Former Coatesville City Manager Jean Krack said this morning that he is hopeful he will be named borough manager for Phoenixville.

"I'm really excited about the possibility," he said. "Phoenixville has turned itself around. There are a lot of great people there." Krack said he is also looking forward to the possibility of once again interacting with Chester County officials.

Krack now is executive director of the Institute for Economic Development of Crozer Keystone Health System in Chester. Prior to that he was Coatesville city manger; he was named to that position in 2004 after then City Manager Paul Janssen resigned amid reports the city had been running a deficit budget.

Shortly after the Bloc of Four were took office in 2005, Krack was forced to resign, starting an exodus of other top administrators, including the codes director and the police chief.

When Krack took over as Coatesville city manger the city was $7 million in debt. To correct the years of deficit spending, Krack was forced to increase real estate taxes and double the earned income tax, plus draw down in excess of $13 million from the city's Trust Fund.

Within months of the new council taking office in 2006, the Bloc of Four attempted to open the budget in the hopes of alleviating some of the tax increases; however, they failed to act in the time period permitted. The city's 2007 and and 2008 budgets proposed by now City Manager Harry Walker and approved by the current council left those tax increases in place.