participate in the Borough Elected Officials Program (BEOP)." I tried googling "Norristown Resolution 14-139" and "Norristown Borough Elected Officials Program" and "Norristown BEOP" and came up blank each time.

Next, under the sub-heading "Public Safety," the item "Motion to advertise a proposed Ordinance regarding House Bill 80/Lost and Stolen Firearms." Now, you can read PA House Bill 80 at this link, but the language isn't particularly easy to understand. Like I said, only a very small percentage of residents are lawyers. Unlike Council, we can't turn to the borough solicitor sitting next to us and ask for a summary of what it means. Even if we did understand the bill, there's nothing in this agenda item that explains what Norristown's ordinance regarding the bill would be.

And lastly, my favorite item on the whole agenda--under the sub-heading "Code"--which merely reads "Contractor's License." That's it. No other explanation.

And yet, the Public Comment for Council Meetings is still BEFORE any of these items come up on the agenda. How is anyone supposed to make an informed comment when information is impossible to obtain before the meeting? As I said above, would it be so difficult to add ONE sentence to each agenda item, to explain the context and meaning as it applies to the average taxpayer?

I really appreciate that this Council seems to have fixed the problem of agendas that were being published too late, but if these new early agendas don't communicate anything, why have them at all? Council reps keep saying they want us to participate in our government, yet won't tell us what that government intends to do in time for us to participate. Some people in this town would say that's intentional--that our elected officials are trying to keep us in the dark. I hope not. Though, even if it's just indicative of our town-wide communication crisis, it's got to stop.

Halloween Party, Election, and Other Events

Tonight most of you will probably be either escorting kids around for Trick or Treat, or waiting at your door for costumed kids to show up, but if you have no Halloween plans, think about seeing The Syringa Tree at 8 pm at Theatre Horizon instead. As I said in yesterday's Diary, the show has been Barrymore Recommended. Free tickets for Norristown residents -- call 610-283-2230. The play continues tomorrow at 8 pm, Sunday at 2 and 7:30 pm, Monday at 7:30 pm, a Wednesday matinee at 1:30 pm, next Friday at 8 pm, and the last shows will be Sunday, Nov 9 at 2 and 7:30 pm.

Saturday from 7 to 9:30 pm, 'Tween Halloween Party at ACPPA Community Art Center, 506 Haws Ave. Costume contest, food, karaoke, crafts,food, games, dancing, food, and more. Ages 9-13 years. Pre-registration required. $8 per child. Go to this link to register.

Sunday from 2 to 5 pm, this is the 2nd to the last Sunday Norristown residents will be able to get into Elmwood Park Zoo for FREE (December 7th is the last). Adults must show photo ID as proof of residency. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Also Sunday at 2:30 pm at the Historical Society of Montgomery County, 1654 Dekalb St, a free program - The Underground Railroad in Quilts by Cassandra Gunkel. Did African American slaves use quilts as signals to guide their way to freedom? Join the debate: History or folklore? For more info, call 610-272-0297 or email contact@hsmcpa.org.

Tuesday is Election Day. Get out and VOTE.

Because of election day, the monthly Council meeting will be a day later--Wednesday night at 7:30 pm at Municipal Hall. No agenda yet.

Call for volunteers: Next Saturday, Nov 8th from 10 am to 3 pm, The Norristown Preservation Society in partnership with The Norristown Project will be working at Selma Mansion. A sump trench needs to be dug to dry out the cellar, but they want to sort through the soil for artifacts as they dig. If you'd be willing to lend your strength to the digging or good eye to the sorting, please come. Volunteers are asked to wear warm clothes that can get dirty. Sturdy shoes. Bring a bag lunch. Snacks and drinks will be provided. Some gloves will be provided, but if you have your own work gloves, bring them. RSVP to Elena (yes, me) at missmaggieandpat@verizon.net

Norristown is preparing its Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) FY 2015-2019 Five Year Consolidated Plan and FY 2015 Annual Action Plan. As part of the planning process, the Municipality is conducting a survey to identify residents' needs in the community and ideas on how the residents would like to see funds under the CDBG Program spent. Please take a few minutes and complete this confidential questionnaire to the best of your ability. If you are unsure of an answer, or the question does not apply to you, please feel free to skip that question. Thank you for your assistance in helping us identify residents' needs and fair housing issues in the Municipality. Take the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MunicipalityofNorristown

Happy Halloween!

