January 5, 2006 Issue                                               

©2005 The Chestnut Hill Local

Hoping 2006 will be a more joyful time, as we review the past year
Rumors, innuendoes, walking off jobs, bad vibes and hard feelings in 2005 throw Local and community into a tailspin
compiled by CAROLE BOYNTON

January 6, 2005

THE WAIT MAY HAVE BEEN OVER. Five months after the first of two severe storm systems forced the closure of Cresheim Valley Drive, U.S. Congressman Chaka Fattah called on Mayor John Street to open the city’s coffers for the immediate repair of the major artery, promising federal reimbursement.

AS ALLYSON SCHWARTZ RESIGNED her state senate seat for a spot in the U.S. Congress this week, the battle to fill the void raged throughout the eight city wards that may determine a successor. In a contest that has largely emerged as an insider’s game, Democratic ward leaders were drawing sides, some by way of committee caucuses, others by longtime political alliances.

January 13, 2005

PLANNING EXPERTS at the annual joint meeting of the East Mt. Airy Neighbors and West Mt. Airy Neighbors associations, residents and civic leaders were updated on the progress of local redevelopment initiatives while outlining future revitalization plans.

FIGHTING FOR ITS FUTURE, CHESTNUT HILL HOSPITAL was dealt another blow when a major Wall Street ratings agency downgraded the institution’s bond status to “Baa3,” the last rung on the investment grade ladder. A Chestnut Hill Healthcare spokeswoman said the report, issued by Moody’s Investors Service, underscores the hospital’s need for a capital partner.

January 20, 2005

ACCOMPANIED BY AN UMBRELLA-CLAD delegation of city, state and federal officials, Mayor Street surveyed Cresheim Valley Drive in the driving rains, and got a first-hand glimpse of the damage that first forced the closure of the major Chestnut Hill artery more than five months before.

AFTER 27 YEARS of slowly transforming the Morris Arboretum from a somewhat neglected, if charming, remnant of Chestnut Hill’s Victorian past into the popular regional destination it is today, one might expect director Paul Meyer to have been disheartened by the double whammy of two severe storms that wreaked havoc on the property last August and September. Not so, however.

THE SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP Board of Commissioners heard a detailed update on recent progress made by the Black Horse Inn Advisory Committee (BIHAC) to raise funds and enact a major plan aimed at preserving and restoring the historic inn, which has stood on Bethlehem Pike since the 1740s.

MAYOR STREET’S APPARENT willingness to endorse a proposed ban on smoking in all public places in Philadelphia — including bars and restaurants — offered the Chestnut Hill Community Association a chance to take the lead in supporting the measure, a local health advocate told the association’s executive committee.

At the committee’s regular monthly meeting on Jan. 13, Vicki Lachman, chair of the CHCA health committee and a former executive committee member, brought up the association’s past support of anti-smoking efforts in presenting a proposal that the CHCA board endorse the ban proposed by city councilman Michael Nutter.

January 27, 2005

CHESTNUT HILL HOSPITAL’S future brightened when its parent company, Chestnut Hill HealthCare (CHHC), signed off on a $25 million deal to sell the 100-year-old institution and its attendant facilities, Chestnut Hill Rehabilitation Hospital and Springfield Residence, to a former profit joint venture.

February 3, 2005

NEARLY TWO MONTHS REMOVED from the church trial that resulted in her defrocking, Beth Stroud spoke candidly about her case before an audience of 100 during a public forum in Center City.

LITTLE OBJECTION SURFACED during the first of two public hearings on the proposed bid to sell the independent, non-profit Chestnut Hill HealthCare to a for-profit joint venture.

February 10, 2005

A ‘FIRST’ FOR GERMANTOWN. First Lady Laura Bush paid a visit to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Philadelphia’s Germantown branch on Feb. 3 to promote her husband’s domestic agenda and learn about two of the club’s programs.

February 17, 2005

THE PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL DISTRICT unveiled an ambitious school choice plan to expand its current high school roster from 38 to 66, adding 28 college-preparatory options by 2008.

February 24, 2005

FOUR YEARS AFTER North by Northwest spurred a commercial renaissance around the 7100 block of Germantown Avenue, the growing Mt. Airy business district shows no signs of stopping.

March 3, 2005

NEARLY SEVEN MONTHS after floods forced the closure of Cresheim Valley Drive, the city Streets Department began accepting bids from outside contractors to repair the major Chestnut Hill artery.

March 10, 2005

FOR THE FIRST TIME in its 80-year history, Chestnut Hill College was facing an overcrowding problem.

March 17, 2005

THE WAIT IS OVER. Repairs to flood-damaged Cresheim Valley Drive were scheduled to begin on March 21, according to a statement issued by the Streets Department. Mayor Street and Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller were expected to formally announce the repair plans at a town meeting.

