FCC set to reconsider broadband regulations
By JOELLE TESSLER
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 17, 2010; 6:41 AM
This decision could affect us locally as well as nationally. Our broadband access both landline and especially over air is in the dark ages compared to other developed countries. That puts us at a completive, social and educational disadvantage to the rest of the world. In very large part the phone company and Cable Company monopolies now self regulate broad band communication exclusively for their company’s profits. I believe that is the primary reason our internet communication infrastructure is so very far behind other developed countries.
We have a struggling broadband WFI network in Coatesville called Coatesville Wireless Internet. It has a limited range right now. With some additional usage, advertising and community support it could widen its broadcast area. If you go and park in the Coatesville City Hall parking lot with a laptop you will see that it works very well.
I believe FCC regulation of broadband would encourage competition, loosen the cable and phone company monopolies and make it easier for small businesses like Coatesville Wireless Internet to compete.
If the FCC decides to regulate broadband internet communication the cable and phone companies will spend millions in court to prevent it from happening. So their monopolies will continue for several years. In the mean time I think we should support small broadband companies like:
Coatesville Wireless Internet
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
“The hardest working man in show business” Big Pumpkin and Coatesville Pride
The new Coatesville City Council gets along so well that it’s almost fun going to Coatesville City Council meetings. This is all from the Monday June 14, 2010 Coatesville City Council meeting.
It’s sort of like eating dessert first but I’m using the “Council Comments” at the end of the meeting as an introduction to Karl Marking’s presentation of “Coatesville Pride”.
Councilperson Ingrid Jones says the darndest things.
Listen the Council Comments here:
It’s sort of like eating dessert first but I’m using the “Council Comments” at the end of the meeting as an introduction to Karl Marking’s presentation of “Coatesville Pride”.
Councilperson Ingrid Jones says the darndest things.
Listen the Council Comments here:
Coatesville City Councilperson Karl Marking has begun a modernization of the City of Coatesville Flag as part of a larger program to foster “Coatesville Pride”.
A recording of Karl Marking’s presentation is here:
Go to Karl’s PDF presentation. If you open the PDF presentation in a separate window you can follow along with the recording. The PDF presentation is here:
For more information about “Coatesville Pride” and a lot more about Coatesville, see Coatesville City Council Vice President Karl Marking’s website:
Monday, June 14, 2010
Agenda Coatesville City Council Meeting June 14, 2010
Excerpt from the:
AGENDA
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Regular Meeting
Monday June 14, 2010
Regular Action Items
1. Consider first reading of an Ordinance to amend the 2010 Municipal Budget
2. Consider authorizing the Interim City Manager to proceed with receiving employment applications for the positions of Animal Control Officer, Parking Enforcement Officer, Codes Inspector and Public Works Laborer.
3. Consider Resolution to submit CDBG application to Chester County for street and storm sewer improvements
4. Consider proposal for web site assistance from Aim Web Design, LLP, in the amount of $9,670.
5. Consider Chester County Department of Community Development agreement Amendment #2 to extend the River Walk grant time to June 30, 2010. (Note: this has absolutely nothing to do with extension of time for contractor. I unfortunately confused this issue in my explanation at the last meeting.)
6. Consider request from River Walk contractor for a 45 day extension on his contract to complete the project. (Note: the contractor and our T&M engineer will be present to discuss)
7. Consider the Chester County Recycling Authority request for grant support to purchase equipment for the composting facility.
8. Consider ratifying the three Pension Boards’ approval to proceed with extending the contract with Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads for the completion of the preparation of the three Pension Plans and payment of the outstanding bills.
9. Consider
Agenda Coatesville City Council Meeting Monday June 14, 2010
AGENDA
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Regular Meeting
Monday June 14, 2010
Regular Action Items
1. Consider first reading of an Ordinance to amend the 2010 Municipal Budget
2. Consider authorizing the Interim City Manager to proceed with receiving employment applications for the positions of Animal Control Officer, Parking Enforcement Officer, Codes Inspector and Public Works Laborer.
