Karen Johns - Life in Phoenixville

ALERT! Attempted abduction in Phoenixville

2011-12-08T10:53:00.001-05:00

Received via email from a concerned parent:

Dear Parents / Guardians:

This morning there was an attempted abduction of a student as she was walking to CAT Pickering Technical School. The attempted abduction took place near the intersection of Potthouse and Charlestown Roads. A white male, approximate age 40, with grey hair and scruffy facial hair, driving a older grey colored Ford F150 pickup truck with a black bumper sticker of a fishi...ng rod in the back window behind the driver, pulled up beside the female student as she walked along the road. The person attempted to grab her and pull her into the truck. The girl ran away from the vehicle and made her way to CAT Pickering School where she reported the incident. CAT Pickering administrators immediately notified the police.

This incident reminds all of us of the need to be vigilant at all times. Phoenixville Area Schools will, age appropriately, let the students know of the incident and remind all students of the precautions they should be taking while walking around their neighborhoods.

If you have any information or see a vehicle matching the description, please call the Schuylkill Township Police Department or 911.

Alan

Alan D. Fegley, Ed.D.
Superintendent
Phoenixville Area School District
386 City Line Avenue
Phoenixville, PA 19460

CHRISTMAS VILLAGE AT WESTRIDGE - PHOENIXVILLE, PA

2011-12-02T21:38:00.000-05:00

Dear friends and associates, some of you may wonder why you are receiving this – it’s simply because we don’t want to miss anyone so we are sending this to our contact list.

My grandson, Andy Bailey and I have been building our Christmas Village since Christmas 1990 (he was just 5 then). Fourteen years ago we leased a permanent home in the basement of the Westridge office / Victorian farmhouse at 970 Township Line Rd., Phoenixville, and opened our village up to all who wish to enjoy the Christmas “whimsy” of our display.

Please pass this on to any of your friends might be interested in visiting our Christmas Village,

Whether you live near Phoenixville or are far away, we wish you a very merry Christmas!,

Pat & Brad Peck and our grandson, Andy Bailey.

CHRISTMAS VILLAGE AT WESTRIDGE - PHOENIXVILLE, PA - SHOW HOURS

Come see our Christmas Village at Westridge

in the basement of the Westridge Farmhouse (office)

970 Township Line Road, Phoenixville, PA

Over 150 lighted porcelain houses, trains and lots of other animation.

14th year at Westridge!

“spectacular and inspiring” - The Phoenix, "phenomenal" - The Mercury,

"miniature Engineering Marvel" - Daily Local News

Hours: 2 to 4 p.m.

DATES:

Saturday Dec 3 Sunday Jan 18

Sunday Dec 4 Saturday Dec 24

Saturday Dec 10 Saturday Dec 31

Sunday Dec 11 Saturday Jan 21

Saturday Jan 17 Sunday Jan 22

Hours: 2 to 4 p.m.

For directions and more information see our web site at:

Click here for the ►CHRISTMAS VILLAGE

http://mysite.verizon.net/patandbrad/christmas/

Or for directions click on

http://mysite.verizon.net/patandbrad/christmas/id13.html

or call me at (610) 983-0129

Limerick License Renewal - PLEASE TAKE ACTION! GET YOUR CONCERNS ON THE RECORD!

2011-10-12T17:15:00.002-04:00

Received via email for distribution.

****

ACTION ALERT

NRC IS DECIDING THE FATE OF OUR REGION

Your Health and Everything You Own

Are Further At Risk!

PLEASE TAKE ACTION!

GET YOUR CONCERNS ON THE RECORD!

Write NRC

DEADLINE 10-28-11

E-Mail: Lisa.Regner@NRC.gov

OR Mail To: U.S. NRC

Lisa Regner, License Renewal

Mailstop TWB-05-BO1 M

Washington, D.C. 20555

Include:

Limerick License Renewal - NRC I.D. Docket 2011-0166

PLEASE Forward This Information To Friends, Family, Neighbors, Co-Workers

Urge Them To Take Action!

NRC MUST STOP RE-LICENSING AGING NUCLEAR PLANTS LIKE LIMERICK

BEFORE ITS TOO LATE

LIMERICK MUST BE CLOSED, NOT RELICENSED,

TO PROTECT OVER 8 MILLION PEOPLE

CONTACT ELECTED OFFICIALS TODAY

Ask Them To Contact NRC And

OPPOSE Limerick Relicensing

Their Voices Are Urgently Needed Too!

The Body Of Evidence For Them To Support This Request Is Overwhelming!

See Attached List Of Officials' Phones, Faxes, Addresses

Limerick Nuclear Plant's Harms and Threats

Profoundly Impact Millions Of The Region's Residents.

Limerick Harms and Threats Are Unprecedented!

Limerick Nuclear Plant's License Expires In 2029 - Exelon Wants To Run It Until 2049

Threats and Harms, Already Unacceptable After 26 Years, Are Increasing!

Since 1985, Unprecedented Environmental Harms, Threats, and Risks From Limerick Include:

1. Radiation Into Air and Water From Routine and Accidental Emissions

2. Major Air Pollution Under Health Based Standards of the Clean Air Act

3. Schuylkill River Depletion and Major Drinking Water Contamination

4. Radioactive Groundwater Contamination

5. Radiation Reporting Levels Increased Dramatically After Japan Disaster

6. Alarming Cancer Increases, Especially In Children, Since Limerick Started Operating

7. Deadly High Level Radioactive Wastes Packed In Vulnerable Fuel Pools On Site

8. Lax Fire Safety Regulations

9. Accidents and Leaks From Corroding, Deteriorating Equipment Plus Miles of Buried Pipes and Cables

10. Increased Risk of Meltdown From More Frequent and Stronger Earthquakes and

Other Natural Disasters

11. Threats From Unguarded Terrorist Attacks With Planes and Missiles, Cyber Attacks

12. Need for an Updated Evacuation Plan and Increased EPZ

13. Increased Costs to the Public - More Cancers and Other Costly Illnesses, More

Emergency Room Visits and Hospitalizations from Massive Increases in PM-10 and TDS, Treatment of Public Drinking Water, Environmental Clean-Up

14. Dangerous, Dirty, Harmful, and Costly Nuclear Power Is Not Needed. It Can And Should Be Replaced With Safe, Clean, Renewable Energy.

List Compiled By The Alliance For A Clean Environment - September 2011

Conclusion: Harms, threats, and risks can and should be expected to increase continuously until Limerick's current operating licenses expire in 2029. It woulACTION ALERT

NRC IS DECIDING THE FATE OF OUR REGION

Your Health and Everything You Own

Are Further At Risk!

PLEASE TAKE ACTION!

GET YOUR CONCERNS ON THE RECORD!

Write NRC

DEADLINE 10-28-11

E-Mail: Lisa.Regner@NRC.gov

OR Mail To: U.S. NRC

Lisa Regner, License Renewal

Mailstop TWB-05-BO1 M

Washington, D.C. 20555

Include:

Limerick License Renewal - NRC I.D. Docket 2011-0166

PLEASE Forward This Information To Friends, Family, Neighbors, Co-Workers

Urge Them To Take Action!

NRC MUST STOP RE-LICENSING AGING NUCLEAR PLANTS LIKE LIMERICK

BEFORE ITS TOO LATE

LIMERICK MUST BE CLOSED, NOT RELICENSED,

TO PROTECT OVER 8 MILLION PEOPLE

CONTACT ELECTED OFFICIALS TODAY

Ask Them To Contact NRC And

OPPOSE Limerick Relicensing

Their Voices Are Urgently Needed Too!

The Body Of Evidence For Them To Support This Request Is Overwhelming!

See Attached List Of Officials' Phones, Faxes, Addresses

Limerick Nuclear Plant's Harms and Threats

Profoundly Impact Millions Of The Region's Residents.

Limerick Harms and Threats Are Unprecedented!

Limerick Nuclear Plant's License Expires In 2029 - Exelon Wants To Run It Until 2049

Threats and Harms, Already Unacceptable After 26 Years, Are Increasing!

Since 1985, Unprecedented Environmental Harms, Threats, and Risks From Limerick Include:

1. Radiation Into Air and Water From Routine and Accidental Emissions

2. Major Air Pollution Under Health Based Standards of the Clean Air Act

3. Schuylkill River Depletion and Major Drinking Water Contamination

4. Radioactive Groundwater Contamination

5. Radiation Reporting Levels Increased Dramatically After Japan Disaster

6. Alarming Cancer Increases, Especially In Children, Since Limerick Started Operating

7. Deadly High Level Radioactive Wastes Packed In Vulnerable Fuel Pools On Site

8. Lax Fire Safety Regulations

9. Accidents and Leaks From Corroding, Deteriorating Equipment Plus Miles of Buried Pipes and Cables

10. Increased Risk of Meltdown From More Frequent and Stronger Earthquakes and

Other Natural Disasters

11. Threats From Unguarded Terrorist Attacks With Planes and Missiles, Cyber Attacks

12. Need for an Updated Evacuation Plan and Increased EPZ

13. Increased Costs to the Public - More Cancers and Other Costly Illnesses, More

Emergency Room Visits and Hospitalizations from Massive Increases in PM-10 and TDS, Treatment of Public Drinking Water, Environmental Clean-Up

14. Dangerous, Dirty, Harmful, and Costly Nuclear Power Is Not Needed. It Can And Should Be Replaced With Safe, Clean, Renewable Energy.

List Compiled By The Alliance For A Clean Environment - September 2011

Conclusion: Harms, threats, and risks can and should be expected to increase continuously until Limerick's current operating licenses expire in 2029. It would be irresponsible for NRC to approve license renewals until 2049.

Attached Are Packets Which Can Be Printed And Circulated.

They Clarify Some Issues Above Including:

A. Limerick's Routine Radiation Releases Linked To Skyrocketing Cancer Increases

B. Limerick Destroying The Schuylkill River

C. Meltdowns, Evacuation Plans, Emergency Plans

D. NRC's Weakened Regulations, Lax Enforcement, Negligence, Rubberstamp Permitting

E. News - Articles On NRC'S Failed Policies and Oversight

F. Exelon Deception

G. Financial Injustice and Deception

H. Limerick's Electric Can Be Replaced - There Is No Need To Relicense Dirty, Dangerous, Costly Limerick Nuclear Power

I. Solar News Dispels Exelon "Myths"

For more information on harms, threats, and risks from Limerick Nuclear Power Plant

Visit: www.acereport.org

For Questions Or If You Can't Open Attachments

Contact ACE (610) 326-2387 aceactivists@comcast.net

Why Your Voice Is Urgently Needed!

Exelon is buying silence and support for their profits over your health and safety, through campaign contributions and donations. Your voice is needed in support of your interests instead of Exelon's profits.

NRC's public hearing 9-22-11 was stacked in favor of Limerick relicensing by a parade of people with a vested interest for one reason or another. They focused on financial issues, while ignoring unprecedented harm and risks to the health and safety of you and your family. Many supported Limerick relicensing based on outright lies, claiming Limerick was clean, safe, and reliable. Facts clearly dispute those lies. Limerick is filthy, NOT clean. Limerick is a ticking time bomb, NOT safe. Nuclear power is NOT always on. It has had to be shut down (sometimes, for long periods), due to earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, drought and heat, human error, and more.

Exelon's contributions are buying silence and support at the expense of your family's health and safety. Officials and organizations have either remained silent or supported Limerick relicensing , in spite of overwhelming evidence of unprecedented harms and risks provided to them by ACE for many years.

Too many value campaign contributions and donations over your health and safety. Just two examples:

· PA Representative Tom Quigley took $5,000 from Exelon in campaign contributions and spoke in favor of relicensing, claiming it was because only two people contacted his office opposed to Limerick relicensing.

· Limerick's threats and harms to the Schuylkill River, a vital drinking water source for almost two million people from Pottstown to Philadelphia, are unparalleled. Yet, the Schuylkill River Heritage Foundation, that should be protecting the river, instead turns a blind eye for Exelon's donations. Tim Fenschel, Schuylkill River Heritage Member, testified to NRC 9-22-11 In Pottstown, in support of Limerick relicensing.

The facts clearly show it is not in our best interests for Limerick Nuclear Plant to be relicensed from 2029 to 2049. We don't need Limerick's dirty, dangerous, and costly electricity. Limerick's electric can be replaced long before 2029, in spite of Exelon's desperate deceptive attempts to suggest otherwise,

It is too dangerous to operate beyond 2029. Limerick Nuclear Plant was licensed for 40years, based on its life expectancy. Yet, Exelon and NRC are trying to claim otherwise. Shamefully, while claiming parts are being replaced, at the same time NRC and industry admit some parts (which can become brittle and wear thin), are too big and too expensive to replace.

Many of you could not attend the public hearing for a wide variety of reasons.

Ø BUT, there is still an opportunity for you to have your concerns counted on the record.

PLEASE TAKE TIME TO SPEAK UP NOW! DEADLINE OCTOBER 28, 2011

1. Contact NRC. GET YOUR CONCERNS ON NRC'S PUBLIC HEARING RECORD.

E-Mail: Lisa.Regner@NRC.gov

OR Mail To: U.S. NRC

Lisa Regner, License Renewal

Mailstop TWB-05-BO1 M

Washington, D.C. 20555

2. Call or write all elected officials today. They can make a huge difference!

In many other states and nations, elected officials have taken action to protect the health, safety, and future of their citizens, working to close their nuclear plants. URGE ELECTED OFFICIALS TO CONTACT NRC AND OPPOSE LIMERICK RELICENSING - BEFORE 10-28-11.

Phone, Fax, Address List Attached.

Questions? Contact Donna Cuthbert

(610) 326-2387 or aceactivists@comcast.net

More Information - www.acereport.org

Watch "The ACE Report" PCTV, Channel 28, Tuesdays, 7 to 8 P.M.

Background:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is the agency charged with protecting public health and safety, and the environment related to the operations of nuclear plants. NRC has been required to do an Environmental Impact Statement on Limerick Nuclear Plant in relation to relicensing from 2029 to 2049. NRC is taking public comments on Limerick Nuclear Plant's environmental harms and threats to public health and safety until October 28, 2011.

Ø If you don't speak out, Limerick Nuclear Plant's unprecedented environmental harms and threats will be ignored by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), an agency all too happy to ignore them on behalf of Exelon's profits.

It is imperative for you to get your comments on NRC's public hearing record.

ü NRC's weakened regulations, lax enforcement, and negligence have destroyed their credibility and left us vulnerable to disaster.

ü NRC has been called more of a lapdog than a watchdog.

ü NRC has been promoting nuclear power, rather than protecting our health and safety.

Environmental and Cancer Harms and Threats

· Since 1985, Limerick has poisoned our air, water, vegetation, soil, food, and us with a broad range of radionuclides from routine operations. The National Academy of Sciences and Physicians for Social Responsibility have said there is no safe level of radiation exposure. Obviously, Limerick has been a major factor in cancer rates in six communities near Limerick that skyrocketed far above the national average, from 1985 when Limerick started operating to the late1990s, especially in children. See attached Radiation and Cancer Links.

· Each day Limerick operates, more radiation will be released increasing our risk for cancer and other health harms. But that's not all. ACE recently learned from Limerick's most recent air pollution and water contamination permits that Exelon requested drastic increases in dangerous air pollution from Limerick's cooling towers, discharges from Limerick into the Schuylkill River at four times Safe Drinking Water Standards, and more pumping of contaminated unfiltered mine water to supplement the Schuylkill River flow to operate Limerick. Exelon is also asking to eliminate important river safeguards and public participation and to reduce monitoring. Limerick had leaks and spills that contaminated the groundwater with radiation.

Elected and agency officials, regional organizations, spoke for Exelon's profits, not your health and safety.

· At NRC's public hearing September 22, 2011 in Pottstown, too many Exelon executives and those with a vested interest totally disregarded the reality of unprecedented risks and harms to our region from Limerick Nuclear Plant operating 60 years. They shamelessly supported Limerick relicensing, valuing Exelon's profits and donations to their campaigns and/or special interests, over the health and safety of millions.

· Attached is a letter I submitted to the Mercury, identifying some of the elected officials who failed to take a position to protect our region and its residents. Only one elected official spoke on behalf of public interests, Michael Moyer, East Coventry Supervisor. His letter is attached.

The financial injustice of Limerick Nuclear Plant is appalling!

· As ratepayers and taxpayers we've been victimized far too long by Limerick Nuclear Plant and its owners PECO/Exelon. Attached is a summary of the economic injustice we suffered as a result of Limerick.

Only closing Limerick can prevent the potential for catastrophic consequences from a meltdown.

· Limerick cannot be made failsafe. Prevention is imperative! The evacuation plan is based on illusion. Attached is a summary about earthquakes and other risk factors for meltdown.

PLEASE PASS THIS INFORMATION TO FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND NEIGHBORS.

ENCOURAGE THEM TO SPEAK OUT NOW TOO.

ALERT - NRC Meeting on Limerick's Environmental Harms and Threats 9-22-11

2011-09-20T21:14:00.002-04:00

ACTION ALERT!

Received via email:

There's An Opportunity For You To Speak Out To Help Stop Limerick Nuclear Plant's
Unprecedented Environmental Harms And Health Threats

After 11 years of collecting a body of evidence of extraordinary harms and threats associated with Limerick Nuclear Plant's routine operations, it's clear to ACE that Limerick must be closed, not relicensed.

For Issue Summaries and Viewing Latest ACE Report TV Shows: www.acereport.org
For Fact Sheets Call ACE (610) 326-2387

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will be making a decision that will greatly impact the health and safety of your family and future generations. There is an opportunity for the public to weigh in on issues the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should evaluate as potential Environmental Impacts of an extension of Limerick Nuclear Plant's Operating License.

NRC Will Hold Two Meetings and On-The-Record Public Hearings

Date: Thursday, September 22, 2011

Time: 2:00 P.M. and/or 7:00 P.M.

Location: Sunnybrook Ballroom, Pottstown

50 N. Sunnybrook Road in Pottstown

ACE will have an information table from 1 to 2 and 6 to 7.

Limerick's Environmental Threats and Harms

Impact Families From Pottstown to Philadelphia

Take This Opportunity To Object

To Being Continuously Poisoned By Limerick Nuclear Plant's Radiation and Other Dangerous Toxics.

NRC won't protect you because it's the ethical and moral thing to do. Your voice is needed now!

NRC previously weakened regulations and safeguards, jeopardizing your future to accommodate Exelon profits.

NRC's Denial, Weakened Regulations, and Negligence Can Lead To Disaster!

Tell NRC: Limerick Must Be Closed, NOT Relicensed!

Evidence shows Limerick's electric can be replaced with energy that won't poison you and your environment with radiation and other dangerous toxics every day, or threaten to turn you into a nuclear refugee losing everything you own. FACT: Limerick can close and the lights won't go out!

Major Threats Will Continue As Long As Limerick Operates.

Serious Harms Will Increase If Limerick Is Relicensed.

Detailed Information On Limerick's Threats and Harms Were Compiled By ACE

For More Information Call (610) 326-2387

1. Routine Radiation Releases

Every day Limerick operates you and your environment will be poisoned with a broad range of radionuclides,

including two you heard about associated with Fukushima - Iodine-131 and Cesium-137.

Radionuclides associated with Limerick's operations are already confirmed in our region's air, water, vegetation, soil, milk, fish, and children.

2. Unprecedented Threats To Drinking Water

Detailed Information Available On Each Issue Below:

A. Continued Radioactive Contamination of the Schuylkill River, 24 Hours A Day, 365 Days A Year, With More Radiation Showing Up At Water Treatment Plants From Limerick to Philadelphia, without being continuously monitored or filtered out. (Phoenixville Water Works, American Water Works, Aqua PA, and Philadelphia Water Department).

B. Schuylkill River Depletion By Over 12 Billion of Gallons Each Year Due To Cooling Towers

C. Pumping of Contaminated Unfiltered Mine Water Into the Schuylkill River to Operate Limerick.

D. Huge Increases In Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Discharges From Limerick Into The River. TDS can transport a broad range of radionuclides and other toxics used at Limerick into the river. TDS increases can cost water treatment companies more for treatment and equipment, cost the public more for drinking water, and increase a broad range of serious health problems.

E. Radioactive Leaks and Spills Contaminated Groundwater. Exelon's limited and questionable self-monitoring doesn't guarantee radioactive contamination hasn't already spread. Earthquakes could be shaking and breaking buried pipes carrying radioactive water. Deterioration and corrosion could also cause leaking. Radioactive leaks could go undetected for long periods and spread into hundreds of residential wells.

3. Huge Increases In Major Air Pollution From Limerick's Cooling Towers and Other Limerick Air Pollution Sources

Detailed summary available.

4. Cancer Increases, Especially in Children.

After Limerick started operating in 1985, there were shocking cancer increases far above the national average,especially in children. Detailed summaries are available.

Other serious health problems far above state averages, associated with Limerick's radiation releases and other dangerous toxics include:

Infant and neonatal mortality

Lower Respiratory Diseases

Cerebrovascular Diseases

Exelon Has Pending and Recently Approved Permit Requests for Limerick Nuclear Plant that Will Significantly Increase Environmental and Health Harms, as well as Financial Costs to the Entire Region.

Limerick's License Doesn't Expire for 18 More Years. Relicensing Would Result In Operating Limerick 20 More Years (After 2029).

Everyday Limerick Operates Our Risks Increase:

· Every day for 20 more years, more radiation would be released into our air, water, food, soil, vegetation, and fish, poisoning us, our children, and future generations with additive and synergistic radiation doses from many routes of exposure.

· Risks of more radioactive leaks and spills into groundwater from miles of buried deteriorating, corroding pipes, as well as increasing and more dangerous earthquakes.

· Drinking water from the Schuylkill River will be further at risk, both from depletion and concentrations of synergistic combinations of Limerick's radiation releases with other dangerous toxics, and mine water pumping.

· As a major polluter under health based standards of the Clean Air Act, Limerick's dangerous air pollution toxics will continue, and include harmful permitted increases.

Schuylkill River -Exelon Asked To:

· Increase Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) discharges from Limerick, to limits four times "Safe Drinking Water Standards".

· Eliminate temperature restrictions, lower flow restrictions, reduce monitoring, and eliminate future public participation.

· Pump more contaminated mine pit water (adding more mines) into the river (UNFILTERED) to supplement the river flow for Limerick operations.

Air Pollution From Cooling Towers:

· Limerick was granted the permit conditions in 2009 that allow an 8-fold increase in dangerous Particulate Matter (PM-10) from the cooling towers.

Uprates - Exelon Asked To:

· Run Limerick harder, causing more air pollution, more water contamination and water use, as well as increased risk of disaster.

· Exelon was already allowed to have small uprates for Limerick, but in addition wants even larger Uprates.

Public Costs For Approvals Of Exelon's Relicensing and Increased Pollution Have Been Ignored.

· Public's Costs Associated With Limerick's Pollution Are Obviously Astronomical! PUBLIC COSTS For Relicensing Would Dwarf Any Benefits Claimed By Exelon.

Increased Costs For Additional Harms and Threats Need To Be Evaluated and Include:

Cancer Increases Above The National Average. For Example:

One Child Tracked in 2009 (From Age 6 Months to 2 Years) - Expenses Over $2.2 Million

Childhood Cancer Rates Skyrocketed to 92.5% (1995 to 1999) Higher Than The National Average In Six Communities Close to Limerick. The upward trend shows a link to Limerick. Limerick started operating in 1985. Rates rose to 30% higher by late 1980s, 60% higher in early 1990s, then 92.5% higher by late 1990s.

Thyroid Cancers Increased Above The National Average. For Example:

Thyroid Cancer Rates Increased by 128% in Montgomery County, Home of Limerick, from 1985 when Limerick started to 1997. The 1998, 1999, 2000 rates were 75% higher than the national average.

Limerick links are clear:

- We know Limerick's radiation releases impact the thyroid

That's why potassium iodide pills are distributed for an accident.

- Thyroid Cancer Rates for Counties Downwind and Closest to Limerick

Montgomery County - 56.2% higher than U.S. average - mid 2000s

Chester County - 53.9% higher than U.S. average - mid 2000s

Berks County - 14% higher than U.S., but upwind - mid 2000s

Infant and Neonatal Mortality Far Higher Than The State Average Previously.

Increased Emergency Room Visits and Hospitalizations From Increased Asthma Attacks, Other Serious Respiratory Disease and Disabilities, Including Heart Attacks and Strokes - From Increased PM-10 and other Toxics Emitted From Limerick's Cooling Towers.

Increased Costs to Water Systems and Their Water Customers (Pottstown to Philadelphia) From More Mine Water Pumping That Includes: TDS, Manganese, and Iron - Far Higher Than Standards.

Increased Costs for Public Water Systems and Their Customers Due To Limerick's Toxic Packed TDS Discharges Four Times Higher Than Safe Drinking Water Standards from Phoenixville to Philadelphia.

NOTE: Exelon, makes billions in profits each year. Its CEO makes millions, yet Exelon has failed to install the kinds of filtration that could effectively reduce contamination into the river from mine water pumping, its own wastewater discharges, and our air.

Disaster Recovery Center opens in Chester County

2011-09-20T21:12:00.001-04:00

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) and Chester County Department of Emergency Services has opened a Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) to help residents and business owners with their recovery from the recent storms and flooding. Representatives from the U.S. Small Business Administration will be available to answer questions about low interest rate loans.

Opening Date: September 20, 2011

Address: Chester County Government Services Center
601 Westtown Road, Room 042
West Chester, PA 19380

Hours: Tuesday (September 20) from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Beginning Wednesday (September 21) 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week.

Disaster officials recommend that you register before visiting a DRC so if you have any questions about the application process they can be answered face to face. You may visit any DRC regardless of where you live or work.

To register for assistance, call 1-800-621-FEMA (3362). Disaster assistance applicants who have a speech disability or hearing loss and use TTY should call 1-800-462-7585 directly. Or register at DisasterAssistance.gov; the screens will prompt you through the registration process. You can also apply by web-enabled device at m.fema.gov. For those who use 711 or Video Relay Service (VRS), Call 1-800 621-3362. Operators assist callers seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

ALERT! Mosquito spraying set for East Vincent Township & Phoenixville Borough

2011-09-20T14:49:00.004-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 20, 2011
News Release #34
For more information call 610-344-6752

Mosquito Spraying set for East Vincent Township and Phoenixville Borough
Chester County to control adult mosquito populations

Map of spray area - http://www.chesco.org/health/lib/health/maps/treatmentarea34.html

WEST CHESTER, PA– Due to the high number of mosquitoes in the above referenced areas caused by flooding from recent storms, the Chester County Health Department will conduct a mosquito control treatment between 7:30 PM and 10:00 PM on the evening of Wednesday, September 21, 2011 (rain date September 22nd) in the following locations:

EastVincent Township: Old Schuylkill Road and Route 724 between Reitnour Road and Old Schulkill Road and Route 724 intersection Click here for a map of the spray area.

Phoenixville Borough: Black Rock Preserve

The treatment will be administered with truck-mounted equipment. The equipment dispenses Permanone RTU, a permethrin insecticide product, at a rate of 1.5 ounces per acre. It is recommended that residents stay indoors and close windows during treatment for approximately one hour after spraying is complete.

Certain mosquito species carry the West Nile virus which, when transmitted to people, can cause West Nile encephalitis, an infection that can result in an inflammation of the brain. All residents in areas where virus activity has been identified are at risk of getting West Nile encephalitis.

Margaret Rivello, County Health Director, warns that “Although spraying is conducted to help reduce the mosquito populations, treatments cannot totally eliminate mosquitoes. Residents should take precautions to help reduce contact with mosquitoes and breeding areas.”

The Health Department recommends the following precautions to help eliminate mosquito-breeding areas:

• Dispose of open containers on your property that may collect water, such as tin cans, plastic containers, ceramic pots, etc.

• Keep your property clear of old tires or avoid areas where they may be stored.

• Drill holes in the bottom of outdoor recycling containers so that water will not collect.

• Clean roof gutters, particularly if leaves from surrounding trees have a tendency to plug drains.

• Turn over plastic wading pools when not in use.

• Turn over wheelbarrows and don’t let water stagnate in birdbaths.

• Aerate ornamental pools or stock them with fish.

• Clean and chlorinate swimming pools when not in use. A swimming pool left untended for a month can produce enough mosquitoes to result in neighborhood-wide complaints. Mosquitoes may even breed in the water that collects on pool covers.

