Candidate Reber on the Library Expansion  

Posted by Mr. Ellsworth Toohey

There is no issue in Phoenixville as divisive as the current plan for expansion of the library across Second Avenue. It has split votes by ward, votes by party, support by community, support by proximity, support by age groups, and even the vote of the school board itself. I believe the Library Board did its due diligence in considering multiple approaches to the expansion, though limited as they were to presenting only one. Upon much consideration, however, I am generally not in favor of the expansion as it is currently presented. As a potential representative of the Middle Ward, aside from decisions guided outright by law, need, or morality, my duty is first to my constituents as part of Phoenixville, then to the Phoenixville Borough, then to the community as a whole (in this case, designated as the school district area of Phoenixville, East Pikeland and Schuylkill). I believe its impact to traffic, parking, and the local neighborhood would not be in the best interest of Phoenixville’s Middle Ward.

The library expansion is, thankfully, still in its planning stages, and an overwhelming majority wants the expansion of the library. I believe that expansion of the library will be a positive growth for both Phoenixville and the community at large. The difficulty lies in the approach and impact of implementing it. Harkening back to a comment I made previously, the honest hope in municipal decision making is, guided by the letter and spirit of the law, to bring the most benefit to the greatest number of people, while being the most fair to all parties involved. However, if the wider community supports a project that has less than favorable impact on a locally represented area, I believe a representative must reject such a proposal until a suitable compromise can be found.

Marc Reber
Republican Candidate
Middle Ward Borough Council

This entry was posted on Friday, July 3, 2009 at Friday, July 03, 2009 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

3 comments

Anonymous  

After attending the school board meeting and now watching it on tv,I think Jill Slawecki let the cat out of the bag .When Paul made a motion to delay the vote ,Slawecki said her vote would be the same tonight as it would in Sept.She specifically said that this is a boro issue and if the library doesn't meet height , parking or setback issues lets wait until the boro CHANGES THE ORDINANCES people. Maybe this is why the silent majority has not opined about it.This is a done deal and if Dinnemin is proposing a bill to not allow lame duck school board members to vote on issues ,IT SHOULD ALSO INCLUDE COUNCIL MEMBERS.

July 3, 2009 at 8:05 PM
Anonymous  

Bah. If a lame duck anything (school board, council, mayor, congress, president) is prohibited from "voting on issues", then just swear in the winner the day after the election.

Otherwise, in an office that is geographically representative (such as a council member representing a ward), you would have some people left without representation for a period of time.

July 4, 2009 at 10:00 PM
Anonymous  

It appears that the questions ET is proposing to the candidates,half the town is without representation now.Keep up the good work.All of this smacks of collusion and karma will prevail.What goes around comes around.

July 5, 2009 at 8:43 AM

Post a Comment