Chestnut Hill Local

Without federal aid, the key route to Lincoln Drive will stay closed

by MICHAEL J. MISHAK

Damaged by heavy rains last month, Cresheim Valley Drive has been closed since Aug. 3. Without emergency federal aid, the road is likely to remain in its current condition until next year.

"We don't have the money to fix it," said Joseph Syrnick, the city's chief engineer and surveyor. A Streets Department estimate places the repair cost at $800,000. "For us, that's a lot," he said.

A half-mile stretch of the road between Germantown Avenue and Lincoln Drive was damaged on Aug. 1 when the area was deluged with 4 to 5 inches of rain. Flooding eroded the adjacent stream bank and “ate into the roadway,” Syrnick said, cracking the asphalt and depressing portions of the road.

The road, a popular route for both Chestnut Hill and Montgomery County...

By JAMES STURDIVANT

One hundred years ago, on Oct. 4, 1904, a small group of local physicians and philanthropists took the bold step of opening a hospital in two former residential properties on Gravers Lane, “wherein the sick and injured of Chestnut Hill and the Twenty-second Ward of the City of Philadelphia and its vicinity may receive care and treatment.”

From that day to now, Chestnut Hill Hospital has continued to serve its community, meeting the ever-expanding needs of a healthcare system that has grown beyond anything its founders could have anticipated.

True to the spirit of its mission, the hospital is inviting the community along for a series of events next week, celebrating the history and achievements of one of Chestnut Hill’s signature institutions.

“Community members have responded throughout our history by giving time, talent, financial support and most importantly, by entrusting their health care to us,” Barbara Wilson, chair of the hospital’s centennial steering committee, said. “Our centennial celebrations provide opportunities...

New hearing ordered for lesbian minister

A church committee will reconvene to decide whether the Rev. Irene “Beth” Stroud should stand trial

by MICHAEL J. MISHAK

The case of the Rev. Irene “Beth” Stroud, associate pastor of First United Methodist Church of Germantown (FUMCOG), took a turn last week when a church official voided a special investigating committee’s indictment of the openly lesbian minister and ordered a new hearing.

Retired Bishop Joseph H. Yeakel, who is overseeing the case for the United Methodist Church’s Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, said legal and procedural errors on the part of the denomination’s Committee on Investigation, which voted last July to send Stroud’s case to church trial, prompted his decision.

At issue is whether gay and lesbian Methodists can be ordained and serve in the church. Stroud came out to her congregation as a lesbian pastor in a “covenant relationship” with another woman during an April 2003 sermon. Though church law precludes “self-avowed, practicing homosexuals” from being ordained or appointed as clergy in the United Methodist Church, Stroud belongs to FUMCOG, a Reconciling...

CH library escapes cut in weekend hours

By JAMES STURDIVANT

Saturday hours will resume at the Chestnut Hill branch of the Free Library Oct. 2 despite staff shortages that have forced many branch libraries to postpone the weekend service that normally follows the start of the school year.

Only 10 branch libraries around the city will be able to reopen on Saturdays next month when the library system changes over from its summer schedule, said Sandra Horrocks, vice president of communication and development at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Regional libraries and the Central Library on Vine Street in Center City are not affected, she said.

Opening as usual will be Chestnut Hill, Lovett Memorial in Mount Airy and Andorra on East Cathedral Road in Roxborough, along with Bustleton, Drexel, Overbrook, South Philadelphia, West Oak Lane, Welsh Road and Walnut West. Branches that will remain closed on the weekend include...

Mt. Airy nonprofit director shatters political stereotypes

by MICHAEL J. MISHAK

In Philadelphia, a city that remains distinguished for its racially polarized voting record, the tendency to label minority voters as Democrats is strong. But Farah Jimenez defies blanket categorization. The Cuban-American executive director of Mt. Airy USA, an area nonprofit, is working the frontlines for Bush-Cheney '04, a scenario that can engender confusion.

"There's a big leap in assumptions," Jimenez said.

Her political passion extends far beyond pulling a lever on Election Day. As treasurer of the Pennsylvania New Majority Council and a member of the Bush campaign's national steering committee for Pennsylvania outreach, Jimenez last month found herself an alternate delegate attending the Republican National Convention in New York.

Jimenez hopes to broaden the base of her party and shatter the image of the...

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