• For stagnant pools of water, homeowners can buy BTI products at lawn and garden supply stores. This naturally occurring bacterial product kills mosquito larvae but is safe for people, pets, aquatic life and plants.

In addition, take these simple precautions to prevent mosquito bites:

• Make sure screens fit tightly over doors and windows to keep mosquitoes out of homes.

• Consider wearing long-sleeved shirts, long pants and socks when outdoors, particularly when mosquitoes are most active at dawn and dusk, or in areas known for having large numbers of mosquitoes.

• When possible, reduce outdoor exposure at dawn and dusk during the summer.

• Use insect repellants. An effective repellant will contain DEET, picaridin, or oil of lemon eucalyptus. Always be sure to follow the manufacturer label directions. Consult with a pediatrician or family physician if you have questions about the use of repellant on children, as repellant is not recommended for children under the age of two months.

For more information on West Nile Virus, visit the Health Department’s website or call 610-344-6752.

#34#

Health Department to Distribute Potassium Iodide Tablets

2011-07-21T15:17:00.001-04:00

Received via email.

****

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 21, 2011
News Release #19
For more information call 610-344-6252

Health Department to Distribute Potassium Iodide Tablets

West Chester, PA – The Chester County Health Department will be offering potassium iodide (KI) tablets to people who live or work within a 10-mile radius of the Limerick Nuclear Generating Station. (Visit the Health Department website for a map of the 10-mile radius.) The tablets will be distributed on Thursday, August 11, from 2 pm – 7 pm at the Kimberton Fire Company in Phoenixville, PA. The fire company is located at the intersection of Pike Springs Road and Firehouse Lane. The tablets are provided at no cost to residents.

This event is for:

residents who have KI tablets that exceed their expiration date.
new residents who have recently moved near the nuclear power facility.
those who work or attend school within a 10-mile radius.

Individuals will be able to pick up tablets for their family members and those who are unable to pick them up on their own.

In the unlikely event of a radiological emergency, potassium iodide helps protect the thyroid against the harmful effects of radioactive iodine. Residents should only take potassium iodide tablets upon the instructions of Pennsylvania State Health Officials and the Governor.

For Chester County residents who need KI tablets and cannot attend this distribution, tablets are available at the Chester County Health Department. For more information, please call 610-344-6252 or visit us online at www.chesco.org/health.

Video of Phoenixville's 2011 Fireworks!

2011-07-05T13:59:00.003-04:00

YouTube video of Phoenixville's 2011 Fireworks!

http://youtu.be/EMmFxXwcOeo

Posted to YouTube by coolboy42795.

A big thank you to coolboy!

If anyone has video of the fireworks please send them to this blog, and thanks!

Phoenixville's 2011 July 4th Fireworks Event!

2011-06-29T23:17:00.001-04:00

Phoenixville's Annual 4th of July Fireworks event will be held July 04, 2011 at Friendship Field located at the corner of Fillmore Street and Franklin Avenue.

Rain date is July 05, 2011.

The fireworks display, by Schaefer Pyrotecnics, Inc., is scheduled for approximately 9-9:15 p.m.

Visitors may park in the lot behind the reservior at Reservior Park, Franklin Commons, or the Santa Anna Club and at the Bethel Baptist Church on Fairview Street.

Handicapped parking inside Friendship Field and rest facilities will be provided.

Seating for the event will be available at Reservior Park and Friendship Field.

The public is encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets after 7 p.m.

Vendors Petrucci's Ice Cream & Water Ice, Tracy J. Wilke, and Michelle Ferko will provide cold refreshments, funnel cakes, french fries, and small toys.

Friendship Fire Company's Dive Unit will be on hand with glow-in-the-dark trinkets for sale.

Alcohol, drugs, and pets are not permitted at Friendship Field.

NRC to host meeting on Limerick Nuclear Power Plant - Wednesday 18, 2011

2011-05-17T22:26:00.004-04:00

My apologies for the late posting as the Ace Report show was televised earlier this evening.

****

From Donna Cuthbert

This Information Can Help You Protect The Future Health, Safety, and Financial Interests of You and Your Family.

Limerick Nuclear Plant could turn us into nuclear refugees, just like those in Japan. Don't believe for one minute it can't happen here.

A radioactive disaster at Limerick Nucleat Plant could happen for many reasons.

While Limerick is 3rd on the Earthquake Risk list, that is just one thing that could trigger disaster.

Many of you received a letter from Exelon recently illogically suggesting there is no cause for concern because Limerick has "redundant safety systems" and can withstand a severe earthquake or other natural disaster.

Japan's "redundant safety systems" FAILED. Japan's nuclear disaster was due to loss of power, then a loss of cooling water.

Extended loss of power then loss of cooling water could happen at Limerick Nuclear Plant due to a fire, mechanical failure, a terrorist attack, or human error, in addition to a severe tornado or earthquake.

ACE investigations found NRC protects Exelon's profits over your safety.

You can't rely on NRC for prevention of a nuclear disaster at Limerick.

ACE shows why in our current TV show. "The ACE Report", Channel 28, will run each Tuesday, 7:00 to 8:00 P.M., for the next five weeks.

NRC is hosting a meeting tomorrow night at the Limerick Township Building on old Route 422, from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M.

Don't be fooled. NRC and Exelon are focused only on an earthquake. They claim all is safe at Limerick. ACE's 10-year investigation suggests otherwise.

If you plan to attend NRC'S 5-18-11 meeting tomorrow night, we encourage you to watch:

"The ACE Report" TV Show TONIGHT!

"Lessons From the Japan Nuclear Disaster - Why It Can Happen At Limerick Nuclear Plant".

Prevention is Imperative, given the consequences. Ask NRC to:

1. Extend Back-Up Power To Last For Days, Not Just Hours AND Require SAFEST Fire Safety Procedures

2. Guard Limerick against A 9/11 Type Terrorist Attack With A Plane or Missile

Terrorists say nuclear plants are a target. Limerick could be a prime target, with almost 8 million people within 50 miles.

Fuel from a targeted small plane crash could lead to fire and meltdown. Missiles can penetrate nuclear fuel, releasing deadly radiation.

May 3, 2011 - 5 were arrested under terror law near a British nuclear plant.

Insider Threat Even In Questions - An Al-Quaida suspect worked at Limerick during refueling each year from 2002 and 2007.

3. Extend Limerick's Evacuation Zone To 50 Miles, Not Just 10

4. CLOSE Limerick - Not Relicense Until 2049.

For more information on major issues of concern, see attachments.

NRC has the oversight authority over Limerick Nuclear Plant and is almost sure to approve Exelon's dangerous requests to operate Limerick harder and longer, unless there is a groundswell of public opposition.

WE MUST END NRC'S RUBBERSTAMP PERMITTING TO REDUCE OUR RISK OF DISASTER.

We urge you to tell NRC to:

Say NO to Limerick "Uprates" - to operate Limerick harder - This is no benefit to you, only increased risk of disaster. Uprates also mean increased Schuylkill River water use and radioactive contamination, more radioactive and other hazardous air emissions, more radiation into the soil, vegetation, milk, food, fish, and you.

And more deadly radioactive wastes to store in our back yard or to dangerously transport through our communities.

Say NO to OPPOSE Limerick "Relicensing" - to operate Limerick longer - Limerick was licensed for 40 years (until 2029) because that was the life exepctency of the massive complicated system that operates Limerick. It is too dangerous to operate Limerick longer. Too much can go terribly wrong.

Can't attend the meeing tomorrow to ask NRC in person?

e-mail paul.krohn@nrc.gov or Send a Letter to:

Paul Krohn, NRC Branch Chief
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Region 1
475 Allendale Road
King of Prussia, PA 19406-1415

ENERGY FACTS: WE WON'T NEED LIMERICK NUCLEAR PLANT AFTER 2029 WHEN ITS LICENSE EXPIRES.

We can and must begin to transition to far safer, cleaner, cheaper, and more dependable energies NOW. After Fukushima, everyone should see the need. Don't believe nuclear industry spin. Nuclear power is far too dangerous, pollutin, and expensive to taxpayers and ratepayers. There are many reasons nuclear power will become less and less reliable in the future.

Nuclear power can be replaced NOW with solar, wind, and geothermal. Battery-back-up systems available now turn these energies into dependable base load power. All it takes is your voice to create the political will for a safer energy future. FACT: DOE's 2006 report shows the entire nation could have 55 times our nation's electric needs just from solar power alone. Elected officials must stop caving into nuclear industry lobbyists continuing to give the nuclear industry the lion's share of our taxdollars. Speak up now to stop astronomical taxpayer subsidies and giveaways, and risky loans provided to dangerous and costly nuclear power.

If we subsidize anything it should be to individual residents and small businesses to help purchase their own solar, wind, geothermal, battery back-up systems, and cost saving energy efficiency measures.

http://www.acereport.org/ace.html

Meet the PASD School Board Candidates

2011-05-16T08:32:00.002-04:00

Community activist, Mike Ellis, is hosting a "Meet the School Board Candidates" night at the Fenix, 193 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, Monday May 16, 2011, at 6 p.m.

The primary election in Pennsylvania is May 17, 2011.

The following is a list of candidates.

Candidates on the Republican Ballot:

David H. Ziev (currently school board member)
Kyle Shirkness
J. Kenneth Butera
Leslie A. Dengler
Kevin Pattinson
Irfan A Khan
Paul Slaninka (currently school board president)

Candidates on the Democratic Ballot:

David H. Ziev (currently school board member)
J. Kenneth Butera
Leslie A. Dengler
Kevin Pattinson
Irfan A Khan
Paul Slaninka (currently school board president)

The profiles for each individual can be found at:

http://www.slanguage.com/pasdblog1.html

UPDATED - Breaking - Suspicious package/bomb threat in Phoenixville

2011-03-22T14:25:00.004-04:00

Police cordoned off and evacuated a section of Bridge Street in Phoenixville today due to a suspicious package/bomb threat in the 100 block.

A press conference is currently being held in Borough Hall.

ABC's local news service, Channel 6, was on scene and is covering the situation.

The area has returned to normal traffic.

UPDATE:

Police have made an arrest in the incident on Bridge Street.

The actor was allegedly involve in a prior similar incident at Molly McGuire's several days ago.

Chester County Launches Dental Discount Card Program for County Residents

2011-03-17T14:44:00.001-04:00

Received via email.

****

Chester County Launches Dental Discount Card Program for County Residents

Program will help the uninsured and underinsured

WEST CHESTER - A new dental discount card program for Chester County residents was presented today at the Chester County Commissioners’ meeting.

Margaret Rivello, Director of the Chester County Health Department, provided the Commissioners with details of the program that allows citizens to save money on dental costs.

“This program helps county residents in need of dental services who may not be insured or who may not have adequate insurance,” said Commissioners’ Chair Terence Farrell. “Hundreds of dentists in Chester County participate in this program.”

The program is provided by the National Association of Counties (NACo) in partnership with Careington International Corporation.

Commissioner Farrell noted the Prescription Drug Discount Program, also administered through NACo, has been very popular and is still available to county residents. Since the launch of the prescription drug discount program two years ago, county residents have saved more than $200,000 on prescription costs.

Commissioner Kathi Cozzone said, “This is a wonderful program that can help many of our citizens with a range of dental needs – from regular check ups to more serious dental procedures. Poor dental health can result in more serious illness and many people are out of work, or simply cannot afford dental insurance. We are pleased that, through our association with NACo, we can offer this program at no cost to taxpayers.

The NACo Dental Discount Card program is designed to help uninsured and underinsured county residents save money on their dental service expenses. The discount card will help to achieve savings of 20 to 50 percent on average for dental care services, and 20 percent on orthodontic services. The plan starts at $6.95 per month or $59 per year for individuals.

“The card is very easy to use,” said Commissioner Ryan Costello. “Cardholders schedule an appointment with a participating dentist or specialist and present their card to receive a discount at the time of service.”

Information on the Chester County Dental Discount program, including details of cost, average savings and participating dentists, is available from the Chester County Health Department by calling 610-344-6225 or on the County Health Department’s website.

http://www.chesco.org

Obituary - Chief John Kalavik

2011-03-07T13:32:00.007-05:00

Former Phoenixville Police Chief John Kalavik passed away on Sunday March 06, 2011.

Chief Kalavik began his career as an officer with the Phoenixville Police Department in 1971, and was appointed Acting Chief in 1993, a position he held until 1995.

In 1995, Kalavik accepted Phoenixville Borough Council's offer of appointment to Chief of Police and remained as Chief of the Police Department until his retirement in 2006.

John is survived by his wife, Linda, two daughters and grandchildren.

****

From the Devlin-Rosmos-Kepp Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Inc., website.

November 25, 1946 - March 7, 2011

John Kalavik, 64, husband of Linda A. (Vallier) Kalavik of Phoenixville, PA, died on Monday, March 7, 2011 in Phoenixville Hospital.

Born in Phoenixville, PA, he was the son of the late John M. and Eleanor M. (Sombers) Kalavik.

John served in the United States Army during the Vietnam Era.

He served as a Patrolman, Sergeant and Police Chief of the Phoenixville Police Department.

He was a member of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Phoenixville, Elks Club in Pottstown, Veterans of Foreign War Post 1564 in Phoenixville, Fraternal Order of Policeand Police Chiefs Association.

Surviving in addition to his wife are:

Daughter: Karen wife of Melvin Leroy Garrett;

Daughter: Lora wife of Anthony Laskowsky;

6 Grandchildren

Obituary may be viewed at: http://www.devlinrosmoskepp.com/

Relatives and Friends are invited to attend his Funeral Mass in Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 219 Dayton Street, Phoenixville, PA on Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 10:00 am with Rev. Michael W. Rzonca officiating.

Burial will follow in Holy Trinity Cemetery, Phoenixville, PA.

In lieu of flowers the family requests Mass Cards

Two BIG PACS Benefits on April 02, 2011!!

2011-03-05T23:06:00.004-05:00

I thought that your blog readers would like to know about the AMERICAN CLASSICS FESTIVAL being held on Bridge Street, Phoenixville on Saturday April 2, 2011.

It will run from 12 noon to 5 p.m. and will feature classic cars, vendors, childrens activities, Oldies Music, a 50's-'60's dress up contest, and a limbo contest.

Several high school stage choirs are going to compete in a "Glee' type challenge at the Colonial Theater at 2 p.m.

The entire event will benefit PACS.

You may register for a vendor table or to show your classic car through PACS website. 10 trophies will be awarded for classic car, truck, and street rods.

The EASTER BUNNY and other favorite characters will be downtown. Kids can also enjoy entertainment and face painting at the Kiwanis Chidren's Paza.

And as if that weren't enough PACS fundraising continues into the night with a Phoenixville first.....A Dance Party from 7 p.m. to midnight featuring Jerry Blavat!

Yes, you heard it here! The "GEATOR with the HEATER" is coming to the Franklin Commons to help raise money for PACS!

Save the Date!

April 2, 2011

American Classics Festival finale! Join us for Phoenixville's first Jerry Blavat Dance Party!!

Dance to your favorite tunes with the "Geator with the Heater.”

Enjoy the sounds of rock and roll, doo wop and soul as you Twist, Stroll, and Bristol Stomp the night away.

Light refreshments will be served to keep your energy up as we party until midnight.

All proceeds benefit PACS charitable mission connecting people in the Phoenixville area with community resources and emergency assistance.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

7 p.m. to Midnight

Franklin Commons

400 Franklin Avenue

Phoenixville, PA 19460

Tickets - $35 per person

(minimum age of 21)

Email me at tomkat814@verizon.net or call me at 610-933-7094 to get your tickets.

Tickets are limited. First come, first served!

Tom Mitchell, PACS Board Member

257 Church Street • Phoenixville, PA 19460 • Phone: 610-933-1105 • Fax 610-933-1569

Email: info@pacsphx.org • www.pacsphx.org

****

(Cut and paste the Car Show Registration below.)

****

American Classics Festival - April 2, 2011

Car Show Registration benefits Phoenixville Area Community Services (PACS)

****

I would like to register for the American Classics Festival Car Show at the cost of $35/vehicle

CONTACT INFORMATION (PLEASE PRINT)

Name: ____________________________________________________________

Address:___________________________________________________________

Telephone:_________________________________________________________

E-Mail: ____________________________________________________________

VEHICLE REGISTRATION

Please complete the information below for each vehicle you wish to register. Circle one category.

Vehicle 1 (choose 1 category per vehicle)

€ Classic Car € Classic Truck or Van € Street Rod

Vehicle 2 (choose 1 category)

€ Classic Car € Classic Truck or Van € Street Rod

Vehicle 3 (choose 1 category)

€ Classic Car € Classic Truck or Van € Street Rod

PAYMENT

Application and payment ($35 per vehicle) must be received by March 21, 2011.

Please mail your check payable to PACS along with this application to:

Phoenixville Area Community Services

257 Church Street

Phoenixville, PA 19460

SPACE IS LIMITED - PLEASE RESERVE EARLY.

Car Set-up 10:30 a.m.- 12:00 p.m. – 200 block of Bridge Street

Activities Take Place 12:00 p.m.- 4:30 p..m

Car Removal 4:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

New Exhibit at the Historical Society of the Phoenixville Area - "Behind the Wooden Door: Secret Societies in the Land of the Phoenix"

2011-03-02T22:17:00.001-05:00

The Historical Society of the Phoenixville Area announces that a new exhibit is opening at their museum on First Friday, March 4, 2011 from 6 - 9 PM: The museum is located at 204 Church Street in Phoenixville. Light refreshments will be served.

"Behind the Wooden Door: Secret Societies in the Land of the Phoenix"

Featuring secret documents written by initiated scribes, and ceremonial clothing and weapons of:

The International Order of Odd Fellows

The Knights of the Golden Eagle

The Freemasons

The exhibit will be ongoing through June 2011. Check HSPA's web-site www.hspa-pa.org for days and hours.

If you have any questions or need further information, please contact me.

Thank you,

Martha Parker
HSPA Publicity Chair

Duane1@aol.com

Phone #: 610-415-9237

Jennifer Mayo appointed to Middle Ward Council seat

2011-02-22T22:03:00.003-05:00

Phoenixville Borough Council, during a meeting Tuesday, February 22, 2011, filled the Middle Ward seat vacated by former Council member, Michael Handwerk.

Planning Commission member, Jennifer Mayo will represent her constituency for the remainder of the term.

The Middle Ward seat is up for election this year.

Kampf to hold Open House & Opens Mobile Office in Phoenixville

2011-02-11T09:39:00.002-05:00

State Rep. Warren Kampf (R-Chester/Montgomery) has announced that he will open a mobile district office to provide constituents with a greater opportunity to meet with his staff.

Beginning Friday, Feb. 11, from 10 a.m. to noon, Kampf staff members will be at the Council Chambers at Phoenixville Borough Hall, 140 Church St., in Phoenixville, on the 2nd and 4th Friday of each month.

“This is a chance for me and my staff to hear from those who may not easily get to my district office in Paoli,” Kampf said. “You’ll get the same service and help with state issues.”

Of course, constituents can always visit Kampf’s district office at 42 E. Lancaster Ave., Unit A, in Paoli. Call 610-251-2876 with any questions.

Kampf reminds residents to visit his website at RepKampf.com and follow him on Facebook at Facebook.com/RepKampf.

State Representative Warren Kampf
157th District, Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Contact: David Foster
215-744-2600
RepKampf.com
Facebook.com/RepKampf

http://www.repkampf.com/NewsItem.aspx?NewsID=10436

An open house will be held on Open House on Thursday, February 17 in the 157th Legislative District from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. at the Audubon Office 2812A Egypt Rd., Audubon, and from 5 p.m. - 7 p.m. at the Paoli District Office 42 East Lancaster Ave., Unit A, Paoli

Phoenixville Area High School 2011 College and Career Fair

2011-02-10T09:23:00.000-05:00

NOTICE

On Tuesday, March 1st, 2011 the Concerned Parents of the Phoenixville in conjunction with the Phoenixville High Guidance Counselors and Administrators Team will join forces to present the 4th Annual College and Career Fair.

The doors to the Phoenixville Area High School gymnasium will open at 6 p.m. More than 50 career schools and colleges are expected on hand with information about their perspective schools. In addition, the high school Guidance Counselors will be hosting informational workshops on SAT prep, Questions you should ask school recruiters, NCAA Clearinghouse for Collegiate Sports and Financial Aid workshop.

This event is free and open to the public. All participating schools donated towards the High School's Destinations with Directions program. All attendees are asked to bring a can donation for (PACS) Phoenixville Area Community Service.

Winter Flea Market at Phoenixville's Historical Society

2011-01-28T14:46:00.002-05:00

The Historical Society of the Phoenixville Area is hosting a Winter Flea Market!

It will be held as scheduled Saturday, January 29th, from 9:00AM to 2:00PM.

The Historical Society is located in the old Central Lutheran Church on the south
west corner of Main & Church Streets.

Please use the main church entrance on Main Street.

Phoenixville Borough Council Member Michael Handwerk resigns

2011-01-26T20:54:00.004-05:00

In a telephone conversation late this afternoon, Councilman Ken Buckwalter confirmed the resignation, effective today, of Middle Ward Council Member Michael Handwerk.

Persons living in the Middle Ward interested in appointment to the vacancy should submit a resume` to Phoenixville Borough Hall or call the borough hall at 610-933-8801 for further information.

From Ken's blog:

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Another Council Resignation

I received a phone call last evening from Councilman Handwerk informing me that he was resinging from Council effective today, Wednesday January 26, 2011.

Council will need to fill the seat within the next 30 days and the person appointed, if they so wish, will also have to place their name on the primary and ultimately the November ballot for election.

This is the third resignation of a Council Member in less than a year. Henry Wagner resigned last Spring followed by Jeff Senley last fall.

http://watchingphoenixville.com/

Library begins working on 2012 strategic plan, seeks community input

2011-01-11T16:17:00.002-05:00

In 2011 the Phoenixville Public Library, a member of the Chester County Library System, will be embarking on their new, five-year Strategic Plan for 2012 FY through 2016 FY and is looking for community input. The Plan process will develop a shared understanding of the library's current state, build consensus for a strategic direction for the library and strengthen relationships among the library's stakeholders throughout the community according to Executive Director John Kelley. The Strategic Planning Committee composed of Library Board and staff has developed ten questions to engage the community in conversation about this initiative said Kelley:

1] In one word or phrase, describe Phoenixville Public Library in 2011 and the Library in 2015.

2] What services would you like Phoenixville Public Library to provide?

3] How would you like Phoenixville Public Library to support personal learning/recreation?

4] How would you like Phoenixville Public Library to support school readiness for young children and their families? How would you like the Library to help students succeed?

5] How would you like Phoenixville Public Library to work with schools to support education?

6] How would you like Phoenixville Public Library to support job seekers?

7] How can Phoenixville Public Library best strengthen the community?

8] What store, restaurant, or organization provides the best customer service and what is it you find most valuable about their customer service?

9] What do you look for from Phoenixville Public Library that you can't get anywhere else?

10] What would motivate you to use the Library more?

These questions will be available for your review and comment at the Phoenixville Public Library and on the Library's Facebook page for two weeks beginning Tuesday, January 18th. The Phoenixville YMCA, on Pothouse Road, will also have them posted in their lobby the evening of Tuesday, January 18th from 6PM through 9PM. In addition, if you would like to respond to the questions from home you can e-mail your comments to pplstrategicplan@ccls.org. You will also be able to access these questions on our Website at www.phoenixvillelibrary.org. All you need do is reference the questions you are commenting on.

There will also be a community based two day Search Conference in April which will include a six step process where we will look at the past, the present, trends, envision the future, establish common ground and develop action plans for the library moving forward, said Kelley. If you would like to attend this conference
you can contact the library for more information, using this e-mail pplstrategicplan@ccls.org.

This effort to engage the community in the planning process is critical to the success of the Library's Strategic Plan. Our goal is to arrive at a Plan that identifies the changing needs in our community so that appropriate educational programs and cultural activities can be established and adequate resources can be made available through the Library to address those needs, said Kelley. Strategic Plan updates will be available on the Library's Website at www.phoenixvillelibrary.org

http://www.phoenixvillenews.com/articles/2011/01/08/life/srv0000010545983.txt?viewmode=fullstory

Choose which company generates your home electricity

2011-01-04T13:50:00.003-05:00

Until January 15, 2011 you can lower your energy costs or find electric services that fit the needs of your home.

http://www.papowerswitch.com/shop-for-electricity/shop-for-your-home/by-distributor/peco-energy

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2010-12-25T00:00:00.002-05:00

On this day, the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ, my family and I wish you a joyous heart in the celebration of God's living gift of His Son to us, the loving, warm companionship of your family and friends, peace in your homes and throughout our world.

God Bless you and have a Merry Christmas, and a happy, healthy, and safe New Year!

Think you're ready for Christmas? The giving continues!

2010-12-22T12:35:00.003-05:00

It is looking alot like Christmas, and in the spirit of the "giving" season, Borough Council adopted the budget yesterday asking Phoenixville property owners to give an approximate total of $200 more in fees and taxes in 2011.

Each of the borough departments were asked to cut their budgets substantially and most complied. The same request made to the Police Department would have resulted in laying off two Phoenixville police officers, a move which elicited negative responses from many concerned citizens and supporters.

At the prospect of losing even one officer in the department, Council opted to re-instate the additional measure of a per-capita tax of $10 adding an additional revenue stream to cover the costs of the upcoming year's budget.

Phoenixville taxpayers will see the following for 2011.

1) A 10% property tax increase;

2) $10 per-capita tax;

3) combined 20% increase in water/sewer bills;

4) $5 "infrastructure" fee in water/sewer bills per quarter for a total of $20 annually;

5) $5 increase in trash fees per quarter for a total increase of $20 annually.

A quick calculation on a borough home assessed around $100,000 results in an approximate increase of $200 for property owners.

Visit the Christmas Village at Westridge!

2010-12-10T15:35:00.002-05:00

CHRISTMAS VILLAGE AT WESTRIDGE - PHOENIXVILLE, PA - SHOW HOURS

Come see our Christmas Village at Westridge in the basement of the Westridge Farmhouse (office).

970 Township Line Road, Phoenixville, PA

Over 150 lighted porcelain houses, trains and lots of other animation.

Our 13th year at Westridge!

“spectacular and inspiring” - The Phoenix,

"phenomenal" - The Mercury,

"miniature Engineering Marvel" - Daily Local News

DATES:

Saturday Dec 11

Sunday Dec 12

Saturday Dec 18

Sunday Dec 19

Friday Dec 24

Sunday Dec 26

Sunday Jan 2

Saturday Jan 8

Sunday Jan 9

Saturday Jan 15

Sunday Jan 16

Saturday Jan 22

Hours: 2 to 4 p.m.

For more information see our web site at:

http://mysite.verizon.net/patandbrad/christmas/
For directions:

http://mysite.verizon.net/patandbrad/christmas/id13.htmlOr call me at (610) 983-0129

Merry Christmas!

Pat and Brad Peck

PAMS in final round of B101 Christmas Choir Competition!

2010-12-08T16:58:00.005-05:00

Congratulations to the Phoenixville Area Middle School Choir!

VOTE TODAY for the local choir currently in the final round of the competetition

http://www.b101radio.com/christmas/choir/voting.asp

****

By Mercury staff

PHOENIXVILLE — The Phoenixville Area Middle School sixth grade chorus has moved into the final round of B101's Christmas Choir Competition.

The choir is competing in Division 1 for student musicians in grades K to 6. It is directed by Amy Darby.

The choir recorded a version of "Jingle Bells" that was played for the competition on 101.1 WBEB FM and which will be played during the morning radio show on Thursday starting at 7 a.m.

For the choir to win, listeners must log onto www.B101radio.com and vote for the Phoenixville chorus. Voters must first sign up using a valid e-mail address before voting. One vote is allowed daily for each registered e-mail address.

If the choir wins its division, it will receive $5,000 for the school's music program. The winning choirs from each division will perform with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops on Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.

For more information, visit:

http://www.b101radio.com/christmas/choir/info.asp

Original article:

http://www.pottsmerc.com/articles/2010/12/08/life/doc4cffd57241850582599328.txt

2010-12-03T22:10:00.001-05:00

PECO To Host LIHEAP Day

Cash available to help customers pay their electric and gas bills

PHILADELPHIA (December 3, 2010) – PECO's low-and fixed-income customers will have a special opportunity to sign up for Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) grants at the company's Main Office Building on Monday, Dec. 6, 2010 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

LIHEAP Day at PECO will provide customers who are eligible for LIHEAP cash and crisis grants with application assistance and the opportunity to receive compact fluorescent light bulbs, refreshments and giveaways.

