Blaze closes restaurants, hotel temporarily
Customers and employees were evacuated from the Melting Pot, 8829 Germantown Ave., on Nov. 16 after a fire was discovered in the fondue restaurant's basement. The adjoining Chestnut Hill Hotel and Chestnut Grille were also vacated. No one was hurt.
According to Battalion Chief Willie Williams, of the Philadelphia Fire Department, three fire companies, two ladders and one engine, responded after receiving a report of a fire in the Melting Pot's basement and kitchen at 4:49 p.m. The restaurant's smoke alarm and sprinkler system suppressed the blaze, which was brought under control by 5:02 p.m., Williams said.
The incident snarled rush-hour traffic as fire and police authorities closed off Germantown Avenue at Gravers Lane and diverted traffic.
According to Melting Pot general manager Kevin O'Leary, the small...
CHA embarks on major campus building project
by JAMES STURDIVANT
Chestnut Hill Academy plans to construct a new dining commons, field house and science building as part of a major capital campaign that officials hope will better accommodate a growing student population and add needed resources at the 143-year-old institution.
The project includes the demolition of the school's current dining hall, field house and gymnasium and construction of a new dining commons and athletic facility largely on the same footprint as the older structures. The school's Kline Science Building will also be demolished and a new center built on the opposite side of the school's main building, where a parking lot is currently located.
Plans presented at a CHCA development review committee meeting on Nov. 16 depict an ambitious project that nevertheless attempts to preserve the historic feel of the campus.
"It's not really radically changing how the campus feels, even though we're getting tremendously more square footage," CHA headmaster Frank Steel said last week in a sit-down interview with the Local.
The school has added 125 students in recent years, Steel said, bringing total...
Woodmere awarded $90,000 state grant
As the future of Gov. Rendell's environmental bond initiative, dubbed Growing Greener II, remained uncertain last week, the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) presented Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill with a $90,000 check. The grant was one of 13 awarded to local institutions and conservation groups in what may be the last gasp of a five-year program that has run out of funding steam.
The grant will help finance the construction of a porous pavement parking lot as part of Woodmere's expansion project. Supported by the Philadelphia Water Department, Wissahickon Watershed Association and Morris Arboretum, the parking lot design will reduce storm water runoff and overall pollution to the Wissahickon Creek. Designed on a slope, the museum's current hard-surface asphalt lot has contributed to flooding problems in the Wissahickon Watershed.
While the DEP had intended to cover Woodmere's entire request of $138,000, uncertainty about future funding for Growing Greener prompted the agency to scale back its award.
Though Rendell proposed an ambitious plan for the program's expansion in February, the state legislature has largely ignored pleas to approve the measure, which would borrow $800 million...