Goods News About The Arts In Norristown

I wonder how many of you will read this, either because I said "good news" and some of you only seem to want to hear bad news, or because I said "The Arts." Although the arts have become a very real part of our town's persona in the last few years, lots of you seem to purposefully ignore the fact.

At any rate, first I'm going to announce the great news about Theatre Horizon. Remember how their plays had garnered 9 nominations for Barrymore Awards and that they were up against productions by longer established professional theaters from all over the Delaware Valley, like People's Light, the Arden, and the Wilma?

Well, the results are in. Theatre Horizon's I Am My Own Wife won both the Virginia Brown Martin Philadelphia Award and also Best Leading Actor in a play (Charlie DelMarcelle).

Theatre Horizon's current production, The Syringa Tree, has been Barrymore recommended. One of the stars of that  show, Alice M. Gatling, also just won a Barrymore for Outstanding Leading Actress for her work last year in Gideon's Knot at the InterAct Theatre Company. If you haven't seen The Syringa Tree yet, you still have time. It runs through Sunday, November 9. For information about show times, go to http://www.theatrehorizon.org/shows/thesyringatree.html. Don't forget, if you're a Norristown resident, you can get in FREE (subject to availability). Tickets can be reserved by calling the Box Office at 610-283-2230.

The other good news for the arts in Norristown is that Municipal Hall has jumped on board and is supporting local artists by exhibiting their works in the lobby and side hallways at 235 East Airy. The artwork brightens up the place considerably. I went to last night's open house and Arts Reception, which was attended by maybe 40-50 people. Artists represented were, Adam T. Cusack, Jeleata Nicole, Lynn Jentes, Pedro Zagitt, Asa Watts (also a Codes Department employee and, wow, she's got talent, too), Stephanie Yuhas, and Mydera Robinson (who many of you know as Mydera SpeakMeFree--you've probably heard her poetry, come see her paintings). You can arrange to purchase work by these artists at Municipal Hall, so the town is truly helping to promote our local talent.

I was very happy, also, to see paintings by Frank Batson in the display case. I met Mr. Batson at a fair in upper Montgomery County last September. He painted a whole series of scenes of Norristown in the 1960s, which are wonderful. He's sort of the Norman Rockwell of N-town and deserves the recognition. I hope to see him in person at future Arts Hill Fests.

Municipal Administrator Crandall Jones said people have been asking for a Community Art Center. While something like that is likely in the future, Council saw no reason not to use Municipal Hall for the purpose now. He and Bill Caldwell said they envision more art events, and possibly even film festivals in Council Chambers. By coincidence, I met 2 other published authors from Norristown this past week. If I can round up more, maybe we can do a book festival at Muni Hall, too.

I love the idea of Municipal Hall doubling as our community arts center. It was built by the taxpayers, after all, and how much nicer for residents to be able to go enjoy the arts there instead of only associating the place with government, or with negative experiences like paying a fine. This way the hall becomes a real part of the community. Something to be proud of.

Election Decisions Made Easy

I have to admit, when I come across one of those quizzes on Facebook, unless I'm in a hurry, I'll almost always click on it and give it a whirl. I've found out that I'm smarter than a 5th grader, I should be driving a Model T, I'd be most comfortable living in the Renaissance (not without central heat, I wouldn't), and that I should play either the French horn or the triangle (I've played both, so I guess that's okay). But honestly, none of these revelations help me with everyday decisions.

The other day I found a quiz that really WAS helpful.  If you go to http://www.isidewith.com/pennsylvania-voter-guide and take the survey, it will show you which candidates on next Tuesday's ballot agree most closely with your own views.

Another nice thing about this voter guide is that you can take the fairly quick version if you don't have much time--maybe 5 minutes of yes/no questions in categories ranging from the environment to education to economy and beyond. You're also asked to rate each question on how important that issue is to you. Or, if you want to get a fuller picture, you can "Choose another stance" to see more possible answers.

