CHCA calls for traffic study amid increasing safety concerns
by JAMES STURDIVANT
Recent concerns about increased traffic and pedestrian safety in Chestnut Hill have led the CHCA to request a traffic study from the streets department and take steps toward reinstituting the community association's moribund traffic and transportation committee.
An action item to approve the request for a traffic study formed the basis of a lively discussion at Thursday's CHCA board meeting centering on the speed and volume of traffic on residential streets -- especially since the closure of Cresheim Valley Drive -- and its effect on quality of life.
Winston Road residents John and Jennifer Follo, introduced by board member Bob Previdi, testified to the dangers that result from speeding in residential neighborhoods. The Follos' car, which was parked on Winston Road near Moreland Avenue, was totaled the night of Oct. 11 by a drunk driver who police estimate was going over 50 miles an hour.
"According to Roxy Auto Body ... the vehicle may have been going as fast as 60 miles an hour, which in a neighborhood street is just outrageous," John Follo said.
Jennifer Follo added the kicker -- that the following week, on Oct. 17, the very same accident happened to their parked rental car, involving another driver traveling at a high...
Area roads will not see PEMA aid
Cresheim Valley Drive will not be getting federal aid after all
The damage to area roads, including Cresheim Valley, caused by September's severe weather is not serious enough to merit qualification for federal disaster assistance, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency has found.
In a recent letter from PEMA's director, David M. Sanko, to CHCA president Maxine Dornemann, the agency said that a recent damage assessment documenting uninsured loss to homeowners, businesses and municipal governments in Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties concluded that "the magnitude of damages to roads and streets in your area do not meet the levels necessary for federal assistance."
"We haven't given up, and were not going to accept that as the final word," Dornemann said, adding that both city Councilman Frank Rizzo and Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller's offices are pursuing efforts to secure aid.
"They are very hopeful that we can get this done sooner rather than later," she said.
"I'm not convinced that there's not going to be any federal funds...
Lesbian minister to face church trial in December
by MICHAEL J. MISHAK
The Rev. Irene "Beth" Stroud will face a church trial Dec. 1 to decide whether her lesbian relationship violates United Methodist Church law. Stroud, associate pastor of First United Methodist Church of Germantown (FUMCOG) since 1999, came out to her congregation as a lesbian in a "covenant relationship" during a sermon in April 2003.
At issue is whether gay and lesbian Methodists can be ordained and serve in the church. 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 Congregation that supports full inclusion of gays and lesbians in both ordination and ministry.
Early last month, an investigating committee voted unanimously to send Stroud's case to trial. The decision came after retired Bishop Joseph H. Yeakel, the presiding church official in the case, voided a prior committee's trial vote in September for legal and procedural errors.
Stroud requested an open trial. According to the denomination's Eastern...