Southwestern Berks' reps in DC support Trumpcare

by Steve Reinbrecht

If you live in Southwestern Berks, your congressman supports the Republican plan to replace Obamacare.

Costello, Smucker

U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello represents Lower Heidelberg, South Heidelberg, and Wernersville.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker represents Sinking Spring.

Both have statements on their websites supporting the bill.

“I voted in favor of reporting the American Health Care Act out [of committee] because I believe it is the appropriate framework through which to rein in healthcare costs and improve our healthcare system,” Costello’s site says.

He made that vote March 9 as a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

He elaborated in a statement reported by Reading Eagle reporter Karen Shuey:

"The American Health Care Act is the appropriate framework to bring about the kind of reforms we need to stabilize the insurance market, to protect those who have pre-existing conditions from price discrimination and to treat those within the Medicaid expansion population fairly.”

He added that he believes the bill will rein in health care costs by removing government bureaucracy.

Smucker released a statement March 7:

“Obamacare has failed the American people. In 2010, supporters of the health care law said costs would go down. Instead, families and individuals across Pennsylvania face skyrocketing premiums and deductibles they simply cannot afford. They have been forced off their plans and forced to find new doctors. It’s time for change.

“While more work needs to be done, the American Health Care Act is a good start to ensuring Pennsylvanians will have access to the care they need at a price they can afford. I will work with my colleagues in the House to advance this critical legislation, and will fight for a stable transition to a better system for everyone."

Smucker told the Eagle’s Shuey that the AHCA plan is better than what people have now.

"It's time for change," he said in the phone interview. "People are facing skyrocketing premiums and deductibles they simply cannot afford. This will create a system that provides access to care that people can afford."

About 870 people in Zip Codes 19608 and 19565 enrolled in Obamacare last year.

Many people and groups oppose the American Health Care Act, claiming it won’t replace the benefits that millions have received under Obamacare, that it reduces taxes on rich people and that insurance premiums rose faster before Obamacare was put in place.

Opponents include: 

• The American Medical Association
• AARP [which represents older people]
• America’s Health Insurance Plans
• American Hospital Association
• American Academy of Family Physicians
• Federation of American Hospitals
• The New York Times
• The Washington Post
• The Cato Institute, a Libertarian think tank
• The Brookings Institute
• The Heritage Foundation
• The American Enterprise Institute
• Many conservative Republicans
• Virtually every Democrat

Lower Heidelberg church offers services in Chinese and Spanish

by Steve Reinbrecht

For many reasons, people from all over Berks County come to a church in Lower Heidelberg to join thriving services for people who speak Chinese or Spanish.

In all, about 1,000 people typically attend services at Calvary Bible Fellowship Church, 4891 Penn Ave., every Sunday.

About 40 people attend the Chinese service at Calvary. They formed a church group years ago and had been meeting in borrowed spaces. For a while, a few mixed American-Chinese couples attended services in English at Calvary and then drove to a Chinese service in a church in Spring Township, Calvary Pastor Wayne Rissmiller said.

In 2012, Calvary offered the group a permanent site in its church, just west of Krick Lane. More than 600 people in Berks speak Chinese at home, according to the Census.

Local high school students who are learning Chinese have come to the Chinese service to practice the language, Rissmiller said.

The church reaches out to Chinese students at Albright College and Penn State Berks, and Chinese students from those campuses often enjoy meeting members of the Chinese church, especially if their English is limited.

Meanwhile, the church has hosted a Spanish service since 2013, and it now attracts 45 people or so. Rissmiller said many Spanish-speaking people from different countries have been moving to Southwestern Berks. The Census says more than 50,000 people in Berks speak Spanish at home.

“They are becoming much more of the fabric of community out here,” he said. Many parents go to Spanish service while their children go to Sunday School in English, he said.

Most of the people who attend the Chinese services are local, he said. About half the Spanish families come from Reading and the rest from Southwestern Berks, he said. The church’s general population draws from as far as Schuylkill and Lancaster counties.

The Spanish- and Chinese-speaking members gather with general members and have parties and shared meals.

Rissmiller doesn’t believe there are other Chinese services in Berks.

Calvary opened in 1963 in the current Community Evangelical Church, where the poll booth is, on Green Valley Road just up from Sheetz. It moved to its 47-acre campus in 1999.

Calvary has services at 11:11 a.m. to make the time easy to remember.

Demand for passports is at record level at Sinking Spring library

by Steve Reinbrecht

The Sinking Spring Library issued more passports in January than ever, and the library is considering how to keep up with the demand.

The library processed 244 passports that month, beating the previous record of 225 in April 2014.

One reason for the spike is that people want a passport now simply to fly within the United States, fearing that a Pennsylvania driver’s license soon won’t be accepted as airport ID.

“Pennsylvanians hoping to board commercial flights in 2018 could shell out hundreds of millions of dollars on passports if the state continues to shirk federal identification requirements, according to an aviation trade group,” TribLive reported earlier this month.

The Sinking Spring Library is there to help. Processing passports makes good money for the library, director John Nelka said. But the library is offering an important service at convenient times, Nelka said, and the service might attract people to the library who might otherwise never enter.

Issuing passports is burdensome – staff must get federal training, pass an exam, get certified and undergo inspections.

“It’s a serious document,” Nelka said.

And he never wants general library service to suffer because staff are tied up with passports. People who need passports often need a lot of help understanding the process and what documents they need.

The library is considering expanding passport-processing hours and offering passport photos, Nelka said.

Prospective travelers can also get passports at the Adamstown, Kutztown and Boyertown libraries and at the Berks County Courthouse. Sinking Spring has evening hours, Nelka said.

