Around Phoenixville

Are you a small business or individual who needs help with year-end tax preparations? Well, you are in luck. On Thursday, October 18th, Royal Bank America and Wealthmark Financial Services are hosting a free Tax Prep Seminar from 12-1:15pm as part of their Lunch and Learn series. This will be an interactive event led by local Certified Public Accountant Christi Bender. Light lunch and refreshments will be served. The seminar will be held at the Royal Bank America office at 808 Valley Forge Road in Phoenixville. Please call 610-933-1995 for more information or click here to register .

Last night, Borough Council approved the 2011 budget which will see a 9.9% increase in property taxes. Council was split 4-4 on the vote with Mayor Scoda breaking the tie in favor of the budget's approval. In addition to the property tax increase, all Phoenixville residents 18 and older will be subject to an additional $10 per person per capita tax. Good news in all of this is that the threat by some council members to eliminate two police officers from the force was not acted on. In order to keep these positions, cuts were made elsewhere including the elimination of five Borough paid positions. The annual July 4th fireworks display will also come to an end. Voting for: Evans, Handwerk, Speck, Reber and Scoda (tiebreaker) Voting against: Buckwalter, Dugan, Gautreau and Kirkner The Phoenix has full coverage, including video, of last night's meeting .

Several announcements regarding the school district from the past couple of weeks. Phoenixville Area School District names new superintendent The Phoenixville Area School Board Monday night announced the nomination of Dr. Alan D. Fegley as superintendent of schools effective July 1. The board voted to hire Fegley to a five-year contract with an annual salary starting at $205,000. Board president Paul Slaninka opened Thursday evening's board meeting with the announcement. "I have some good news this evening as we have hired a new superintendent," Slaninka proclaimed. Slaninka said that Fegley comes from the Haddonfield School District in New Jersey, and said that Haddonfield is regarded as the top school district in South Jersey as well as one of the top districts in the entire state. Fegley has spent 18 years in Haddonfield as a principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent. He holds a bachelor of arts in elementary education from the University of ...

From watchingphoenixville.com Borough Council this evening, with two members of the public in attendance, voted to advertise the 2010 budget with no tax increase. The first budget was presented to the Finance Committee in mid September and was presented to Council two weeks ago. Some cost cutting measures, among others, included; reducing the CDC cost by 50 percent; limiting raises of non-union/non-uniform to 2 percent and eliminating video taping of the Finance Committee meetings. Removing leaf collection from the 2010 budget had a motion made but died due to a lack of a second thereby ensuring collection next fall. With recommendations from Management and Committee, a little more than $34k was taken from the fund balance to achieve a zero percent tax increase. The incoming Council can re-open the budget next January if they so choose. No word on what the CDC cuts will mean to Barry Cassidy's position.  Presumably the difference could be made up using private monies if th...

This weekend's Phoenix talked about plans the school board is considering with regards to the Phoenixville Area Middle School. The article highlights three alternatives that are up for consideration. They are: Continue to patch problems as they arise. Cost for this is approximately $250,000-$300,000 a year and will only buy the district a couple of years and doesn't address some of the glaring needs of the district with regards to expanding the middle school. Renovate and add new spaces to the exisiting structure. Cost for this would be approximately $23 million with estimated ongoing expenses for things like maintenance and upkeep priced at $310k per year. This would extend the life of the middle school considerably but not to the extent that a new building would. Build a completely new building. Cost would be approximately $50 million. Conveniently, no mention was made with regards to yearly upkeep expenses. Lets assume, for the sake of argument, that this # is somet...

I have had some emails asking me to put up a post regarding the proposed tax hike for '09. In an effort to keep this blog about events and businesses in town, I have added a post to the Soapbox where this can be discussed. Thanks. Jim

The Phoenixville Area School District just released their budget for the 2008-2009 school year and it isn't pretty. It calls for an increase of 5.91% which equates to $1.44 for everything thousand dollars your home is assessed for. That means the average home owner (whose home is assessed at $116k), will see a $169 increase in their school tax bill for the upcoming year. The good news is that approved Homestead/Farmstead property owners will be receiving ~ $164 from the state thanks to gaming revenues to help offset this increase. Source: The Phoenix