Folcroft Community Day

Just wanted to say thanks to the Borough of Folcroft for a a job well done for the annual community day. My family loved it.

I also just wanted to say that the Folcroft Rec.Board and the Borough Council did a great job with Community Day this year. My family had a great time and can only imagine how much better it will be next year. My kids loved the police having all that cool stuff out there I know that is new from last year. It was just great to see the community come together like that, even the borough employees all volunteered their time to help out.

I agree, our Community Day was a huge success and I would like to give a special thanks and a shout out to people like Patty Boudwin, Andre Ferguson, Brian and Meg Moffit and all the many other members of our Recrestion Board who really hustled and crammed to make this event as successful as it was.

With that said, I must also shed some light on the fact that this event was exclusively funded entirely by various donations from local businesses and private contributors. We as a Borough council really should have made an effort to give more financial assistance to the committee.

I would haved liked to see the borough spend some of its own money for this event too. But... There is always next year though.
And so accordingly, Next year, I pledge that I will personally ask the council to set asside a special generous allocation from our general budget in order to pick up some additional expenses that I feel we should incur. I know we can do better yet...
Just last week, I was invited to join my extended family for Glenolden's Community Day. This morning I will attend the event in order to "take very detailed notes" as to what Glenolden does differently; notes especially concise regarding what they do better than we do.

Just from the list of activities and musical performances, it seems that, while we may have started the concept of a Community Day here in Folcroft; Glenolden has mastered that same effort and run laps around us. They have so much going on and Im just curious as to how they manage to pull it all off.

I imagine that Glenolden's event budget was most likely far larger than ours was in folcroft. That the budget disparity has a whole lot to do with one of two things: Glenolden's ability to raise more donations; and/or the Financial assistance that Glenolden's Borough Council extended to the Glenolden recreation Board. I'm inclined more toward believing that Glenolden Council helped fund the event with geberous and indeed handsome financial assistance.

We should have done the same. Please note that what the Folcroft Recreation board has been able to do while operating soley on donations has been pretty amazing. Imagine how much more could have been accomplished had Council coughed up some "coin."

The truth is that Council had very little to do with the success of that event. The credit really belongs to Patricia Boudwin and her Recreation board.

Next year, I would like to see Coumcil "pony up" and raise the "anty" a bit by offering more financial assitance to the Rec. Committee.

While this year's event was good, I beleive it could have been GREAT.

Just imagine what our Recreation Board could have accomplished with just a few thousand dollars of assitance from the Borough Council in addition to donations recieived...

With a few meaningful cutbacks in wasteful spending and some wiser spending practices throughout the year, Council could have found that money somewhere in our Borough budget. Sadly I must take some of the blame for this. I should have been more vocal and more outspoken but being outnumber, I let that intimidate me. Rest assured, that my meak and passive approach is yesterdays blunder. You can expect more fight from me from here on out folks! It seems I found the fight in me again! Its been gone for far to long.
I am sorry that I missed the opportunity to speak up in the past, I will do and say much more in the future.

And god willing, I hope that by next year, Folcroft residents will have a Council who would be willing to invest some of our Borough's resources into our Community outreach efforts. I say this because I feel that Council should feel obligated to such critical and meaningful investments. It is wise to be frugal, but it foolish to be cheap. We've become cheap.

Trying to move forward with a "cheap" mentality will get you absolutely nowhere in the fight to overcome community neglect and decline.

Frankly, if we're going to rebuild this community and its image, then everything we say, everything we do and everything we build must be Great. It must be above average everytime and by every standard! Nothing we do from now until we succeed can be just 'Ok' or 'good' or 'mediocre.' Quite simply, We need a consistent 'over the top' effort in order to foster "off the charts" results.
And we're not gonna turn this town around without dedicating far more resources to that effort wether it is for community day or for something as big as building a community center or redeveloping the Delmar drive and Chester Pike coridors. Every effort from licking postage stamps to building lasting structures must be done better than anyone else has done before us...

