Last December, WCJIM reported that WCHE radio owner Jay Shur wanted to construct a second broadcast antenna on his property at the corner of Downingtown Pike and the Route 322 bypass in East Bradford Township. The permission process, which began in 1997, required approvals by the Federal Communications Commission and East Bradford Township. As of the end of 2005, Shur was waiting for the Supervisors to consider his "conditional use" application at a hearing scheduled for March 8, 2006.
Land development and construction approvals are not usually this difficult. The heart of the problem appears to be the location of Shur's original antenna, which was built in a floodplain at a time (early 1960s) when there were no controls. In the past forty-plus years, townships have enacted building codes, and federal and state governments have begun to regulate water resources. If an antenna were not already in place, it seems doubtful that anyone would get permission to build an antenna on Shur's property today. The March 8 conditional use hearing took place as scheduled. After discussing the application at their March 2 work session, the Supervisors approved it on March 8, but added seventeen conditions, including a fence to keep people from climbing on the antenna, landscaping to hide the fence and other buildings, township approval of the paint color, removal of billboards on the property and more. Shur's lawyer (Ronald Agulnick) filed a lawsuit in Chester County Common Pleas Court, challenging the Supervisors' conditions, but both sides got together and agreed to modify the seventeen conditions. At the Supervisors' April 12 work session, both sides approved a document with ten "stipulations" whose main changes concerned inspections and the impact of the project on its neighbors. In particular, one item required Shur's company, Chester County Radio, to pay $5,000 to the Kenmara Homeowners Association (located on the north side of the bypass) so they can buy plants for a "landscaping screen." In exchange, Shur dropped his lawsuit. The April 12 agreement opened the way for the East Bradford Zoning Hearing Board to resume its deliberations -- suspended the previous September -- on whether Shur can expand his non-conforming use (the antenna) in a floodplain, and whether he is allowed to place the antenna near power lines at the edge of his property. The Board granted its approval subject to the April 12 conditions plus a couple of extra conditions such as no lights on the antenna tower, a limit on the amount of construction in the floodplain, and approvals from "all other applicable governmental and municipal agencies, including but not limited to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Chester County Conservation District and the Township prior to the issuance of a building permit for the tower/antenna." East Bradford Township issued a building permit dated August 10. Shur must be feeling some time pressure, however, because his FCC construction permit expires on September 26 and according to FCC regulation 73.3598(a), the antenna must be completed before the FCC permit expires. All may not yet be lost, however, as the antenna can be constructed in less than a month, and a subsequent paragraph in the FCC regulation provides for extensions under certain circumstances. It is not clear whether Shur will be able to take advantage of them, but according to the statement that his lawyer made to the East Bradford Planning Commission in September 2005, he need only obtain approvals -- not actually complete the construction -- before the FCC permit expires.
Two questions remain. The first is a practical one -- if Shur's goal is to "attract more advertisers and ... charge higher rates for the advertising time sold to its sponsors ... [by increasing] the number of people reachable in its broadcasting area," as stated in his application to the East Bradford Planning Commission, why is he building his antenna in a floodplain at the bottom of a valley surrounded by hills? In addition, will a stronger signal make up for weakness in the station's programming? A former listener described the morning talk show as "sitting in tree house with a bunch of eight-year-olds making fun of everybody who walks past" and WCHE's own staff often claim that they have less than a dozen listeners. The afternoon and weekend broadcasts, which feature music and religious programming, appear to be more popular, according to comments overheard at the West Chester Area Senior Center.		Who builds an antenna in a hole?
At a cost of over $64,000 for the new antenna (according to the East Bradford building permit), plus $5,000 for the Kenmara homeowners and lawyer's fees, application fees, engineering fees and who-knows-what other fees, the project looks like an extremely expensive gamble. The staff at WCOJ (the rival AM station) are probably not losing sleep.

There are people who survive without a personal budget, but most of us need some kind of calculation of income and expenses so we can figure out if we can afford an extra ice cream cone after work, or plan for the purchase of a new car or next year's vacation. Municipal governments do not have a choice about it -- they are required by law to approve a budget each year, and to make income and expenses balance themselves out. If that doesn't sound like a tough assignment, then think of trying to balance a personal budget that includes the amount of coins that you find on the ground each year plus the savings to be gained from using coupons. All you can do is make an estimate and hope that you get better at it as the years go by.
