News

Aiello, Ross Cowper top vote-getters in CHCA election
State of community address, awards presentation highlight annual meeting.
by JAMES STURDIVANT
Last month’s primaries may have been predictable, but Chestnut Hill’s home-grown race for the board of directors of the CHCA held all the drama of an old-school party convention, with last-minute ballot submissions, late night tallying and, when the dust finally settled early Friday morning, results that took more than a few by surprise. Last years’ bylaws changes instituted three-year terms for board members. Only the top 12 vote-getters are elected to a full term while the board fully transitions from a two- to three-year election cycle.

Biemiller to step down as CHBA director
by JAMES STURDIVANT
Chestnut Hill Business Association executive director Suzanne Biemiller has announced that she will be leaving the job after two years in order to return to her former employer, the Pew Charitable Trusts. Her last day with the CHBA will be June 8. Biemiller said that she was lured back to Pew by a new program matching her skills and interests. “The Pew board just created a new program in May basically aimed at managing and investing in major civic projects in Philadelphia. I was asked by Pew to manage it. ... it was an offer I couldn’t refuse,” she told the Local this week.

Springfield schools reject tax-relief plan
by MICHAEL J. MISHAK
Joining an overwhelming majority of school districts statewide, Springfield Township has rejected Act 72, Harrisburg’s plan to distribute an expected gambling windfall in the form of property-tax relief. Philadelphia was a mandatory participant in the program, which stipulates that the city’s share of gaming revenue be used to reduce the wage tax. While suburban residents who work in the city will reap some benefit in the form of wage-tax cuts, Springfield is one of hundreds of districts that closed the only available avenue for promised property-tax relief. Just 104 of Pennsylvania’s 501 districts opted in to the program by the May 30 deadline, according to a running tally on the Pennsylvania School Boards Association Web site.

Ex-Miller Aide Resigns from Nonprofit Post
by MICHAEL J. MISHAK
Amid rumors that the Commerce Department planned to withhold city funding from the Central Germantown Council, Steven Vaughn resigned last Friday as president of the community development corporation. The announcement came two weeks after Vaughn, a former City Council aide who pleaded guilty to federal charges in April, said he would not seek reelection to the group, which he has headed since 1997. His presidency has been embattled in recent months, the subject of protest by a group of community activists that first called for his ouster nearly five weeks ago. At issue was Vaughn’s admitted involvement in a racketeering enterprise that defrauded the city out of more than $60,000.