Others can bad mouth Folcrpft as much as they'd like. Let them say whatever they want about Folrcoft. But let me also say that when I look at Folcroft, all I see here is the Unharnessed Potential to do far better than what we do.

Some folks look at this town as it is and write-it-off as a lost cause. I see it for what it could be and I keep that vision in the forefront of my mind as I relentlessly pound my pavements to meet my constituents in my effort to share that vision with them...
While I agree that Community Day was "good." I demand that we now make the effort to make it "great." Why do I expect this?

Quite simply because:
"There is 'GOOD,'
There is 'BETTER,'
And there is 'BEST.'
But we should never rest
Until our 'GOOD' is 'BETTER'
AND OUR "BETTER" IS THE 'BEST!'"

Thats the kind of attitude that every Folcroft Council member and every Folcroft resident will have to adopt in order to turn this place into what it could be; what it should be...

There is just no more room for mediocre efforts or mediocre results. Now get to work Council!

Joseph Papaleo wrote:

With a few meaningful cutbacks in wasteful spending and some wiser spending practices throughout the year, Council could have found that money somewhere in our Borough budget. Sadly I must take some of the blame for this. I should have been more vocal and more outspoken but being outnumber, I let that intimidate me. Rest assured, that my meak and passive approach is yesterdays blunder. You can expect more fight from me from here on out folks! It seems I found the fight in me again! Its been gone for far to long.
I am sorry that I missed the opportunity to speak up in the past, I will do and say much more in the future.
And god willing, I hope that by next year, Folcroft residents will have a Council who would be willing to invest some of our Borough's resources into our Community outreach efforts. I say this because I feel that Council should feel obligated to such critical and meaningful investments. It is wise to be frugal, but it foolish to be cheap. We've become cheap.
Trying to move forward with a "cheap" mentality will get you absolutely nowhere in the fight to overcome community neglect and decline.
Frankly, if we're going to rebuild this community and its image, then everything we say, everything we do and everything we build must be Great. It must be above average everytime and by every standard! Nothing we do from now until we succeed can be just 'Ok' or 'good' or 'mediocre.' Quite simply, We need a consistent 'over the top' effort in order to foster "off the charts" results.
And we're not gonna turn this town around without dedicating far more resources to that effort wether it is for community day or for something as big as building a community center or redeveloping the Delmar drive and Chester Pike coridors. Every effort from licking postage stamps to building lasting structures must be done better than anyone else has done before us...
Others can bad mouth Folcrpft as much as they'd like. Let them say whatever they want about Folrcoft. But let me also say that when I look at Folcroft, all I see here is the Unharnessed Potential to do far better than what we do.
Some folks look at this town as it is and write-it-off as a lost cause. I see it for what it could be and I keep that vision in the forefront of my mind as I relentlessly pound my pavements to meet my constituents in my effort to share that vision with them...
While I agree that Community Day was "good." I demand that we now make the effort to make it "great." Why do I expect this?
Quite simply because:
"There is 'GOOD,'
There is 'BETTER,'
And there is 'BEST.'
But we should never rest
Until our 'GOOD' is 'BETTER'
AND OUR "BETTER" IS THE 'BEST!'"
Thats the kind of attitude that every Folcroft Council member and every Folcroft resident will have to adopt in order to turn this place into what it could be; what it should be...
There is just no more room for mediocre efforts or mediocre results. Now get to work Council!

Joe,
Very good thoughts stated above. I do have to admit that the community day was pretty good, but as you said, we can do a lot better than a bunch of bouncing items, etc. I didn't know about the behind the scenes finances. The few current council members there were taking all the credit for this event.

In regards to your passivity on council, there are ways for you to publicize all the issues if the current council keeps bullying you or just not acknowledging you with any decisions being made. This forum is 1 way of just telling what is being done. It's no secret, since it is and should be public information. Post the minutes! Research their decisions and make it public information! When they don't get several bids on jobs in Folcroft, publicize it! There are plenty of people out of work that could use the work or should have the opportunity to place their bids.