March 24, 2005

CITY OFFICIALS formally outlined a repair plan for flood-damaged Cresheim Valley Drive at a sparsely attended town meeting, offering apologies to a community besieged by traffic congestion since the major Chestnut Hill artery closed last August.

March 31, 2005

THE ONGOING EFFORT to restore the embattled Black Horse Inn took a dramatic turn when the chairman of an advisory board overseeing the project resigned at a public meeting.

April 7, 2005

IN JANUARY 2004, when the Springfield Township Board of Commissioners overwhelmingly approved a Bryn Mawr firm’s development plan for the Black Horse Inn site, officials offered little explanation for their votes.

April 14, 2005

MERCHANTS AND CONSUMERS alike ranked store vacancies as Chestnut Hill’s biggest problem, according to a new retail market study recently released.

April 21, 2005

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FIVE YEARS, the Chestnut Hill Community Association’s annual dinner meeting featured a contested election for at-large seats on its board of directors.

April 28, 2005

AS THE CHESTNUT HILL BUSINESS ASSOCIATION and the Chestnut Hill District digested the results of a retail market study, local merchants and consumers were cautiously optimistic about a strategy that could fill the Avenue’s vacant storefronts.

THE FRIENDS OF PASTORIUS PARK was exploring new ways to improve the health of the park’s centerpiece pond.

May 5, 2005

A GROUP OF CHESTNUT HILL RESIDENTS opposing the expansion plans of Woodmere Art Museum outlined their case before the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment, contending that increased attendance and inadequate parking would ultimately harm their quality of life.

May 12, 2005

THE SEDGWICK CULTURAL CENTER, the nonprofit arts group credited with sparking neighborhood revitalization in Upper Mt. Airy, suspended its programming last month.

May 19, 2005

FOUR INDIVIDUALS WHO EPITOMIZE CHESTNUT HILL’S spirit of service were honored at the Chestnut Hill Community Association’s annual meeting: Stewart Treitel, Mary Anna Ross Cowper, Joe Ascenzi and David Contosta

May 26, 2005

MARKED BY LOW VOTER TURNOUT, the primary yielded few surprises. LeAnna Washington, a six-time Democratic state representative, easily bested Republican Ron Holt in the special election to succeed U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz in the state Senate.

AS AN OUTSIDE PLANT ENGINEER for Verizon, Mike Dean led a life of detail. Work orders, bid proposals and inventory levels were all a part of the veteran assistant manager’s everyday duties. So when Dean found himself unable to knot a tie or twirl spaghetti, he realized he had ignored a series of subtle clues that announced a devastating illness. “All of a sudden, you know something’s wrong,” Dean said. At 43, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

June 2, 2005

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.

All of the incumbents were reelected to the board, with longtime Chestnut Hill activist Mary Anna Ross Cowper receiving the most votes of any sitting board member, followed by Jane Becker, Tia Burke, Walter J. Sullivan, Dina Hitchcock and Lawrence Walsh, all of whom were reelected to three-year terms. Current CHCA president Maxine Dornemann, Mark Keintz and Mitchell Melton were reelected to one-year terms.

The top vote-getter overall was Louis Aiello, who will be returning to the board — where in years past he has served on the executive committee and as operations division vice president — after a three-year absence. Also returning to the board are former CHCA president Janine Dwyer, Ann Ward Spaeth and Virginia Mallery (the latter for a one-year term). Elected for the first time were Jeremy Heep, Tom Hemphill and Janice Manzi, all for three-year terms, and Ron Recko, Cecile Mihalick, Tom Kessler, Pam Waters, Caroline King and Joshua Klein, for one year.

Last year’s bylaw 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.

June 9, 2005

A TWO-PHASE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT set to begin as early as this fall will link Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park trail system with the Montgomery County trails, while widening a section of Northwest Avenue to include a lane for joggers and bicyclists.

June 16, 2005

THE FRIENDS OF THE WISSAHICKON (FOW) held their annual membership meeting on June 7 at the Valley Green Inn. Members reviewed some of the past year’s most notable accomplishments and looked ahead to the organization’s plans for the future.

June 23, 2005

NEARLY FIVE MONTHS AFTER Temple University exited the Sugarloaf Conference Center in Chestnut Hill, another academic institution is expressing interest in the 32-acre estate. Chestnut Hill College told a small group of residents at a community meeting it hoped to acquire the property, outlining its vision in the event of a sale.

June 30, 2005

COPE LINDER ARCHITECTS presented the results and recommendations of their Chestnut Hill Streetscape Design study, sponsored by the Chestnut Hill District, to a public audience on Tuesday evening, June 21, at the Chestnut Hill Library.

