Royersford municipal meeting roundup

A new youth mentoring program and one citizen’s complaint about new sign installments around town were the only abnormalities in the otherwise business-as-usual Royersford Borough Council meeting on Wednesday evening.

Laurie Faust and Susan Noble were in attendance to present to the council the new Youth Mentoring Program being run by the Open Door Ministry. Faust represented the ministry while Noble provided specific details on the program. The Ministry has been running a similar program for the last year, working with 85 adjudicated youth after their minor run-ins with the law. The program works with youth who have been convicted of minor crimes and provides them with a community service outlet. 

This new program is one of sixteen in the nation endorsed and sponsored by the United States Office of Juvenile Justice. The program will begin in September of 2011 and run for one year. Mentors will be trained, and they will meet with each of his or her mentees every week. Once per month, all of the youth in the program will be gathered together for an event promoting life skills such as leadership or an educational experience involving topics such as drugs and alcohol and dietary habits. According to Noble, the program will start with five youth, with the intention of expanding it to ten by the end of 2012. The goal is to “try to get these kids moving in the right direction,” Noble said.

Faust requested the council “stand with [the program] and support [it].” She asked council to become a “stakeholder” in the program and to demonstrate their support with a formal letter and by supporting their community outreach by way of hanging flyers and such. Council members said they would take the proposition under advisement and act on Faust’s requests at their next meeting.

Royersford resident John Martin of 329 Church Street also livened up the meeting with his complaint about the borough’s new street signs. Those to which he was referring were recently placed under the community’s stop signs, directing drivers to stop when they see the stop signs. Martin made the point that the signs were an insult to the drivers in the town, because everyone should know what to do at a stop sign. Mayor David Urner defended the additions by commenting the tactic had been proven effective in another, nearby town. “If that addition to that stop sign gets people to stop, then we’ve accomplished our goal,” he told Martin. Council member Ken Wadsworth also commented that he has noticed significantly more people stopping at the sign near his home in town since the signs were placed.

In other news, the streetscape enhancement project is moving along well, and the council moved to put in their budget request of $315,000 from Montgomery County with a proposed $3500, 10 percent match from the Borough. Additionally, the permits for the demolition of RiteAid have been issued and the project is progressing.

Dying Easter eggs for Saturday’s hunt will occur on Thursday, April 14 and the hunt itself will be held in Victory Park on Saturday, April 16. The Summer Concert Series has also been planned and approved, and the fire house has been established as the backup location for the events in case of inclement weather.

The meeting was adjourned after routine committee reports.