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ASK SKIP: Shedding Light on the North Side
Hi Skip!
First of all, thanks so much for offering "Ask Skip"! It's hard for inquiring minds to get answers here in Phoenixville!
My question is one that I keep asking Mr. Senley on his blog but he keeps choosing to ignore. When is the North Side sidewalk AND lighting project going to be finished? We have the sidewalks, but instead of street lights, we have lovely traffic cones lining High and Railroad streets. They've been there for about a year now.
If Dennis would like to make a Den about town segment on it, email me and I'll be happy to help!!
Yours truly, here in the Northside Frontier,
Northsidestudio
The traffic cones cover the electrical and hardware for new streetlights, of course. All of that is fully ready for the installation of the streetlights themselves, according to CDC Director Barry Cassidy.
Asked when that would happen, Cassidy gave Ask Skip an indeterminate “As soon as possible.” But the completion schedule, he said, is dependent on additional funding. Those funds will come through the County, and he would not speculate on just when that would be confirmed, let alone when he could expect actual receipt of real dollars.
Well, once pushed a little, he did speculate. “Maybe October,” he said, but he would not be held to that estimate.
One other item of neighborhood concern over this has had to do with – wait for it – the color of those lampposts. The old blue/black debate was made freshly interesting last year with the sudden appearance, unannounced, of two bollards on the southeast corner of North Main and High Streets – in purple. Purple?
“I had said that I thought lights should be black everywhere else” in town except in the Bridge Street Streetscapes area, Cassidy said, “to give the downtown a distinctive look. “Purple was the idea of the former borough manager,” he said. Cassidy could run with purple, he said, but would “probably ask Council” to make a decision on the matter.
Posted by
Skip Lawrence
First of all, thanks so much for offering "Ask Skip"! It's hard for inquiring minds to get answers here in Phoenixville!
My question is one that I keep asking Mr. Senley on his blog but he keeps choosing to ignore. When is the North Side sidewalk AND lighting project going to be finished? We have the sidewalks, but instead of street lights, we have lovely traffic cones lining High and Railroad streets. They've been there for about a year now.
If Dennis would like to make a Den about town segment on it, email me and I'll be happy to help!!
Yours truly, here in the Northside Frontier,
Northsidestudio
The traffic cones cover the electrical and hardware for new streetlights, of course. All of that is fully ready for the installation of the streetlights themselves, according to CDC Director Barry Cassidy.
Asked when that would happen, Cassidy gave Ask Skip an indeterminate “As soon as possible.” But the completion schedule, he said, is dependent on additional funding. Those funds will come through the County, and he would not speculate on just when that would be confirmed, let alone when he could expect actual receipt of real dollars.
Well, once pushed a little, he did speculate. “Maybe October,” he said, but he would not be held to that estimate.
One other item of neighborhood concern over this has had to do with – wait for it – the color of those lampposts. The old blue/black debate was made freshly interesting last year with the sudden appearance, unannounced, of two bollards on the southeast corner of North Main and High Streets – in purple. Purple?
“I had said that I thought lights should be black everywhere else” in town except in the Bridge Street Streetscapes area, Cassidy said, “to give the downtown a distinctive look. “Purple was the idea of the former borough manager,” he said. Cassidy could run with purple, he said, but would “probably ask Council” to make a decision on the matter.
Posted by
Skip Lawrence
posted by The Phoenix Files at
8:57 AM
40 Comments:
Good God.
I wondered where those purple bollards came from.
It figures that yet another solitary person just had to throw more controversy into the mix.
I'm beginning to believe that anyone who runs for political office, anyone who desires to be appointed to a board or commission, or anyone hired by the borough be pre-certified by a shrink for team player characteristics.
Remember that pictue on the front page of the Phoenx showing council members from the Northward with their silver shovels, breaking ground on the revitalization of the Northside? I guess it doesn't matter when you don't deliver on a project in the poor part of town.
It doesn't matter what color they are. Once the graffiti gets on them, you really won't see their original color...
The project has really degraded over the past year. it is a real shame that it was started without funds to complete it. It is like a lot in this town. There is not capital improvement money for anywhere other than Cassidy Alley. Then we are stuck with substandard parks and partially done streetscapes. At soem point in time someone will have to make the point that Mr. Cassidy and his merry group of profiteers are draining the funds for their own pockets (figuratively). Spread some of the wealth up North. Us Northies need something up here other than just new houses. How about a light bulb in my street light for god sake. i don't ask for much, just a little respect for the money I pay.
