Twisted in Trappe by Collegeville

Happy Columbus Day! If you have the day off, enjoy it.

More stuff on Trappe. I have reviewed the meeting minutes for the last two years from Trappe Borough, CTMA, and CTJPW over the weekend and I believe that the majority of the current Trappe Council has done quite a bit to try and clean up Trappe and have the Borough comply with state laws and the MPC. It appears from the meeting minutes that the representative members from Trappe for CTMA and CTJPW think that there have been some inequities between Trappe and Collegeville. I will have those inequities in a future post as soon as I can outline them from the meeting minutes.

The actions of these council people to clean up Trappe Borough and the CTJPW (Public Works) have been met with fierce opposition by a small group of people from Trappe and Collegeville. Some of these people had been running the Borough and with little to no oversight from the past Borough Councils. They were running the Borough in such a manner as to violate the Municipal Planning Code (MPC) in every which way they could.

Case in point is most of the appointments of the various positions. I learned that apparently the former Planning Commission Chairman Fred Schuetz (part of the “Trusted Team”) had instructed the Borough Secretary, Pat Katona, to alter the appointment dates for various positions so the current council could not take action on those positions and so the people Fred had endorsed would stay in place even though their term had expired. This was caught by the Borough Manager and a councilperson who questioned Ms. Katona and she admitted that it was indeed Fred Schuetz who had told her to do so. This information was then turned over to the Borough Solicitor and with great time and expense the Solicitor had to go through over five (5) years of records to reconstruct who should be where. Boy, talk about a mess!

Then there is Matthew Watson, another one of the "Trusted Team", who is a licensed real estate agent. At his employer’s web site, 1st Patriot Realty he advertises himself as "as a Borough Councilman in his town and works in-depth with the Planning Commission and Zoning Board. He also sits on the Board of Public Works and the Sewer Authority. As an Accredited Buyers Agent, he looks forward to helping you find just the right investment, land or home transaction to best fit your needs".

According to the Trappe Borough records Mr. Watson does not sit on either the Board of Public Works or the Sewer Authority and has not since March 2006. Now, I don’t know about you but I see an appearance of Mr. Watson selling his influence. By the way, I heard a that this will change once the "Trusted Team" is seated in January 2008 and that the “Trusted Team” will restore Mr. Watson’s power to those committees. Wait and watch.

I am still waiting for much more information from several sources. One bit of information is regarding Collegeville Council and a gentleman named Ernest Schmitt, and the support that Collegeville Council Vice-President Terry Stagliano gave to Mr. Schmitt when Trappe Borough Council Members challenged his Trappe residency in early 2006 (apparently including having his legal bills paid out of public funds). I am promised it will make very interesting reading and will include a letter from Bruce Castor, Montgomery County District Attorney, wherein Mr. Schmitt is threatened with legal action if he does not resign sighting him as a non-resident of Trappe Borough and Mr. Schmitt refusal to resign.

I hope to have more of this in my next posting.