Steve Toroney, President, Pottstown Borough Council

Dear Steve,

Congratulations !

Congratulations seems too easy to say, too easily said in expressing the enormous gratitude for the many years of service you've given to Pottstown. Those of us who served with you understand the demanding pressure put on you during your tenure of service with the borough. Good leaders, always the target of small minded know it alls, are best served by their own quiet demeanor, their big picture view, and their dogged determination to arrive at a just answer.

In thinking about you and these words, I thought back to my own grandfather, Andrew Grey Downie, who I revered as my mentor when I was young. GrandPa was a sage who talked to me while performing carpenter skills on small furniture items he designed. He made inlayed tops for tables which took a lot of time with fitting and cutting and then attaching the pieces to form some geometric pattern. To me, he was a teacher who also was a carpenter. Seems to me this sounds like you.

Maybe, the similarity to my GrandPa is why I've been drawn to you ever since I met you. In all reality, wasn't there a young man who traveled the Middle Eastern Lands some 2000 years ago who was also a teacher and most likely knew carpentry since his father was a carpenter and it is his story that has effected the World ever since. No, I'm not saying what you're thinking, except, that there must be some synergy between building and then teaching others how to build. Maybe it is the measuring twice before having only to cut once that makes a person more decisive, more self assured, like you.

In keeping with our country's founders, legislators were always expected to serve in their elective position for some period of time then return home to their land or job. I believed in these traditions and I believe you do too. As time moves on, so must others move into positions of responsibility. You've set a strong base for others to build upon and Pottstown applauds you. As GrandPa used to say, "a good job is its own reward"; and "a job worth doing, is a job worth doing well".

Again, Congratulations !

Respectfully, Ronald C. Downie