I suggest that we Northside citizens hold a bake sale to raise funds so that Mr. Cassidy can visit an eye doctor to get his color blindness diagnosed. As for the kind writer who mentioned graffiti, I seem to see quite a bit on the south side...
The Chester County Commissioners approved Community Revitalization Program ("CRP") Grants at the 2/28/2008 Commissioners' meeting. Phoenixville was awarded $255,000 for street lighting and related improvements on the north side.
The CRP Grants are through the Chester County Department of Community Development ("DCD"). The grant application documents include provisions that urban centers receiving CRP Grant funding are required to provide matching funds for the improvements and that, as recipients of public funds, all successful applicants who sign a contract with DCD will be required to fully comply with ongoing reporting and monitoring requirements.
Teena Peters
Wow Skippy. Does anyone think it unusual that the High St. program gives new sidewalks and curbs and lights to drug dealers, half way homes owned by a PC member and political contributor? What about fixing the sidewalks and curbs in St. Mary's, the other side of High St or other residental neighborhoods that actually would appreciate them?
What happened to the $100,000 grant earmarked for improvements in Reeves Park?
Whomever posed this question to "Ask Skip":
I answered your question on February 6 at 5:55 PM. My answer is in the comment stream of the post located at the following address:
http://councilmansenley.blogspot.com/2008/02/february-public-commentary.html
Sorry you missed it.
For "Just Wondering"-
I am a home owner in the area being discussed. I am not a drug dealer. I work 40+ hours a week and this is the neighborhood that I could afford to buy a house in. While I agree that ALL of the neighborhoods should get equal improvements, I think your stereotyping of this neighborhood speaks of ignorance and prejudice. There are fine people in this neighborhood that are working to make it a better place. Hopefully, in doing so, we can keep out monsters like YOU.
Here is an Idea. Check out the reported incidents and arrests for the area surrounding the following intersections: Dayton and Fillmore St, Franklin and Grant St., High and Fairview, and High and Main St. and try to justify your comments. It is not prejudice, it is just fact. I think we should do all we can to clean up that section of the North Side and part of that would have been fully completing the North Side street scape project. The second would be to get rid of the half way houses dotting the street. That would mean that a big donor to the D's would be forced to get rid of them. I doubt Mr. Kirkner or Mr. Messina will allow that to happen. It is a funding source for all of them. But for all of us it is just plain bad!
I think the grant went to one of the parks on the northside.If it did can someone tell us why.
Nothing has been done to any of the north side parks so where is the $100,000?
Maybe it went to the Hillary Clinton campaign?
Where can we discuss the problem with the library plan?
anonymous March 3, 2008 11:55 PM,
there is a good discussion on the library expansion going on at Karen John's blog - http://www.karenjohns4phoenixvilleboroughcouncil.blogspot.com/
yo anon 2-29...4:50...
lining my pockets? i am going to start calling all this hocus pocus with people hiding behind anon. get bent bud...
as for the north side as the downtown...all this stuff is done in phases. but...lets see. We helped effectuate the polychem building out of the legal mumbo jumbo. brought in close to 800k to save friendship field, and 500k for the northside streetscape and now another 255k to finish the streetscape. I am sorry that this is taking too long for some of you...but before this who did what? what public investment was made there?
why don't you just say "thank you" and go on about your day...saying stuff like..."oh he only got 500k with NO match from the borough, he only wrote down the cost of the park acquisition by 8/10ths what a nit wit" and if you need an explanation check you tube. i think it is the first double speak video...but i encourage you to watch all videos. word on the street has my lyme disease meeting next up (tribute to mary jo).
Where did the Reesve park MONEY GO TO?And why . If iam not right sorry , dude.
Reeves Park. kinda complicated but here goes. under the don edwards era we applied for 4 park grants every time from both the state and the county. we were awarded 110 for reeves and 60 for andre thornton. we chose to match those together for andre thornton park and take the match for the borough from 170k to 50k. the reason we did not go the other way was two fold...1. we are concentrating our efforts this round on the north side 2. you can reprogram county money pretty easily and not the state money. because andre thornton was state money we reprogrammed the county reeves money and save 120 in match. But sometime look at andre thornton…it needs it more…no question. Sinkhole and general FUBAR conditions
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
Comment was deleted due to inappropriate content
Innappropriate content, I guess the first ammendment is only for the newspapers! It is relevant that Andre Thornton park got the money due to his personal relationship with the woman that holds special events at that location. If you do not see a conflict of interest there, you should go back to journalism 101.
