LOWER POTTSGROVE >> Taxpayer Dave Fisher is once again raising questions about the actions of township officials.
Fisher, a North Coventry resident who owns property in Lower Pottsgrove, went before the township commissioners Tuesday night, questioning what he said was the absence of needed permits and documents from a file about the 2007 development of a High Street building in which former township commissioner James Vlahos has a financial interest.
Vlahos, who resigned in May after two years on the board and was not a commissioner when the property at 1954 E. High St. was developed, told The Mercury Wednesday he has done nothing wrong.
“I went through the development process that everyone else goes through,” Vlahos said. “I have a plan that was signed off on by (Pennsylvania Department) of Labor and Industry in 2007.”
Vlahos declined further comment.
However Fisher – who in June called for the resignation of zoning hearing board chairman Keith Diener for failing to file a financial disclosure form – had plenty to say when he appeared before the township commissioners Tuesday night.
Fisher provided the local media with a copy of an Aug. 10 letter to Township Manager Ed Wagner and posed several questions in it, and to the commissioners, after a Right to Know request provided him with the development file on the High Street property in question.
He said the approved plan calls for “grass pavers” to prevent additional storm runoff, but that the building’s parking lot is made of macadam for all but six spaces.
The file contains no letter authorizing a change in this plan and the paving has exacerbated runoff and erosion problems at a property Fisher owns at 5 S. Sunnybrook Road, which is down hill from 1954 E. High St., Fisher wrote.
The runoff eventually led to the 2009 involvement of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, which warned that the erosion could lead to violations for polluting Sprogel’s Run, according to letters Fisher included in the packet he provided to the media.
Fisher further questioned why the building – which houses not only Vlahos’s insurance office but also the township tax office – has no permanent use and occupancy permit on file for the top floor and why the building has no sprinkler system, which township code requires of commercial buildings over 5,000 square feet.
Fisher’s letter also asked why Wagner told him “that certain documents were redacted or withheld from the file due to client confidentiality and/or under legal review,” Fisher wrote.
“Being through the land development in this township myself, this statement peaks my curiosity as to what would be so confidential. Could any of what I am not seeing, as state above, been withheld?” Fisher wrote.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Fisher raised all these topics with the board and added that the file contains no highway occupancy permit from PennDOT, which would be required since High Street is a state road.
Fisher said he raised these questions with the township’s code enforcement officer at the time – Keith Place, who now does the same job for the Borough of Pottstown – but still has no answers.
“I’m just looking for some transparency here,” said Fisher.
Township Solicitor Charles D. Garner Jr. told Fisher that the township would look into his questions and try to provide answers.
Fisher said he would prefer to receive those answers in writing.