LIHEAP is a Federal program that provides assistance to individuals who are having trouble paying their electric, natural gas or other energy bills. Homeowners, renters, and subsidized housing tenants may be eligible. Last year, LIHEAP helped PECO customers by providing more than 140,000 grants to 36,000 customers for more than $21 million.

The LIHEAP program provides cash grants up to $1,000 per customer through a direct payment to a vendor, such as a utility like PECO. LIHEAP also has money allocated for emergencies including reinstating service that has been shut off for non-payment, fuel payments, and repairing leaking pipes and broken furnaces. The maximum crisis grant this year is $400.00 per customer.

Customers who are unable to attend are encouraged to visit www.peco.com/help for information on LIHEAP and PECO's other assistance programs, or contact PECO's LIHEAP hotline at 1-800-34-HELP-4 for more information and eligibility requirements.

http://www.peco.com/pecores/assistance_prgs/

Santa Claus is coming to town!

2010-12-01T23:09:00.003-05:00

Hi Karen,

Just a reminder of the Kiwanis Christmas Parade on Friday December 3, 2010 at 7pm.

Santa will be escorted into town by area fire trucks decorated with lights and some of Santa's good friends. Among those friends are the Mouses (Mickey and Minnie), Donald Duck and Goofy, Elmo, Kermit, Bert & Ernie, Barney, Winnie the Pooh, The Cat in the Hat, Shrek, Spiderman, Cinderella, Snow White, Tinkerbell, and a host of Santa's elves.

After the parade on the 100-200 & 300 block of Bridge Street, Santa will light the Christmas tree at Renaissance Park. After the tree lighting people can take pictures of their children with the costumed characters.

Everyone attending the parade should bring a canned or non-perishable food item to place on the PACS float to help the needy people in our area.

Santa will make his way to his Santa House at the top of the Kiwanis Children's Plaza.

Santa will be at his Santa House on weekends before Christmas. His schedule is posted at the house.

Dress warm and come out for a great night. The parade starts promptly at 7:00pm.

It is the best 1/2 hour parade in Chester County!

Tom Mitchell
Phoenixville's Santa Emeritus

SEPTA shuttle service between Phoenixville and Paoli

2010-11-19T23:12:00.003-05:00

Effective November 08, 2010, SEPTA is providing shuttle service between Phoenixville and Paoli Station via the Paoli/Thorndale line 205.

Check the PDF file for schedule.

http://www.septa.org/schedules/bus/pdf/205.pdf

Budget ax could mean police layoffs in Phoenixvile

2010-11-18T09:08:00.001-05:00

By Dennis J. Wright, dwright@pottsmerc.com

PHOENIXVILLE — The borough's finance committee has asked the police department to trim its budget by $200,000, which could mean the potential loss of two officers.

Borough Council voted unanimously on Nov. 9 to release the proposed 2011 budget, which shows the potential for a 24.7 percent tax increase.

Roughly $619,000 needs to be generated or cut for the budget. If no cuts are made, that makes it nearly a 24.7 percent increase.

There was a lot of discussion during Tuesday's committee meeting as to how to put a dent into the $619,000 deficit.

Borough Council President Richard Mark Kirkner said that every department within the borough has been asked to cut at least 10 percent from their budgets.

"The streets, administration and finance departments have cut their budgets by 10 percent," Kirkner said.

"Some cut more than 10 percent. The streets department has six laborers and will only have five next year. We asked the police chief (William Mossman) for a 10 percent cut in his budget."

Mayor Leo Scoda informed Kirkner that the police department has gone through its budget as directed.

"We went through the budget but it doesn't match the 10 percent," Scoda said. "Personnel decisions have to be made by council."

Noting that there were six council members in attendance at the meeting, Kirkner reminded Scoda that they could make decisions at that moment.

"The police represent 60 percent of the general fund," he said. "There's a $620,000 hole here, and I'm not hearing something. We want the chief to come to us with the cuts."

Scoda responded to Kirkner: "We didn't have council tell us to make cuts. The mayor doesn't hire police. Council hires and fires police. If council decides not to fund the police department the way it should be, they have to make that decision."

At the beginning of the meeting, several audience members asked the committee to not consider any cuts in the police department.

This is the second straight meeting to which audience members have commented on potential police cuts.

Dana Dugan (D-West) told the audience, "I've heard people freak out about raising taxes and freak out about police cuts. I'm comfortable with raising taxes and making police cuts."

One audience member said to the committee that they weren't "freaking out" about raising taxes either, but would prefer not to see any losses in the police force.

Councilman Mike Speck (D-East) said to the audience, "I will not support a decrease in the police department."

Scoda told the committee about the importance of having part-time police officers in the department.

"The part-timers save us a lot of money," he said. "If you cut a full-timer, we can't hire a part-timer. We have to cover all of the borough. We have a full-time officer in the downtown. We will do the best we can with what we have."

Part of the police department's budget includes overtime that is accrued during events such as the Dogwood Festival which require an extensive amount of police attention.

"We should tell groups that the free ride is over," Scoda said. "If they want police at their events, they'll have to budget for it. We do a good job in policing events."

Following an executive session to discuss personnel matters, Councilman Marc Reber made a motion to direct the police department to decrease its budget by $200,000. After Dugan seconded the motion, the vote was 5-1 with Speck casting the negative vote.

"The police is the largest expenditure in our budget," Kirkner said. "They have fully funded benefits and fully funded pensions."

However, even with a decrease in $200,000, a tax increase in the 15 percent range doesn't sit well with Council members Dave Gautreau and Kirkner.

"I will not vote for a budget with a double-digit increase," Gautreau said. "This isn't a fun moment."

"I can't do a double digit increase as well," Kirkner added. "I'm with Mr. Gautreau on that."

The committee also discussed the elimination of the Phoenixville Government Channel, which airs Borough Council meetings regularly.

The borough has Channel 22 of the Comcast Cable Network and Channel 29 of the Verizon Cable Network to be utilized as public information channels as well as Borough Council meetings.

The draft budget has $36,000 taken out of it, which would keep the channel on air. There is $24,000 left in the budget that would go toward two council tapings to be streamed on the Internet.

"Part of having this channel is good for the community," Gautreau said.

Borough Finance Director Steve Nease said that each council meeting costs $750 as long as they don't go over four hours.

Kirkner made the suggestion of taping one meeting a month and not two meetings.

"We could go back to just having one meeting a month," he said. "We don't have $36,000 in the budget. I'd rather tape one meeting and have the cable channel go black."

Speck made a motion to have borough staff make a plan for an annual business license.

Kirkner explained that a $100 fee would be paid by anyone doing business in the borough.

"There are approximately 430 businesses in the borough, and if we can collect 70 percent of that, regardless of what type of business it is," he said. "This is giving our staff direction, and it's for the draft budget."

After Dugan seconded the motion, the vote passed 6-0.

The next Borough Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 23 at 7 p.m. at Borough Hall. The next borough finance committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 21 at 6 p.m. at Borough Hall.

http://pottsmerc.com/articles/2010/11/18/news/srv0000010003445.txt?viewmode=fullstory

Groups battle for St. Nicholas Brotherhood name

2010-11-08T10:27:00.002-05:00

A decision on the Holy Ghost Church/St. Nicholas Brotherhood litigation is expected shortly.

****

By MICHAEL P. RELLAHAN

Daily Local News

Staff Writer

WEST CHESTER — Two opposing factions in a decades-old Orthodox Christian church in Phoenixville have given Common Pleas Court Judge Edward Griffith a task not unlike that of the old television game show “To Tell the Truth.”

That is, to answer the question: “Will the real members of the St. Nicholas Brotherhood please stand up?”

Read the entire article here:

http://dailylocal.com/articles/2010/11/08/news/doc4cd7e97e4513d471404505.txt?viewmode=fullstory

Will we allow the gas industry reclaim the title of "51st Senator" in Pennsylvania?

2010-10-27T14:38:00.010-04:00

Media Room/Penn Future Facts

The 51st Senator

Jan Jarrett - Penn Future

The tale is told of the Senate session of the Pennsylvania legislature in the 1870s that was ended with these words, "The Pennsylvania Railroad, having no more business to come before this chamber, we stand adjourned."

Between the 1870s and the 1930s the Pennsylvania Railroad so dominated Pennsylvania politics that the press dubbed its lobbyist, "the 51st Senator." The industrial triumvirate of the Pennsy, Standard Oil, and Carnegie Steel worked hand in hand with Republican Party bosses to dictate policies, bend law enforcement to their own purposes and shape the Commonwealth's society and culture. Simon Cameron, the first of the powerful Republican bosses, brokered the sale of the state-owned and taxpayer-funded canal system to the Pennsylvania Railroad for less than what it cost to build it, and won an exemption from taxes for the railroads.

Fortunately, those days are behind us. Or are they?

Over the past two years, the people of Pennsylvania and their elected officials have begun to comprehend what multinational energy companies already knew -- the enormous potential of the Marcellus Shale gas deposit that underlies all or part of 34 Pennsylvania counties, 2/3 of the state. The total gas resource below our feet may be the largest and richest in the world, and it is located in the heart of one of the largest markets for natural gas.

This rich resource will be exploited by large and powerful energy companies including Shell Oil and ExxonMobil, a direct descendent of Standard Oil. There are at least 43 energy companies actively drilling in the Marcellus Shale. Collectively, they now have more than 25 percent of all Pennsylvania acres under lease for gas drilling

As this industry grows rich off of our resource, it will profoundly change Pennsylvania's landscape, its communities, its economy and its politics. Pennsylvania will emerge as an international leader in energy production, and natural gas production will come to dominate our economy. As the scale of drilling increases, our landscape and communities will undergo industrialization that will challenge environmental regulators and local infrastructure. Once quiet, rural towns will burgeon with new commercial and residential development, which will generate demands for local government services that these communities are currently incapable of providing.

And the shape of Pennsylvania's political power structure may revert to that of the 19th and early 20th centuries when the Robber Barons held unchallenged sway. We just got a preview of what that could look like during the debate over levying a severance tax on natural gas extraction –- and it's a picture that Simon Cameron would recognize.

The Commonwealth has already leased to the gas drillers 1/2 of the state forestland that lies above the Marcellus deposit. And the state Senate's failure to act on two severance tax proposals –- one passed by the House and another substantial compromise put forth by the governor –- has effectively exempted them from paying a severance tax, which they pay everywhere else they operate.

The industry has intimidating financial resources, and it has demonstrated that it is willing to deploy those resources to achieve its policy goals. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania's lack of any limits on campaign contributions allows the drillers unfettered ability to intervene in our electoral politics. Individuals associated with the gas industry can and have written checks exceeding $100,000 to individual candidates for office. The industry as a whole has sprinkled more than $3 million in campaign contributions across Pennsylvania's political landscape over the past several years. They bolstered those donations with more than $5 million in spending on lobbying.

The effort to levy a severance tax this legislative session foundered on the rocks of stone cold resistance from Senate Republican leadership who would not engage in substantive negotiations over the tax rate and structure. They spurned all attempts at compromise, concocted legalistic excuses for inaction and ran out the clock.

Pennsylvania desperately needs sane limits on campaign contributions, or the gas industry will reclaim the 51st seat in the Senate, and dictate policy and shape the future of the Commonwealth for its own profit.

http://www.pennfuture.org/media_pff_detail.aspx?MediaID=1215

UPDATED - Phoenixville Borough Council to vote on Parking Authority's unanimous decision to disband

2010-10-25T20:38:00.003-04:00

Rumors to expect movement on any issue will eventually be proven false or true if one waits long enough.

Phoenixville Parking Authority DID vote unanimously to disband with an end date of November 6, 2010.

Phoenixville Borough Council is required to pass a resolution to approve and make effective the termination requested this evening.

Council meets again on October 26, 2010 at Borough Hall.

The Perfect Storm - Robert Reich

2010-10-19T09:04:00.002-04:00

Monday, October 18, 2010

It’s a perfect storm. And I’m not talking about the impending dangers facing Democrats. I’m talking about the dangers facing our democracy.

First, income in America is now more concentrated in fewer hands than it’s been in 80 years. Almost a quarter of total income generated in the United States is going to the top 1 percent of Americans.

The top one-tenth of one percent of Americans now earn as much as the bottom 120 million of us.

Who are these people? With the exception of a few entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, they’re top executives of big corporations and Wall Street, hedge-fund managers, and private equity managers. They include the Koch brothers, whose wealth increased by billions last year, and who are now funding tea party candidates across the nation.

Which gets us to the second part of the perfect storm. A relatively few Americans are buying our democracy as never before. And they’re doing it completely in secret.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are pouring into advertisements for and against candidates — without a trace of where the dollars are coming from. They’re laundered through a handful of groups. Fred Maleck, whom you may remember as deputy director of Richard Nixon’s notorious Committee to Reelect the President (dubbed Creep in the Watergate scandal), is running one of them. Republican operative Karl Rove runs another. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a third.

The Supreme Court’s Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission made it possible. The Federal Election Commission says only 32 percent of groups paying for election ads are disclosing the names of their donors. By comparison, in the 2006 midterm, 97 percent disclosed; in 2008, almost half disclosed.

We’re back to the late 19th century when the lackeys of robber barons literally deposited sacks of cash on the desks of friendly legislators. The public never knew who was bribing whom.

Just before it recessed the House passed a bill that would require that the names of all such donors be publicly disclosed. But it couldn’t get through the Senate. Every Republican voted against it. (To see how far the GOP has come, nearly ten years ago campaign disclosure was supported by 48 of 54 Republican senators.)

Here’s the third part of the perfect storm. Most Americans are in trouble. Their jobs, incomes, savings, and even homes are on the line. They need a government that’s working for them, not for the privileged and the powerful.

Yet their state and local taxes are rising. And their services are being cut. Teachers and firefighters are being laid off. The roads and bridges they count on are crumbling, pipelines are leaking, schools are dilapidated, and public libraries are being shut.

There’s no jobs bill to speak of. No WPA to hire those who can’t find jobs in the private sector. Unemployment insurance doesn’t reach half of the unemployed.

Washington says nothing can be done. There’s no money left.

No money? The marginal income tax rate on the very rich is the lowest it’s been in more than 80 years. Under President Dwight Eisenhower (who no one would have accused of being a radical) it was 91 percent. Now it’s 36 percent. Congress is even fighting over whether to end the temporary Bush tax cut for the rich and return them to the Clinton top tax of 39 percent.

Much of the income of the highest earners is treated as capital gains, anyway — subject to a 15 percent tax. The typical hedge-fund and private-equity manager paid only 17 percent last year. Their earnings were not exactly modest. The top 15 hedge-fund managers earned an average of $1 billion.

Congress won’t even return to the estate tax in place during the Clinton administration – which applied only to those in the top 2 percent of incomes.

It won’t limit the tax deductions of the very rich, which include interest payments on multi-million dollar mortgages. (Yet Wall Street refuses to allow homeowners who can’t meet mortgage payments to include their primary residence in personal bankruptcy.)

There’s plenty of money to help stranded Americans, just not the political will to raise it. And at the rate secret money is flooding our political system, even less political will in the future.

The perfect storm: An unprecedented concentration of income and wealth at the top; a record amount of secret money flooding our democracy; and a public becoming increasingly angry and cynical about a government that’s raising its taxes, reducing its services, and unable to get it back to work.

We’re losing our democracy to a different system. It’s called plutocracy.

http://robertreich.org/post/1344561814

Representative Paul Drucker to host public hearing on environmental issues & opportunies related to gas drilling in Pennsylvania

2010-10-18T12:25:00.003-04:00

Notice recieved via email. Further information available at website listed below.

Public invited to Majority Policy Committee hearing
in Phoenixville

I'm writing to invite you to an upcoming House Majority Policy Committee public hearing I'm co-chairing in Phoenixville to discuss environmental issues and opportunities related to gas drilling in Pennsylvania.

The hearing will be held at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 20 at the Schuylkill Township Building Meeting Room, 111 Valley Park Road.

I will co-chair the hearing with committee Chairman Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster.

Those testifying will include Jan Jarrett, president and CEO of Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future; Peter Goodman, spokesperson for Trout Unlimited; and Lynda Farrell, spokesperson for The Save Group.

No RSVPs are required for this free public hearing. For more details on the hearing, please contact my office.

For more information about the Policy Committee, visit:

www.pahouse.com/PolicyCommittee.

North Ward Council member appointed

2010-10-05T20:32:00.002-04:00

Phoenixville Borough Council appointed Father James Evans to the North Ward Council seat vacated by former member Jeff Senley.

Father Evans was appointed to complete Senley's term 5 to 2 with Michael Handwerk and Marc Reber casting the no votes.

TEDx is coming to Phoenixville

2010-09-16T16:26:00.002-04:00

TEDx is coming to Phoenixville

Landmark Colonial Theatre will become epicenter of ideas

09.09.2010 – The Colonial Theatre, a cultural landmark in the revitalized steel town of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, is going to be the epicenter for a unique collection of people and an exciting exchange of ideas later this month. TEDxPhoenixville, scheduled for Saturday, September 25, 2010, will feature a variety of lively speakers, compelling performers and an interactive exchange with an engaged audience.

TEDx is an independently organized TED event that enables local communities and groups like the Association for the Colonial Theatre to organize, design and host their own independent, TED-like events. TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

At the regional TEDx events, unique talks given by live speakers combine with TEDTalks videos to spark deep conversation and connections. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis.

The theme of TEDxPhoenixville is Joy Ride and the organizing committee has invited individuals with diverse disciplines and backgrounds to speak during the engaging, day-long event. As a metaphor for life, the ride theme allows open interpretation to an interesting format of speakers and performers that include adventurers, inventors, virtuosos and entrepreneurs, A diverse collection of individuals whose common denominator is attacking their passion with joy.

Speakers and performers for the inaugural TEDxPhoenixville event include:

West Chester University Laptop Arts Ensemble
Defining a new genre of interactive computer music, the Laptop Arts Ensemble brings together talented students from a variety of academic programs.

Emma Resmini
An accomplished flutist at just 10 years old, Emma has been called a “bright young prodigy” by the New York Times and has been recognized by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for her “dazzling technique.”

Paul Deegan
An adventurer, explorer, award-winning author and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Paul is an ebullient speaker who has climbed many of the world’s most popular – and also some of its more esoteric – mountain regions.

Christopher McDougall
Author of the New York Times Bestseller, Born to Run, Chris shares his conviction that the secret to happiness is right at your feet with sharp wit and wild exuberance.

Simon Hauger
Simon is a physics teacher and director of the West Philly Hybrid X Team that builds and races alternative fuel vehicles. The team includes students from an after school program of the Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering based in West Philadelphia High School.

Ben Gulak
Ben is a twenty-one year old MIT student and inventor of the Uno, a one-wheeled, electric motorcycle, that is a marvel of technology and design.

Jennifer Levonian
Artist Jennifer Levonian creates cut-paper animations that explore the ambivalence of everyday life. Her work transforms things previously unnoticed into something bizarre, uncanny and wonderful.

Hosts for the TEDxPhoenixville day, most of which will take place on the Colonial Theatre's main stage, are:

Kelly Stoetzel
Content Director for the TED conference in Palm Springs, California, co-host of the TEDActive and member of our TEDxPhoenixville committee.

Rives
Storyteller, poet, regular on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, co-host of Ironic, Iconic America on Bravo and the co-host of the TEDActive simulcast event in Palm Springs, California.

The committee includes Kirsten Van Vlandren, Assistant Director, The Colonial Theatre; Mary Foote, Executive Director, The Colonial Theatre; LuAnn Roth, Patron Services Director, The Colonial Theatre; Kelly Stoetzel, TED Content Director; Todd Palmer, advertising agency Creative Director; and community members and TED enthusiasts Jay Brown and Tyler Donald.

The day-long TEDxPhoenixville, including some surprises, fun breaks and a chef-prepared lunch, will kick-off at 9:30am and will feature three sessions. Attendees are also encouraged to experience Phoenixville during the breaks including a visit to the Phoenixville Farmer’s Market where TEDxPhoenixville has a special event planned.

Speaking of special events, TEDxPhoenixville has collaborated with a number of local merchants to offer special pre-TEDx events where attendees can get to know one another and interact with the region.

Organized by The Colonial Theatre volunteer Beth Lennon, events scheduled for the evening of Friday, September September 24 include a private tour of the legendary WEST COLLECTION at SEI art collection, introductory yoga class at the Soul Center, a chef’s tasting menu at Majolica, glass work demonstration at Diving Cat Studio and a beer tasting and tour at Sly Fox Brewing. Participants in the different activities are encouraged to meet up at the Columbia Hotel’s second floor following.

Tickets for TEDxPhoenixville are just $20 plus $5 for the optional lunch and are available for purchase on the event website. While purchasing tickets, attendees can also select which Friday, September 24 event they would like to attend. For more information on sponsorship or attending please visit the TEDxPhoenixville website at http://www.tedxpxv.com.

Phoenixville Time Bank to host Halloween Party

2010-09-16T15:32:00.000-04:00

"It’s About Time" Halloween Bash & Silent Auction: Saturday, October 30, 2010

Contact Information Margo Ketchum
Coordinator
Phoenixville Area Time Bank (PATB)
610-608-9281
timedollar@verizon.net

Save the Date for the Best Halloween Party Around!

"It’s About Time" Halloween Bash & Silent Auction
Saturday, October 30, 2010
7:00–11:00 PM
Franklin Commons, Phoenixville, PA

Purchase Tickets at www.PATB.EventBrite.com

Questions? Call 610-608-9281 or e-mail timedollar@verizon.net

Tired of the heat and humidity? Think ahead to the cooler days of late October, when ghosts and goblins are afoot, and mark off Saturday evening, October 30 for the coolest Halloween party around!

The Phoenixville Area Time Bank (PATB), a community non-profit, is sponsoring a “Halloween Bash” – a night of music, dancing, food, drink and spooktacular fun, to be held at Franklin Commons, in Phoenixville, PA. This is the 5th annual “It’s About Time” party and fundraiser that PATB has sponsored, and the first to be held at the beautiful and spacious Franklin Commons event venue.

Come join the fun and:

• Dance to local band “National Bird”

• Eat locally grown food and homemade deserts

• Drink soft drinks, cider, beer and wine

• Enter the costume contest (costumes optional)

• Bid at the silent auction and try your luck with raffles. You may go home with great prizes donated by area businesses, attractions, artisans and craftspeople.

Tickets are $25.00 each in advance, $30 at the door. Visit the PATB website at www.pa-timebank.org www.pa-timebank.org for information on ticket purchases, or email timedollar@verizon.net for general information.

About the Phoenixville Area Time Bank

The Phoenixville Area Time Bank is a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose members build community by exchanging services on an equal basis. A portion of the profits from this event will be used to support our ‘2010 Project’ which includes outreach to the most vulnerable members of our community – those with disabilities, the elderly, unemployed and convalescents.

WebWireID121162

Obama awards living soldier the Medal of Honor

2010-09-11T00:00:00.000-04:00

Obama awards living soldier the Medal of Honor

By Craig Whitlock and Greg Jaffe
Friday, September 10, 2010; 4:13 PM

Under a bright Afghan moon, eight U.S. paratroopers trudged along a ridge in the Korengal Valley, unaware they were walking right into a trap. Less than 20 feet away, a band of Taliban fighters executed the ambush plan perfectly, enveloping the paratrooper squad in an explosion of bullets and grenades.

Salvatore Giunta, a 22-year-old Army specialist from Hiawatha, Iowa, was knocked flat by the gunfire; luckily, a well-aimed round failed to penetrate his armored chest plate. As the paratroopers tried to gather their senses and scramble for a shred of cover, Giunta reacted instinctively, running straight into the teeth of the ambush to aid three wounded soldiers, one by one, who had been separated from the others.

Two paratroopers died in the Oct. 25, 2007, attack, and most of the others sustained serious wounds. But the toll would have been far higher if not for the bravery of Giunta, according to members of his unit and Army officials.

On Friday, the White House announced that President Obama decided to award Giunta, now a staff sergeant, the Medal of Honor.

He will become the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor who has served in any war since Vietnam.

Six medals have been awarded posthumously to those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, a small fraction of those given during previous conflicts. In comparison, 246 Medals of Honor have been granted to those who fought in Vietnam, 133 for the Korean War and 464 for World War II.

Defense Department officials say the criteria for the medal have not changed. But veterans groups, lawmakers and even some high-ranking military officials have questioned the official explanations. The relative lack of medals from Iraq and Afghanistan, they argue, has contributed to a lack of public appreciation of the sacrifices made by U.S. troops during the past nine years of war.

"The whole thing is very political in the end, that's one of the sad things about it," said Joseph A. Kinney, an author and Vietnam veteran who has testified before Congress about the paucity of medals. "I think they just decided they were going to avoid awards of that nature" for Iraq and Vietnam.

Giunta, now 25, is still serving in the Army, as a staff sergeant based in Italy with Battle Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team. He and his family did not respond to requests for comment for this story. Medal nominees are often counseled by military officials to maintain their silence while their cases pass through multiple levels of review, which can take years. Officials at the Pentagon and White House declined to comment.

But details of Giunta's act of heroism can be gleaned from interviews he gave to journalists who covered his unit's deployment to Afghanistan, a public account from his brigade commander and statements from his fellow soldiers, who credited him with saving the platoon.

"Everything slowed down and I did everything I thought I could do, nothing more and nothing less," Giunta told author Sebastian Junger, who gives a detailed account of the 2007 ambush in "War," his new book. "I did what I did because that's what I was trained to do."

Giunta grew up in Hiawatha, a town of 6,500 people near Cedar Rapids, and graduated from Kennedy High School. "Sal was just kind of an average kid going through high school, there's nothing that stood out other than his bravery," said Carol Sudmeier, a neighbor. "I think he really just found himself in the Army."

In November 2009, the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported that the Army was pushing Sal Giunta for the Medal of Honor, though his nomination did not reach the White House until later. His mother, Rose, told the newspaper that her son was "a neat guy" and decidedly humble.

"The medal should go to the guy on the right of me and the guy on the left of me," she recalled her son telling her and his father, Steve Giunta. "We were all in the fight."

Giunta's platoon was already weary from a rough deployment in the Korengal Valley - a remote part of Kunar province that the U.S. military abandoned recently after losing more than 40 troops in five years of grinding combat.

About a dozen Taliban fighters had concealed themselves along the ridge, waiting patiently for the Americans to come down the trail.

As gunfire and grenades erupted, the paratrooper's medic, Spec. Hugo Mendoza, was hit in the leg and bled to death. A round struck Staff Sgt. Erick Gallardo in the helmet, knocking him down.

Giunta was also knocked flat and rolled into a washed-out rut for cover. But then he saw Gallardo ahead of him on the trail and lunged forward, dodging enemy fire to reach the staff sergeant, who survived.

Farther ahead on the trail was Army Spec. Franklin Eckrode, seriously wounded and stuck with a jammed machine gun. Giunta and two other paratroopers jumped up and rushed to his aid, headlong into the Taliban ambush, returning fire and tossing grenades as they ran.

As the two paratroopers reached Eckrode and stopped to help, Giunta kept going. Over the ridgeline, he saw two Taliban fighters dragging away Sgt. Joshua Brennan, who had taken the brunt of the fire as the lead paratrooper on the trail. Brennan had been shot in the jaw, the back and several other places. Although badly wounded, the Taliban wanted to take him hostage.

Giunta, tossing his last grenade and emptying his rifle's magazine, killed one of the Taliban and chased off the other. He tried to keep Brennan alive until a medevac helicopter could get there. "He was still conscious. He was breathing. He was asking for morphine. I said, 'You'll get out and tell your hero stories.' and he was like, 'I will, I will,' " Giunta later told Elizabeth Rubin, a journalist who wrote about the battle for the New York Times Magazine.

The chopper arrived and whisked Brennan away. His wounds, however, were too serious. He died several hours later.

Giunta said he kept racing ahead during the ambush not out of a sense of honor or morality but because he instinctively knew that the Taliban was trying to separate the platoon members from one another. If the paratroopers had allowed that to happen, odds were they would all die.

"I didn't run through fire to save a buddy," Giunta told Junger. "I ran through fire to see what was going on with him and maybe we could hide behind the same rock and shoot together. I didn't run through fire to do anything heroic or brave. I did what I believe anyone would have done."