That's the problem faced by the Borough's Finance Director, Doug Kapp. Since the late 1980s, he has supervised the process whereby each Borough department submits its estimates in September for the following year. Using his estimates of what the Borough will take in, Council whittles down their requests to create a final budget in November and approves it in December. During the rest of the year, Kapp keeps track of money as it comes in, makes sure that the bills get paid on time, and advises Council on how to handle "special requests" for funds. To give an idea of the complexity of the task, Borough Council received a proposal from the Public Works Department in August to spend an additional $7,600 to repave the 400-block of E. Washington Street (between Adams and Penn Streets) ahead of schedule. The justification was that the equipment for the job is already scheduled for use on N. Adams Street, so adding E. Washington to this year's job would be cheaper than bringing the equipment back next year. On the other hand, it would add $7,600 to this year's budget which the Borough could only find by dipping into its "capital operating reserve fund" (money left over from the sale of the Borough's water system in 1997.) While that fund has not been producing a lot of income lately due to low investment returns, spending money from the fund will eventually clean it out, leaving future Borough Councils with an even greater problem. It's a tough decision and one that is bound to attract criticism no matter which way it goes, and it's typical of many Borough budgeting decisions. [NOTE: Council voted on August 16 to pave the block this year.] At the beginning of this month, Kapp issued a report to Council entitled "2006 Mid-Year Financial Results." It's a shame that it is not more exciting, since it covers a lot of the issues that are certain to come up at the end of the year when Council approves the 2007 budget. In an effort to make the public familiar with its contents -- which tell what kind of financial shape the Borough is in -- WCJIM presents the complete report and the following summary: The largest part of the budget is called the General Fund and it is about where it was expected to be at the moment. The Earned Income Tax has brought in less than expected so far, but the Emergency & Medical Services Tax is right on the money and the Real Estate Transfer Tax is ahead (although with the real estate market "cooling off," it remains to be seen how it finishes the year. Meanwhile, fines from ordinance violations are above expectations (thanks to "increased arrests and increased tickets going to citation") while fines from vehicle code violations are a little behind. The other general fund revenue sources are also mixed, with grant income well above expectations, building permit income well below, and trash bag sales income unknown since the program was only one month old at the time of this report. On the expense side, the General Fund has taken major hits from the last of the landlord lawsuits, overtime salaries for police, the rising cost of fuel and some additional fees for employee benefits and pension arbitration. As Kapp notes in his report, "mid-year results may or may not be a true barometer of how the year may end." Kapp's report doesn't mention it, but the Borough's building permit revenue will almost certainly decline in the future thanks to a recent law passed by the state legislature. It exempts state and county government from the need to obtain local building permits. Building permit fees are not pure revenue -- the Borough earns them by reviewing building plans and engineering studies -- but now even that revenue stream will disappear. This is especially critical in the Borough where the University and the County own large amounts of land, and it promises to make next year's budget even more difficult to balance.
The Borough maintains a separate Sewer Fund that handles sewer fees and expenses. Besides the monthly sewer bills paid by Borough residents, the fund receives additional income when new customers pay to connect to the system and by disposing of sewage from neighboring municipalities. Kapp reports that the sewer fund is in fairly good shape thanks to payments from the County to connect the new Justice Center to the system and from processing sewage creatd outside the Borough. [NOTE: Since the Goose Creek Treatment Plant was designed to handle sewage from the Wyeth-Ayerst factory, which is now closed, the Borough has extra capacity to sell. If you have any ideas on how to sell sewage capacity, the Public Works Committee of Borough Council would like to hear from you.] The Parking Fund is also operated separately from the rest of the budget. At present, it is in the red thanks to the need to buy some extra equipment for the Sharpless Street garage, and because of the problems with parking meter certification -- required by state law to be performed by the County or the State -- that resulted because the County had insufficient staff and equipment. The Borough finally got the State to do it, but that cost more than $50,000 above what was planned in this year's budget.	COMMENTARY ON BUDGET CRITICS Far too often, politicians reduce budget criticism to questions about taxation under the assumption that if a government collects less taxes, it will spend less money. The current federal deficit is proof that such an assumption is false, but this kind of reasoning leads to another evil. When income shrinks, there is nothing to guarantee that what's left will be spent wisely. Instead, it will be spent according to how much political pressure can be brought to bear on the argument. In plainest terms, budget battles reward the powerful at the expense of the weak. Here's an analogy from family budgeting. If you, as a parent, discovered that your college-age student was spending too much money on alcohol, so you cut his/her allowance, would that led to less partying? Or would your offspring look for something else to cut -- book purchases perhaps -- and keep right on partying with the money that was available? That particular budget battle would be fought between the impulse to learn and the desire to party, and the outcome would depend on how your student values the two options, and how much pressure you can apply. The way to cut government spending is not only by reducing taxes, but by first engaging in the laborious task of examining each budget item to see if it can be discarded or done more efficiently. That's why the Borough's Finance Committee meets once a month and why the Finance Director prepares reports like the one described on this page -- to spread out the task of examining hundreds of budget items. It's not fun and it certainly isn't glamorous, but like cleaning a restroom, it is very necessary. Anyone who argues otherwise is not being honest.
The final component listed in the report is the Capital Improvement Fund which finances street paving, new police vehicles, and other "hard items" with a combination of taxes, interest on investments, grants and loans. It appears to be struggling due to weakness in investment earnings, but its condition at the end of the year is impossible to predict a this point. So what does all of this mean? The Borough budget is not in terrible shape, but on the other hand, neither Council nor Kapp can afford to relax. As long as state law, county decisions and the national investment climate remain beyond the control of the Borough, the budgeting process will remain an unpredictable exercise that causes ulcers for those with weak stomachs.