3. Consider Resolution to submit CDBG application to Chester County for street and storm sewer improvements
4. Consider proposal for web site assistance from Aim Web Design, LLP, in the amount of $9,670.
5. Consider Chester County Department of Community Development agreement Amendment #2 to extend the River Walk grant time to June 30, 2010. (Note: this has absolutely nothing to do with extension of time for contractor. I unfortunately confused this issue in my explanation at the last meeting.)
6. Consider request from River Walk contractor for a 45 day extension on his contract to complete the project. (Note: the contractor and our T&M engineer will be present to discuss)
7. Consider the Chester County Recycling Authority request for grant support to purchase equipment for the composting facility.
8. Consider ratifying the three Pension Boards’ approval to proceed with extending the contract with Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads for the completion of the preparation of the three Pension Plans and payment of the outstanding bills.
9. Consider
Agenda Coatesville City Council Meeting Monday June 14, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
The "Retail Store" near Pennsylvania Avenue is hop-en tonight
Loud rap music and everything
I think they have "curb service" too.
I think they have "curb service" too.
It looks like we will get back our parking meter officer and Animal Control Officer.
I believe that the “bloc of four” eliminated the parking meter officer because certain people were tired of getting ticketed over and over and over. And those people complained to City Council.
I believe that we lost our Animal Control Officer because the street dealers with pit bulls complained to City Council about the Animal Control Officer.
I don’t know if our previous Animal Control Officer had weapons training. Considering that in Coatesville an Animal Control Officer may need to enter a property that could be an active drug operation I believe that our Animal Control Officer should receive the weapons training that a regular officer receives.
If certain individuals can get away with fragrantly disregarding parking tickets our entire meter collection system will not work. It must be extremely frustrating for an officer to repeatedly write tickets for the same individuals in nearly the same parking place and repeatedly watch a judge throw the ticket out. For the Animal Control Officer and the parking officer to be effective their citations need to be upheld in court. I believe that in Coatesville that may require the City to appeal some of our local Magistrate Court's decisions to Common Pleas Court.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Something from the Walker Matthews and Legree Days
There were other very good reasons for 200 police from Eastern PA to show up unexpectedly at a Coatesville City Council meeting but I believe Richard Legree’s alleged influence in Coatesville’s government and it’s Police Department was the primary reason the police showed up.
I’m just including this in my blog because some people think that Richard Legree was wonderful. They are still around; they still hold public positions of consequence.
Richard Legree was for many years the Chairperson of Area 14 of the Chester County Republican Committee. I believe that in his day Legree had a great deal of influence in the CCRC and also in County Government.
This is one woman’s opinion and comments on Richard Legree and Legree as a potential leader of the City of Coatesville Police Department. I recorded it of the air of WCOJ Radio; “The Big Show” with Robert Henson. “That man” the woman refers to is Harry Walker:
Allen Davis of the Chester County Reporter had a very good article about a “contentious” Coatesville City Council meeting on March 26, 2007:
Walker, DA clash over police chief hiring
by Allen Davis
Staff Writer
Posted: Tuesday, 27 March 07; 11:20 a.m.
by Allen Davis
Staff Writer
Posted: Tuesday, 23 Oct. 07; 11:45 a.m.
I’m just including this in my blog because some people think that Richard Legree was wonderful. They are still around; they still hold public positions of consequence.
Richard Legree was for many years the Chairperson of Area 14 of the Chester County Republican Committee. I believe that in his day Legree had a great deal of influence in the CCRC and also in County Government.
I began to advise people in September of 2005 that Legree wanted control of the Coatesville PD as Chief or a new position that I thought might be called “Director of Public Safety”. The actual position that was allegedly to be created for Richard Legree turned out to be “Deputy Supervisor of Operations”.