On Thursday, the White House announced that Obama will award a posthumous Medal of Honor to Army Staff Sgt. Robert J. Miller, who sacrificed his life to save fellow U.S. soldiers and Afghan security forces during a firefight on Jan. 25, 2008. A Green Beret and a native of Harrisburg, Pa., Miller will be recognized for "immeasurable courage" for drawing enemy fire until his fellow fighters could take cover during a mission near the Pakistan border.

whitlockc@washpost.com jaffeg@washpost.com

Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/10/AR2010091002712_pf.html

Reminder! Phoenixville Blues Festival

2010-09-10T20:24:00.000-04:00

Phoenixville Blues Festival

Saturday, September 11, 2010

2:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

at Reeves Park, Phoenixville, PA

The Steel City Blues Society presents the Phoenixville Blues Festival. All proceeds benefit the “Give the Gift of Music Foundation,” a non-profit organization to assist underprivileged children in Phoenixville have access to music lessons and after school programs.

Artists include: Ben Arnold, Beaucoup Blue, HotLanta, Paul Michaels and The Blues Recruits, The Porkroll Project, Sister Blue, and Slim Bob and the New Electrics.

For more information: http://pvilleblues.org/about-the-festival

INVITATION to PCEF ENDOWMENT GALA - October 15, 2010

2010-09-10T20:22:00.001-04:00

INVITATION to PCEF ENDOWMENT GALA

& MEET THE NEW SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS

I very much hope you are able to join us on October 15 for the Endowment Gala at the Foundry. The details are below and more information is available on our website at www.pcefonline.com--

Or call/email me directly. Last year’s event at the Foundry was so much fun AND it helped GROW the Endowment Fund. Please say yes. I attached a reservation form for your convenience. I also attached our Get to Know Us Better flyer for your review.

HOPE YOU HAD A NICE SUMMER—THANKS FOR CONSIDERING THIS REQUEST. If you aren’t available, but you know of others who would love to be a part of the evening, please forward this invitation to them. It’s a party!

You’re invited...and please bring a friend. SAVE THE DATE: October 15, 2010—7 p.m. to 12 a.m. Phoenixville Community Education Foundation Fifth Annual Endowment Gala at the beautiful Phoenixville Foundry, the most “premier turn-of-the-century special event facility in Chester County.” It will feature dinner by Robert Ryan Catering and dancing to the music of Silver Sound DJ. The price of $125 per person covers all expenses for the evening, including a sit down gourmet dinner and top shelf beverages! The purpose of the Gala is to raise money to support education in the Phoenixville area (in the long term). It does not include an auction. The evening is dedicated to having fun with friends, colleagues, and Phoenixville Area School District administration/teachers/supporters. Reservations are required. Please contact Nan Odenthal at pcef.nanodenthal@verizon.net for more information. The event was sold out last year, so please reserve your seating early. Sponsorship opportunities are available.

Nan E. Odenthal

Phoenixville Community Education Foundation

PO Box 348

120 Main Street

Phoenixville, PA 19460

610-739-1599

www.pcefonline.com

The official registration and financial information of Phoenixville Community Education Foundation may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll free within Pennsylvania, 1-800-732-0999. Registration does not imply endorsement.

The Mission of the Phoenixville Community Education Foundation is to support education in the Phoenixville area. PCEF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization – donations to which are tax deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law.

TEDx is coming to Phoenixville

2010-09-10T20:16:00.001-04:00

TEDx is coming to Phoenixville.

Landmark Colonial Theatre will become epicenter of ideas 09.09.2010 – The Colonial Theatre, a cultural landmark in the revitalized steel town of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, is going to be the epicenter for a unique collection of people and an exciting exchange of ideas later this month. TEDxPhoenixville, scheduled for Saturday, September 25, 2010, will feature a variety of lively speakers, compelling performers and an interactive exchange with an engaged audience.

TEDx is an independently organized TED event that enables local communities and groups like the Association for the Colonial Theatre to organize, design and host their own independent, TED-like events. TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

At the regional TEDx events, unique talks given by live speakers combine with TEDTalks videos to spark deep conversation and connections. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis.

The theme of TEDxPhoenixville is Joy Ride and the organizing committee has invited individuals with diverse disciplines and backgrounds to speak during the engaging, day-long event. As a metaphor for life, the ride theme allows open interpretation to an interesting format of speakers and performers that include adventurers, inventors, virtuosos and entrepreneurs, A diverse collection of individuals whose common denominator is attacking their passion with joy.

Speakers and performers for the inaugural TEDxPhoenixville event include:

West Chester University Laptop Arts Ensemble
Defining a new genre of interactive computer music, the Laptop Arts Ensemble brings together talented students from a variety of academic programs.

Emma Resmini
An accomplished flutist at just 10 years old, Emma has been called a “bright young prodigy” by the New York Times and has been recognized by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for her “dazzling technique.”

Paul Deegan
An adventurer, explorer, award-winning author and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Paul is an ebullient speaker who has climbed many of the world’s most popular – and also some of its more esoteric – mountain regions.

Christopher McDougall
Author of the New York Times Bestseller, Born to Run, Chris shares his conviction that the secret to happiness is right at your feet with sharp wit and wild exuberance.

Simon Hauger
Simon is a physics teacher and director of the West Philly Hybrid X Team that builds and races alternative fuel vehicles. The team includes students from an after school program of the Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering based in West Philadelphia High School.

Ben Gulak
Ben is a twenty-one year old MIT student and inventor of the Uno, a one-wheeled, electric motorcycle, that is a marvel of technology and design.

Jennifer Levonian
Artist Jennifer Levonian creates cut-paper animations that explore the ambivalence of everyday life. Her work transforms things previously unnoticed into something bizarre, uncanny and wonderful.

Hosts for the TEDxPhoenixville day, most of which will take place on the Colonial Theatre's main stage, are:

Kelly Stoetzel
Content Director for the TED conference in Palm Springs, California, co-host of the TEDActive and member of our TEDxPhoenixville committee.

Rives
Storyteller, poet, regular on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, co-host of Ironic, Iconic America on Bravo and the co-host of the TEDActive simulcast event in Palm Springs, California.

The committee includes Kirsten Van Vlandren, Assistant Director, The Colonial Theatre; Mary Foote, Executive Director, The Colonial Theatre; LuAnn Roth, Patron Services Director, The Colonial Theatre; Kelly Stoetzel, TED Content Director; Todd Palmer, advertising agency Creative Director; and community members and TED enthusiasts Jay Brown and Tyler Donald.

The day-long TEDxPhoenixville, including some surprises, fun breaks and a chef-prepared lunch, will kick-off at 9:30am and will feature three sessions. Attendees are also encouraged to experience Phoenixville during the breaks including a visit to the Phoenixville Farmer’s Market where TEDxPhoenixville has a special event planned.

Speaking of special events, TEDxPhoenixville has collaborated with a number of local merchants to offer special pre-TEDx events where attendees can get to know one another and interact with the region.

Organized by The Colonial Theatre volunteer Beth Lennon, events scheduled for the evening of Friday, September 24 include a private tour of the legendary WEST COLLECTION at SEI art collection, introductory yoga class at the Soul Center, a chef’s tasting menu at Majolica, glass work demonstration at Diving Cat Studio and a beer tasting and tour at Sly Fox Brewing. Participants in the different activities are encouraged to meet up at the Columbia Hotel’s second floor following.

Tickets for TEDxPhoenixville are just $20 plus $5 for the optional lunch and are available for purchase on the event website. While purchasing tickets, attendees can also select which Friday, September 24 event they would like to attend. For more information on sponsorship or attending please visit the TEDxPhoenixville website at http://www.tedxpxv.com.

Colonial Theatre to become epicenter of a unique collection of people and ideas on September 25, 2010. Get tix!

News Facts

TEDx Phoenixville is an independently organized TED event.
At the regional TEDx events, unique talks are given by live speakers and combined with TEDTalks videos.

The theme of TEDxPhoenixville is Joy Ride.

Pre-TEDxPhoenixville events on Friday evening, September 24 include a private tour of the legendary WEST COLLECTION at SEI art collection, introductory yoga class at the Soul Center, a chef’s tasting menu at Majolica, glass work demonstration at Diving Cat Studio and a beer tasting and tour at Sly Fox Brewing.

The committee includes Kirsten Van Vlandren, Assistant Director, The Colonial Theatre; Mary Foote, Executive Director, The Colonial Theatre; LuAnn Roth, Patron Services Director, The Colonial Theatre; Kelly Stoetzel, TED Content Director; Todd Palmer, advertising agency Creative Director; and community members and TED enthusiasts Jay Brown and Tyler Donald.

Phoenixville Area School District receives grant for energy conservation

2010-09-05T08:48:00.003-04:00

PASD school board directors secured an energy conservation grant from the state's PEDA for our schools.

Conserving costly energy by the application of clean alternative resources additionally demonstrates positive fiscal responsibililty by the directors for saving tax dollars for Phoenixville area tax payers.

Kudos, PASD!

*****

District receives grant for energy conservation

Sunday, September 5, 2010

By DENNIS J. WRIGHT
Journal Register News Service

PHOENIXVILLE — The Phoenixville Area School District received a $554,5000 grant from the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority that will be used for conserving energy in three schools, directly saving taxpayer money.

Some of the dignitaries on hand for the ceremony in front of the Phoenixville Area High School were State Senator Andy Dinniman, school superintendent Alan Fegley, assistant superintendent Regina Palubinsky, board members Paul Slaninka and Debbie Dawson, high school principal Craig Parkinson, business manager Len Kresefski amongst others.

Fegley welcomed everyone to the ceremony and announced that the high school, along with Schuylkill Elementary and Barkley Elementary, are the focus of the program.

The project was selected as one of only six school projects, and one of 40 grant recipients overall, in a field of more than 200 projects considered.

“The power of this grant is that it not only supports the district in operationalizing the significant clean energy opportunities Senator Dinniman has enumerated,” Fegley said. “It also allows the district to address the educational issues so as to permanently impact and transform our culture from one of energy use to that of wise energy consumption.”

Dinniman said the $554,500 grant will pay for solar panels, more efficient HVAC and lighting systems and energy awareness programs, and that it represents a Commonwealth investment with both environmental and fiscal benefits.

“Projects such as these offer many advantages, and one in particular is energy independence,” Dinniman said. “The more we are able to get clean energy from right here in Commonwealth — be it from solar panels on top of Phoenixville Area High School, from wind farms in the Poconos, or from the responsible drilling of Marcellus Shale natural gas — the better.

“Make no mistake about it — the Commonwealth’s economy and our way of life here in Chester and Montgomery counties depends on us having reliable, safe, and clean sources of energy.

“The renewable energy these solar panels will create and the energy this advanced HVAC and lighting equipment will conserve bring us and Pennsylvania that much closer to being energy independent.”

Dinniman said that 240 applications were submitted, and only six school districts were given the funds.

“On behalf of the Commonwealth, it is my privilege to make this announcement on a local level,” he said. “Today, we have taken an idea, and as we feel the warmth in the school come winter time, we will know what we’ve done has come home.”

Dawson said that she was glad to see the district receive the money.

“We paid $9,000 for the grant application and look what we get back in return,” Dawson said. “I’m very happy about that.”

The project was part of $20.5 million in state and federal investments that were announced by Governor Ed Rendell on Wednesday.

http://timesherald.com/articles/2010/09/04/news/doc4c831fb8d2258074351016.txt

REMINDER - Chico's Vibe tonight in Reeves Park

2010-09-01T14:49:00.002-04:00

Phoenixville Federal Bank and Trust hosts the last Summer Music Festival concert tonight in Reeves Park beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The band, Chico's Vibe, was a huge hit in the park last summer with their amazing song list and tonight's show will delight everyone with songs from the 60's, 70's, 80's right up to this decade.

http://chicosvibe.com/

Fresh from down the shore and local bookings, Chico's Vibe is not to be missed!

CANCELLED - Mosquito spraying for Phoenixville

2010-08-24T19:49:00.002-04:00

Due to inclement weather the spraying for mosquitos has been cancelled for Phoenixville.

The Chester County Health Department will apply a mosquito control treatment between 8:30 PM and 10:30 PM on the evening of Wednesday, August 25, 2010 in Phoenixville Borough and Schuylkill Township.

The areas to be treated are:

Phoenixville Borough- bordered by Washington Avenue to the North, Main Street to the West, Nutt Road to the South, and Second Avenue to the East.

SchuylkillTownship- bordered by Rossiter Avenue to the North, Biddle Lane to the South, South Second Avenue to the East and Valley Forge Road to the West.

NEW ALERT! Mosquito Spraying Set for Phoenixville Borough and Schuylkill Township

2010-08-20T12:04:00.004-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 20, 2010
News Release #24
For more information, call 610-344-6455

Mosquito Spraying Set for Phoenixville Borough and Schuylkill Township
Chester County to Control West Nile Virus Threat

WEST CHESTER, PA - Weather permitting, the Chester County Health Department will apply a mosquito control treatment between 8:30 PM and 10:30 PM on the evening of Tuesday, August 24, 2010 in Phoenixville Borough and Schuylkill Township.

The areas to be treated are:

Phoenixville Borough- bordered by Washington Avenue to the North, Main Street to the West, Nutt Road to the South, and Second Avenue to the East.

SchuylkillTownship- bordered by Rossiter Avenue to the North, Biddle Lane to the South, South Second Avenue to the East and Valley Forge Road to the West.

In the event of a weather delay, the application will be conducted on Wednesday, August 25, 2010

On August 17, 2010 mosquito samples collected on the border of Phoenixville Borough and Schuylkill Township by the Chester County Health Department West Nile Virus program staff tested positive for West Nile Virus.

The treatment will be administered with truck mounted equipment to spray the target area of the borough. The equipment dispenses Permanone RTU, a permethrin insecticide product, at a rate of 1.5 ounces per acre. It is recommended that residents stay indoors and close windows during treatment and for approximately one hour after spraying is complete.

Certain mosquito species carry the West Nile virus, which, when transmitted to people, can cause West Nile encephalitis, an infection that can result in an inflammation of the brain. All residents in areas where virus activity has been identified are at risk of getting West Nile encephalitis.

Margaret Rivello, County Health Director, warns that “Although spraying is conducted to help reduce the mosquito populations, treatments cannot totally eliminate mosquitoes. Residents should take precautions to help reduce contact with mosquitoes and breeding areas.”

The Health Department recommends the following precautions to help eliminate mosquito-breeding areas:

• Dispose of open containers on your property that may collect water, such as tin cans, plastic containers, ceramic pots, etc.

• Keep your property clear of old tires or avoid areas where they may be stored.

• Drill holes in the bottom of outdoor recycling containers so that water will not collect.

• Clean roof gutters, particularly if leaves from surrounding trees have a tendency to plug drains.

• Turn over plastic wading pools when not in use.

• Turn over wheelbarrows and don’t let water stagnate in birdbaths.

• Aerate ornamental pools or stock them with fish.

• Clean and chlorinate swimming pools when not in use. A swimming pool left untended by a family on vacation for a month can produce enough mosquitoes to result in neighborhood-wide complaints. Mosquitoes may even breed in the water that collects on pool covers.

• For stagnant pools of water, homeowners can buy Bti products at lawn/garden, outdoor supply, home improvement and other stores. This naturally occurring bacterial product kills mosquito larvae but is safe for people, pets, aquatic life and plants.

In addition, take these simple precautions to prevent mosquito bites:

• Make sure screens fit tightly over doors and windows to keep mosquitoes out of homes.

• Consider wearing long-sleeved shirts, long pants and socks when outdoors, particularly when mosquitoes are most active at dawn and dusk, or in areas known for having large numbers of mosquitoes.

• When possible, reduce outdoor exposure at dawn and dusk during the summer.

• Use insect repellants. An effective repellant will contain DEET, picaridin, or oil of lemon eucalyptus. Always be sure to follow the manufacturer label directions. Consult with a pediatrician or family physician if you have questions about the use of repellant on children, as repellant is not recommended for children under the age of two months

For more information on West Nile Virus, visit the Health Department’s website or call 610-344-6455.

###

Chester County Health Department
Government Services Center
601 Westtown Road, Suite 290
West Chester, Pennsylvania 19390

Mosquito spraying for Phoenixville CANCELLED - rescheduled for Friday, August 13, 2010

2010-08-12T21:37:00.003-04:00

Due to inclement weather, the spraying for mosquitos in Phoenixville has been cancelled.

Weather permitting, the Chester County Health Department will apply the mosquito control treatment between 8:30pm-10:30pm on Friday evening, August 13 in Phoenixville Borough.

Areas to be treated will be bordered by Washington Avenue to the north, Nutt Road and Valley Forge Road to the west and south, Second Avenue to the east.

In the event of another cancellation, the date of the treatment will be during the week of August 23, and will be noted on this blog.

Please read the previous post for additional information.

ALERT - Mosquito Spraying Set for Phoenixville Borough

2010-08-11T08:15:00.002-04:00

Chester County to control West Nile Virus threat

WEST CHESTER, PA - Weather permitting, the Chester County Health Department will apply a mosquito control treatment between 8:30pm-10:30pm on the evening of Thursday, August 12 in Phoenixville Borough.

Areas to be treated will be bordered by Washington Avenue to the north, Nutt Road and Valley Forge Road to the west and south, Second Avenue to the east.

In the event of a weather delay, the application will be conducted on Friday, August 13, 2010.

On August 9, 2010 mosquito samples collected in this area by the Chester County Health Department West Nile Virus program staff tested positive for West Nile Virus.

The treatment will be administered with truck mounted equipment to spray the target area. The equipment dispenses Permanone RTU, a permethrin insecticide product, at a rate of 1.5 ounces per acre.

It is recommended that residents stay indoors and close windows during treatment and for approximately one hour after spraying is complete.

Certain mosquito species carry the West Nile virus, which, when transmitted to people, can cause West Nile encephalitis, an infection that can result in an inflammation of the brain.

All residents in areas where virus activity has been identified are at risk of getting West Nile encephalitis. Margaret Rivello, County Health Director, warns that “Although spraying is conducted to help reduce the mosquito populations, treatments cannot totally eliminate mosquitoes. Residents should take precautions to help reduce contact with mosquitoes and breeding areas.”

The Health Department recommends the following precautions to help eliminate mosquito-breeding areas:

• Dispose of open containers on your property that may collect water, such as tin cans, plastic containers, ceramic pots, etc.

• Keep your property clear of old tires or avoid areas where they may be stored.

• Drill holes in the bottom of outdoor recycling containers so that water will not collect.

• Clean roof gutters, particularly if leaves from surrounding trees have a tendency to plug drains.

• Turn over plastic wading pools when not in use.

• Turn over wheelbarrows and don’t let water stagnate in birdbaths.

• Aerate ornamental pools or stock them with fish.

• Clean and chlorinate swimming pools when not in use. A swimming pool left untended by a family on vacation for a month can produce enough mosquitoes to result in neighborhood-wide complaints. Mosquitoes may even breed in the water that collects on pool covers.

• For stagnant pools of water, homeowners can buy Bti products at lawn/garden, outdoor supply, home improvement and other stores. This naturally occurring bacterial product kills mosquito larvae but is safe for people, pets, aquatic life and plants. In addition, take these simple precautions to prevent mosquito bites: • Make sure screens fit tightly over doors and windows to keep mosquitoes out of homes.

• Consider wearing long-sleeved shirts, long pants and socks when outdoors, particularly when mosquitoes are most active at dawn and dusk, or in areas known for having large numbers of mosquitoes.

• When possible, reduce outdoor exposure at dawn and dusk during the summer.

• Use insect repellants. An effective repellant will contain DEET, picaridin, or oil of lemon eucalyptus. Always be sure to follow the manufacturer label directions. Consult with a pediatrician or family physician if you have questions about the use of repellant on children, as repellant is not recommended for children under the age of two months.

For more information on West Nile Virus, visit the Health Department’s website or call 610-344-6455.

###

http://dsf.chesco.org/health/lib/health/newsreleases/222010.pdf

DEP finds West Nile Virus in Phoenixville borough mosquito test

2010-08-10T15:33:00.004-04:00

Not since August 26, 2006 has Phoenixville borough had a positive result test for the mosquito-borne disease, West Nile Virus.

Today I received the following alert from the Department of Environmental Protection:

8/10/2010

Twenty-one Mosquito Samples Test Postive for West Nile Virus

The following is a list of the new mosquito positives for the day:

Mosquito Positives - (21)

Adams - Conewago Township

Bucks - Bristol Township

Chester - Phoenixville Borough

Dauphin - Susquehanna Township

Lancaster - Mount Joy Borough

Lancaster - Pequea Township

Lebanon - Cornwall Borough

Lebanon - South Londonderry Township

Montgomery - Lower Merion Township

Montgomery - Norristown Borough

Montgomery - Springfield Township

Montgomery - Upper Dublin Township

Montgomery - Upper Merion Township (3)

Montgomery - West Conshohocken Borough

Montgomery - Whitemarsh Township (5)

This is Chester County's first reported postive of 2010. DEP and County Staff are responding by increasing surveillance and control activities as needed.

CONTACT(S):

John Repetz
Department of Environmental Protection
717-787-1323
jrepetz@state.pa.us

****

Transmitted by mosquitos, information regarding the most commonly asked questions, including the symptoms of West Nile Virus can be found here:

http://www.westnile.state.pa.us/health.htm

It's important to know how to limit mosquito breeding in your neighborhood and what steps to take to limit your exposure.

From the DEP website:

How can you reduce the number of mosquitoes around your home and neighborhood?

Mosquitoes breed in standing water. Even a small bucket that has stagnant water in it for seven days can become home to up to 1,000 mosquitoes. Here are some easy tips to eliminate standing water:

Dispose of tin cans, plastic containers, ceramic pots or similar water holding containers that have accumulated on your property. Do not overlook containers that have become overgrown by aquatic vegetation.

Pay special attention to discarded tires that may have accumulated on your property.

Drill holes in the bottom of recycling containers that are left out of doors.

Drainage holes that are located on the container sides collect enough water for mosquitoes to breed in.

Clean clogged roof gutters on an annual basis, particularly if the leaves from surrounding trees have a tendency to plug up the drains. Roof gutters are easily overlooked but can produce millions of mosquitoes each season.

Turn over plastic wading pools when not in use. A wading pool becomes a mosquito producer if it is not used on a regular basis.

Turn over wheelbarrows and do not allow water to stagnate in birdbaths. Both provide breeding habitat for domestic mosquitoes.

Aerate ornamental pools or stock them with fish. Water gardens are fashionable but become major mosquito producers if they are allowed to stagnate. Clean and chlorinate swimming pools that are not being used. A swimming pool that is left untended by a family that goes on vacation for a month can produce enough mosquitoes to result in neighborhood-wide complaints. Be aware that mosquitoes may even breed in the water that collects on swimming pool covers.

How can I protect myself?

It is not necessary to limit any outdoor activities, unless local officials advise you otherwise.

However, you can and should try to reduce your risk of being bitten by mosquitoes. In addition to reducing stagnant water in your yard, make sure all windows and doors have screens, and that all screens are in good repair.

If West Nile virus is found in your area:

· Take normal steps to prevent insect bites.

· Wear shoes, socks, long pants and a long-sleeved shirt when outdoors for long periods of time, or when mosquitoes are most active.

· Consider the use of mosquito repellent, according to directions, when it is necessary to be outdoors. Wash all treated skin and clothing when returning indoors.

· Click here for the CDC's latest information on the use of DEET in Insect Repellent Use and Safety.

Remember, electromagnetic and ultrasound devices and Vitamin B are not effective in preventing mosquito bites.

New emergency sirens to be tested throughout area

2010-08-10T12:07:00.002-04:00

As with a test of this nature, the sirens will probably be sounding more than once and at various times. Please spread the word to your family and friends about the testing in order to avoid any undue and unecessary alarm.

****

By Mercury Staff

LIMERICK — Exelon Nuclear will begin the testing of new sirens that have been installed over the past few months. The tests are part of a larger project to replace all 165 emergency sirens in the 10 miles around Limerick Generating Station with sirens that include battery back-up.

The first phase of the project began in September 2009.

The testing is scheduled to begin this week with the sirens located in Chester County. Testing will continue in September with the sirens in Montgomery County and conclude in October with the sirens in Berks County.

The individual siren tests may be performed daily from the respective county start date until the end of November 2010.

The typical duration of the testing will be between 15 to 30 seconds and could occur several times in a row. Occasionally, siren activation may last the full three minutes. The siren acoustics will be similar to those of current emergency sirens.

Residents may contact the counties at the following numbers if they have concerns during testing:

Berks County: 610-374-4800

Chester County: 610-344-5000

Montgomery County: 610-631-6530

The new and old sirens will be operable concurrently for a four-month period to ensure they operate properly. Completion of the project and removal of the existing sirens is scheduled for 2011.

This $3.8 million investment around Limerick is part of Exelon Nuclear's commitment to replace and upgrade the emergency sirens at all of the sites in the mid-Atlantic, including Three Mile Island, Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, and Oyster Creek Generating Station. This project will involve a total investment of more than $9 million and the replacement of 400 sirens.

"The sirens are an important part of our commitment to the safety of the public," said Bill Maguire, Limerick site vice president. "This significant investment is part of our ongoing efforts to ensure that Limerick Generating Station remains a leader in the industry and the community."

The warning sirens are one of several methods used by county emergency management authorities to provide notification of emergencies.

Individual counties may activate the sirens to warn the surrounding community of events such as fires, floods, tornadoes, hazardous material releases or nuclear energy plant events.

http://www.pottsmerc.com/articles/2010/08/10/news/srv0000009055313.txt

Pennsylvania Health Department Distributing Potassium Iodide to People Living, Working Near Nuclear Power Plants

2010-08-08T20:46:00.001-04:00

Previously Distributed Tablets Expire August 31, 2010.

New Tablets Available Beginning September 1, 2010.

HARRISBURG, Pa., Aug. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Department of Health will provide free potassium iodide, or KI, tablets to people who live or work within a 10-mile radius of Pennsylvania's five nuclear power plants beginning next month.

The KI tablets that were distributed previously by the commonwealth will expire on Aug. 31 and should be discarded in the trash. The pills should not be used after the expiration date.

The new KI tablets will be distributed beginning Tuesday, Sept. 1, through Thursday evening, Sept. 3, at sites across Pennsylvania. Hours will be from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30p.m., with the exception of Montgomery County's site, which will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

If for any reason people are unable to pick up KI during the initial three-day distribution, or if they decide at a later time that they'd like to get KI, Health Department offices will maintain a supply and will make it available for pick up by the public during normal business hours. The locations are listed on the department's Web site, www.health.state.pa.us.

Pennsylvania has five nuclear power plants: Beaver Valley Power Station, Limerick Generating Station, Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, and Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station.

Each person who lives within the 10-mile radius of one of the five power plants will be eligible to receive four 65-milligram tablets per person. Individuals will be allowed to pick up tablets for their family members and those who are unable to pick them up on their own.

In addition to the tablets, instructions will be available detailing how to store the tablets and when they should be taken. Health department staff also will be on site to answer questions.

The public is reminded to not take KI during a test of the Emergency Alert System or during a test of the sirens located near nuclear power plant sites. Residents should only take the pills when directed to do so by the Governor or state public health officials.

KI will also be available for those who work within the 10-mile radius, but do not live there. Employers can contact the Department of Health at 1-877-PA-HEALTH to make arrangements to pick up tablets for their entire workforce.

School districts within the 10-mile radius also have the option of deciding whether to accept and how to distribute KI for their students. These schools have received instructions for requesting KI.

Residents who have questions about the KI tablets can also talk to their family physicians and pediatricians about whether or not there are specific reasons why KI should not be taken.

