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POLICE SHOOTING

LEGION BASEBALL

Suspect
taunted
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over 2 hours

Norchester
remains
perfect into
title game

National News >> D4

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Boyertown
drums up
big win to
advance

Sports >> C1

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Sports >> C1
TODAYS WEATHER

High:85 Low: 64 >> PAGE C6

Monday, July 11, 2016 $1.50FACEBOOK.COM/POTTSTOWNMERCURYTWITTER.COM/MERCURYX

POTTSTOWN

pottsmerc.com

MENTAL HEALTH

TOUR DE FORCE Advocates

push for
options to
end waits
Pottstown Bike Race makes successful return

Mentally ill Pottstown defendant

was in jail for months

LOST IN LIMBO
Part 2 of 2
By Kaitlyn Foti
kfoti@21st-centurymedia.com
@kaitlynfoti on Twitter

TOM KELLY III - FOR DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA

Racers in the Mens 55+ division of the Pottstown Criterium Bike Race roll down High Street near Charlotte Street during
Sundays race.
By Eric Devlin
edevlin@21st-centurymedia.
com
@Eric_Devlin on Twitter

Downtown
Pottstown transformed
into a cyclists paradise
Sunday afternoon. As they
furiously pedaled downtown for the first time
since the late 1990s, hundreds of athletes helped
usher in the successful return of the Pottstown Bike
Race.
More than 300 cyclists
competed in a series of races
that began at noon and featured a 0.9 mile course
throughout borough streets.
Each of the eight races
two womens races and six
mens races began at High
and Charlotte streets. Riders
then turned left onto North
Evans Street before turning
on to Walnut Street and then
again onto North Hanover
POTTSTOWN >>

Street. They then completed

a lap by making their way
back to High and Charlotte
streets. During each lap, athletes sprinted in a tight row
formation past the sidelined
spectators, each looking to
gain an edge on the evershifting leader.
For Colleen Gulick, race
co-director, the return of
the bike race was a great
success.
We couldnt have asked
for a more cooperative and
a great day in terms of
weather and the community coming out to support it, she said. Things
are going great.
The event was lucky to
gain the communitys support, Gulick said. Among
the many vendors that
helped out was Sly Fox
Brewing Company, which
set up a beer garden for
spectators to relax and
RACE PAGE 3

TOM KELLY III - FOR DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA

Winner of the Mens Category 5 division of the

Pottstown Criterium Bike Race, Owen Musser, cruises
across the finish line on High Street near Charlotte Street
during Sundays all-day race.

Part two
During the summer of 2014, a Montgomery
County judge declared 23-year-old Jason James
Payne incompetent to stand trial for allegedly
attacking his mother, Pamela, with a foot-long
butcher knife inside the East Third Street home
they shared in Pottstown.
Payne waited in jail for four months until there
was room for him at Norristown State Hospital,
where he is now being treated for mental illness.
In 2015, the American Civil Liberties Union
filed a class-action lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, with a lead
plaintiff listed only as J.H., declaring that any
prison wait of more than seven days violated a
defendants constitutional rights.
Attorney David P. Gersch, who served as cocounsel to the ACLU on the lawsuit, said that J.H.
spent more than a year on the waitlist after stealing $3 in peppermint patties.
The lawsuit was settled Jan. 27 of this year,
with stipulations that DHS, which funds Norristown and Torrance state hospitals, creates 60
new treatment placements for those declared incompetent.
The state has created 49 new beds in residential
treatment facilities, including Gaudenzia, New Vitae
and Girard Recovery Center. There is also an action
plan that includes 20 new extended treatment slots,
60 slots for continued care for those discharged from
the hospital and 100 supported housing slots.
WAIT LIST PAGE 5

We couldnt have asked for a

more cooperative and a great
day in terms of weather and the
community coming out to support
it. Things are going great.
Colleen Gulick, Pottstown Bike Race co-director

NORTH COVENTRY

Citizen sends flowers to support police

North Coventry Police
Cpl. Paul Holliday (left)
and officer Victoria
Hipple show off a floral
arrangement that was
received by the police
department by an
anonymous citizen in
a show of support for
police and their service
to the community
following the recent
tragedy in Dallas, Texas.

Digital First Media

A citizen who did not give a name

sent flowers to the North Coventry
Township Police Department Saturday to show support for law enforcement in the wake of last weeks events
throughout the nation and the shooting
of police officers in Dallas on Thursday.
The flowers were delivered early Saturday morning and a note was signed
A Citizen.
The note thanked police for service
to the community and noted sorrow for
the fallen officers in Dallas.

TOM KELLY III FOR DIGITAL

FIRST MEDIA

POLICE PAGE 5

STATE BUDGET

Wolf to let budget bill

become law despite
funding questions
By Marc Levy
The Associated Press

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf

said he would not stop a roughly $31 billion election-year spending bill from becoming law, even
though the gridlocked Pennsylvania Legislature
remained unable to explain Sunday how it would
pay for it.
Wolf made the revelation during a Sunday evening Capitol news conference, just 30 hours before his midnight Monday deadline to act on the
spending bill that lawmakers passed June 30.
Wolf said he would let the spending bill become law without his signature if the Republican-controlled Legislature does not produce an
acceptable revenue package to fund it.
Wolfs move prompted head scratching in the
Capitol as to whether the move was constitutional
or what effect, if any, it could ultimately have on
HARRISBURG, PA. >>

WOLF PAGE 5

BUSINESS

OPINION

LOCAL

ONLINE

SEPTA delays expected

through summer

Voices of reason must

prevail against hatred

Community helps
seniors age gracefully

Reading your e-paper

just got a lot easier

SEPTA is releasing an interim

weekday schedule for Regional
Rail lines because of delays,
which begins today. PAGE B1

Baser instincts will push us to

deepen mistrust, exploit anger
and elevate confrontation.
Dont let them. PAGE A4

Retirement community wants

to help adults age healthy by
keeping active mentally and
physically. PAGE A3

Did you know you can read the

e-paper on a smartphone or
tablet? Download PressReader in iTunes or Google Play.

INDEX

Obituaries........D4

Opinion.............A4

Business.......... B1

Sports................C1

TV.....................B4

Lottery.............A2

Volume 85, issue##

246
Index................

Index................ ##

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