Very few people thought there was even a possibility of Richard Legree's involvement in the Coatesville Police Department until Lt. Fitzgerald of the Philadelphia PD made his job interview with then Coatesville City Manager Harry Walker AND Richard Legree public. After checking up on Richard Legree Fitzgerald said there was no way Legree would be part of his Police Department. I think it is very, very significant that Fitzgerald also said that he wanted control over his Police Department. After that Lt. Fitzgerald was rejected and William Matthews got the job as Coatesville’s Chief of Police.
Allen Davis of the Chester County Reporter had a very good article about a “contentious” Coatesville City Council meeting on March 26, 2007:
Walker, DA clash over police chief hiring
by Allen Davis
Staff Writer
Posted: Tuesday, 27 March 07; 11:20 a.m.
Allen Davis of the Chester County Reporter also has an article about the momentous Coatesville City Council meeting of October 22, 2007
Police woes dominate Coatesville council meetinghttp://chestercountyreporter.com/100policeturnout.html
by Allen Davis
Staff Writer
Posted: Tuesday, 23 Oct. 07; 11:45 a.m.
Daily Local News
Published: Saturday, December 01, 2007
I don’t know what Robert Henson is doing right now. Chester County lost WCOJ and Mr. Henson’s show in 2008. It was a great asset to Chester County. We miss him.
I did find some Podcasts:
Friday, June 4, 2010
Some reasons why the City of Coatesville's 2008 and 2009 Budgets are not audited
Council Comments Special Coatesville City Council Meeting June 3, 2010.
Coatesville City Councilperson Ms. Ingrid Jones is uncomfortable with some of the numbers.
“I’m beginning to feel like there’s something rotten in Denmark, It ain’t the pickled herring and it ain’t the cheese. “
Coatesville City Council Vice President Karl Marking, “On the one hand I am incredibly sickened by all this million dollars in surprises and new fees. I don’t hold anyone accountable here because it’s legacy stuff. So, on the other hand it’s nice to feel that we are actually getting a better more detailed picture of where we stand, what’s happening. I know that we have a lot of issues still, to put I’s and crosses to, whatever. But we’re getting there. It’s painful but we are continuing in a better direction.
Coatesville City Council President Ed Simpson, “All of this, All of this, is, the majority of it in my opinion is from a previous administration that we’re not going to discuss, we’re not going to bash…That everybody here has inherited. But I can tell you just for the first five months of this year, I feel so much better knowing that the numbers are more realistic and more actual than what they’ve ever been. And Ms. Bjorhus is largely responsible for that; because in the past we were never given any details. Just like the report that you’ve given us. We’ve never gotten anything like that.
I feel better knowing that we’re getting realistic numbers. We have a lot of departments that right now are over budgeted in areas, particularly the overtime in certain departments that we need to get straightened out. But we know about it. Now we know about it. We need to do something. We need to focus on it. It is a bitter pill to have to swallow…If we do this, we have to dot our I’s and cross our t’s. Every month we’re going to have to. Every month, not every quarter, every month, we’re going to have to. Just because if we start to see that we’re heading back in that direction we’re got to make some big decisions.
Karl Marking, “And it’s not personal, It’s just business.
Ms. Stacy Bjorhus’ report of the 2008 and 2009 budget audit progress:
“We had several tasks since opening September of 09 that were paramount to getting the 08 audit done. We were starting from square one in September of 2009. Basically we had to reconcile audit books to the 2007 ending balances that Barbacane had established for our ending balances. The fact that those were done in Pentamation and then we went to…and 4Gov it was very, very difficult.
We have now reconciled to those accounts, to those ending balances, per our opening balances. We have all of the bank accounts, all of the reconciliations done that tie up perfectly to the 06 starting and we’re comfortable as it goes.
The other insurmountable, what we found to be insurmountable, we’re still struggling with it: during this period also the general fund bank account had incorporated 3 different areas; payroll, the operating the checks going out and the revenues coming in. All three of those functions were in one separate bank account which made it very difficult to break out. They were separated at one point in time but getting opening balances for those 3 has been very, very difficult. We almost had to back into them.