For additional information about potassium iodide, visit www.health.state.pa.us or call 1-877-PA-HEALTH.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Below are the KI distribution sites for Sept. 1-3. Residents are welcome to go to any distribution site within the 10-mile radius of the nuclear facility in their area:

Beaver Valley Power Station

Beaver County - State Health Center, 300 S. Walnut Lane, Beaver, PA 15009

Limerick Generating Station

Berks County - Keystone Fire Company, 240 N. Walnut St., Boyertown, PA 19512 - Phone 610-367-2200

Chester County - Kimberton Fairgrounds, Rt. 113 South of Seven Stars Rd., Kimberton, PA 19442

Montgomery County - Hope Community Church, 2732 N. Charlotte St., Gilbertsville, PA 19525

Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station

Lancaster County - Solanco High School, 585 Solanco Rd., Quarryville, PA 17566 - Phone: 717-786-2151

York County - South Eastern School District, Administration Building, Community Room, 377 Main St., Fawn Grove, PA 17321

Susquehanna Steam Electric Station

Columbia County - Bloomsburg State Health Center, 1000 Market St., Unit 4, Bloomsburg, PA 17815

Luzerne County - Butler Township Municipal Building, 415 W. Butler Dr., Drums, PA 18222 - Phone: 570-788-3547

Luzerne County - Luzerne County Community College, Public Safety Training Institute (PSTI) 1333 S. Prospect St., Nanticoke, PA 18634 - Phone: 570-740-0481

Three Mile Island Nuclear Station

Dauphin County - Harrisburg Mall, Upper Level Center Court, 3601 Paxton St., Harrisburg, PA 17111

Lancaster County - Masonic Village, Freemasons Cultural Center, 1 Masonic Drive, Elizabethtown, PA 17022

York County - Fairview Township Fire Department, 340 Lewisberry Rd., New Cumberland, PA 17070

York County - Manchester Township Municipal Building, 3200 Farmtrail Rd., York, PA 17406

CONTACT: Stacy Kriedeman
(717) 787-1783

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Health

RELATED LINKS
http://www.state.pa.us
http://www.health.state.pa.us

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pennsylvania-health-department-distributing-potassium-iodide-to-people-living-working-near-nuclear-power-plants-62094702.html

UPDATED - Public comment solicited on potential change shifting costs of borough tree trimming/removal to property owner

2010-08-01T09:53:00.005-04:00

The following notice is a call for action by Phoenixville residents.

The Shade Tree Advisory Commission is requesting comments regarding a potential change in a borough ordinance which would shift the costs associated with street tree trimming and removal from the borough to the property owner.

At least twice in the past, during my term as the last Chairman of the former Shade Tree Commission and during my Council tenure, a proposal to turn ownership of the street trees as well as the burden of maintenance to the property owner generated many negative responses from the public and the change was nixed. It can happen again if you do your part.

Tree planting and maintenance is numbered among those "services" provided by the borough of Phoenixville by way of our tax dollars. Hotly debated years ago, another similar Council ordinance mandated the costs of replacing sidewalks (as the tree matured and roots displaced and shifted the concrete) onto the property owner. The costs years ago for replacing just a few concrete sidewalk pads in front of our home was outrageous and undoubtedly even more so today.

While arguments are made regarding cuts to the ever increasing costs associated with services to the public, tree maintenance is not a high cost, high priority item for consideration.

Personally, I have given Council many ideas for other opportunities to reduce the impact on our borough's annual budget beginning with eliminating the costly CDC contract, a thorough examination is needed of all borough contracts, i.e., production costs for televising Council meetings, departmental reviews, energy saving devices and other ideas for borough owned facilities, and identifying and pursuing more "piggy-back" opportunities, along with others.

Among other suggested ideas to reduce costs while providing a lasting benefit is the creation of a Memorial Tree program for the public to purchase a tree to celebrate a birth, wedding, or an anniversary, or to commemorate the life of a family member or friend. This type of program would help also to replenish our borough trees.

A program of municipal supplied electricity could reduce the individual property owner and borough costs.

A solar farm currently proposed in Limerick should be investigated with an eye towards developing the same type of venture in Phoenixville.

Enough for now. Back to the original subject, the email I received on changing the ordinance on street trees.

Please, take the time to voice your concerns because if you don't, you may face additional annual bills for tree maintenance from hundreds of dollars for trimming to thousands for tree removal.

Send in your comments to the email address provided below.*

****

Borough of Phoenixville

Shade Tree Advisory Commission

140 Church Street, Phoenixville, Pa., 19460 610-933-8801

July 30, 2010

~ Public Comment Wanted ~

Borough of Phoenixville Tree Advisory Commission

The Tree Advisory Commission is seeking property owner comment regarding proposed changes to the Borough Ordinance Regulating Street Trees. (Chapter 25)

Under consideration is a change from “Borough responsibility for trimming, maintenance, and removal of regulated street trees” to one of, “abutting property owner responsibility for trimming, maintenance, and removal of regulated street trees.” (Similar to responsibility for curbs and sidewalks.)

Property owners are invited to make comment at the August 9, 2010 meeting of the Tree Advisory Commission, beginning at 6:30 PM at Borough Hall, 140 Church Street, Phoenixville, PA.

Comments may also be submitted by phone (610-933-8801) or email Sue Donato (sdonato@phoenixville.org)*.

Phoenixville Blues Festival

2010-07-08T20:14:00.003-04:00

Mark your calendars!

****

Phoenixville Blues Festival

Saturday, September 11, 2010

2:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

at Reeves Park, Phoenixville, PA

The Steel City Blues Society presents the Phoenixville Blues Festival. All proceeds benefit the “Give the Gift of Music Foundation,” a non-profit organization to assist underprivileged children in Phoenixville have access to music lessons and after school programs.

Artists include: Ben Arnold, Beaucoup Blue, HotLanta, Paul Michaels and The Blues Recruits, The Porkroll Project, Sister Blue, and Slim Bob and the New Electrics.

For more information: http://pvilleblues.org/about-the-festival

Phoenixville's First Annual Shad Festival

2010-07-06T11:56:00.002-04:00

Now is the perfect time to begin planning an annual Shad Festival for Phoenixville!

With the opening of PECO's new fish ladder, and the unconfirmed report of a shad sighted in the area, Phoenixville has a reason to celebrate the long-awaited return of this fish to the Schuylkill River.

Consider this post an initial invitation to local service groups and commercial establishments who have an interest in making a Shad Festival an annual event in Phoenixville.

Interested parties may contact me at karenj97@comcast.net

PECO's new fish ladder at Black Rock on the Schuylkill

2010-07-06T11:40:00.003-04:00

The shad WILL return to the Schuylkill!

Many of you may recall the post below from 2008, which details the now completed and functional PECO fish ladder at Black Rock on the Schuylkill River.

http://karenjohns4phoenixvilleboroughcouncil.blogspot.com/search?q=fish+ladder

Due to scheduling problems my interview with the PECO officials has been delayed, but here is the Pottstown Mercury article updating us on the opening of the facility.

http://www.pottsmerc.com/articles/2010/07/06/news/srv0000008682218.txt

New fish ladder at Black Rock Dam hopes to bring shad back to area
Tuesday, July 6, 2010

By Evan Brandt, ebrandt@pottsmerc.com

PHOENIXVILLE — How do you get a fish to climb a ladder? Why, you build it, of course.

That's what's going on right now at the Black Rock Dam where a new fish passageway, which will allow migratory fish such as American shad to continue farther upstream to spawn, was dedicated earlier this month.

The ladder was actually completed and opened last spring, but the dedication was timed with two others to highlight recreational opportunities and land preservation efforts along the Schuylkill River.

A result of cooperation between Exelon Power and Chester County, the project was celebrated the same day as open space purchases connecting French Creek State Park and the Schuylkill River Trail in Union Township, Berks County, and the beginning of construction of a portion of the Schuylkill River Trail that will stretch from the Phoenixville borough line to Parker Ford in East Coventry. All are associated in one way or another with the ribbon of water with the Dutch name meaning "hidden river."

When Europeans first arrived in North America, the rivers were teeming with fish, including shad, a migratory species that, like salmon, is spawned in fresh water, spends much of its adult life in salt water, but returns to freshwater streams and rivers to reproduce.

It is said that a spring run of shad saved Washington's army at Valley Forge, but that claim has since proved to be undocumented in any original historical sources; although, that has not kept it from being repeated often.

Whether those Valley Forge soldiers gorged on shad or not does not undermine the importance the fish had as a food source for early colonial Pennsylvanians. In fact, so effective were the downstream fishermen in the 1700s that upstream communities began complaining of scarcity and limits were enacted.

Shad fishing was so important in Colonial days that as early as 1683 laws were being passed to prevent the overfishing of the river, as well as to prevent fish dams from making the river unnavigable, according to the Historical Society of Montgomery County.

Once the Schuylkill Navigation Company began building dams and locks in 1818 to make the Schuylkill traversable, the conflict disappeared because the dams blocked the spring run of shad. The importance of navigation had trumped the importance of the fishery.

With the only craft now plying the Schuylkill's waters being of the pleasure variety, efforts are being made, albeit slowly, to make the river home once again to the shad. Fish passages, ladders and other methods to allow fish to swim upstream past dams have been installed over the years.

Fairmount Dam in Philadelphia has a vertical slot fishway in place and was rebuilt in recent years.

At Flat Rock Dam, near Bala Cynwyd, construction of a fish ladder was completed in 2005.

In 2008, Exelon Power opened a similar fish passageway farther upstream on the Schuylkill at the Norristown Dam.

Construction on the Black Rock fish passageway began in February 2008 and was completed in the spring of 2009 in time for the shad migration.

The design of the passageway incorporates some of the existing historical materials used in construction of the Schuylkill navigation's lock and canal system, using elements from the system that cut the shad off from their spawning grounds to restore that same access.

A camera system was also installed in the passageway for counting the shad and other species that use it.

The installation of this passageway, often called a ladder, combined with the recent breaching and removal of the Vincent Dam will now allow shad and other migratory fish to swim as far upstream as Pottstown and Birdsboro, as well as the creeks and streams that feed the Schuylkill.

Because the Delaware River has never had a major dam built upon it, it still supports a population of native shad; although, they must swim farther upstream to find clear water in which to spawn. This presumably means they will also find their way into the Schuylkill and its tributaries.

They are valued as a fighting sport fish. One New Jersey fishing website described them this way: "These strong, salty soldiers offer some of the best battles on the river, especially on light tackle. Even devoted hunters of the celebrated trout have been known to yield to the hearty pursuit of shad during the first months of spring!"

"Migratory fish, such as the American shad, are a vital part of Pennsylvania's natural, cultural and economic heritage," Doyle Beneby, president of Exelon Power, said in a prepared statement. "We're pleased to join the effort to help preserve and restore that heritage."

The dam and passageway are adjacent to the 119-acre Black Rock Sanctuary, a wildlife sanctuary and preserve created in 2003 and 2004 at a cost of $1.09 million which transformed the former "silt basins" created when coal silt was removed from the Schuylkill in the 1930s, into 24 new wetland areas favored by waterfowl.

The fish passageway "is a great example of the many ways that our parks and recreation staff focus on the habitats of all our park locations," Chester County Commissioner Kathi Cozzone said during the dedication earlier this month.

"Chester County Parks encompass more than 4,500 acres and, in addition to providing wonderful recreational opportunities, they are also maintained and developed to preserve the natural and cultural history of Chester County, said county commissioners' Chairwoman Carol Aichele.

For more on local fishing, visit our TownSquare blog Troutrageous.

DCNR Invests in Schuylkill River Trail to Promote Outdoor Activity, Connect River Towns in Chester County

2010-06-02T16:03:00.003-04:00

PRNewsWire News Releases
Published: 06/02/10 01:00 PM EDT
Released By:
Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

PARKERFORD, Pa., June 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/

Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary John Quigley today announced a $406,035 grant to Chester County that will help add a 3.5-mile segment to the Schuylkill River Trail, linking it from Phoenixville to Pottstown.

The vision for the Schuylkill River Trail is that it will be seamless along the Schuylkill River from Delaware County, through Philadelphia, to Montgomery and Chester counties, proceeding on to Reading, Berks County, and eventually to the headwaters of the river in Schuylkill County.

"Trails make important connections between places; they connect natural resources to community revitalization and they connect people to the outdoors," Quigley said at a groundbreaking ceremony for the trail segment in Chester County.

"We are happy to make this investment and partner with Chester County in providing this critical link in the Schuylkill River Trail to connect recreational hubs and river towns through some of the state's most populated areas.

"The Chester County commissioners are to be congratulated for investing more than $1 million in this key trail segment through the Schuylkill River Heritage Area."

The new trail section will be 10- to 12-feet wide on a rail bed owned by PECO and under easement to Chester County. The project will include informational kiosks with maps.

The project will also incorporate a number of green features, including using existing hardscape, no tree removals, planting warm season grasses instead of typical blue grasses, and eliminating excavation during construction by using the existing gravel path and drainage networks.

DCNR's grant to the Schuylkill River Trail and associated greenway was made possible through the department's Community Conservation Partnerships Program that is supported by the Keystone Fund. It advances efforts in the Schuylkill Highlands Conservation Landscape Initiative to work with public and private partners on land conservation, locally-driven planning and community economic revitalization efforts that protect natural resources and cultural assets.

In addition to having large populations, Berks, Bucks, Chester, Lebanon, Lancaster, Lehigh and Montgomery counties are home to critical unprotected lands such as source waters and contiguous forested lands and key habitats in what is known as the Hopewell Big Woods.Â The Schuylkill Highlands effort hopes to protect what is special in this region by saving high-quality lands and connecting people and communities through a network of trails and gateway communities.

For more information about DCNR grants or the Schuylkill Highlands Conservation Landscape Initiative, visit www.dcnr.state.pa.us or call 717-772-9101.

Media contact: Christina Novak, 717-772-9101

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

http://www.worldmarketmedia.com/1876/section.aspx/1317375/dcnr-invests-in-schuylkill-river-trail-to-promote-outdoor-activity-connect-river-towns-in-chester-county

Breaking News! Marc Reber - Councilman, Middle Ward

2010-05-25T22:24:00.004-04:00

Phoenixville's Middle Ward Council seat is vacant no longer.

Council President Rich Kirkner, a Democrat, joined Republican Council members Ken Buckwalter, Dave Gautreau, and Jeff Senley in a bipartisan vote to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of former Council member Henry Wagner.

Marc Reber who received only 7 votes less than Wagner during the November 2009 was appointed this evening to the Middle Ward Council seat.

Kudos to President Richard Mark Kirkner for his decision, and heartfelt congratulations to Marc Reber, Phoenixville's newest Council member!

Mayor Leo Scoda administers the oath of office to Councilman Mark Reber.*

(Click to enlarge)

*Photo by Councilman Ken Buckwalter

Fundraiser for PAC Food Bank

2010-05-17T16:12:00.004-04:00

I received the following via email from Joseph S. McCardle for publication.

Please support this very worthy cause!

******

Community Comes Together To Bring Local Fresh Produce To Needy

PHOENIXVILLE, PA In a first of its kind "Green Concept" fresh, locally grown produce is being added to the menu at Phoenixville's local food bank. It stands ready to refrigerate and distribute fresh vegetables in addition to the existing line of usual food supplies and canned goods.

Joseph Scott McArdle, President of the Valley Forge Lion's Club and a local realtor with a green designation, developed this "green sustainability concept." It works through the use of a Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA).

Farmers sell shares of a field of assorted crops at the beginning of the year, and each shareholder is entitled to their portion of the yield each week for about 30 plus weeks.

McArdle is holding a fundraiser to buy a share for the food bank of Phoenixville.

"I wanted to make the program all local so that it can be duplicated anywhere and everywhere. It's what I call a green sustainable community concept."

He added, "The bulk of the money that we raise as a Lion's Club goes to eye-related causes such as Leader Dog training, summer camp for blind kids and an eye bank. But this is my special project which called for special fundraisers."

Carol Berger, Phoenixville Area Community Services (PACS) Executive Director, said "The creation of a green sustainability concept to obtain locally grown produce from Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs will result in a tremendous resource to feed regional residents who are in need.”

She added, "Our board of directors, staff members and volunteers are all enthusiastic about the fresh, locally grown produce that will improve the nutrition of families and individuals using our emergency food pantry. An average of 163 households per month receive food food assistance from PACS. Approximately 380 people are living in those households. They rely on PACS emergency pantry because they cannot afford to buy for themselves. So many people are struggling financially because they have lost their jobs or had to significantly downsize their jobs due to the economy. Even those who are still employed end up asking for help because they can't make ends meet on very tight budgets. The connection with a CSA will add fresh food to their diets every week, nourishing them and keeping them healthier."

PACS provides an emergency supply of canned goods and other non-perishables that will last a family around 3 to 5 days.

Karl Bucus, a member of PACS board of directors, is also working with McArdle and states "I came on board with this idea since it promises to make a real difference feeding local residents in a way that involves the community itself."

The fundraiser to pay for the food bank's share will be held at Iron Hill Brewery, 130 Bridge St., Phoenixville on Tuesday, May 18th.

To obtain coupon needed for the event: www.joemcardle.com

Important PASD meeting tonight

2010-04-15T09:06:00.003-04:00

During the current era of continued economic problems many corporations have downsized, millions of Americans are out of work without health coverage and other benefits, while our local government and school districts are scrambling for ways to reduce their budgets.

Thursday evening at PAHS, 7 p.m., the school board will hold a monthly meeting which should reveal the extent of the PASD tax increases for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

Fellow blogger, Mike Ellis, on his blog http://www.slanguage.com/pasdblog1.html has identified a number of financial concerns which impact Phoenixville Area School District residents.

Beginning with Dr. Barbara Burke-Stevenson, Acting Superintendent of PASD's recommendation to increase the administration salaries (see 2009 alphabetized listing of PASD administration salaries) http://php.app.com/PAteachers09/results.php?county=Chester&LEAname=Phoenixville+Area+SD&school=%&lname=&fname=&assignment=%&Submit=Search to discussions on program cuts and more, attendance at this meeting is critical to those planning to voice an opinion.

Please make time to attend the meeting at the PAHS auditorium tonight at 7 p.m.

Electronics waste disposal April 17, 2010

2010-04-13T19:09:00.000-04:00

Received via email.

April 17th the Kimberton Waldorf School will be taking electronics recycling (bring your unwanted electronics and recycle them) in the parking lot in front of the school.

Items to be collected include: computers, cell phones, keyboards, stereos, televisions, monitors, printers, cables, floppy disks, CDs, office machines, calculators, DVD and CD players, and more.

Disposal of computer monitors require a $10 fee.

Relay for Life and my personal battle

2010-04-01T09:30:00.003-04:00

This is the right time to ask for your help in the Relay for Life fight against breast cancer.

Just before Thanksgiving 2009, I was diagnosed with IBC, a form of breast cancer.

December 22 I began treatment at the Cancer Center at Phoenixville Hospital. Last week I finished second stage chemotherapy under the excellent care of Dr. Christopher Holroyde, his assistant, Joanne Hennings, and the staff of oncology nurses and therapists. Each of these individuals on the oncology team are professional, highly skilled, and compassionate, caring individuals.

I join thousands of other Phoenixville area residents who are extremely proud of Phoenixville's Cancer Center staff and their dedication to the intense race to the cure for cancer patients.

Much work still needs to be done in the battle for survival. In support of the efforts to find a cure, my family members chose to create Team Johns, an effort to raise funds for the Relay for Life event in Phoenixville.

To that end, the Johns family will host a fund raising table on First Friday, April 02, 2010, offering handmade items, baked goods, and a raffle.

Please join them on Bridge Street in Phoenixville, and show your support in the battle against cancer by bringing a baked item to sell, making a purchase, or simply stop by to say hello!

Thank you!

REMINDER: Representative Paul Drucker's Job Fair is Wednesday

2010-03-30T20:03:00.004-04:00

REMINDER:

Representative Paul Drucker's job fair tomorrow updated time & employer list

In partnership with the PA Department of Labor and Industry, I will host a "We're Hiring" Job Fair from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, March 31 at the Phoenixville Civic Center, 123 Main St. in Phoenixville. The hours have been extended to 6 p.m.

The job fair, which will coincide with March, April and May for Focus on Jobs months, will include a resume critiquing workshop.

As of today, 45 employers who are actively hiring in the following industries are confirmed to be on-hand:

· Human Services

· Retail/Restaurant

· Non-Profit

· Healthcare

· Insurance

· Financial Services

· Early Childhood Education

· Manufacturing

· Package Delivery

· Information Technology

· Scientific/Pharmaceutical

· Telecommunications

· Government

· Corrections

· Medical/Nursing

· Military

For a complete list of employers, please e-mail me at RepDrucker@pahouse.net.

The event will also feature information about job opportunities for veterans. Admission is free and business attire is encouraged. For more information about this, or any state-related issue, Representative Drucker's office.

Third anniversary

2010-03-19T21:35:00.002-04:00

Yikes! I almost forgot to mention today is the third anniversary of this blog although it has not been very active of late.

I know this is a disappointment because you, my friends and loyal readers have told me you miss the former activity.

Please know that I'm dealing with some health issues right now and my focus is primarily on my family and getting well.

Perhaps someday I'll write about this unexpected journey but until then I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to personally contact me and those who continue to monitor this blog daily.

State Representative Paul Drucker to host job fair March 31, 2010

2010-03-11T12:28:00.000-05:00

Drucker to host job fair March 31

In partnership with the PA Department of Labor and Industry, I will host a "We're Hiring" Job Fair from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 31 at the Phoenixville Civic Center, 123 Main St. in Phoenixville.

The job fair, which will coincide with March, April and May for Focus on Jobs months, will include a resume writing workshop and job hunting seminar.

Employers who are actively hiring in the following industries are confirmed to be on-hand:

· Human Services

· Retail/Restaurant

· Non-Profit

· Healthcare

· Insurance

· Financial Services

· Early Childhood Education

Employers from various additional industries are also expected to be in attendance. The event will also feature job opportunities for veterans. Admission is free and business attire is encouraged. For more information about this, or any state-related issue, please contact me.

http://www.pahouse.com/drucker/

How sweet it is!

2010-03-01T14:00:00.004-05:00

Thanks to loyal reader, Ed Naratil, for forwarding the following Robert Swift article.

*****

Mellow's state pension could be triple his salary

BY ROBERT SWIFT (HARRISBURG BUREAU CHIEF)

Published: February 28, 2010

HARRISBURG - Sen. Robert Mellow could be eligible for an annual taxpayer-funded state pension amounting to nearly three times his $110,250 salary when he leaves office in November.

Mr. Mellow, 67, is eligible to collect the bulk of his pension through the state government's defined-benefit plan. In addition, Mr. Mellow can collect supplemental pension benefits to reach a minimum $313,000 annual payout he may be getting through the little-known state-run Benefits Completion Plan.

The combination of two pension streams will enable Mr. Mellow to have retirement benefits that greatly exceed his current $110,250 Senate salary as well as the incomes of average Pennsylvanians. In addition to generous pensions, state lawmakers enjoy top-level health benefits that cover medical care, eye and dental care and prescription drugs in retirement. Since 2006, current and retired senators contribute 1 percent of their incomes toward health benefits.

Mr. Mellow, D-22, Peckville, has said he won't seek re-election to an 11th term, wrapping up a career that began in 1970. Efforts to obtain comment from Mr. Mellow and his spokeswoman, Lisa Scullin, were unsuccessful.

The exact amount of Mr. Mellow's pension won't be known until early next year, and will be influenced by a variety of factors.

Chief among them, whatever decision Mr. Mellow makes about collecting a lump-sum payment could reduce both the regular pension and the supplemental benefits through the Benefits Completion Plan by as much as a quarter or a third, said Rick Dreyfuss, a Hershey actuary who writes about pension issues for the Harrisburg-based Commonwealth Foundation.

Pension rules allow retirees to withdraw any or all of the portion withheld from their own paychecks over the years, along with 4 percent interest, in a lump sum. Most find it financially advantageous to do so. The lump sum can reach six figures, and taking it reduces the annual pension amount paid in monthly installments.

Mr. Mellow is one of only three sitting lawmakers who are in a special class when it comes to pension benefits, according to documents from the State Employees Retirement System. He is covered by an extra-lucrative pension system in effect prior to 1974.

This system uses a 7.5 percent "multiplier" to calculate benefits for the pre-1974 class. Lawmakers elected since that year have a 3 percent multiplier. Some corporate pension plans use a 1.5 percent multiplier, according to analysts, but even those plans are disappearing in the private sector, where 401(k) plans built on a mix of contributions from employers and employees are most common.

The retirement system early next year will calculate Mr. Mellow's pension based on his 40 years in office, the 7.5 percent multiplier of the average salary of the three highest years and other factors such as any lump sum withdrawal, provisions for surviving spouses and credit for any military service or work as a state employee in another capacity.

The retirement system provided information that shows the average of the three highest salary years for Mr. Mellow is $113,000, reflecting his role as Senate minority leader. Using the multiplier, a rough estimate indicates the minimum annual pension for Mr. Mellow at $313,000, or 300 percent of that average.

However, the Internal Revenue Service has set a cap of $195,000 for a retiree collecting from a defined-benefit pension in 2009 and 2010. This gap can fluctuate annually based on inflation.

Therefore, pension benefits for Mr. Mellow above that cap would be paid through the Benefits Completion Plan, a mechanism authorized by Congress in the 1990s.

One section of the IRS rules caps the annual amount going to beneficiaries of defined-benefit pensions, while a separate section creates a way for those beneficiaries to obtain any benefits that exceed the cap, said retirement system spokesman Robert Gentzel. This complexity is one reason why it's difficult to offer estimates of the amount of Mr. Mellow's pension, he added.

A 2002 state law authorized the retirement system to create its own benefits plan in line with IRS rules. Act 234 dealt with several pension changes, including the Benefits Completion Plan.

Beneficiaries contribute a portion of their paycheck to receive this supplemental pension benefit under the state law.

The legislation that led to Act 234 was introduced by then-Sen. James Gerlach, a Chester County Republican, was approved by a unanimous vote in the Senate and overwhelming vote in the House and signed by Gov. Mark Schweiker.

Mr. Mellow's pension will be in the news when policymakers are focused on a looming pension fund crisis that will hit taxpayers hard - a projected $4 billion spike in pension costs for both the State Employees Retirement System and the Public School Employees Retirement System in 2012-13, due to the impact of baby boomers retiring, pension increases enacted in 2001 and large investment losses in the 2008 stock market downturn.

"Here we are now looking at a $3 billion to $5 billion crevasse," said John Kennedy, a former House lawmaker from the Harrisburg area running for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. A businessman, Mr. Kennedy refused pension benefits when he left the House two decades ago. He is calling for pension reform and forming an organization to support legislative candidates who sign a pledge to refuse pensions.

Estimating minimum annual pensions for three other veteran lawmakers from Northeast Pennsylvania who aren't seeking re-election is relatively more straightforward. They are Sen. Raphael Musto, D-14, Pittston; House Speaker Keith McCall, D-22, Summit Hill; and Rep. Robert Belfanti, D-107, Mount Carmel.

Mr. McCall's and Mr. Belfanti's pensions will be calculated based on years in office, the average salary of the three highest years and the 3 percent multiplier. Mr. Belfanti can claim credit for military service during the Vietnam War and Mr. Musto for military service in the Korean War. All three can take the lump-sum payment or make provisions for surviving spouses, thus reducing their annual pension amount.

Mr. Musto, 81, missed being a member of the pre-1974 lawmaker pension class because of a break in his years in the General Assembly. He was elected to the state House in 1971, served a short stint in Congress during 1980 following a special election, and was elected to the state Senate in 1982.

That means Mr. Musto's nine years in the state House are based on the 7.5 percent multiplier and 28 years in the Senate are based on the 3 percent multiplier. Mr. Musto could be eligible for an estimated $70,000 minimum annual pension based on a $77,000 average salary.

Mr. Musto said he has not made any decisions yet about a lump sum or other factors.

"I have not given it any consideration at all," he added. "It's kind of early. I'm not retiring until Dec. 1." Mr. Musto said he hoped the public would reflect on his decades in the legislature when looking at his pension.

Mr. McCall, 50, could be eligible for a $100,000 minimum annual pension based on a $108,000 average salary and 32 years in the House. Mr. McCall collected salary in recent years above a lawmaker's base pay as speaker and House majority whip.

Mr. Belfanti, 62, could be eligible for a $76,000 minimum annual pension based on a $76,000 average salary. He was elected to the House in 1980.

Mr. Belfanti said it's incorrect to characterize lawmakers' pensions as "taxpayer-funded" since they contribute a percentage of their paycheck to support the benefit.

"We pay 6.25 percent of our salary into a pension which is matched," he added.

Current and retiring lawmakers make up a very small percentage of the roughly 200,000 current and retired state employees covered by the retirement system, Mr. Belfanti said. He said lawmakers' pensions draw more public scrutiny than those of elected judges which have a 4 percent multiplier.

These estimated sums are far more than what the average working Pennsylvanian makes in annual salary.

By comparison, Pennsylvania's per-capita income averaged $34,937 in 2006, according to the Pennsylvania State Data Center. The median income for Pennsylvania households was $46,259 in 2006.

A Harrisburg reformer doesn't think lawmakers are entitled to taxpayer-funded pensions under the state Constitution.

"We believe that legislative participation in the State Employees Retirement System is unconstitutional," said Tim Potts, founder of Democracy Rising.

