POTTSTOWN >> They say you can’t go home again.
But Heather Kurtz proved them wrong in late July.
Thanks, in part, to a new initiative designed to encourage Pottstown Schools employees to buy homes in the borough, Kurtz not only returned to her childhood home – she bought it.
Kurtz’s parents are former borough councilman, school board member and borough authority chairman Ron Downie and his wife Connie.
They moved to Florida a year ago and their house has been on the market ever since.
Their daughter Heather is a longtime second-grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary School.
The initiative, first suggested about two years ago by school board member Thomas Hylton, finally went online in April.
The Residency Program, which is administered by the Foundation for Pottstown Education, provides eligible applicants who work for the Pottstown School District, up to $10,000 in the form of a forgivable loan.
The funds can be used for closing costs, down payments, or other expenses directly related to the purchase of property determined to be eligible for the program.
The $10,000 loan will have 20 percent forgiven each year that the homeowner remains an employee of the Pottstown School District and lives in the residence as their primary home. After five years, the loan is completely forgiven. Should the employee move or leave the Pottstown School District, the remaining balance of the loan is then due to be paid back to the foundation.
On Monday night, the Pottstown School Board voted to contribute another $100,000 to the program.
Shortly after the announcement of this program, the foundation had two requests for information packets. The number of requests has since grown to six.
Kurtz, who applied in May and whose son Connor was one of the youngest members of the Daniel Boone School Board when he was first elected, is the first to close on a home using the program.
She applied in May.Kurtz was approved for the loan and purchased her new home in Pottstown at the end of July.
According to a news release from the foundation, Kurtz indicated that the process for the application was extremely easy.
“We had already been looking for a house in Pottstown and a lot of the homes we looked at needed a lot of work. This one needed some updating too, but we figured well, we certainly know this one well enough,” Kurtz said.
“It needed some updating, some electrical and plumbing work, but so far so good,” she said, adding that Tuesday morning she walked less than a block to the high school for the teacher breakfast sponsored by the school board.
“It was like old times,” she said with a laugh.