Also, at the bottom of each category, you have the option of choosing to answer additional questions for that topic, so if it's an issue that very important to you, you might want to tackle all the questions. For instance, under environmental issues, there are no questions on fracking unless you choose to see the extra questions. In Pennsylvania, that's pretty important. The expanded quiz might take you 15 minutes.

At the end, you'll be shown a sample ballot according to which candidates agree most with your views. It'll even show you percentages of agreement with each candidate, so if you're a true middle-of-the-roader, this should help.

The nice thing about this system is that it saves the trouble of going to each candidates' website and reading though reams and reams of words about each issue. And it DEFINITELY saves on trying to figure out who's lying and who isn't in each TV ad (answer--both sides are, at best, skewing the truth, so don't pay attention to ads or robo-calls or any other advertisement).

To see a sample ballot or determine your polling place go to http://webapp.montcopa.org/voterservices/sampleballots and select Norristown.

Remember, bad politicians are elected more often by people who DON'T go to the polls. In the mid-term elections of 2010, voter turn-out was very low and it resulted in the most do-nothing Congress in U.S. history. For this election, especially for Pennsylvania because of the governor's race, it's vital that everyone gets out to vote.

Besides, voting makes you feel good. Even better than, say, taking a quiz to find out which Disney character has your personality.

Elections: Wolf vs. Corbett

I'm going to make this short today because I'm running out to a Norristown Business Association meeting.

The midterm election is one week away and today I'm going to talk about the governor's race. I don't usually do flat out endorsements, but for the sake of Norristown, I think Tom Wolf is the best candidate, on the education issue alone.

When Governor Corbett took office in 2008, as you can see from the dark blue on the graph, spending on classroom education programs was over 9 billion. When federal stimulus money was made available in 2009 and 2010 (the yellow), Corbett cut the state's education budget and let the federal funds make up the difference. But in 2011 when the stimulus money was no longer there, he kept education program spending low. Norristown schools have suffered for it.

Wolf proposes to fund education by imposing use fees on the fracking industry, not by raising taxes. Corbett ads are using the word "taxes" a lot, but it means nothing. Just a scare tactic the GOP is using nationwide.

The other issue that effects Norristown residents directly is healthcare. PA doesn't currently accept the federal funding provided by Medicaid expansion. That means million of Pennsylvanians who earn less than $12,000, if they don't have children, don't get healthcare subsidies. They have to pay full price for medical insurance ($4000 a year or more), while those earning $13,000 and up pay a small fraction of their income. I know a lot of you out there love to spread the rumor that poor people are getting all sorts of federal subsidies, but the truth is, as far as healthcare goes in PA, most poor Norristonians can't afford it at all, and that's bad for our town's economy. Sick people can't work--they can't contribute toward society.

Pennsylvania is entitled to Medicaid expansion funds, but currently our share of the money is going to other states. Wolf supports expanding Medicaid in PA--it would be 100% paid for by the federal government, so no extra state funding would be needed.

Regardless who you vote for, get out and vote on November 4th.

This Week's Zoning Agenda

There's a Zoning hearing tomorrow night (Tuesday). Here's the gist of the agenda.

The first item is 1240 West Main (between Selma and Hartranft), what many of us know as the twin to the Gresh Mansion down the street. It was built by the brewer Adam Scheidt in 1890 and he purposefully copied the Gresh place in design. The house is one of Norristown's nicest pieces of architecture, built of Valley Forge marble.

Eadeh Enterprises now owns it and rents out 10 apartments inside--3 2-bedroom and 7 1-bedroom--plus 2800 square feet of office space. Eadeh is seeking a variance to continue 9 apartments and add 2 classrooms and an office to be used for the Headstart Program. Eadeh only own 3 properties in Norristown, one of which is the Tennis Club at 1529 Dekalb.

Item 2 is 1334 Powell, which is the Montgomery Hospital Parking Garage, owned by Einstein. New Cingular Wireless wants more antennas on top of the garage, so they're seeking a variance  to allow for a permanent facility that would consist of 12 panel style antennas. They're also proposing a screening structure that would match the existing building, which is the first sensible thing I've heard regarding the antennas. The height of the proposed antennas would be 90 feet and the top height of the screening structure would be 91 feet. I'm assuming that means from the ground, not from the top of the garage.