July 7, 2005

WHEN PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS CHIEF PAUL VALLAS opened the region’s first public military academy in West Oak Lane last year, Shelly Yanoff demanded an alternative. Backed by a contingent of Northwest community groups, she suggested a peace school, and much to her surprise, he gave it the green light.

July 14, 2005

THE SITUATION AT THE WATER TOWER RECREATION CENTER in Chestnut Hill stinks, literally. Beyond the leaky roof, busted pipes, broken boilers and mangled fences, there’s the story of the sewage backup and the plumbing fix that would have made the Three Stooges proud.

July 21, 2005

THE CHESTNUT HILL DISTRICT, a business improvement group largely supported by the real estate taxes of local property owners, “finished its first year with a cash surplus, a short list of completed capital projects and a solid blueprint for a vibrant commercial future,” said John Levitties, president of the group’s board.

July 28, 2005

THE TENSION IN THE ROOM WAS TANGIBLE at the beginning of the first meeting between the public and the Water Tower committee of the Chestnut Hill Community Association on July 18 in the recreation center gymnasium. The ad hoc committee was created in March to consider options for “the CHCA partnering with the City of Philadelphia to expand the recreational opportunities” at the Water Tower. Last week’s meeting — the first with the public —followed the distribution of a CHCA survey about the recreation center.

THE CHESTNUT HILL COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION’S Development Review Committee reviewed updated plans for the proposed Commerce Bank branch on Germantown Avenue with bank representatives on July 19.

August 4, 2005

SPEEDING, SMASHED CARS AND short cuts were all on the table at a meeting of the Chestnut Hill Community Association’s traffic, transportation and parking committee at Hiram Lodge. The discussion focused on what the community could do to address traffic problems using funds and resources from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s (PennDOT) Germantown Avenue improvement project.

August 11, 2005

A NONPROFIT GROUP WITH DEEP TIES to City Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller courted Mayor Street in connection with its effort to purchase the home of the Germantown Women’s Y, an historic institution that filed for bankruptcy last August.

IN THE LARGEST INFUSION OF FUNDS TO the Black Horse Inn restoration effort, U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D., Pa.) presented Springfield Township officials and Inn advocates with an oversized check for $150,000.

August 18, 2005

IN THE WAKE OF THE SECOND SET OF ASSAULTS to rock Chestnut Hill in as many months, a small group of neighborhood business and community leaders sought assurances and offered help at an impromptu meeting with police brass. The meeting, organized by Maxine Dornemann, president of the Chestnut Hill Community Association, came on a day when the neighborhood found itself under the microscope of the local media, which had descended on the Hill to report on a recent series of assaults and robberies perpetrated by a roving group of teens.

August 25, 2005

THE STORY OF LEN LEAR, Local Life editor, begins with all the makings of the stereotypical American success. Hard-working parents who never finished high school, thrilled that their youngest of five sons, a Central High School graduate, was going to be a professional man.

September 1, 2005

WHILE TWO DIFFERENT SEGMENTS of the Chestnut Hill community sparred recently over the fate of the Water Tower Recreation Center, all concerned agreed on one thing: the need for a new roof. Last week, the city gave the go-ahead for that and more.

September 8, 2005

AS MANY NORTHWEST RESIDENTS felt the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina at the gas pumps last week, many more felt the profound devastation in their hearts, volunteering their homes to displaced families and pledging donations to the massive relief effort. From lemonade stands to relief concerts, Chestnut Hill residents responded in various ways to what many have called the worst natural disaster in the country’s history.

September 15, 2005

NEARLY A YEAR AFTER THE SECOND of two severe storm systems collapsed a section of Cresheim Valley Drive, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D. Pa.) delivered on his promise to provide federal funds for the flood-ravaged road, presenting an $800,000 check to the city. U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R. Pa.) provided “substantial assistance,” Fattah said, in the form of another $400,000 in federal funds.

September 22, 2005

THE CHESTNUT HILL COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION’S Black and White Gala was expected to take place Saturday, Sept. 24 from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. on Germantown Avenue between Evergreen and Highland Avenues. Hundreds of friends and neighbors were expected to join for an elegant evening of live music and dancing, food, cocktails and a charity auction benefiting the Chestnut Hill Community Fund.

September 29, 2005

AREA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS showed significant, and in some cases, dramatic growth on the state’s standardized math and reading tests, according to Pennsylvania System of School Assessment results released by the 185,000-student Philadelphia School District. The Charles W. Henry and Henry H. Houston schools in Mt. Airy, along with John S. Jenks School in Chestnut Hill, all charted gains in math compared to last year’s test results.

