Clock is ticking on financial grant

POTTSTOWN — The clock that is ticking while borough council decides whether to act on a grant it applied for last year to improve its financial planning just got a little faster.
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Wednesday night, Borough Council Vice President Greg Berry informed council that a "drop dead date" of Aug. 18 or Aug. 19 now looms over the decision.Last month, a representative of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development wanted to know if the borough intended to act on a $35,000 grant for which it had applied and won.Borough Council President David Garner demurred, saying he had only just found out about the program a few days before and asked for a month to consider council's decision.But it turns out, Berry said, that one month is all council will have.He said his contact at DCED "was only just made aware" of the deadline, meaning council must vote Monday night or lose the grant.It is not free money.The borough is expected to match the grant with its own $35,000, although Garner said Assistant Borough Manager Jason Bobst found out that some of that can come in the form of in-kind services from borough staff.Further, Garner said, the money will not be due until 2009, giving the borough time to budget for it.Last month, Finance Director Robert Armelin told council that despite applying for the Early Intervention program grant, the borough had not budgeted for it in the 2008 budget.The program is designed to help municipalities, from those who are fiscally sound to those on a more unsteady footing, to improve their financial operations and efficiencies to better predict what challenges they will face in the future.The need for such a program was made evident last month when Armelin told council that he predicts the borough will end 2008 about $200,000 in the red.To make matters worse, he won't be here to see it.Armelin submitted his resignation to Borough Manager Ray Lopez on Tuesday, making him the fourth finance director the borough has seen leave in eight years.Armelin's predecessor, Joseph Schulcz Jr. was fired by the borough in early 2006 after a stormy tenure, during which he helped with the creation of a 2006 budget that has ramifications with which the borough is still dealing.After his dismissal, Lopez did double duty for eight months, serving as the finance director as well as the borough manager. During that time, a Harrisburg consulting firm was brought in to straighten out the books.Armelin, who has taken a job in Richland Township, Bucks County, started with Pottstown in September, 2006.His pending absence was an issue to which Berry referred earlier in the meeting Tuesday, saying "we have to prepare to transition to a new finance director or find an organization to help us through the budget season."He said the DCED grant may be just that, so long as borough council acts Monday night."We have to decide if we want to secure the funding for that so we're not dropped and that money then gets delivered to another municipality," Berry said.

Pottstown Mercury - 08/08/08 - http://www.zwire.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=19900059&BRD=1674&PAG=461&dept_id=635482&rfi=8