Put fire under them and let the people of Folcroft hold them accountable!

"The few council members there were taking all the credit". You should have looked around better, all the council members were there.. and some council members are also on the rec board so i guess they would take credit... what i did notice was not a single democrat wearing a volunteer shirt!!!!! you guys looked real nice in your nicley pressed clothes sitting at the tables while residents had to sit on the wall!!!

What I do think Council should so though is make it a rule that any member on council should pay taxes in the borough, not live at home still with mommy and daddy....

Come on Joe,

I did not see any Democrates with volunteer shirts on, not even you. They said planning took just about a year, plenty of time to pitch in. I did think took balls for the democrates to walk through the crowd and and complain about what needs to be changed in Folcroft. Seems the biggest complainers were previous republician council members complaining about the same problems that they could have solved when they were in office. What's next, trash the annual christmas tree lighting. Heres one complaint you dont hear.....lets remove all the REPLUBIC-CAM sitckers the democrates posted around the town years ago that are still posted and trashing our neghborhood. That would be a new start.

The reason the Dems didn't take part in Community Day was because they couldn't find it... the community I mean.

They got bad driving directions from North Philly, New Jersey, and New York... where they actually live.

The carpet-baggers got good directions home after the November 3rd elections though. All of them.

And once again, a pleasant and simple affair like Folcroft Community Day, enjoyed by all, is reduced and exploited by Joe Papaleo, and his enduring quest to do absolutely nothing, and at the same time, laboriously tell us why we need more guys like him on Council.

1. Put "down" your speeches, tedious self-affirmations, and under-handed, political jabs.
2. Put "on" a volunteer shirt and help out next time.

That's how "good" things gets better, Cheif Long Wind.

Joseph Papaleo wrote:

I agree, our Community Day was a huge success and I would like to give a special thanks and a shout out to people like Patty Boudwin, Andre Ferguson, Brian and Meg Moffit and all the many other members of our Recrestion Board who really hustled and crammed to make this event as successful as it was.
With that said, I must also shed some light on the fact that this event was exclusively funded entirely by various donations from local businesses and private contributors. We as a Borough council really should have made an effort to give more financial assistance to the committee.
I would haved liked to see the borough spend some of its own money for this event too. But... There is always next year though.
And so accordingly, Next year, I pledge that I will personally ask the council to set asside a special generous allocation from our general budget in order to pick up some additional expenses that I feel we should incur. I know we can do better yet...
Just last week, I was invited to join my extended family for Glenolden's Community Day. This morning I will attend the event in order to "take very detailed notes" as to what Glenolden does differently; notes especially concise regarding what they do better than we do.
Just from the list of activities and musical performances, it seems that, while we may have started the concept of a Community Day here in Folcroft; Glenolden has mastered that same effort and run laps around us. They have so much going on and Im just curious as to how they manage to pull it all off.
I imagine that Glenolden's event budget was most likely far larger than ours was in folcroft. That the budget disparity has a whole lot to do with one of two things: Glenolden's ability to raise more donations; and/or the Financial assistance that Glenolden's Borough Council extended to the Glenolden recreation Board. I'm inclined more toward believing that Glenolden Council helped fund the event with geberous and indeed handsome financial assistance.
We should have done the same. Please note that what the Folcroft Recreation board has been able to do while operating soley on donations has been pretty amazing. Imagine how much more could have been accomplished had Council coughed up some "coin."
The truth is that Council had very little to do with the success of that event. The credit really belongs to Patricia Boudwin and her Recreation board.
Next year, I would like to see Coumcil "pony up" and raise the "anty" a bit by offering more financial assitance to the Rec. Committee.
While this year's event was good, I beleive it could have been GREAT.
Just imagine what our Recreation Board could have accomplished with just a few thousand dollars of assitance from the Borough Council in addition to donations recieived...

or maybe next year you could "pony up" and help with it