October 6, 2005

AMID THE NOISE of a laboring construction crew, Mt. Airy USA officially broke ground last week on Winston Commons, a $4 million mixed-use development in the 6600 block of Germantown Avenue.

BARELY A YEAR AFTER FLOODS decimated a stream valley and filled in its famous Swan Pond, a visitor to the Morris Arboretum would never have known anything had gone awry in the famous gardens, much less that millions had been spent and countless hours put into restoring and rebuilding the landscape.

October 13, 2005

SUNDAY NIGHTS ARE GENERALLY QUIET AT BREDENBECK’S BAKERY, but in the early evening hours of Oct. 9, the popular Chestnut Hill ice cream parlor was the scene of a brutal crime as a group of four men beat and robbed a 17-year-old employee waiting for a ride outside the store at 8126 Germantown Ave.

October 20, 2005

FOR THE SECOND TIME IN THREE MONTHS, local business leaders sat down with police as part of a joint effort to curtail violent crime and improve safety in and around the Chestnut Hill shopping district.

IF YOU WERE LOOKING FOR A HANDMADE BABY GIFT or unique craft item for a loved one for the holidays, members of the Chestnut Hill Senior Services Center Needlework Group were busy at filling your needs as they prepared for their annual Holiday Bazaar, a primary fundraiser for the center.

October 27, 2005

ON WEDNESDAY, OCT. 19, the near neighbors of the Germantown Avenue, Mermaid Lane and Winston Road intersection met at the United Cerebral Palsy center in Chestnut Hill to formally decide how to improve dangerous traffic conditions in the area.

November 3, 2005

BETH STROUD, A LAY MINISTER at First United Methodist Church of Germantown (FUMCOG), who was defrocked for revealing to her congregation that she was a lesbian, lost her appeal to retain her ordained status.

THE RESIGNATION OF LOCAL EDITOR James Sturdivant and associate editor Mike Mishak exposed deep-seated divisions within the Chestnut Hill Community Association and the Local staff, and sparked both public and private debate over the future of the newspaper and the role of its publishers.

November 10, 2005

WELL OVER A HUNDRED community members jammed into the Chestnut Hill Library’s Community Meeting Hall on Monday, Nov. 7 for an emergency meeting of the Chestnut Hill Community Association. Resignations, free speech and decision-making issues dominated the meeting.

November 17, 2005

SEVERAL RECOMMENDATIONS toward conflict resolution of free speech and decision-making were derived from the community meeting on Nov. 7. The moderators of the meeting, Dr. Arlene Bennett and Howard Coale, also submitted a recommendation that the Executive Committee and the Publisher’s Committee meet within the week to assess the recommendations.

CAROLE BOYNTON was named interim editor of the Chestnut Hill Local and began working in the position as of Monday, Nov. 14.

November 24, 2005

CHCA APPROVES NEW INTERIM EDITOR. Carole Boynton answered board members’ questions and won their approval.

December 1, 2005

A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF THE CHESTNUT HILL COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION meeting that took place on Nov. 17, in Hiram Lodge, was devoted to questions about financial matters. The discussion began with a financial report from CHCA Treasurer, Mark Keintz, that brought several instances of budgeting difficulties to the attention of the board of directors.

December 8, 2005

AMID PROTESTING NEIGHBORS, SEPTA, citing safety concerns, covered the trolley tracks along Germantown Avenue from Gowen Avenue to Cresheim Valley Drive on Friday, Dec. 2, with a black blanket of asphalt.

A CHESTNUT HILL TRADITION, the annual Holiday House Tour presented by the Chestnut Hill Community Association was slated to light up Meadowbrook Lane on Saturday, Dec. 10 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

December 15, 2005

HOLIDAY SHOPPING ALONG THE AVENUE. Don’t panic! There was still a week-and-a-half until Christmas. That was more than enough time to stroll down Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill to find the perfect holiday gift.

December 22, 2005

CHESTNUT HILL, TAKE A BOUGH. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa.

December 29, 2005

ALTHOUGH THE CHESTNUT HILL PARKING FOUNDATION requested $100,000 from Congressman Chaka Fattah (D. Pa.) for improvements to the seven parking lots in Chestnut Hill, the congressman presented a much larger check on Dec. 21 to John O’Connell, Chestnut Hill Community Association board member and Democratic leader of the Ninth Ward; Peggy Hendrie, Chestnut Hill Business Association and Parking Foundation; Richard Hill, parking attendant; Cindy Bass, senior policy advisor for the congressman; and Paul Roller, president of the Parking Foundation. The check was for $250,000.

LIKE THE COBBLESTONES ALONG GERMANTOWN AVENUE — aged, experienced and welcoming — Mt. Airy USA this year celebrates 25 years of perseverance, resilience and success toward revitalizing Mt. Airy.