The systems changes, we’re working through some bargaining issues internally where we are trying to reconcile the accounts. So getting opening balances for 2008 although in the fall we had tied to the 2007 ending, when we started to open the accounts with a fine tooth comb and a close eye we’re finding it difficult to actually get opening balances for those 3 accounts separately.
We have reconciled payroll to the book. We still have to match to the 931. That’s something we are looking forward to doing in the very near future.
We’ve reconciled the operating account which was a very tedious matter because of all the voids in the system. Because checks had been cut and then the money wasn’t there. The checks sat in the vault and had to be re-cut and transfers were sometimes made, transfers sometimes weren’t…
Reconciling the operating account was tedious and that in itself took several months. Denise, I believe worked on that and it involved maybe 6 weeks coming in 2 days a week. Now she is in working on the general banking account which is our depositing account and she is having some difficulty there. I think that Carol is now working in the department with us much closer and I think the 3 of us will be able to get a better handle on that.
But that is what slowed down Barbacane from coming in. Barbacane has insisted, ‘We want all of your banking accounts done.’
Raj has recently reconciled the accounts payable to from the old system to the new system, which was also very, very tedious. He had to build nearly every single…individually. So once we get this primary account done we will be in very good position. I’ve talked to Mr. Green about getting in and really getting not only the books on the payroll but also just doing the payroll account very, very closely. And once we do that I think we are going to be good to go. We are close.”
Ed Simpson, “What about a time frame?”
Ms. Bjorhus, “I’m hoping 10 days. I’m hoping we’ll get to it in 10 days…
Karl Marking, “Through 08 to 09 to start the audit?”
Ms. Bjorhus, “We’ve already started the 09 audit. We’ve already started the 09. But when they left they said we’ll be ready to go once you get those tests done.”
Coatesville City Councilperson Joe Hamrick, “That’s 10 work days…but I’m talking about our end of it, we’ll have it all ready within 10 working days.
Ms. Bjorhus, “I think so. I think so. 10 work days. I would like to think that we will be ready. Because once we get that general fund in shape the other tests we need to do the payroll reconciliation to the 941 that will probably bring us up to date… The 941 is what our W2s and our taxes are derived upon. So we’ll make sure that those are in order.
The other tasks are checking the contracts; the fixed asset list… each of those will take hours.”
Karl Marking, “Do you have any data at this point to have a sense of whether or not we’re going to be in for any surprises, to Mr. Hamrick’s earlier statement about additional short put ins…
Ms. Bjorhus, “Yes the 904 ending balance for 2008-2009, that’s un-audited; I’m expecting it to be closer to $500,000…Mr. Reed and I were talking about money that could be pulled into 2010 to fill any budgeting shortfall, I urge to keep it around $500,000, no more than that.”
Coatesville City Councilperson Ms. Ingrid Jones is uncomfortable with some of the numbers.
“I’m beginning to feel like there’s something rotten in Denmark, It ain’t the pickled herring and it ain’t the cheese. “
Coatesville City Council Vice President Karl Marking, “On the one hand I am incredibly sickened by all this million dollars in surprises and new fees. I don’t hold anyone accountable here because it’s legacy stuff. So, on the other hand it’s nice to feel that we are actually getting a better more detailed picture of where we stand, what’s happening. I know that we have a lot of issues still, to put I’s and crosses to, whatever. But we’re getting there. It’s painful but we are continuing in a better direction.
Coatesville City Council President Ed Simpson, “All of this, All of this, is, the majority of it in my opinion is from a previous administration that we’re not going to discuss, we’re not going to bash…That everybody here has inherited. But I can tell you just for the first five months of this year, I feel so much better knowing that the numbers are more realistic and more actual than what they’ve ever been. And Ms. Bjorhus is largely responsible for that; because in the past we were never given any details. Just like the report that you’ve given us. We’ve never gotten anything like that.