He referred to Article II, Section 8 that "The members of the General Assembly shall receive such salary and mileage for regular and special sessions as shall by fixed by law, and no other compensation whatsoever."

Any pension system for lawmakers should be based on 401(k) plans or other types of deferred payments, Mr. Potts said.

http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/mellow-s-state-pension-could-be-triple-his-salary-1.646622

Olbermann: All Americans should be able to make medical decisions free of worry about cost

2010-02-25T19:22:00.005-05:00

An American cry for help
Olbermann: All Americans should be able to make medical decisions free of worry about cost

SPECIAL COMMENT

By Keith Olbermann, Anchor, 'Countdown'

Updated 9:31 p.m. ET, Wed., Feb. 24, 2010

Video available at link posted below.

Finally tonight, a Special Comment about health care reform and tomorrow's summit at Blair House. If I prove to have trouble getting through this, I apologize in advance. Last Friday night my father asked me to kill him. We were just shy of six months since he was hospitalized and it was the end of a long day at the end of a longer week.

Not to get too clinical or too grotesque on you, but he'd had his colon removed at the end of September and that went so well that it was no more complicated than an appendectomy. But what followed was a series of infections, like storms in the monsoon season, one arriving, blossoming, inundating him, my Dad shaking it off and cheerfully bouncing back, and then within days another one coming in to flatten him once again.

Pneumonia, three or four times — I've lost count. Kidney failure, liver failure — the liver failure got better, remarkably enough. Dialysis, feeding tubes, drainage taps, drainage tubes, breathing tubes. Couldn't talk through that. Then he got strong enough and they could put a cap on the breathing tube and one day he scared the crap out of a friend of his who didn't know, who came in and gave him the customary "how you doin' Ted?" only to jump out of his shoes when my father suddenly and gleefully answered him in a strong full voice, "surprisingly well."

Sometimes he swelled up and looked like as puffy as prizefighter who'd had a bad night.

Sometimes he'd get dialysis so effective or an antibiotic so specific that he would look like he did twenty-five years ago.

Three weeks ago they had found something extraordinary. A nurse noticed what seemed like a minor infection just below the surface of the skin, a kind of super-pimple if you will. It was actually the edge of a series of abscesses which would be drained and would produce, all told, about six liters of infected stuff. Six liters. You know how much that is? You know what that looks like? You don't want to know.

But you do want to know it's been found because it means he hasn't been weak all this time, he's been incredibly, inhumanly strong. The abscesses were swimming pools for these infections. The strongest one would emerge, then my Dad with the help of the antibiotics would kill it off, then the antibiotics would be discontinued, and the next infection would pop out and challenge him.

As he pointed out you know: just like the organized crime families. Then last week they found another abscess of sorts, in the chest. So they needed to put in drains there, too. This was Friday morning. His surgical team came to see him, he did his non-verbal caricature of their chief, they laughed like hell, they numbed him up, snip snip, plug plug, and this infection starts draining, and they leave him alone for awhile.

And then in the afternoon they changed a few of the plugs the IV's attach to. And the respiratory therapist had been in, checking the ventilator and his tubes because there was a leak somewhere. And to improve dialysis, they changed his dialysis port. And then in the evening they needed a CAT-scan of his chest to make sure the drains were in the right place. And they had to change a dressing on some bad skin. And every hour they had to draw blood to check how well he was getting oxygen. And then at night it was time for dialysis using the new port.

And that's when I showed up. My father was a little annoyed, the way he often gets in there annoyed about all the activity. That day, it was like being Sisyphus with the boulder, only at the top of the hill, when he loses the boulder, it doesn't just roll back down hill, it rolls over him, first.

He's brave about pain, provided you warn him in advance, and provided the sheer volume of activity doesn't terrify him. As in terrorism, it isn't just terror when it happens, it's terror that it might happen. So he's annoyed, but in a good mood, and, as I usually do, I sit down to read to him. Thurber. I've been reading him a lot of James Thurber short stories lately and he's insisted that I should do it on the show, and we'll see about that. But a few pages in, the x-ray technician shows up.

They have to take one more picture of him, to see if those new drains in his chest are working. And I have to leave his room for, at most, three minutes. I come back in and my father is thrashing his head back and forth. You can't hear him, he can't speak at the moment, but you become a lip-reader in those circumstances and this one word he keeps repeating is not tough to discern.

"Help." He is mouthing the word "help," over and over and over again. And I get his attention. He is in full panic. Maybe the x-ray tech hurt my Dad's back, or touched those new chest drains — more likely he did nothing very much at all. But it was just too much for my father.
"Stop this," he mouths. "Stop, stop, stop." And I say to him: I know for a fact they are not doing anything more to you tonight. And he looks at me and starts thrashing his head again: "Help, help, help."

I get his attention again. I ask him: do you want me to stop all of this? And he looks at me and mouths "yes." And I ask him: you understand what happens then. And he looks at me and mouths "yes." And I ask him: you realize you are not terminally ill, and if we do stop all of this, it might not be quick. And he mouths "stop this." And I say, trying to joke him out of it — and trust me, gallows humor is your best defense in this situation — "what? You want me to smother you with a pillow?" And he mouths "yes — kill me."

I told him that obviously I wouldn't do that, but I would go and talk to the doctors. When I came back, I told him they'd be really put out by this, because he wasn't sick enough and all the indications were he could still fight off what remained of the infections. And he went back to thrashing his head and mouthing "help" because clearly I was not giving him the sense of relief — relief from the paradoxical truth that people desperately trying to save your life, sometimes manage only to torture you. Of course, I actually was getting him that sense of relief.

When I went to see the Surgical Intensive Care Unit resident I told him my Dad had hit his wall. That he couldn't take any other work, that it was now terrifying torture, that he needed it to stop. But I said, look, I'm his health proxy, we've had conversations about end-of-life care — we've had them in here, we've had them when he was home and well, I'm not operating in the dark here. I said I think he really wants the one word he keeps mouthing: He wants help. Is there any medical reason not to give him some sedation, a little mental vacation from being a patient?

The resident thought that was a damn good idea and that it would help his breathing, which the respiratory therapist had noticed wasn't quite right. So when I came in and gave my father the song and dance about how "put out" the doctors were, really, I was just stalling. I started to read to him again, and he was still thrashing his head from side to side in frustration, and then he started to calm down and enjoy the story and as he began to rest, the nurse slipped in and injected a sedative into one of his IV's.

And as I left that night the full impact of these last six months washed over me. What I had done, conferring with the resident in ICU, the conversation about my father's panicky, not-in-complete-control-of-his-faculties demand that all treatment stop, about the options and the consequences and the compromise — the sedation — the help for a brave man who just needed a break… that conversation, that one — was what these ghouls who are walking into Blair House tomorrow morning decided to call "death panels."

Your right to have that conversation with a doctor, not the government, but a doctor and your right to have insurance pay for his expertise on what your options are when Dad says "kill me" or what your options are when Dad is in a coma and can't tell you a damn thing, or what your options are when everybody is healthy and happy and coherent and you're just planning ahead your right to have the guidance and the reassurance of a professional who can lay that out for you that's a quote "death panel."

That, right now, is the legacy of the protests of these sub-humans who get paid by the insurance companies, who say these things for their own political gain or like that one fiend or money. For money Betsy McCaughey told people that this conversation about life and death and relief and release, and also about no, keep treating him no matter what happens, until the nation runs out of medicine, she told people it's a death panel and she did that for money.

It's a life panel. A life panel, it can save the pain of the patient and the family it is the difference between you guessing what happens next, and you being informed about what probably will, and that's the difference between you sleeping at night or second-guessing and third-guessing and thirtieth-guessing. And it can also be the place where the family says 'we want you to keep him alive no matter what, we believe in miracles' and the doctor saying yes.

Nobody gets to say no except the patient and the family. It's a life panel. And damn those who call it otherwise to hell. And that brings up the other point of all this. They've rolled my father under every piece of machinery in there except an atom-splitter. They've pumped him full of every drug and remedy. And he's got Medicare and a supplemental insurance and my out-of-pocket medical bills over the last six months have been greater than my Dad's have.

And why in the hell should that not be true of everybody, in every hospital, in every sick room, in every clinic, in this country? What is this country for if not to take care of its people? Because whatever I've been through these last six months and whatever my Dad's been through, not once were our fears or our decisions amplified by the further horror of wondering how in the hell we would pay for this. What about families having these conversations tonight about kids? Or about uninsured adults?

Or what about the guy out there whose father is 50 and he's mouthing the word "help" and the guy knows what his father doesn't know that the insurance company has just declared the illness the father has is a "pre-existing condition" and he has no insurance, and when that son goes out to talk to that doctor about what to do next, even if there's a chance of recovery, that son can't afford to pay for it! That is the goddamned death panel, Sarah Palin.

Since Friday night, my father has been comfortable. He has been breathing well, and there has been no sign of stress or discomfort. He has also not awakened. His white blood cell count, the indicator of infection, is now at about four or five times normal. Doubtlessly, in removing that much infection from him, some of it got loose and into his bloodstream.

He's not being sedated any more; he only has the strength to fight off the infections, or wake up — not both. We're hoping he does the first, then the latter. We're prepared for the probability that he will do neither. His team and I had another "life panel" discussion not six hours ago. And thank God I had those conversation with my father.

Thank God I got his instructions about when to use my judgment and when to stick with his; when if he's capable of recovery to let them use everything they have and when to make sure they're not just keeping him alive with no hope; when to listen to the instruction "help" — first, and then the one about "stop" — later.

So, considering that if he does not recover, you will not see me here for awhile, I have some requests. First of you: Please have this conversation with your loved ones. Don't wait. Do it now. It's tough. It acknowledges death. And it also narrows the gray area you or they will face, from infinity to about a foot wide. It is my greatest comfort right now and I want it to be yours.

And to the politicians who go into Blair House tomorrow for the summit: I have some requests as well. Leave your egos at the door. I want, I demand, that you give everybody in this country a chance at the care my father has gotten. And I demand, that you enact this most generous and most kind aspect of the reform proposed: the right to bill the damned insurance company for the conversation about what to do when the time comes, the Life Panel.

And I want all of you to think of somebody lying in a hospital bed tonight who needed that care and needed that conversation, and imagine that that is your father, or mother, or son, or daughter, or wife, or husband, or partner. If you cannot do that, if you cannot put aside the meaninglessness of your political careers for this, my request to you then, is that you not come back out of that meeting for you would not be worthy of being with the real people of this country who suffer, and suffer again because you have acted on behalf of the corporations and not the people.

If you cannot do this, go into that room and stay there and we'll get new ones to replace your worthless roles in the life of our country. My father cannot speak for himself. He appointed me to do so for him and I haven't the slightest doubt he wants me to say this tonight, right now.

He mouthed the words to me and I will now give them such voice as I have to you going into that summit tomorrow. Help. Help. Help. Help.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35566903/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann

Did you know? The Bloom Box makes it's debut on CBS, Sunday

2010-02-19T20:59:00.002-05:00

Urban legends regarding cheap fuel have been around for years. I can recall one in particular where a tablet of an unknown compound was dropped into a bucket of water which was then dumped into a car and fueled it. Supposedly, the inventor went missing and with him his secret.

Every so often modified cars claiming astonishing efficiency appear briefly but a commercial product never appears in automobile showrooms.

Clean, efficient, and cheap green energy is the Holy Grail of clean-tech companies and they may finally be on the cusp of providing alternatives to the public.

Several years ago published articles appeared regarding Bloom Energy's work on a fuel cell on which tests were conducted using natural gas. My curiosity was piqued as the testing reported the fuel cell to be twice as efficient burning natural gas and it produced lower carbon emissions. Ethanol was also used as a fuel.

Interestingly, from the little I've been able to learn regarding the Bloom Box, no combustion takes place in the process.

Might be a good idea to set your tv recorder for 60 Minutes on CBS Sunday night.

****

Feb. 18, 2010

The Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough?

60 Minutes: First Customers Says Energy Machine Works And Saves Money

(CBS) For the past year and a half, several large California corporations have been secretly testing the "Bloom Box," a potentially revolutionary fuel-cell system. Confirming this for the first time, several of the companies report this system is a more efficient, clean, and cost effective way to get electricity than off the power grid.

Lesley Stahl and "60 Minutes" cameras get the first look inside the secretive California company, just days before the Bloom Energy official launch, scheduled for next Wednesday (Feb. 24).

Stahl's report will be broadcast this Sunday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

John Donahoe, CEO of E-bay, confirms Bloom Boxes were installed at his corporate campus nine months ago. The company says the boxes already saved them over $100,000 in electricity bills. "It's been very successful thus far. [The Bloom Boxes] have done what they said they would do," says Donahoe. The five boxes are able to produce five times as much electricity as the 3,248 solar panels that E-bay installed on its campus roofs, says the CEO. "The footprint for Bloom is much more efficient," he tells Stahl.

Google, FedEx, Staples and Walmart are among the first 20 clients Bloom is confirming.

Stahl is the first journalist to be allowed into the Bloom Energy lab and factory where currently one box a day is built. The boxes create electricity by a chemical process that utilizes oxygen and fuel, but involves no combustion. Bloom's founder and CEO, K.R. Sridhar, insists all the materials in the box are cheap and available in abundance. Bloom says each large box - which can power about 100 homes - currently sells for $700-800,000. They hope within five to 10 years to roll out a smaller home version for about $3,000 a unit.

Bloom Energy was the first clean energy start-up Kleiner-Perkins, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm, invested in. They currently invest in about 50 clean tech companies. Sridhar confirms the company has received over $400 million, making it one of the most expensive startups in history.

John Doerr, the Kleiner Perkins partner who invested in Bloom, has high hopes. "The Bloom Box is intended to replace the [electric power] grid for its customer," says Doerr. He thinks existing utility companies should not be threatened or have a problem with Bloom Energy. "The utility companies will see this as a solution.All they need to do is buy Bloom Boxes, put them in the substation for the neighborhood and sell that electricity," he says.

But there is another hurdle says Michael Kanellos, editor-in-chief of the Web site GreenTech Media. Even if Sridhar can mass produce his boxes and sell them cheaply enough, "The problem is then G.E. and Siemens and other conglomerates that can probably do the same thing. They have fuel cell patents," he tells Stahl.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/18/60minutes/main6221135.shtml

Phoenixville Public Library - Emergency operating funds?

2010-02-15T20:11:00.005-05:00

I received the following information earlier today.

****

PHOENIXVILLE COMMUNITY HEALTH FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS AWARD INTERIM GRANTS

PHOENIXVILLE, PA

The mission of the Phoenixville Community Health Foundation is to improve the health and quality of life of people within the greater Phoenixville area. The Board of Directors of the Foundation met on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 for a business meeting and authorized two special grants totaling $35,000. The first was a special grant to Doctors Without Borders for $10,000 designated for the Haitian earthquake relief. This was a Level One grant creating direct access to health care.

The second grant was to the Phoenixville Public Library for emergency operating funds. This was a $25,000 grant, $15,000 of which is to be allocated immediately and $10,000 as $1/$1 match with new funds. This was a Level Three grant for civic, social and economic needs of the community.

http://pchf1.org/current_presser.html

Just several months ago the board of directors of the Phoenixville Public Library were actively pursuing a $6.5 million dollar expansion to the library building.

The library is now the recipient of a $25,000 grant for "emergency" operating funds.

Since the library is owned by the Phoenixville Area School District, the school board members, Phoenixville Borough Council, and the school district taxpayers should demand answers of the library board members as to why the library is in such dire straights as to need immediate and hefty emergency funding from PCHF a short time after the expansion project was dropped.

Explanations and accountability are due on this publicly funded institution.

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE

2010-02-09T22:26:00.003-05:00

If this keeps up we'll be serving real snow cones along with our sloppy joes in May at our annual Dogwood Festival and Parade party!

Meteorologists at 6 ABC news claim a potential for another major winter storm on Monday!

****

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE

...WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT EST WEDNESDAY NIGHT... A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT EST WEDNESDAY NIGHT. LOW PRESSURE FORMING OVER EASTERN SOUTH CAROLINA AND SOUTHEASTERN NORTH CAROLINA WILL BECOME THE MAIN LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM TONIGHT AS IT STARTS TO INTENSIFY RAPIDLY. BY WEDNESDAY MORNING...THIS NOR/EASTER IS FORECAST TO BE JUST EAST OF OUR AREA...AND WILL BRING HEAVY SNOW TO A GOOD PART OF OUR AREA INTO WEDNESDAY EVENING. FROM THE INTERSTATE 95 CORRIDOR SOUTHEASTWARD THE SNOW MAY MIX WITH SLEET AND POSSIBLY FREEZING RAIN AT TIMES LATE TONIGHT...AND WITH SLEET AND RAIN AT TIMES DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE DAY WEDNESDAY. THIS IS MOST LIKELY CLOSER TO THE COAST. AS COLDER AIR WRAPS AROUND THE STORM EVEN THESE AREAS ARE EXPECTED TO CHANGE BACK TO ALL SNOW. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED TO RANGE FROM 10 TO 20 INCHES WITH THE HIGHEST AMOUNTS NORTHWEST OF THE INTERSTATE 95 CORRIDOR. THE HEAVIEST ACCUMULATIONS AS OF NOW ARE EXPECTED TO OCCUR IN THE PHILADELPHIA NORTHWESTERN SUBURBS. HEAVY SNOW IS EXPECTED TO OCCUR IN TWO BURSTS ACROSS THE REGION. THE FIRST IS UNDERWAY TONIGHT WITH 3 TO 7 INCHES LIKELY TO ACCUMULATE BY THE MORNING COMMUTE WEDNESDAY. THE SECOND SHOT WILL BE AN EVEN MORE INTENSE BURST OF HEAVY SNOW WITH THE UPPER AIR DISTURBANCE ITSELF THAT SHOULD OCCUR IN MOST OF EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA...MARYLAND...AND DELAWARE DURING WEDNESDAY MORNING AND NEW JERSEY AND NORTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA DURING WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. THE SNOW WILL END BY MIDNIGHT WEDNESDAY NIGHT. WINDS WILL INCREASE AS WEDNESDAY CONTINUES AND WILL CAUSE CONSIDERABLE BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF SNOW...EVEN MORE THAN WHAT OCCURRED WITH THE WEEKEND SNOW STORM. AT AND NEAR THE ATLANTIC SHORE BLIZZARD CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING AS WINDS INCREASE. DRIVING WILL BE HAZARDOUS AT BEST DURING THIS WINTER STORM. IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED THAT WHERE POSSIBLE TO TAKE MASS TRANSPORTATION WEDNESDAY AND ONLY DRIVE IF ITS TRULY AN EMERGENCY SITUATION. A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW AND SLEET ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.

Sent to Weather Warnings through ReadyNotifyPA

Did you know? Pennsylvania State of Emergency Proclaimation

2010-02-09T19:06:00.002-05:00

Received today.

You have been sent this message because you are registered with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to receive electronic notification when the Governor proclaims, extends, or at the conclusion of a State of Emergency.

Pursuant to Act 133 of 2006 (The Price Gouging Act), when the Governor declares a State of Emergency or the cessation of a State of Emergency, trade associations, corporations, partnerships, persons, or other entities may register for the purpose of being notified.

You are hereby notified that Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell has PROCLAIMED the existence of a Disaster Emergency across the Commonwealth.

The effective date of this Proclamation is February 6, 2010. For additional information regarding this State of Emergency, please see the attached documentation or visit PEMA’s Website.

Please do not respond directly to this email with questions about the State of Emergency. For additional information, please visit PEMA’s website noted above. This e-mail was sent to you because you have chosen to receive e-mail alerts for a declaration, extension, or at the conclusion of a state of emergency. To update your e-mail address, changed your email address, or if you would like to unsubscribe to these alerts, please send an email to RA-PEMASOE@state.pa.us.

Text from PEMA's website:

PEMA Newsroom

02-06-2010
News for Immediate Release

Feb. 6, 2010

Governor Rendell Declares Disaster Emergency in Pennsylvania PA National Guard made available to assist state police

Harrisburg – Governor Edward G. Rendell has declared a statewide disaster emergency to enable state, county and municipal governments to respond effectively to the snow storm that has blanketed much of the state.

The Proclamation authorizes state agencies to utilize all available resources and personnel as is deemed necessary to cope with the magnitude and severity of this emergency situation. The time consuming bid and contract procedures and formalities normally prescribed by law shall be waived for the duration of the Proclamation.

Governor Rendell issued the disaster proclamation based on the recommendation of Robert P. French, Director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, in response to a request for assistance from the PA State Police.

In addition to declaring a disaster, the Governor has directed Major General Jessica L. Wright, Adjutant General of the Pennsylvania National Guard and Col. Frank Pawlowski, State Police Commissioner, to take necessary steps to ensure all critical resources and personnel are available. In addition, the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs has deployed Pennsylvania National Guard troops to assist State Police in patrols and incident response.

Also, the Public Utility Commission remains in contact with various utilities and is monitoring the current situation. Currently, more than 160,000 power outages have been reported across the state, with the majority of outages located in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Staffing at the State Emergency Operations Center, located at PEMA headquarters in Harrisburg, was enhanced yesterday to support county emergency services and to coordinate state resources in response to the severe snow storm that has affected most of the Commonwealth.

The state's Emergency Operations Center has been monitoring conditions statewide to assess conditions and coordinate any response necessary to support county and local officials in the affected areas. PEMA remains in communication with the state Departments of Transportation, General Services, State Police, Pennsylvania National Guard, Turnpike Commission, Public Utility Commission and the American Red Cross.

“Snowfall totals across Pennsylvania range from about six to as much as 30 inches,” said Governor Rendell. “I want to thank all motorists who have stayed off the roads during our ongoing clean-up operations, and urge motorists to use extreme caution and good judgment when driving.”

Individuals needing assistance should call their local city or county emergency management office in the “Blue Pages” section of the phone book or, if they have an emergency, should call 911 immediately. Never call the 911 emergency system to request or report road conditions. When calling 911 to report an emergency, it is critical for callers to stay on the line, even if for an extended series of rings, until the operator answers. Hang-ups due to frustration result in wasted staff time as the 911 center tries to reestablish contact.

PennDOT urges travelers to postpone any non essential travel until after the storm passes out of Pennsylvania. If travel is a necessity, people are urged to either call 511 or visit the 511 web site at www.511pa.com before leaving for information on interstate road conditions, weather reports and incidents. The site also has views from more than 400 cameras at locations around the state. Pennsylvania Turnpike roadway and weather condition information is available at www.paturnpike.com or by calling 1-866-976-8747.

French reminded citizens to prepare for emergencies before they happen by creating home and vehicle emergency kits with basic supplies. Downloadable checklists, as well as other valuable emergency preparedness information, are available online at www.ReadyPA.org.

Media contacts:
Ruth A. Miller, PEMA; 717-651-2001

###

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=4996&PageID=482935&mode=2&contentid=http://pubcontent.state.pa.us/publishedcontent/publish/global/news_releases/governor_s_office/news_releases/governor_rendell_declares_disaster_emergency_in_pennsylvania.html

Only 42 days until Spring!

2010-02-06T09:12:00.005-05:00

At the time of this posting, around 9:15 a.m. on Saturday, my husband Jim has already measured today's snow in our front yard. Phoenixville has an "unofficial" measurement of 17 inches! Not shabby for a nor'easter in these parts. Of course, that total will change before the storm finally moves out of the area later this evening.

Even as the record breaking storm made it's way up I-95 last night, I was already learning of the kind deeds of others. Jack Ayres, among others, I'm sure, volunteered to transport stranded nurses and other needed employees from their homes to Phoenixville Hospital, while Wally Heidlemark, bundled up in his parka and with his snowplow humming, cleared the sidwalks in darkness for all his neighbors on Second Avenue. Thanks, Jack and Wally!

I checked the borough's website for any local emergency information, but nothing has been posted, so use your commonsense.

It's very important that we take time today to check on the senior citizens and others in our neighborhood. They may need our help.

If you don't have to go out, don't.

According to borough ordinance, snow should be removed within 24 hours of a snowfall. Be careful and pace yourself. (Where are all the kids with snowshovels for hire these days?)

Then, relax and enjoy the day because under all that snow the daffodils and crocus are about to awaken!

Spring arrives at 5:32 p.m., UTC, on March 20, 2010.

Phoenixville Councilmember Kendrick Buckwalter announces run for Pennsylvania's 157th State House District seat

2010-01-26T22:06:00.004-05:00

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

By Dennis J. Wright, dwright@pottsmerc.com

PHOENIXVILLE — Phoenixville Borough Councilman Kendrick Buckwalter (R-West) has announced he is seeking the Republican nomination to to run for the 157th state House District.

(Click to enlarge)

The district encompasses Phoenixville, Schuylkill and Tredyffrin townships in Chester County, and portions of Lower Providence and West Norriton in Montgomery County.

The seat is held by freshman Democrat Paul Drucker, who is expected to seek re-election.

A Phoenixville resident, Buckwalter is a small businessman and 15-year veteran of municipal government in the borough. He has served as chairman of Phoenixville's zoning hearing board, and has been elected to two terms on Borough Council, where he currently serves. He has also volunteered as a firefighter, and is well-known for his support of the work they do.

Buckwalter recently won a unanimous decision before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court when he challenged the constitutionality of a Borough Council decision regarding compensation.

Buckwalter says he is a mainstream conservative who takes constitutional government seriously.

"Obviously, it put me in an awkward position and great political risk, but I thought what council did was bad public policy in the first place," Buckwalter said about his case. "I filed the complaint because it was a constitutional issue. As an elected official you take an oath of office to obey and defend the Constitution. There's no loophole for personal or political convenience. It was gratifying the Supreme Court saw it my way."

In addition to being an advocate of constitutional government, Buckwalter said he plans on being a voice for fiscal responsibility.

"There are lots of issues that concern the General Assembly," he said. "But they all come back to whether or not we are being good trustees of the public's hard-earned money. It is difficult for us to concentrate on needed education reforms, for example, when we are afraid of the commonwealth going bankrupt."

Buckwalter said his unhappiness with the current state of things in Harrisburg is palpable, and that he is an advocate for reform.

"The General Assembly has one job, really, and that's to pass a budget," he said. "This year it was months late. And the budget they did pass was in the red before the ink was dry on it. We have a Constitutional provision mandating balanced budgets, but given this, I'm not entirely sure that many people care."

As a small businessman, Buckwalter said he is especially attuned to the lagging economy in Pennsylvania, and that the economy has not "lagged just in the recent recession."

"If Pennsylvania had merely grown at the national average since 1990 we would have 700,000 additional jobs," he said. "We have some of the best colleges and universities in the world in Pennsylvania, but we can't keep those students here after they graduate. Our sons and daughters moving away. And, yes, future taxpayers are moving away, too. It is unsustainable."

In Phoenixville, Buckwalter has been an advocate of a number of initiatives not generally thought to be at the top of a conservative's list of priorities.

For example, as chairman of the health/sanitation/utilities committee, he took a hard look at the borough's trash and recycling policies.

"Before the borough took over its own trash collection and recycling services from a private hauler, Phoenixville was in the bottom five for the worst recycling rate in Chester County," he stated. "Today Phoenixville is in the top five of the best and was a recipient of a recycling performance grant of $77,165 in September of 2009.

"Being a conservative has to involve actually conserving something. Our money, sure. And traditional middle-class values. But the environment has to be a part of that mix, too."

Buckwalter said he believes the people of the district deserve nothing less than his full attention to this race, and then to performing in office. He said he feels he is certain he can win, too.

"Guy Ciarrocchi ran a great race in 2008, but couldn't quite win," he said. "The district has changed a little bit over the years. A Republican needs the votes of independents and conservative democrats, especially in Phoenixville, to win this race.

"People are sick of politics as usual, especially independents and Reagan democrats. I am not the typical politician. I'm just a small businessman who sincerely believes in civic service. We have other good Republicans interested in this seat , but I think I'm the one that really appeals to the broadest range of people, and I have done it without sacrificing basic conservative values."

Buckwalter has already set up a Web site for his campaign, www.BuckwalterForPA.com

http://www.pottsmerc.com/articles/2010/01/26/news/srv0000007428823.txt

Please help

2010-01-09T05:30:00.000-05:00

Saint Nicholas Brotherhood of Phoenixville, Pa.

Dear Supporters of the Saint Nicholas Brotherhood,

We would first like to thank you for the support and encouragement you have given us over these last difficult months.

