Meeting Room

Two of the three Montgomery County commissioners said yesterday that their fifth-floor meeting room at the Norristown courthouse is neither large nor comfortable enough for their needs. And they disclosed a plan to spend up to $1.2 million on an office reconfiguration that would, among other things, get them a new one. "My support for this project is to get a better meeting room for the commissioners: bigger, with sound . . . just a more appropriate space to have public meetings," said Democratic Commissioner Joseph M. Hoeffel 3d. "I think this room is inadequate.

A visitor to this municipality of 19,000 would be hard-pressed to identify the center of town. There is no Main Street, no town square, no particular location around which local life revolves. But that situation could change if plans for a new community center bear fruit. The results of a feasibility study on the project are expected next month. "We want to get a plan in front of the folks so they can have something to respond to," said Philip Ruggieri, the Washington Township architect in charge of the study.

The wooden stairway in the West Conshohocken Borough Hall leads to a dark basement where the first sign of the Police Department is a small wooden bench with handcuffs. Inside Chief Joseph Clayborne's office, the uniforms are kept and records stored. In the back of the headquarters is an old vault, another piece of hard evidence that this building was not designed to suit the needs of a police department. Signs of crowding are visible throughout the former bank that has been the borough hall since 1936.

After 35 years, Anthony A. Mandio's annual reappointment as solicitor for the Bristol Borough School District had become almost routine. So school board officials were determined to make this year different. At the board's May 21 meeting, Mandio's reappointment was marked by a series of commendations through plaques, letters and even videotaped messages. Current and former colleagues, school board members and family surprised Mandio by packing into the board's meeting room when his reappointment came up on the agenda.

More than 100 residents packed the Haverford Township Commissioners meeting room Monday, filling the chairs, lining the walls, and sitting on the floor. The room overflowed, and people spilled through doors into the misty night, some standing outside at open windows, listening through the screens. Nearly all came to hear one thing - the fate of Charles T. Held, codes enforcement director, whose job performance is under fire. As in the past, both sides went away tired and frustrated, with no decision made.

Even from the start of the meeting, she looked as if she was ready to explode. Pensive and red-faced, Bristol Township Councilwoman Anna Rogers was waiting Tuesday night for the agenda item dealing with her legal challenge against Mayor Bob Lewis and Councilman William Keyser 3d. Rogers says the two were appointed illegally. The question was whether the taxpayers should pay Lewis' and Keyser's legal expenses. When Item E on the agenda came up, the reaction was not surprising.

What do you get when you put more than 350 anxious Bensalem residents, council members and a controversial new township zoning map all together in a cramped meeting room? For awhile, it was "bedlam," as one resident put it. Scores of citizens rumbled around the map, pushing and shoving each other in an effort to catch a glimpse. But then, something atypical of Bensalem government gatherings happened Monday night: Most of the residents became calm when they were reassured by council vice president David Costello.

There's an unusual work in progress at the new Mount Laurel Library, and it's a collective effort: Students of the Harrington Middle School are painting a mural on the wall of the building's meeting room. The library's board of trustees asked the art class in Harrington's Special Talented Enrichment Program to submit sketches, and a drawing by Amanda Constantino, 12 - showing a variety of animals in a forest-like setting - was chosen. The task now is to transfer her conception to the wall - in the proper proportions.

Look out C-Span, Newtown Cablevision Inc. may be hot on your trail. If the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors approves it, residents in the township could spend their evenings monitoring the goings-on of their supervisors. At Wednesday's board meeting, all five supervisors voted to investigate an offer to televise the board's twice-monthly meetings. According to the Newtown Township Cable Television Advisory Committee, Newtown Cablevision is willing to donate nearly $50,000 in equipment and $7,250 in installation costs so that the township can equip its meeting room with video cameras.

The Phoenixville Borough Council was in the midst of a heated discussion last Tuesday night about cutting costs when Borough Manager Bill McCauley got up from his seat next to the secretary and left the meeting room. Within minutes, Councilman Arthur Griffith had a novel idea, a proposal that he thought could save the borough more than $55,000. Griffith believed that cutting the manager's position could greatly benefit the borough and council members if there were seven council members instead of 12, he said.