I feel better knowing that we’re getting realistic numbers. We have a lot of departments that right now are over budgeted in areas, particularly the overtime in certain departments that we need to get straightened out. But we know about it. Now we know about it. We need to do something. We need to focus on it. It is a bitter pill to have to swallow…If we do this, we have to dot our I’s and cross our t’s. Every month we’re going to have to. Every month, not every quarter, every month, we’re going to have to. Just because if we start to see that we’re heading back in that direction we’re got to make some big decisions.
Karl Marking, “And it’s not personal, It’s just business.
Ms. Stacy Bjorhus’ report of the 2008 and 2009 budget audit progress:
“We had several tasks since opening September of 09 that were paramount to getting the 08 audit done. We were starting from square one in September of 2009. Basically we had to reconcile audit books to the 2007 ending balances that Barbacane had established for our ending balances. The fact that those were done in Pentamation and then we went to…and 4Gov it was very, very difficult.
We have now reconciled to those accounts, to those ending balances, per our opening balances. We have all of the bank accounts, all of the reconciliations done that tie up perfectly to the 06 starting and we’re comfortable as it goes.
The other insurmountable, what we found to be insurmountable, we’re still struggling with it: during this period also the general fund bank account had incorporated 3 different areas; payroll, the operating the checks going out and the revenues coming in. All three of those functions were in one separate bank account which made it very difficult to break out. They were separated at one point in time but getting opening balances for those 3 has been very, very difficult. We almost had to back into them.
The systems changes, we’re working through some bargaining issues internally where we are trying to reconcile the accounts. So getting opening balances for 2008 although in the fall we had tied to the 2007 ending, when we started to open the accounts with a fine tooth comb and a close eye we’re finding it difficult to actually get opening balances for those 3 accounts separately.
We have reconciled payroll to the book. We still have to match to the 931. That’s something we are looking forward to doing in the very near future.
We’ve reconciled the operating account which was a very tedious matter because of all the voids in the system. Because checks had been cut and then the money wasn’t there. The checks sat in the vault and had to be re-cut and transfers were sometimes made, transfers sometimes weren’t…
Reconciling the operating account was tedious and that in itself took several months. Denise, I believe worked on that and it involved maybe 6 weeks coming in 2 days a week. Now she is in working on the general banking account which is our depositing account and she is having some difficulty there. I think that Carol is now working in the department with us much closer and I think the 3 of us will be able to get a better handle on that.
But that is what slowed down Barbacane from coming in. Barbacane has insisted, ‘We want all of your banking accounts done.’
Raj has recently reconciled the accounts payable to from the old system to the new system, which was also very, very tedious. He had to build nearly every single…individually. So once we get this primary account done we will be in very good position. I’ve talked to Mr. Green about getting in and really getting not only the books on the payroll but also just doing the payroll account very, very closely. And once we do that I think we are going to be good to go. We are close.”
Ed Simpson, “What about a time frame?”
Ms. Bjorhus, “I’m hoping 10 days. I’m hoping we’ll get to it in 10 days…
Karl Marking, “Through 08 to 09 to start the audit?”
Ms. Bjorhus, “We’ve already started the 09 audit. We’ve already started the 09. But when they left they said we’ll be ready to go once you get those tests done.”
Coatesville City Councilperson Joe Hamrick, “That’s 10 work days…but I’m talking about our end of it, we’ll have it all ready within 10 working days.
Ms. Bjorhus, “I think so. I think so. 10 work days. I would like to think that we will be ready. Because once we get that general fund in shape the other tests we need to do the payroll reconciliation to the 941 that will probably bring us up to date… The 941 is what our W2s and our taxes are derived upon. So we’ll make sure that those are in order.
The other tasks are checking the contracts; the fixed asset list… each of those will take hours.”
Karl Marking, “Do you have any data at this point to have a sense of whether or not we’re going to be in for any surprises, to Mr. Hamrick’s earlier statement about additional short put ins…
Ms. Bjorhus, “Yes the 904 ending balance for 2008-2009, that’s un-audited; I’m expecting it to be closer to $500,000…Mr. Reed and I were talking about money that could be pulled into 2010 to fill any budgeting shortfall, I urge to keep it around $500,000, no more than that.”
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