In our conversations with many of you in the past eighteen months, you have given us the strength and determination to step up to the roles of Director of the Saint
Nicholas Brotherhood and face our fears of retaliation and ridicule from Holy Ghost Church board and some of our fellow parishioners.

The legacy of our people and time honored respect for our ancestors has provided strength for all who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to move our group to
the point where we are today ~ Positioned to defend and protect our heritage: The beloved, hallowed grounds of the Saint Nicholas Brotherhood.

These founders had the foresight to incorporate the SNB in a way that would forever ensure that the land stayed intact and under the watchful eye of the Saint Nicholas Brotherhood, according to the original deed.

It is now under our “Watch” that we face the challenge of defending our heritage from those who would seek to destroy it. We have obtained legal counsels who are dedicated to winning our case in court and also successfully defending the
countersuit that Holy Ghost Church has initiated against the three Directors of the Saint Nicholas Brotherhood and two of our members who assisted in the transition of leadership.

To date we have paid a substantial sum of money from our own personal savings and from donations of a dedicated group of supporters. We have been told that we will need a significant amount more if we are to continue in our cause. We feel we can be successful in our endeavors since the same judge has ruled twice in our favor. We now need the help of friends, neighbors and supporters.

We pray that in this Season of Love, Light and Miracles that our friends, supporters and neighbors will find it in their hearts to help us continue in our efforts to honor the legacy of our founders.

We have set up an account at Phoenixville Federal Bank specifically for our legal fees. If you are in a position to help us, please drop off your donations at any branch of the bank or mail checks directly to the Pikeland Branch. Please indicate
that this is for the Defense Fund for the Saint Nicholas Brotherhood.

ALL DONATIONS WILL REMAIN ANONYMOUS.

Phoenixville Federal Bank & Trust
PO Box 1046
Kimberton, PA 19442-1046

With our Heartfelt Thanks for your consideration,

God Bless you!

Directors of Saint Nicholas Brotherhood:

Maryanne Bradford

Amy Carney

Helen Langner

The official registration and financial information of The Saint Nicholas Brotherhood of Phoenixville Pennsylvania may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll-free, with-in Pennsylvania, 1-800-732-0999.

Registration does not imply endorsement

Holy Season Excommunications at Holy Ghost Orthodox Christian Church

2010-01-08T05:30:00.000-05:00

Passion for our rich heritage filled with family and time honored traditions, all guided by our deep love for God, has always been at the heart of the Saint Nicholas Brotherhood. When our beloved and hallowed grounds of Phoenix Park came under attack, we knew that there was no other choice to make: Save the Saint Nicholas Brotherhood’s inheritance and preserve it for all future generations.

Yet, we knew that by stepping up to the plate and defending the Saint Nicholas Brotherhood from the lawsuit that was INITIATED by Holy Ghost Church, we faced the outcome that we had been threatened with at the start of this disagreement. We would be EXCOMMUNICATED from Holy Ghost Church and the Orthodox Diocese headed in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

We waited, for months for this action to take place, steeling ourselves against the intense pain that our souls would feel as we were torn away from our beloved faith, spiritual families and actual family members. We couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to be denied the Sacraments of Holy Confession and Holy Communion. If we became gravely ill, we would not be able to receive the Sacrament of Holy Unction. If we died, we would not be buried from the church and into the resting grounds with our ancestors. But, no action was taken. Could it be, we wondered, that the church was willing to wait for the court to determine, again, who the land of the Saint Nicholas Brotherhood belonged to?

Perhaps there was compassion for the pain felt by three generations of families who struggled to save what their Grandparents, Great-Grandparents and Great-Great Grandparents had struggle to provide for these and the coming generations?
Compassion? Perhaps??

I attended our Christmas Day Celebration today at Holy Ghost Church. For the first time in my life, as far back as I can remember, I was not able to partake of the Sacred Body and Blood of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. I am no longer permitted to receive my beloved Sacraments.

I have agreed to have my letter shared with the community to validate actions that have occurred. I requested the identities of the three additional members who received identical letters be withheld.

Christos Razdajetsja! Slavite Jeho!
Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

Helen Langner,
Director, Saint Nicholas Brotherhood of Phoenixville Pennsylvania

To view my letter of excommunication please visit:

http://www.4shared.com/file/191046948/cf2b2b69/My_letter_of_excommunication_-.html

Christos Razdajetsja! Slavite Jeho!

2010-01-07T00:00:00.002-05:00

To our family and friends throughout Phoenixville, Mont Clare, and the world!

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

Christos Razdajetsja! Slavite Jeho!

S'nami Boh! God is with us!

Vesele Vianoce!

To learn more about Christmas in the Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn Tradition please visit:

http://www.iarelative.com/xmas/

To learn more about the Carpatho-Rusyn and Slovak heritage please visit:

http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/

http://www.slovakia.org/society-rusyn.htm

Schuylkill Valley Model Raildroad Club - Open House & a reminder!

2010-01-06T14:30:00.005-05:00

2009 - 2010 Open House Information

Location: Schuylkill Valley Model Railroad Club
400 S. Main Street
Phoenixville, PA 19460
610-935-1126

January 9 - 10, 2010

January 16 - 17, 2010

January 23 - 24, 2010

The club is open from 1:00 PM until 5:00 PM for our open house sessions.

The Model

The SVRR is a ficticious railroad serving Eastern PA from Philadelphia to Harrisburg. There are four different railroads in the model:

SCHUYLKILL VALLEY - the mainline section between Philadelphia and Reading, which includes over 700 feet of track.

CARBON COUNTY & NORTHERN - A branchline to Allentown. This portion of the track was converted in 2004 to run Digital Command Control (DCC).

CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA LOGGING COMPANY - A narrow-gauge coal and lumber railroad.

PHILADELPHIA HARBOR BELT RAILROAD - An industrial railroad serving the harbor area.

The railroad appears to have a double track main-line. This is an illusion forced by the need to limit the overall size of the layout to the available space. The railroad is a point-to-point layout with a single track main-line, which is folded back on itself, looking like a double-track main. You will see two trains passing each other, which would be miles apart in the real world.

Freight and passenger car trains can be seen rumbling over 700 feet of track, over high trestle bridges, through towns, around mountains, and through tunnels along the right-of-way from Reading to Philadelbhia. There are hundreds of buildings, vehicles, people, and trees which create realistic scenes on the 1000 square foot model.

The Details
Scale: HO
Layout Area: 1000 square feet
Prototype: Freelanced trunk-line
Period: Mid to late 50's
Locale: Southeastern & Central PA
Style: Single level point-to-point
Length of Main Line: 700 feet
Track Height: 42" to 53"
Max Grade: <3%
Yard & Industrial Turnouts: #4
Predominant Main Line Turnouts: #10
Minimum Radius: 20"
Construction Method: L-girder, cookie-cutter
Roadbed: Sealed Homasote
Scenery: Hardshell
Inter-Panel Communications: Hand wired phone system
Control: DCC block, DCC on CC&N branch, 14 panels

The Schuylkill Valley Railroad will never really be finished. We are always changing the areas and adding details to increase realism.

Visit the website for more information!

http://www.svmrrc.com/

****

Don't forget Pat and Brad Peck's CHRISTMAS VILLAGE AT WESTRIDGE - PHOENIXVILLE, PA - SHOW HOURS

Come see our Christmas Village at Westridge in the basement of the Westridge Farmhouse (office).

The office is located at 970 Township Line Road, Phoenixville, PA
Over 300 square feet of display area

Over 150 lighted porcelain houses, trains and lots of other animation.

Our 12th year at Westridge!

“spectacular and inspiring” - The Phoenix

"miniature Engineering Marvel" - Daily Local News

"phenomenal" - The Mercury

Show Hours:

Saturday Jan 9, 2 to 4 p.m.

Sunday Jan 10, 2 to 4 p.m.

Saturday Jan 16, 2 to 4 p.m.

Sunday Jan 17, 2 to 4 p.m.

For more information see our web site at:

http://mysite.verizon.net/patandbrad/christmas/

Phoenixville Council re-organization as expected

2010-01-04T21:20:00.003-05:00

Voting 5 to 2, Phoenixville Borough Council's Democratic majority took the party line and returned Henry Wagner to the president's seat. Councilman Jeff Senley was absent.

I sincerely hope Wagner, who nearly lost his Council seat to Marc Reber in November's election, understands there would never have been, nor would there still be, a Phoenixville on the maps if it weren't for the people who live and pay taxes in our community.

Now that Wagner will be on Council for the next four years, perhaps his attention can be re-directed. To us and our needs.

It may have happened in the past few years, but I have not personally learned of one single attempt under Wagner's chair to charge Council or the borough administration to work proactively and effectively on examining energy and cost saving measures which would benefit all of us.

I challenge Henry to look into municipal supplied electricity to learn if such a program is feasible in Phoenixville.

Examine all borough contracts. The municipal cable television stations which are OWNED by Phoenixville Borough residents should not be the source of a $60,000 bill because we already own them, and adding insult to injury, we pay again by our school district taxes.

Cell phone towers and any other radio contract items should be reexamined with an intent of increasing our fees.

All borough owned buildings should placed on a eco-friendly program of rehab.

Paint all the roofs white.

Change all the street lights and light bulbs in every municipal building to energy efficient bulbs.

If the piggy-backs with the state aren't bringing in enough savings, examine the possiblity of piggy-backing with other municipalities.

Look into the possibility of regional police departments.

Take the police off the downtown beat and require the downtown district to hire their own security.

Are police cars still left to idle for long periods of time? If so, can they be turned off to conserve fuel?

Are we paying the least amount possible for fuel?

Gradually replace vehicles with energy efficient cars and trucks.

Examine, closely, all the borough's insurance policies and shop them.

Examine the possiblity of purchasing a dryer for the sludge from the sewer department, comply with governing directives, and sell the refuse for land application or at least reduce the amount of refuse.

Work with work release programs for seasonal help.

Stop the addition of the chemical fluoride in our water. It isn't needed anymore.

Personally take a look at the books. Where is the greatest expense? Where might there be waste?

Use incentives or a bonus for those employees who can either identify waste or suggest cost-saving measurements which are implemented.

Consult with other municipalities on shared heavy equipment.

Come up with your own ideas or search online on the success of other municipalities for ways to reduce the tax burden on the residents of Phoenixville.

To the new Council members.

Poke around.

Ask questions.

Know that you are all equal on Council, you should all receive the same information, do your own homework, come to your own decisions, and please remember, maintain your individuality as a public servant. You ran for the seat, you won it, and now do the very best of your ability for the people who elected you!

Good luck everyone! You, too, Henry.

Phoenixville Borough Council Re-organization

2010-01-03T10:58:00.006-05:00

Phoenixville Borough Council will hold it's re-organization meeting on Monday, January 4, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. in Council Chambers, Borough Hall, 140 Church Street.

The purpose of the meeting is to elect the Council President, Vice-President, and for the appointment of committee Chairmen and members.

Every two years the borough re-organizes after the Council elections, and it's an opportunity to not only change seats, but also change the direction of the borough.

That being said, I'll predict Henry Wagner is returned to the presidency.

Why?

Because the most qualified Democrat member simply cannot assume more responsiblilites at this time and the most qualified Republican won't get the votes.

Clean and simple.

Add to that sad set of circumstances the fact that Wagner won his seat by the skin of his teeth. Approximately one-half of the Middle Ward voted for his opponent, Marc Reber, and if we were to extrapolate the message sent Wagner to one received from town-wide, one-half of the voting residents of Phoenixville quite possibly don't want Henry in Council at all. Yet, because of two flukes, Wagner may sit as president. Bah. Maybe miracles still do happen.

Mind you, under Wagner's term we, in my humble opinion, experienced some of the worst decision making I have ever seen in all my years of political observation. I would go as far as to say the previous Council was the worst Council I have ever seen.

Let's see, we had massive tax increases in the borough, we had a run-away train with the CDC, we saw hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on downtown bling, we saw the abdication of responsibilities of elected officials which were handed over to CDC members, we saw the development of a flawed library plan, complete with the support of a majority on Council, which may have increased safety risks for our children and defintely destroyed the entire area surrounding the library, saw the sale of Second Avenue for $1, witnessed the attempt to sell Prospect Street parking lots for $1, saw $5000 spent for PRIVATE marketing for a "Classic Community" designation, and among other items, the residents will now have to contend with a Parking Authority that doesn't know a parking spot from first base at Doc Kennedy Field.

Does that sum it up? Help me if I've neglected to mention other outrages.

With Wagner at the helm, are we doomed for more of the same? What is Phoenixville's future?

I have never, and let me underscore that point, NEVER seen a Council such as the one finally put to pasture, focus what seemed to be almost their entire attention on the business community in Phoenixville, as this one has.

Thankfully, we have new members coming on board for 2010.

Although the first vote may not show bi-partisanship, if my perceptions are correct, we may finally see the first break in the infamous 5-3 votes on Council.

In fact, there is the possibility we may see Mayor Scoda break more ties than in the past.

I sincerely hope that the new members will display individuality and not play the age-old "follow the leader" game. Private agendas have no room here. Phoenixville deserves strong, independent representatives willing to slough off the persistent political barrage to come.

I also sincerely hope that the new members are politically astute and understanding of the fact that they may be courted, flattered, mollycoddled, on everyone's A list, and otherwise "guided" by skilled maneuverings by anyone who wants something.

On the other hand, I would like to believe the nets that may have already been cast are already disolving, and the offered trinkets snatched by recipients as they turn about and chart their own course on the good ship Phoenixville.

To all the residents of Phoenixville, I wish you a safe, healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year!

I also wish for a Council passionate about and focused on the needs and requirements of the residents of our town, I wish for meetings filled with heated discussion on the issues which affect us, I wish for debate and a display of intelligent understanding used when reaching decisions.

Phoenixville deserves no less.

And, lastly, I wish for a Council which cares about the people of our town.

Did you know? The fragment isn't Hitler's skull.

2010-01-02T11:08:00.009-05:00

My Father rarely spoke of his time in Germany during World War II, so rarely, in fact, that the only two stories I remember were very brief. The article below reminded me of what he shared.

One was horrible, not only because of the graphic images left on my childhood mind, but also because of what was left unstated and never detailed. As it turned out, my young imagination could have never prepared me for the realities of the atrocities committed upon the Jewish people and others.

The other was the act of a group of soldiers extracting their own brand of justice and revenge on the vestiges of what remained of what I later learned was Hitler's 50th birthday gift from Mussolini.

With the remembered look on his face that day, I know he had one foot in the present and one at the gates to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen-Belsen_concentration_camp

What he saw and experienced through the lives of those who were bought to die in Bergen-Belsen, he said, should never happen again. He spoke of the thousands of dead, of the suffering of the emaciated people, the stench, the filth, and the horror they lived in.

And, then he said no more.

He never spoke of it again.

I'm sure he knew I would come to understand, despite my questions at the time, that he couldn't tell me, that I would learn on my own that hundreds of thousands of people died at the camp before the Allied troops liberated it, and that Anne Frank and her sister were among the dead at Bergen-Belsen, along with many people of other nationalities.

He was so terribly right. We must never forget.

The second tale he told, many years apart, was of Hitler's "Eagle's Nest".

My Father recalled reaching an area Barvaria, Germany, a complex of Hitler's home and other buildings including at least one he entered. He spoke of the claustrophobic nature of the elevator (the shaft is approximately 400') and compared it to the panoramic view of the mountain top, and the large expanse of the rooms.

The soldiers, he said, were "hell-bent" to cart away anything of value or destroy most of which which couldn't be moved. Many, including my Father, attempted to send Eva Braun's dresses, cameras, and other items to family members. None of my Father's "souveniers" arrived home, and the suspicion was that they were confiscated.

The men gave vent to anger and frustrations only a war-weary soldier can feel by wrecking rooms, urinating on costly rugs, and carving their names on a massive banquet or meeting table so large it filled a room from one end to the other.

During these soldier's time spent at the Eagle's Nest, they shared Hilter's cache of wine and attempted to carry off cases, but despite the labor many bottles ended up dashed on the rocky cliffs below.

Hitler's nearby home, Berghof, the homes of Goering, and Bormann, as well as the SS barracks were bombed by the American's and Brititsh, and only a few buildings remain including the Eagle's Nest and bunker complex.

I know little more about my Father's time in Germany or several years later in Korea, but I honor him and all the men and women who sacrificed and died, soldiers and civilians.

I recall that a portion of skull, allegedly Hitler's, was preserved.

The readers of this blog may find the following articles interesting.

****

Fresh doubts over Hitler's death after tests on bullet hole skull reveal it belonged to a woman

By Mail Foreign Service

Last updated at 3:11 PM on 28th September 2009

Adolf Hitler may not have shot himself dead and perhaps did not even die in his bunker, it emerged yesterday.

A skull fragment believed for decades to be the Nazi leader’s has turned out to be that of a woman under 40 after DNA analysis.

Scientists and historians had long thought it to be conclusive proof that Hitler shot himself in the head after taking a cyanide pill on 30 April 1945 rather than face the ignominy of capture.

The piece of skull - complete with bullet hole - had been taken from outside the Fuhrer’s bunker by the Russian Army and preserved by Soviet intelligence.

Now the story of Hitler’s death will have to rewritten as a mystery - and conspiracy theorists are likely to latch on to the possibility that he may not have died in the bunker at all.

The traditional story is that Hitler committed suicide with Eva Braun as the Russians bombarded Berlin.

Although some historians doubted he shot himself and suggested it was Nazi propaganda to make him a hero, the hole in the skull fragment seemed to settle the argument when it was put on display in Moscow in 2000.

But DNA analysis has now been performed on the bone by American researchers.

'We know the skull corresponds to a woman between the ages of 20 and 40,' said University of Connecticut archeologist Nick Bellantoni.

'The bone seemed very thin; male bone tends to be more robust. And the sutures where the skull plates come together seemed to correspond to someone under 40.' Hitler was 56 in April 1945.

Mr. Bellantoni flew to Moscow to take DNA swabs at the State Archive and was also shown the bloodstained remains of the bunker sofa on which Hitler and Braun were believed to have killed themselves.

'I had the reference photos the Soviets took of the sofa in 1945 and I was seeing the exact same stains on the fragments of wood and fabric in front of me, so I knew I was working with the real thing,' he said.

His astonishing results have been broadcast in the U.S. in a History Channel documentary titled Hitler's Escape.

According to witnesses, the bodies of Hitler and Braun were wrapped in blankets and carried to the garden just outside the bunker, placed in a bomb crater, doused with petrol and set ablaze.

In May 1945 a Russian forensics team dug up what was presumed to be the dictator’s body. Part of the skull was missing, apparently the result of the suicide shot. The remaining piece of jaw matched his dental records, according to his captured dental assistants. And there was only one testicle.

A year later the missing skull fragment was found on the orders of Stalin, who remained suspicious about Hitler’s fate.

Just how and when he died is now shrouded in mystery. Mr Bellantoni said it was unlikely the bone was Braun’s, who was 33.

'There is no report of Eva Braun having shot herself or having been shot afterwards,' he said. 'Many people died near the bunker.'

Unknown to the world, the corpse then believed to be Hitler's was interred in Magdeburg, East Germany.

There it remained long after Stalin’s death in 1953.

Finally, in 1970, the KGB dug up the corpse, cremated it and secretly scattered the ashes in a river.

Only the jawbone (which remains away from public view), the skull fragment and the bloodstained sofa segments were preserved in the deep archives of Soviet intelligence.

Mr Bellantoni studied the remains after flying to Moscow to inspect the gruesome Hitler trophies at the State Archive.

He was allowed only one hour with the Hitler trove, during which time he applied cotton swabs and took DNA samples.

The samples were then flown back to Connecticut.

At the university’s centre for applied genetics, Linda Strausbaugh closed her lab for three days to work exclusively on the Hitler project

She said: ‘We used the same routines and controls that would have been used in a crime lab.’

To her surprise, a small amount of viable DNA was extracted.

She then replicated this through a process known as molecular copying to provide enough material for analysis.

‘We were very lucky to get a reading, despite the limited amount of genetic information,’ she said.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1216455/Hitlers-skull-really-womans-Fresh-doubts-death-tests-bullet-hole.html#

****

For history buffs, the following article details a less than famous incident with an English soldier in World War I.

http://www.worldwar1.com/heritage/hitler2.htm

Private Henry Tandy, "...his regiment held down by heavy machine gun fire Tandey crawled forward, located the machine gun nest and took it out."

"..a wounded German soldier limped out of the maelstrom and into Private Tandey's line of fire, the battle weary man never raised his rifle and just stared at Tandey resigned to the inevitable. "I took aim but couldn't shoot a wounded man," said Tandey, "so I let him go." [2]"

The wounded soldier was Hitler.

****

Third Reich "remains" today with pictures and commentary:

http://www.morscher.com/rr/3r.htm

BREAKING NEWS - Buckwalter wins in Pennsylvania Supreme Court

2009-12-29T20:04:00.004-05:00

Attorney Richard A. Breuer received notification of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision regarding Councilman Ken Buckwalter's lawsuit yesterday. The following information is posted to his website, The Chicken Cacciatore Project.

http://thechickencacciatoreproject.blogspot.com/

****

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Phoenixville Councilmember Ken Buckwalter in his suit against the Borough. In a December 28, 2009 decision the court held that “the Phoenixville Borough Council lacked the authority to change its councilmembers’ pay during incumbent councilmember’s terms.” The Borough's ordinance violated Article 3, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania constitution.

The opinion authored by Mr. Justice Eakin (in which five other justices joined) and the concurring opinion of Mr. Justice Saylor can be found here and here.*

*Links to decision posted below.

http://www.4shared.com/file/184141508/6a44d32c/J-33-2009mo.html

http://www.4shared.com/file/184141533/d6bb5967/J-33-2009co.html

For the history on the case, please view the case documents from Richard Breuer's website archives, dated September 2008:

Case of Buckwalter v Borough of Phoenixville

A compendium of the principal filings in this case is available at this link.* These papers tell the whole story of the case to the point at which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided to hear this appeal.

*Link posted below:

http://www.kenbuckwalter.com/images/Buckwalter_Case_Documents.pdf

Christ is Born!

2009-12-25T09:43:00.002-05:00

The Nativity

Bible Story

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid: And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it, wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Luke ii.

http://www.hymns.me.uk/57-the-nativity-bible-story.htm

'Twas the Night before Christmas!

2009-12-24T18:00:00.000-05:00

'Twas the Night before Christmas'

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

- Clement Clarke Moore

Open thread

2009-12-19T12:42:00.005-05:00

For the purpose of open discussions on any issue.

Are you and the kids enjoying the snow? Encountering any problems? Have you heard of the postponement of an event or a closing?

How about that zero percent borough budget for 2010? Are you incredulous or skeptical as to how this was accomplished?

I was.

Yesterday, it was bought to my attention that at least 2 borough employees may have been laid off as a result of the financial situation during the budget review process.

I've been told one long term, non-union employee from the Streets Department and a shorter tenured office employee are now gone from the ranks of the employed just prior to the Christmas season.

I certainly have my thoughts and comments about the action.

First and foremost, in my humble opinion, laying off employees during the holiday season, or at any time during the year while there is WASTE of taxpayer dollars still on the books for next year is cruel, heartless, and defies commonsense practice in the financial administration of a municipality.

If the goal was to save $150,000+ or minus, WHY IS THE CDC STILL FUNDED BY THE TAXPAYER? Sure, the $125,000 contract amount was halved, but the budget was at least partially balanced by eliminating TWO borough employees.

Where is the fiscal responsibility in allowing downtown BLING to be subsidized by the taxpayer while two employees are pink slipped in this horrid economy?

Let's suppose, for the sake of argument and not from known fact, that two families are now experiencing the worst Christmas of their lives because of the termination.

Can anyone justify throwing $62,100 to the high winds of the downtown district?

Merry Christmas.

Did you get....

2009-12-18T23:06:00.005-05:00

....your bread, eggs, and milk?*

If you haven't by the time you read this post, you may have to ration your staples for the day.

Earlier this evening, local weather forecasters predicted the nor'easter gaining momentum up the eastern coast for Saturday would be the largest December storm in 10 years.

By the top of the 11 o'clock evening news broadcast the totals for the area apparently range from 6 inches up to 18+ inches of the white stuff perhaps breaking December snowfall records back to 1976.

However, during the weather segment, Channel 6 reporters suggested this snow storm has the potential to become one of the biggest snow storms ever!

As always, Phoenixville's municipal employees will be hard at work clearing the streets, but, please don't go out on the roads unless you absolutely need to make the trip.

Stay home, play in the snow, have fun, and stay safe!

*Why do people by bread, eggs, and milk whenever snow is on the way?

What do you make, bread pudding or french toast?

Phoenixville resident dies from injuries in fire

2009-12-11T09:07:00.004-05:00

Please pray for the victim and his family.

****

PHOENIXVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA - December 11, 2009 (WPVI) -- Rescue workers in Chester County have rushed one person to the hospital, after firefighters pulled him out of his burning house.

The fire started around 2:30 Friday morning in a home on the 300-block of Washington Avenue in Phoenixville.

Firefighters arrived to find flames and smoke pouring out of the three-story twin.

When crews were told a man was trapped on the third floor, they fought through the flames to rescue him. Officials tell Action News he later died as a result of his injuries.

Read the rest of the article here:

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7165156

Annual Winter Fundraiser at RiverCrest-2/26/2010

2009-12-10T17:11:00.001-05:00

Seasons Greetings from the Phoenixville Community Education Foundation Board of Trustees! Thanks to the generosity and goodwill of the Phoenixville community, we proudly present:

PCEF Top 10 of 2009

1. Businesses Sponsor Quality Pre-School

Business tax credits to PCEF totaling $58,360 have helped economically disadvantaged youth receive a quality pre-school experience at Stepping Stones Education Center and the Phoenixville Children's Learning Center.

2. Mr. Art Taylor Adopts Destinations With Direction

This $10,000 adoption helps afford our students out-of-state college tours, overseas travel, West Chester University workshops, and much more!

3. Year-Round Schooling Boosts 53 Students

"SAFE Summer Academics" enabled our elementary school students to receive daily reading and math instruction for 7 weeks during the summer. Achievement scores rose on an average of 17%.

4. 500 Backpacks To Celebrate A New School Year

Through an outpouring of help from area churches, businesses and others of benevolence, 2,359 backpacks have been distributed to Phoenixville children in need since the inception of the Pack a Backpack program in 2004.

5. Phoenix Robot Works

The PAHS Robotics Club has grown to include 30 students and several volunteers. They utilize advanced STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) concepts and their ROBOT competes in our state and others.

6. Students Making a Difference

Middle and high school students in the Youth and Philanthropy Program were honored in November with the Youth in Philanthropy Award at the 24th Annual National Philanthropy Day Award Luncheon in Philadelphia. Over 500 people were in attendance.

7. $147,000 in Support Announced During Winter Fundraiser

More than three-hundred guests attended the PCEF Sixth Annual February Fundraiser at RiverCrest Golf Club. During the event, Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-PA6) announced a $147,000 federal appropriation to support PCEF remedial programs. The funds became available on September 30, 2009.

8. Innovative Classroom Projects Launched

The Stock Market Game at the middle and high schools; outdoor education at the elementary level; a cooking class at the Kindergarten Center; and books on carts for the pre-schoolers are among the multitude of activities funded by the PCEF mini-grant program.

9. District Budget Reflected $250,000 from PCEF

Precisely $246,490.82 was passed through to PASD from PCEF according to the Business Office's June 2009 one year budget summary. This total does not include support for pre-schools, backpacks, or grants to community organizations!

`10. New Home at Phoenixville Federal

Effective July 1, PCEF's new home is located at 120 Main Street (PO Box 348), on the second floor of the bank. Many thanks to our friends at Phoenixville Federal! The good working relationship with District Staff continues unimpeded.

2010 SNEAK PEEK

Annual Winter Fundraiser at RiverCrest-2/26/2010

Endowment Gala at the Foundry-TBA (September or October 2010)

PCEF's New Website- www.pcefonline.com to debut ASAP

Please join PCEF's Mission to support education in the Phoenixville area either financially or through volunteerism.
Click here to make a secure online donation.

Please make checks payable to PCEF and mail to:
PCEF
PO Box 348
Phoenixville, PA 19460

United Way Donors: If your donation is restricted to # 42267, it will be sent to PCEF (or simply identify "Phoenixville Community Education Foundation" as the recipient.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT!
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Nan Odenthal
PCEF Chief Executive Officer
610.739.1599 pcef.nanodenthal@verizon.net

H1N1 Flu Information - Chester County

2009-12-08T18:40:00.001-05:00

Chester County Health Department

UPDATE - December 8, 2009

We are scheduling small clinics for the week of December 16th. We are also scheduling clinics for January 2010. Please call 610-344-5353 to schedule an appointment Monday-Friday 9am - 4pm. Anyone over the age of 3 years is eligible to receive the vaccine.

