Borough Begins Redrawing Wards

Phoenixville began what figures to be the difficult process of redrawing its four wards on July 5 with the initial meeting of the borough’s redistricting committee.

According to The Times Herald, the objective of the committee–which is comprised of residents of each ward–is to balance the population of each. Efforts will center on the North Ward, which presently has about 5,000 residents to the 3,000 contained in each of the other three.

“The North Ward is going to be our biggest challenge,” West Ward resident and committee member Larry Tillotson told the Herald. “We’ve got to shave 1,500 people out of the North Ward.”

To this end, the committee discussed redistricting North Ward residents into the town’s West and Middle Wards, then redrawing some of the Middle Ward’s population into the East Ward. The committee said it will endeavor to keep individual streets intact.

After the ward redrawing is complete, the committee will move on to redrawing the precincts–which it will attempt to do with minimal impact on polling locations. Tillotson said he doesn’t want anyone to have to travel more than half a mile to vote.

The committee will meet again on August 2 to continue discussions–they hope to meet the first Thursday of each month­–and their expectation is to have the plans completed by the end of 2012, though not in time for the November elections.