Now wait a mintue, that cant be true. Is it? Do tell bout this one.
Other than an event by an organization, I never see anyone but elderly people in Andre Thornton Park. Why would you put more money into it when wasn't hardly used even when it was new! Nothing has been done to it so when will it be done?
Newsflash folks! Yes, it is true that Barry Cassidy and the woman who holds the majority of the events at that park have intimate, personal cohabitational relationship. Does anyone believe that this has nothing to do with that neighborhood obtaining funding? Or the parks repairs. Their is a select group of individuals using tax dollars for thier personal agendas. We won't even bring in E.D. into this discussion, that would be a whole other post.
wow people keeping track of who i date? Come on kids you can come up with something better than that can't ya? all about cutting match costs and concentration of services. went from we are not doing anything to we are doing too much on the northside. laughable
Come on Barry. You're just not as naive as you'd like us to believe. No one tracks or even cares who you date until you start pushing grant/taxpayer money in their direction, where they live, where they play, where they do their civic volunteerizm, where they do whatever. Do you not understand the tenet of not even giving the appearance of impropriety? If you don't get it then maybe you should read up on it. It's not the first time that appearanace has been given by you and the CDC. Think about it.
Well , alot of older residents didnt think much of this boy,from the beginning.Didnt like the way he treated residents. Like the old saying is his bark is bigger than his bite.He aint got NO BITE,has far as most of the older residents think.Now if this is true about the parks, well that aint right.And like the old saying goes , EVERY DOG HAS IT DAY.
it became relevant when the paper tried to hide it. It apparently is true, which means that it has legs and meaning. What needs to be asked is did your personal relationship with her have ANY influence on that park getting grant money? If it did, you need to step aside as Mainstreet and CDC as your ethics are obviously skewed.
wow!how many more scandals can Phoenixville cover up? Where is the newspaper on these stories? Is there any assemblence of journalism left on this town? If the paper cannot cover these basic conflicts of interest; if not corruption, maybe it should sell the whole lock, stock and barrel, instead of just the building.
who needs sex lies and video tape when you live in the Ville? Can l of this really be true? Sorid affairs, back room dealings, "This I can get done, this I can deliver." this is the generation that gave us Sex, drugs and rock and roll. we get the bad music, the sex is uncovered, so where are the drugs ??
why would you even think that. i suggest if you have an issue go to the district attorney as soon as possible and report it...if not speak into the mircophone...go ahead man...what ya waiting for. do it...go ahead do it. or face me at a council meeting and say it...waiting for you...come on maaaan do it to my face ...you can do it,come on can't wait
Give us a reason not to think it! It is obviously true as judged by your remarks, it hit a nerve. What exactly are we getting for $111,111 a year? You are having or had a physical relationship with the woman who most benefits from having the park redone. The PC member,the halfway house owner and a $1,000 contributor to the Democratic Party are the same person who benefited from new sidewalks and curbing on a drug infested High St. But you want to throw your hands up and say not me, how stupid do you believe we are? If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...it probably is a duck!
Not something I was involved in or even cared about until someone recently brought me in to this exchange (without my wanting to be here), but I wonder...if you feel so strongly about your accusations, why hide behind "anonymous" or other pseudonyms? Doing so makes you seem paranoid, afraid to reveal yourself. Insinuations without foundation. Generally, when I do read these things, I wonder who, other than the same few people who repeatedly write "anonymous" comments, takes any of this seriously.
Sounds like something up. What a shame.
Sounds like there is truth to it. It was never denied and partially admitted to.
Sorry Suzzie, this is not a court of law but a court of public opinion. The pony tailed wonder did not deny any part of it. Go figure....
This post has been removed by the author.
This must be true.OHnoooooooooo . Who would had guess?DUH!
I don't want to get in the middle of the debate but I think a lot of the issues that have come up are a result of poor communication to residents on the part of the boro and cdc on the status of projects. Most residents are not in the inner circle of Phoenixville politics and don't care about the whos or whats. We have jobs, kids, and lives but still care about what goes on in the community. We want to know whats happening and when. For example- there is newsletter sent with each water bill and there are never any updates on these projects. As you have more people from the outside move into the community, all of the government and cdc is going to have to be more transparent and communicative. Councilman Senley's blog is great but there should be more information coming directly from the boro and cdc. The boro website is outdated.
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