Once the hospital building comes down, this structure will tower over the landscape. We ought to make sure it looks decent.

If you want to protest or support or comment in any way about these projects, go to the Zoning Hearing at 7 pm tomorrow night at Municipal Hall.

Ghosts, Theater, Dancing, Art and Other Events

Yes, you must choose between Theatre Horizon and ACPPA's Latin Dance Party tonight, but afterward you'll still have time to head over to Selma Mansion for their Ghost Tours tonight. Ntown offers other Halloween events this weekend, like the Spooktacular and Boo At The Zoo. Check the calendar links in the right column for other events. (One note: Haunted Woods was cancelled.)

Tonight, come anytime between 8 pm and midnight to experience Ghost Tours at Selma Mansion, 1301 W. Airy (between Selma and Forrest Ave), hosted by the Norristown Preservation Society. Adults $5; seniors, vets and children 5-12 $3, active military free. Come experience Norristown's most famous haunted house. Selma's spirits are guaranteed to make an appearance. Fun for the whole family. Tours run about a half hour. All children under 16 MUST be accompanied by an adult. All proceeds will go towards the restoration of Selma Mansion.

Tonight from 7:30-9 pm ACPPA Community Art Center (506 Haws Ave) is hosting a Latin Dance Party for adults. Couples and singles are welcome. $18 per person. Register online at this link

Tonight at 8 pm, "The Syringa Tree" continues its run at Theatre Horizon. Tickets are $20-38. Other performances this week: Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 2 pm, and Thursday at 7:30 pm. For tickets go to this link.

Saturday from 10 am to noon, the Nueva Vida Norristown New Life Mennonite Church is hosting a Photo ID Clinic. If you need a photo ID, birth certificate, Social Security card, voter registration or social services applications, they'll take the stress out of the paperwork. Bring any of the following: Personal identification paperwork, Social Security card, old photo ID or driver license, military ID; marriage or divorce certificates, passport, education ID, naturalization or citizenship certificate; birth certificate, proof of residence, rental agreement, mortgage paperwork, utility bills, medical bills, W-2 forms, work ID, tax returns, bank statements. Questions? Call 610-945-6398. (Note: You will NOT need a photo ID to vote on November 4th.)

Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm, The Norristown Project will host a volunteer project in the West End. Meet at Christ United Church of Christ parking lot (W Marshall and Noble). Volunteers will be asked to assist with a graffiti cleanup as well as cleaning up Hurst Alley, Blackberry Alley, and Rapp Alley.Open to all ages, please RSVP by emailing sashe@montcooic.org or call 610-279-9700.

Saturday starting at 1 pm, Halloween Spook-tacular at the Elmwood Park Bandshell. FREE event--costume contest, activities, prizes for all.

Last weekend for Boo At The Zoo, Saturday and Sunday, noon to 3 pm at Elmwood Park Zoo. Trick-or-treat stations, themed attractions, costume contests, and much more! Free with Zoo admission.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, 9 am to noon starting this week, you'll be able to recycle electronics such as televisions and computers by dropping them off at the Public Works Building behind Municipal Hall at 235 E Airy. The drop-off point is marked with striped lines for parking in front of one of the large bay doors near the center of the building. Please park, press the buzzer to the right of the door and someone will be with you shortly to take your electronics for recycling. For those of us who work, a special Saturday drop off will be scheduled in November.

Tuesday morning from 8:30-9:30 am, the Norristown Business Association will hold its monthly meeting In Bldg 2 of the Stoney Creek Office Center. Featured speaker is Elena Santangelo (hey, that's me) talking about how the Norristown Diary blog can help businesses and non-profits in town. For more info, email info@norristownnba.org .

Tuesday at 7:30 pm, the Zoning Board will hold its monthly hearing at Municipal Hall. View the agenda at  http://norristown.org/userfiles/file/events/1128.pdf

Wednesday from 5 to 7 pm, Norristown Municipal Council invites you to an Open House and Arts Reception. Artwork from local artists. Light refreshments will be served. Please RSVP to gprete@norristown.org by Oct 27th.