Download consent forms at website

All clinics will be held at the Government Services Center, 601 Westtown Road, West Chester. Directions available at website.

Information
PA Department of Health Updates H1N1 Vaccine Distribution Effort - November 9, 2009
Podcast - H1N1 Vaccine - Why the Delay?
Sign up for Web Updates on H1N1 in Chester County
Q & A Regarding 2009 H1N1 Influenza Vaccine Supply
H1N1 Vaccine Locations in Pennsylvania
Pregnant Women and the Flu
Who should get the H1N1 vaccine?
Are you or a loved one sick and worried you might have H1N1 Flu? Take the H1N1 Self Evaluation now
Myths and Facts about the H1N1 Vaccine
Seasonal Flu Information

Protect Yourself

Get vaccinated

Vaccination is the best protection against getting the flu. You need two vaccines to be fully protected this year - the seasonal flu vaccine and the H1N1 flu vaccine. Use the flu clinic locator or check this website often for updates on the availability of both seasonal and H1N1 vaccine.
The seasonal flu vaccine is not expected to protect against H1N1 flu and H1N1 vaccine is not intended to protect against seasonal flu. Each protects against a different virus and is intended to be used along-side the other. Get both!

Wash your Hands

Wash your hands often with soap and water.
Clean your hands after coughing or sneezing. Use soap and water or an alcohol-based hand cleaner.
Take the handwashing quiz now!
Cover your Cough
Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
If you don't have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve.
Put used tissues in a waste basket.

Symptoms

H1N1 causes symptoms similar to seasonal flu and can include:

*Fever over 100°F
Cough
Sore throat
Runny or stuffy nose
Body aches
Headache
Chills
Fatigue
And in some cases:

Vomiting
Diarrhea
* Not everyone with flu will have a fever.

People infected with H1N1 are contagious for one day before getting sick, and up to seven days after that. This time period can be even longer in children and people with weakened immune systems.

The Chester County Health Department and the Pennsylvania Department of Health caution anyone with the above symptoms to stay at home (except to get medical care) until at least 24 hours after the fever ends naturally (without the use of fever-reducing medication). Do not attempt to go to school or work. Doing so could spread the virus to those who are otherwise well.

http://www.chesco.org

Pat and Brad's Christmas Village!

2009-12-06T15:39:00.003-05:00

CHRISTMAS VILLAGE AT WESTRIDGE - PHOENIXVILLE, PA - SHOW HOURS

Come see our Christmas Village at Westridge in the basement of the Westridge Farmhouse (office).

The office is located at 970 Township Line Road, Phoenixville, PA

(Click to enlarge)

Over 300 square feet of display area

Over 150 lighted porcelain houses, trains and lots of other animation.

Our 12th year at Westridge!

“spectacular and inspiring” - The Phoenix

"miniature Engineering Marvel" - Daily Local News

"phenomenal" - The Mercury

Show Hours:

Saturday Dec 19, 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday Jan 2, 2 to 4 p.m.

Sunday Dec 20, 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday Jan 3, 2 to 4 p.m.

Thursday Dec 24, 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday Jan 9, 2 to 4 p.m.

Saturday Dec 26, 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday Jan 10, 2 to 4 p.m.

Sunday Dec 27, 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday Jan 16, 2 to 4 p.m.

Monday Dec 28, 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday Jan 17, 2 to 4 p.m.

For more information see our web site at:

Click here for the ►CHRISTMAS VILLAGE

http://mysite.verizon.net/patandbrad/christmas/

For directions:

http://mysite.verizon.net/patandbrad/christmas/id13.html

or call me at (610) 983-0129

Dear friends and associates, some of you may wonder why you are receiving this – it’s simply because to be sure I don’t miss anyone, I am sending this to many on my contact list.

My grandson, Andy Bailey and I have been building this village since Christmas 1990 (he was just 5 years old). This year Andy was really busy as he both returned home from a tour with the Marine Corps in Iraq and married lovely Ashley.

If you do not live nearby – may we take this opportunity to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year.

Pat and Brad Peck

PS: Please pass this on to anyone that may be interested in visiting our Christmas Village!

Fans Plan Harry Kalas Memorial Statue

2009-11-29T05:30:00.001-05:00

Wild About Harry: Group of Fans Plan Kalas Memorial

In a heartfelt demonstration of affection, a group of Kalas admirers has kicked off a plan to fund and build a permanent monument to the beloved broadcaster.

Phoenixville, PA (PRWEB) November 26, 2009 -- Harry Kalas, whose Hall of Fame baritone voice was silenced on April 13, 2009, touched the lives of millions of Philadelphians for nearly forty years as the play-by-play voice of the Philadelphia Phillies. Kalas, with fellow Hall of Famer Richie “Whitey” Ashburn, formed what is arguably the greatest announcing team in the history of baseball.

While Harry’s colorful delivery expressed his love of baseball, his call of a game became a pure expression of love for the city and fans of Philadelphia. And, as much as Harry loved the people of Philadelphia, they remain wild about Harry.

In a heartfelt demonstration of that affection, a group of Kalas admirers has kicked off a plan to fund and build a permanent monument to the beloved broadcaster.

The day after Kalas died, Philadelphia Phillies fan, Antonio Jose started a petition on Facebook seeking support for a statue to be erected in Kalas’ honor and memory. One of the Facebook members that signed the petition was Philadelphia native and acclaimed sculptor, Lawrence J. Nowlan.

Nowlan, a Philadelphia native with a studio in Windsor, Vermont, is one of finest figurative bronze sculptors working today and is often on the short list for commissioned memorial sculptures. Most recently the artist created a heroically sized action scene of Nile Kinnick for the University of Iowa, a larger than life Ralph Cramden installed in New York City’s Port Authority and a series of intricately detailed bas-relief sculptures commemorating winemakers at the Culinary Institute of America’s Vintners Hall of Fame.

Nowlan had started sketching and sculpting Kalas over the summer and seeing the groundswell of support demonstrated on the Facebook page, inspired him to reach out to Jose. After explaining his background and vision of a Kalas monument to Jose, the originator of the petition invited Nowlan to share administration of the Facebook page.

Next, Nowlan gathered a group of friends to strategize a way to turn this dream into a reality. The goals– raise the money, sculpt the memorial and deliver the finished sculpture to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Greg Veith, an attorney in Norristown, and Nowlan’s childhood friend, recommended forming a non-profit entity so that all donations would be used for the development of the statue. Veith incorporated the organizational entity, Dear Harry, Inc. whose current singular mission is to promote, fund and execute a memorial to Harry Kalas. Dear Harry, Inc. is in the process of registering for 501(c)(3) status.

Nowlan’s college roommate, Todd Palmer, volunteered the services of the advertising agency at which he is Creative Director, Virtual Farm Creative, Inc., located in Phoenixville. Virtual Farm Creative developed a brand for the mission, a website and other promotional materials.

Rounding out the team is another friend of Nowlan’s, Suzanne Downs Norris of Paoli, who enthusiastically encouraged Nowlan to jump at this chance.

“No one is more perfect for this task,” reflects Norris. “He is the most amazing sculptor, an ultimate Phillies fan and the best choice to immortalize the voice of my summers, Harry Kalas.”

Indeed, Nowlan is a huge sports fan and an even bigger fan of all Philadelphia teams. Everyone involved in this project are die-hard Philadelphia sports fans and they have initiated the promotion of the proposed memorial by donating a lot of time and talent.

Palmer, whose Chester County agency works with a number of non-profits, became inspired when Nowlan approached him with the scale model of Kalas.

“I remember (Nowlan) sculpting Pelle Lindbergh in college,” says Palmer. “Then Eric Lindros and Walter Peyton– he was always creating amazingly accurate sports figures and he’s a rabid Philly fan.”

“(Nowlan) created a clay sculpture following Harry’s death while he was watching the Phils try to repeat,” remembers Palmer. “Then we saw the petition and it was serendipity. 20,000 Harry Kalas fans can’t be wrong!”

The vision for this project is to raise enough money (as much as $100,000) to fund the development of an original and permanent, seven-foot tall bronze likeness of Kalas. Nowlan estimates that, if all goes as planned, the sculpture could be unveiled at the beginning of the 2011 season.

“Harry was not your run-of-the-mill broadcaster,” adds Nowlan. “He was a fan watching in our living rooms with us, rooting for the team that held our hearts.”

Everyone involved in the Dear Harry, Inc. project agrees that, if they’re able to raise enough money, Richie Ashburn should be added to the memorial.

“If only half of the people that signed the petition donated just $10 each, we’d have enough,” muses Nowlan who is in the process of creating a bronze version of the scale model.

The petition that Jose started now includes nearly 20,000 signatures many of which are accompanied by memories of Harry. “Philadelphia has a Rocky Statue,” ponders Jose. “Don’t you think Harry has done more for this city than Rocky did?”

To learn more about Dear Harry, Inc., visit the web site devoted to the promotion of a “Harry the K” monument at:

www.harrykalasstatue.com.

###

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/11/prweb3257994.htm

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T05:30:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again!

For the next few days I'll be taking a break from the blog while we spend time with family and friends and give thanks to God for many blessings received.

God bless everyone!

Enjoy this timely little ditty* I received from a friend today!

May your stuffing be tasty

May your turkey be plump

May your potatoes and gravy

Never have a lump

May your yams be delicious

And your pies take the prize

And may your Thanksgiving dinner

Stay off your thighs!

*Author unknown

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Slice of Suburbia Exclusive: Phoenixville Public Library’s Annual Fundraiser

2009-11-24T05:30:00.001-05:00

By Christine Tarlecki at 10:35 pm on Sunday November 22, 2009

Wine, wit and wisdom was served up at Phoenixville Library’s annual fundraiser held at RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve, and sponsored by Phoenixville Federal Bank & Trust, along with other generous sponsors.

RiverCrest made a lovely backdrop to the 185 people who were dedicated to furthering and preserving the Phoenixville Library, including former Mayor of Phoenixville Chuck Ash, State Representative Paul Drucker and many other Phoenixville notables.

The elegant evening kicked off with wine tasting, with many great wines and Hors D’oeuvres while attendees perused the silent auction. Over 50 auction items were donated, including gift certificates to local establishments, signed sports items, art, YMCA memberships, Colonial Movie Theatre tickets, and books.

Wine educator Hudson Austin of the Wine Merchant, LTD, presented several South American wine pairings to go with the buffet-style dinner of nut-encrusted fish, fresh green beans, crispy potatoes, and two selections of pasta and salad. He was quite knowledgeable of the evening’s wines, including those from Argentina and Chile.

During the dinner, Susan Meadows, the President of the Board of Trustees, spoke to the group, followed by a presentation from Executive Director John Kelley, who unveiled Phoenixville Library’s new logo and website.

“The library is booming; it is always busy and full of people,” John Kelley said. He is obviously quite proud of the success of the Phoenixville Library. “Especially in this economy- everyone’s generosity is beyond our expectations. This is our 6th year, and it is our best year ever!”

During the delectable dessert (mini-pumpkin pies and cinnamon cheesecake rolls) Keynote Speaker and local author Kathleen DeMarco Van Cleve (author of the Cranberry Queen and Drizzle) spoke about her love of books and how she had to work hard to become a noted author. She was a total sweetie too!

Also on each table, as a reminder to why we were all there, were books as parting gifts for each attendee to go home with.

Phoenixville Library hosts many events year round for children and adults alike. Recently they had a ghost tour, where New York doc crew of SCARED! kept their eyes and ears open for the ghosts of the library, and took people through the hotspots of the library. “It went great. We had over 100 people attend,” Susan said. “The weather added helpful ambiance -windy and pouring rain. Tensions were high in crowd on hunt as the SCARED! team debuted their documentary on the library. Hotspots included the attic and children’s office, and John Kelley claims he has seen them!”

Susan Mostek, Director of Development and Volunteer Services for the Phoenixville Public Library was quite happy with the turnout. “This marks the fourth year that RiverCrest has hosted Wine, Wit & Wisdom,” she said. “We have raised approximately 50,000 dollars for the library. We had excellent feedback, everyone had a lot of fun, enjoyed the dinner, and we are already looking forward to next year!”

All the attendees enjoyed the dinner, the wine and the silent auction, but most of all, those who attended know they are helping a worthy cause, and people are already looking forward to next year!

****

Christine Tarlecki can be reached at: engchik@comcast.net and this article is published with her permission.

http://www.philly2philly.com/entertainment/entertainment_articles/2009/11/22/22513/slice_suburbia_exclusive_phoenixville_public_l

Have YOU scheduled YOUR H1N1 vaccination?

2009-11-23T05:30:00.003-05:00

I didn't realize it until just now, but NO ONE, not on this board or in private, has said to me they received or scheduled their vaccination for the H1N1 flu. Not that this flu is a taboo subject, in fact, I've had more than several discussions with friends and family members. But, I know of no adult who has had theirs. Odd little side bar note.

Which leads me to the topic of this thread.

I've finally made it (without catching the flu) to the date selected for my H1N1 shot soon to be delivered courtesy of the state of Pennsylvania.

I think I've read enough about the pros and cons of this vaccination to make the decision to have it administered, and on the plus side for you, you can read about the bureaucratic process later today as I experienced it in West Chester.

Many of you are probably getting a good chuckle over me writing about a simple shot, but I'm going to share, publicly, the fact that I am tending to the fears of a little girl who sometimes reminds me she still lives in me!

Taking me to an office visit at the doctor or dentist must have been a nightmare for my parents. They learned early not to tell me when they scheduled a visit to either office. I actually feel sorry for what they must have gone through.

My parents would simply take my siblings and me directly to the office with no prior explanation as to where we were going. Once I saw either building, I would immediately start to cry. Then I would sob, wail, and on at least two occasions, I fainted.

Doctors Hunter, Marez, and Lee would probably have total recall of my behavior.

I would refuse to get out of the car. As the eldest child with 5 other siblings, I had no problem staying out of reach in the back of my Father's station wagon. I would find the farthest point away from any door and plant myself there. However, my brothers and sisters, still too young to completely comprehend where we were and what was to happen, promtly took their cue from me and started to cry, too.

The cacophany and din were awesome and I was always grateful for their participation in the delay tactics.

Despite all the theatrics, eventually my brothers and sisters were all carried or escorted into which ever office we were due to be received, until I was the last in the car.

In complete exasperation, I'm certain, my Father would patiently climb into the car and take hold of any appendage of mine he could reach. Slowly, I would be extracted, with me literally holding on to an arm rest, door handle, whatever would slow my entrance in for the dreaded visit.

Arms and legs flailing I was carried into the office, and usually the door from the waiting room into the inner sanctum was already held open by a nurse. Did I imagine those vaugely remembered stern looks from the staff? Holding my breath until I turned purple and my ability to claw at and glue myself to available door jambs did not impress the nurses at all.

More times than I can count, I escaped in the confusion of trying to administer shots to 6 crying kids and ran screaming back into the waiting room (they soon learned to lock the door after we came in). In desperation, I hid under chairs, the table, where ever I could find a cubby hole to escape that impending needle.

Often, the doctors would finally just leave the examination room and give me the shot while I was under the chair. :(

Sometimes after I was caught, I'd barf....figuring, so it goes....that'll teach 'em.

I always lost the battle.

Oh, and the horrors of the dental visits?

~>>shiver<<~

Just think, similar experience.

Since that time much more than needle pricks have come my way, and at one point in my life I felt I had evolved so much I even decided to donate plasma for hemophiliacs! Months and months, maybe a year passed until one day I fainted. And, then barfed....sigh. That was the end of that.

My flu shot will be no big deal.

FYI..(I did a quick meditative check on that little girl inside me. Her heart beat is a little fast but she's not hyperventillating...yet.)

I just wonder if the docs in West Chester are prepared, perhaps, to see a grown woman trying to crouch under a chair.

Let's say "Thanks!"

2009-11-22T09:41:00.004-05:00

The mission of Let's Say Thanks is to provide a way for individuals across the country to recognize U.S. troops stationed overseas. By submitting a message through this site (listed below) you have the opportunity to send a free personalized postcard greeting to deployed servicemen and women.

The postcards, depicting patriotic scenes and hometown images, were selected from a pool of entries from children across the country.

All you have to do is click on your favorite design and either select the message that best expresses your sentiment or draft a personal note. The postcards are then printed on the Xerox iGen3® Digital Production Press and mailed in care packages by military support organization Give2TheTroops®.

Xerox is committed to helping people across the nation express their gratitude to our troops overseas. The launch of this program is aimed at reminding them how much Americans appreciate their service.

http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home.html

***

Thank you for supporting the men and women who sacrifice every day in service to our country!

Phoenixville Library to close one day a week

2009-11-21T09:40:00.001-05:00

Saturday, November 21, 2009

By Dennis J. Wright, dwright@pottsmerc.com

PHOENIXVILLE — Effective immediately, the Phoenixville Public Library will be closed every Wednesday, according to the library's Board of Trustees.

The Board of Trustees recently approved operating budget cuts for 2010, which include closing one day a week as well as eliminating three staff positions.

"These cuts were extremely difficult," board President Susan Meadows said. "The library was forced to address an $80,000 shortfall."

There have been significant cuts to the state library subsidy, along with the educational improvement tax credit program, Access PA, which is the state reimbursement for serving customers outside the library's service area, and county funding, which are established in late October.

Along with an increase in health insurance costs, the library had no choice but to make deeper cuts in its operating budget for the current fiscal year by cutting staff and hours of operation, Meadows said.

"The collection budget has been cut, part-time hours of some of the staff have been reduced, and the library will be closed on Wednesdays effective November 25," said John Kelley, executive director.

"Every day is busy at the library, but statistically Wednesday is our slowest day," Kelley said. "This closure will also affect children's programs. The library's new hours will be Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"The funding of libraries is very complex because the library draws from many different sources to make its budget," he said. Kelley explained that public libraries are primarily funded by a local source and then they supplement this amount with state, county and private funds.

"We are fortunate to have the Phoenixville Area School District as our local government funding source," he said. "They approved a small funding increase for the library for the current fiscal year. This was commendable for them as educational leaders, and very helpful for the library's programs and services for the community. Unfortunately the state cuts were too steep to change the outcome for this year."

The library's circulation is up almost 14 percent over the past two years with circulation approaching 300,000 items annually. Phoenixville is the third busiest public library in Chester County.

"We average some 130 holds a day on our materials, and people are standing in line to use our computers," Kelley said. "For the month of October, there were 65 educational children's programs, including outreach, with nearly 2,500 people in attendance. The adult programs drew over 250 people."

Kelley said that the board of trustees is very concerned over the impact that this funding cut will have on the Phoenixville community and will continue to seek new revenue streams for the operation of the library, while attempting to strengthen existing ones.

"While our hours of operation will be less, our quality of service and educational programming will continue to be strong," he said. "It is my hope that if our funding situation improves we can restore some, if not all of these hours.

"In the interim, inter-library loan borrowing and sharing of some resources among the countywide system member libraries will increase as we, and other county libraries, will be buying fewer materials."

http://www.pottsmerc.com/articles/2009/11/21/news/srv0000006882397.txt

Why the secrecy?

2009-11-20T05:30:00.000-05:00

Coincidental to the current H1N1 "swine flu" pandemic, about two years ago I read "The Great Influenza" by John M. Barry, a sobering account of the 1918 influenza.

The book traces the explosion of illness along the virus' path and it's human destruction while examining the scientific exploration process used to identify the killer disease.

It also documents the heroes as well as the cowards, along with the maneuvers of institutions which controlled the dissemination of accurate information to the public.

John Barry's insight in The Great Influenza is definitely thought-provoking, compelling, and the lessons both learned and not learned from the 1918 pandemic are still relevant today.

As frustrating as it was to understand the political and institutional mind-set of 1918, I'm appalled that we are dealing the same secrecy in 2009.

Which is why I found the following article well worth sharing.

****

Keeping a public health crisis, private.

By: Jo Ciavaglia

phillyBurbs.com

In Pennsylvania – where more than 1.3 million in swine flu vaccination have been distributed among more than 1,300 health care providers whose names are considered a state secret — comes the newest, strange twist in this public health crisis.

Who is dying of this mysterious flu?

Don’t bother asking the state that either. Apparently it’s a secret too.

Apparently almost everything about this H1N1 swine flu is a secret in Pennsylvania except how to can protect yourself.

No doubt the state has spent millions of dollars promoting that information which is basic hygiene 101: don’t sneeze on people, wash you hands, and keep your hands to yourself – and off your face. Just check out the H1N1inpa.com Web site, it’s full of useful information such as:

What is the swine flu virus?

How it spreads

Symptoms

What if you get sick?

Like is there anyone in American that doesn’t know the answers to these questions yet? What we don’t know is WHERE IS THE VACCINE????

The number of swine-flu related deaths in Pennsylvania is now at 38 up from 29 last week. So far, at least one child has died. Yes, it’s a tiny number – less than 1 percent of the 10,000 total state lab confirmed swine flu cases.

But are there any, say, patterns with the deaths with age or perhaps the health of the person.

These are reasonable questions that people – who are considering not only vaccinating themselves, but their kids, would like to know.

Nope. Can’t tell you, is what the state health department told me when I asked for the ages those who’ve died as well did the person have an underlying medical condition.

“As you know, we are restricted in what we can say by the Pennsylvania Disease Prevention and Control Law. We are not releasing any information on deaths other than the county,” was the response I received from a state health spokeswoman.

My reply to this was something to the effect: So you can’t tell me how many of these deaths involved people with serious medical conditions and if there is any pattern with the ages with this public health crisis? Still waiting for a reply to that question.

See, while the state – and everyone else – is hyping up the prevalence of H1N1 infections among people under age 30, what I am wondering is did they get it wrong.

Now clearly the under-30 crowd accounts for the preponderance of swine flu cases in Pennsylvania — 76 percent of the 10,000 so far — at least according to state lab tested confirmations. (Remember the state and CDC stopped testing most people months ago, only people admitted to hospitals are tested now).

But, as people seem to forget this H1N1 virus is a mostly mild – in some cases the seasonal flu is worse. So to me, it seems to those most vulnerable folks – who REALLY need the vaccine -- are the ones DYING of this virus.

Those numbers seem to suggest that people with underlying medical condition are clearly more at risk than younger people. Even among pregnant women in the state fewer than 1 percent have contracted H1N1, according to the state.

Locally, two people in Montgomery County who’ve died of swine flu complications, a 58year old with underlying medical conditions and a 19 year old also with underlying medical conditions.

Across the river in New Jersey, three Burlington County people have died of swine flu and two adult women, ages 38 and 42, had underlying chronic medical conditions and a 17 year old boy, who had no known medical problems.

You sense a pattern here? With the state secrecy that is.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/92/2009/november/19/keeping-a-public-health-crisis-private.html

Phoenixville - through the lens of a camera

2009-11-19T05:30:00.000-05:00

Metcafe is the host for this promotional video on Phoenixville.

Enjoy!

Historic Phoenixville, Pennsylvania - Watch a funny movie here

Low bridge, down and out

2009-11-18T05:30:00.002-05:00

Over the last few days I've had people comment about the closing of low bridge, Main Street Bridge, for those unfamiliar with local lingo.

I've heard, unofficially, that the

a) tracks are being removed,

b) tracks are being raised.

If anyone knows the "official" reason for the closure and when the residents can expect Main Street to be opened again, please post a response.

Thanks!

NOTICE - Chester County Health Department announces dates for H1N1 vaccination clinics

2009-11-17T09:23:00.002-05:00

Received via email.

Chester County Health Department announces dates for H1N1 vaccination clinics

Appointment-only vaccinations to be allocated to Tier One (most vulnerable) residents on November 23-25, 2009

WEST CHESTER The Chester County Health Department has been notified that approximately 5,300 doses of H1N1 vaccine will be sent from the Pennsylvania Department of Health (PADoH) to begin the inoculation of Chester County’s most vulnerable “Tier 1” residents.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) classifies Tier 1 as pregnant women, caregivers of children younger than six months of age, health care and emergency medical services personnel, persons six months through 24 years of age, and persons aged 25 to 64 who have underlying health conditions associated with higher risk of medical complications from influenza, such as weakened immune systems and cancer.

The Chester County Health Department will administer this free vaccine to Tier 1 persons through its normal clinic appointment program at the Health Department's 601 Westtown Road location in West Chester.

Appointments will be available on a “first requested, first served” basis from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on November 23 and 24, and 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on November 25, 2009.

As the vaccine supply is limited at this time, only people with appointments will be served during these dates.

Appointments can be scheduled by calling 610-344-5353, Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. To allow efficient distribution of the limited vaccine allocation, the Chester County Health Department is asking only Tier 1 citizens, or family members of Tier 1 citizens, to call for an appointment. Individuals in the healthcare and emergency medical services category must bring organizational identification as proof that they are eligible. Individuals with underlying health conditions must have a doctor’s note verifying that their condition makes them eligible as a Tier 1 citizen.

To enable an efficient vaccination service, all individuals with appointments are asked to wear short-sleeved shirts. Individuals with appointments are also encouraged to go to the health department website and download the required consent form and bring the completed form to the Health Department at their appointment time.

Due to the full day of H1N1 vaccination clinics on November 23, 24 and 25, 2009 all regularly scheduled clinics, apart from the WIC clinic, are cancelled on those dates. The WIC clinic will be held at the Government Services Center as scheduled.

The Chester County Health Department reminds residents to continue to take preventative actions to minimize the spread of the H1N1 virus, including:

· Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it;

· If a tissue is not available, cough or sneeze into your bent elbow;

· Wash your hands often with soap and water. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizing gel;

· Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Germs spread this way;

· Try to avoid close contact with sick people;

· If you are sick with flu-like illness, stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever has gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.

Chester County Health Department
Government Services Center
601 Westtown Road, Suite 290
West Chester, Pennsylvania 19390
US

NOTICE - Montco & DelCo residents - H1N1 flu shots will be available in your area

2009-11-17T05:30:00.001-05:00

For high priority risk residents of Montgomery and Delaware Counties interested in obtaining the H1N1 flu shot, please read and follow the directions below.

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Montco & DelCo H1N1 flu shot clinics scheduled this week

NORRISTOWN, PA.; November 16, 2009 (WPVI) -- After several delays, health officials are ready to offer H1N1 vaccines in Delaware and Montgomery counties.

The Montgomery County Health Department will hold 2 walk-in H1N1 flu clinics later this week.

These clinics will only offer H1N1 vaccine to those who are in a high priority risk group as determined by the Centers for Disease Control and the Pennsylvania State Health Department.

The dates, times and locations of the clinics are:

*Friday, November 20th from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm at Hope Community Church, 2732 N Charlotte St Gilbertsville, PA,

*Saturday, November 21st from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm at the Central Montco Technical High School, 821 Plymouth Road, Plymouth, PA

Residents must bring their driver's license to prove they live in Montgomery County.

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The Pennsylvania Department of Health will also offer a clinic from November 20-22, in Boothwyn, Delaware County, at Chichester Middle School. It is at 925 Meetinghouse Road.

Clinic hours on Friday, Nov. 20 and Sunday, Nov. 22 will be 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Hours on Saturday, Nov. 21, will be 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Appointments can be made at www.H1N1inPA.com under "What's Hot," 24 hours a day.

Individuals without internet access can call 1-877-PA HEALTH (1-877-724-3258) between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Lines are limited.

Anyone seeking vaccination should download an H1N1 vaccine consent form from www.h1n1inPA.com. Consent forms must be completed for each individual.

Individuals in the recommended target groups must schedule an appointment time, day and location for the clinic in Boothwyn. This will help ensure that the correct type and amount of vaccine is available at each location.

Those in the recommended target group include:

" Pregnant women

" Household contacts and caregivers for children younger than 6 months of age

" Healthcare and emergency medical services personnel

" All people from 6 months through 24 years of age

" Persons aged 25 through 64 years who have health conditions associated with higher risk of medical complications from influenza.

Children from 6 months to 9 years old will require a second dose approximately four weeks after receiving the first vaccine.

A screening form can be found on the Health Department's website at:

www.health.montcopa.org.

Residents can download, print, fill out the form and bring it to the H1N1 flu clinic or fill out a form when they arrive.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/health&id=7121773