Pergola park restoration begins
by DENISE MAHER and JAMES STURDIVANT
Freshly cut logs sit on the grass island next to the orange detour sign at Cresheim Valley Drive and Germantown Avenue -- the first visible signs of change for the pergola park located at this busy intersection.
The restoration is one part of a three-part community "gift" the Chestnut Hill Rotary Club has been working on for their centennial celebration. Along with the pergola, built in 1909, the group has been working in conjunction with Mt. Airy USA and others on the adjacent Cresheim Valley trail and gateway bridge projects. The Rotary Club hopes that this park, located at one of the entrances to Fairmount Park, will serve as a resting place for those biking, walking or jogging the trails.
The closing of Cresheim Valley Drive resulting from the Aug. 1 storm...
by MICHAEL J. MISHAK
In June 1999, a volunteer group of women sought to reverse more than two decades of decline at the historic Germantown Women's Y. Facing the institution's closure, the group led the first of two membership takeovers.
Saddled with a $450,000 debt, the new board quickly set out to improve conditions for the Y's childcare center, which had operated unlicensed for eight years, and to hire an executive director. According to Joyce Brown, then-board co-president, the group raised $60,000 in their first 60 days.
In February 2000, the board hired Antoinette Berger as executive director in the hopes of saving an institution crippled by circumstance and mismanagement, Brown said. Some current board members contend the move dragged them off the cliff and into a financial abyss.
According to Brown, the Y's decline began 25 years ago when Center in the Park, then...
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...