July 3, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Local News

Celebrate the 4th

Next week marks the 92nd annual Fourth of July parade and Celebration that has attracted parents and their kids to the intersection of Devon Street and Hartwell Lane for food, fun and games. The event will take place on Friday, July 4.

The event, sponsored again this year by the Bocce Club will begin as it always does with a recitation and flag raising by local “patriot poet” Tom Woodruff at 9:00 a.m., after which children will parade down Hartwell Lane in their costumes and floats (decorated bicycles, tricycles and wagons) to the Water Tower Recreation Center. Numerous prizes will be awarded to the best decorations in a number of categories.

Following the parade, the Water Tower’s ball fields will host a number of games and contests for children. In addition to the games, children can enjoy pony rides, face painting a giant moon bounce and watch a new magician for this year, Richard Gustafson.

Hill Baptist Church completes first phase of renovations
by Kristin Pazulski

A worker repairs the bell tower of the Chestnut Hill Baptist Church. (Photo by Erin Vertreace)

Neighbors of the Chestnut Hill Baptist Church may have missed the hourly ringing of its bell for the past few weeks. The bell, an integral part of the church since its last structural renovation at the turn of the century, has been silent for about month while workers from the Nickles Contracting firm repaired the bell tower, the first phase in an estimated $1.5 million renovation project on the church’s nearly 175-year-old building.

The church building was erected in 1835, initially as a one-story, small meeting space for a group of 17 baptized members to gather. According to the church’s history, it was the first organized church in Chestnut Hill, arriving 10 years before the Methodists established the Hill’s second church.

Let the wild rumpus start!
‘Sendak on Sendak’ at the Rosenbach Museum
by Dea Adria Mallin

Bill Adair, a longtime Mt. Airy resident who is director of education at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Center City, has been interpreting the Rosenbach’s esteemed collections for the public for the past ten years. In a gallery talk last week, he explored a particular perspective on Maurice Sendak — that of the gay man.

Some on board express regret for election controversy
Committee formed to review election procedures
by Pete Mazzaccaro

At a community meeting on Monday, June 23, Chestnut Hill Community Association board member Dr. George Spaeth said the recent association election obviously “stinks” but wondered what the community was prepared to do about it. A story on that meeting, which was published last week on our Web site. (Photo by Jimmy J. Pack Jr.)

About a dozen Chestnut Hill residents attended last week’s Chestnut Hill Community Association Board of Directors meeting, seeking answers from board members about this year’s association election, which they believed had been tainted by vote tampering and the subsequent destruction of ballots before an independent review could be performed.

Many said they did not hear the answers they were looking for, but after Hill resident Kate Cassidy said she felt the board should say it made a terrible mistake and apologize, several board members obliged and expressed regret for the way the association handled questions about its elections.

Board member Pat Moran said that he was personally dismayed by what had happened. “[Some on the board] are deeply concerned,” he said. “You have my apology as a board member.”