If you want a passport, make an appointment. The library meets with people for passports Monday through Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and on the second Saturday of each month from 9 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

Mother, former teacher is running for Wilson school board

by Steve Reinbrecht

It would be hard to find someone more Wilson School District than Steph Kocher.

The mother and former WSD teacher now wants to help run the district as a school board director.

Twelve people are running for four open seats on the nine-member school board. The primary is May 16. Few elections are more important.

Kocher, 34, was born in Berks, attended Whitfield Elementary School, graduated from Wilson High School and eventually married another Wilson grad – though not her high-school sweetheart, she was quick to note.

She always wanted to be a teacher, practiced on her younger siblings, and earned a teaching degree from Shippensburg University and a masters in counseling from Millersville University.

She taught in Wilson schools from 2005 until 2014, when she left to devote more time to raising her children. She has a daughter, 5, and a son, 3.

Expecting to have more free time as they start kindergarten and pre-school in the fall, Kocher considered volunteering opportunities.

The controversy over the hiring and resignation of former Superintendent Curt Baker galvanized her idea to run for the school board. She attended the latest three board meetings and has been reading Wilson school board minutes.

Kocher takes stands on educational issues on her website. In general, she opposes standardized tests, voucher programs, and the way charter schools are funded. She supports homework.

What would she tell a voter who might be concerned that she is too pro-teacher and will want to raise taxes to spend more on public education?

Kocher knows that fiscal restraint is important in Wilson – she met lots of Republicans as she went door-to-door collecting signatures.

She does want people to appreciate how hard teachers work, noting she often stayed up late at night preparing for classes. But as a board member, she said, her priority will be students’ interests, not teachers’.

Further, Kocher thinks the district raises enough money through local taxes. She wants to analyze how that money is allocated. The district could make expense reports easier to sort by categories, for example, to get a better understanding of where the district spends, she said.

Kocher said she has a large group of friends and contacts connected to the district as employees and parents. They tell her about morale and how board decisions affect teachers, students and families.

Kocher said she would promote more transparency and community involvement. For example, the board could release a notice a week or two before their meetings to announce debates and votes on important issues.

That would prompt more community input, she said.

The presidential campaign and election have encouraged residents to become more interested and involved in politics, Kocher said, and she hopes to ride that enthusiasm to get more residents involved in district decisions.

She noted that Reading Area Community College plans to offer classes in Wilson Southern Middle School, and said school buildings could be opened to other education programs.

Kocher said she was surprised by how much support people pledged after she announced her decision to run.

Watch for road construction through Sinking Spring for 4 weeks

Drivers should expect delays [more so] through Sinking Spring for four weeks as Pennsylvania American Water paves lanes where the company replaced aging pipes last year, according to a release from the company.

No work is scheduled 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., or 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., during the project.

In the first phase, starting this week, crews will repave Penn Avenue between Wynnewood Avenue and Cacoosing Avenue.

That phase is scheduled for weekdays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Two lanes will remain open in each direction.

In the second phase, crews will pave between Cacoosing Avenue and Mull Avenue overnight to minimize traffic disruptions.

Overnight work is scheduled 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Eastbound traffic will be restricted to one lane.

The project is expected to last four weeks, weather permitting.

Last year, Pennsylvania American Water installed nine fire hydrants and laid nearly 4,200 feet of 8-inch and 12-inch ductile iron pipe along Penn Avenue, replacing pipe that dated to the 1950s as part of the $2.5 million project.

Overall, the company invested more than $24 million in capital improvements in its Berks County water systems between 2010 and 2016.

Pennsylvania American Water, a subsidiary of American Water, is the largest investor-owned water utility in the state, providing water and wastewater services to 2.3 million people.

Township police in Southwestern Berks would hold illegal immigrants for immigration agents

by Steve Reinbrecht

Police in Lower Heidelberg and South Heidelberg would notify federal immigration authorities if they contact someone in the country illegally.

Across the United States, some communities – so-called “sanctuary” cities, for example – vow to protect immigrants who are here illegally by not cooperating with federal immigration agents. For example, they prohibit their police from notifying immigration officials if they have someone on an ICE detainer.

Those who support such protection say it makes communities safer. Illegal immigrants would refrain from reporting crime or otherwise cooperating with police if they had to worry about being identified and detained. Supporters cite research that shows immigrants of any status are less likely to commit crime than non-immigrants.

Critics, including President Trump and many mostly Republican leaders, say the detainees are criminals who tend to commit crimes and take jobs from citizens.

Lower Heidelberg Police Chief W. Thomas Deiterich said the township does not have a policy regarding officers asking about residency status or immigration status.

If someone has a federal immigration detainer, the department will contact immigration officials and have them come, he told me in an e-mail.

An immigration detainer is an official request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to another law enforcement agency, such as a state or local jail, that the local agency notify ICE before releasing an individual so that ICE can arrange to take over custody.

Refugees or immigrants have not caused crime or trouble in the township, Deiterich wrote.

South of Penn Avenue, in South Heidelberg, the police department’s policy is to notify ICE “in the event we would contact someone who is in the country illegally” and “let them decide what they would want to do with the person.”

There have been no documented crimes in South Heidelberg attributed to any person who is in this country in an undocumented status since July, when he became chief, Chief Barry Whitmoyer wrote.

He doesn’t believe people are discouraged from reporting crimes because of potential cooperation between police and immigration agents, he wrote.

Sinking Spring Chief Lee Schweyer and Western Berks Chief William Schlichter did not respond to my questions for this post.