Pottstown Mayor: ‘Interventions’ Planned For Nuisance Properties After Weekend Shooting

Editor’s note:  Thank you, Sharon!

POTTSTOWN, PA — Mayor Sharon Thomas said a potential plan is in place to deal with “nuisance” properties in the borough following the shooting and subsequent fights with police early Sunday morning outside the Montgomery Elks Lodge.

“I spoke with Chief (Richard) Drumheller today about some interventions,” said Thomas. “There are some plans but they need time in order to come into position, but this is not the time to implement them because there is an ongoing investigation.”

Pottstown Police responded early Sunday morning for a shooting outside the Montgomery Elks Lodge at 609 Walnut St. Arriving around 2:45 a.m., officers found a man, who multiple sources said was Brandon Germany, wounded on the ground, Pottstown police said. While attending to the victim, a crowd came out of the lodge and at least two people assaulted the officers, police said.

The officers were not identified and were taken to an “area hospital” for treatment.

Read more: http://www.pottsmerc.com/general-news/20140203/pottstown-mayor-interventions-planned-for-nuisance-properties-after-weekend-shooting?fb_action_ids=10201321407823274&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B715583075129807%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

Snowstorm Leads To Closures, Traffic Accidents Throughout Berks

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Berks County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That darn groundhog.

Within 24 hours of forecasting six more weeks of winter, large dense snowflakes began falling in Berks County early Monday, and the storm continued to drop about an inch an hour before tapering off to flurries about 2:30 p.m.

Blame Phil if you were stuck in traffic behind one of the numerous crashes that occurred through the day or lost power from outages, but remember he wasn’t the only messenger.

Forecasters at AccuWeather, near State college, predicted this storm would bring wet, heavy snow that would affect the morning commute, and did it ever. By 11 a.m., with temperatures hovering around 32 degrees, at least a half a foot of snow had fallen in Berks County.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/news/article/snowstorm-leads-to-closures-traffic-accidents-throughout-berks#.UvA5BvRDsxI

Pittsburgh International Struggling Despite The Region’s Robust Economy

FAA Airport Diagram of KPIT (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald describes Pittsburgh International Airport as an economic engine for Western Pennsylvania.

Yet while Fitzgerald points to improved employment, production and tourism as signs of the region’s economic vitality, growth at Pittsburgh International is stalled.

“I can’t explain it,” Fitzgerald said of the incongruity between the region’s surging economy and an airport that is scuffling in its core business of flying.

The airport was on pace through November to post its lowest annual passenger total since opening in 1992, according to the latest data. It recently learned that 600 airline jobs will vanish when the new American Airlines, created through a merger with US Airways, closes a flight operations center in Moon by next year. An unused section of one concourse in the $1 billion airport remains walled-off. The airport doesn’t have a CEO.

Read more: http://triblive.com/business/headlines/5501301-74/airport-pittsburgh-fitzgerald#ixzz2sHkI4LvV
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Elk County Well To Take Fracking Wastewater

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Elk County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Seneca Resources Corp. has received federal approval to operate a new drilling wastewater injection well in Elk County, and more of those deep injection wells for the disposal of Marcellus and Utica shale gas drilling wastewater are on tap for Pennsylvania.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that it had approved Seneca’s proposal to convert one of its existing vertical gas wells into an injection well that will pump up to 60,000 gallons a day of drilling wastewater and salty brine about 2,400 feet below the surface into the Elk 3 Sandstone formation.

That formation is about 1,700 feet below groundwater aquifers that supply residential water to residents of the area, said Karen Johnson, chief of the EPA Region III groundwater and enforcement branch.

The EPA has permitted 30,000 Class II injection wells for drilling brine and wastewater disposal nationally — about a third of those in Texas — but the Seneca disposal well is just the ninth such well approved in Pennsylvania.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/local/marcellusshale/2014/02/03/Elk-County-well-to-take-fracking-wastewater/stories/201402030061#ixzz2sHhbe2yX

Snow Monday, Ice Wednesday, Snow This Weekend In Lancaster County. Jamaica, Anybody?

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Get ready for a week that will bring us snow, sleet, ice and more snow.

After up to 8 inches of snow was predicted to fall Monday, Tuesday night and early Wednesday will bring more snow and then sleet and ice.

Then the weekend will bring another storm, during a winter that already has given us well over the usual amount of snow.

Jamaica, anybody?

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/snow-monday-ice-wednesday-snow-this-weekend-in-lancaster-county/article_228aec5e-8cdc-11e3-b434-0017a43b2370.html

Tamaqua Woman’s Body Found In Jim Thorpe

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Carbon County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The body of a Tamaqua woman was discovered Saturday morning by firefighters in Jim Thorpe working to extinguish a brush fire, a relative of the woman said Sunday night.

State police have called the case a “homicide investigation.”

According to Donald R. Serfass of Tamaqua, it was the body of his niece, Angela Serfass Steigerwalt, 35.

“She grew up in Tamaqua and went to Tamaqua high school. She worked at Kraft Foods down in the Lehigh Valley. She worked in inventory control. She was very clean cut. She supported animal rights causes, anything having to do with the welfare of animals,” Serfass said.

Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/tamaqua-woman-s-body-found-in-jim-thorpe-1.1627795

Hazleton Man Charged In Fatal Shooting Outside Bar

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

HAZLETON, PA — Police charged Terrence Clarke in a fatal shooting early Sunday morning witnessed by state troopers who later captured him after a foot chase.

The victim, Garey S. Cox, 45, of East Eighth Street, Hazleton, later died at Lehigh Valley Hospital Cedar Crest in Allentown.

Clarke, 26, of North Locust Street, Hazleton, wounded another man in the shooting the occurred around 2:10 a.m. outside Shaker’s Bar at 711 W. Diamond Ave., police said. The injured man was hospitalized, police said. His name and condition were not available.

Read more:  http://timesleader.com/news/local-news/1168061/Hazleton-man-charged-in-fatal-shooting-outside-bar

Poll: More In NJ Want Pot Than Online Gambling

Map of New Jersey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) – A new poll finds more New Jersey residents want to smoke pot than gamble over the Internet.

A Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll finds 41 percent of respondents would support smoking marijuana recreationally if it became legal. That compares with only 32 percent who support gambling over the Internet, which is legal in New Jersey now.

The poll finds support for online gambling has fallen, even as it enters its third full month and more than 150,000 online gambling accounts have been set up in the state.

“The public’s attitude was, for several years, warming up to online gambling,” said poll director Krista Jenkins. “But there has been a clear change in direction now that the practice has actually been legalized. Part of the public has always shown deep reluctance to make gambling so accessible in their own homes. Now that it is in fact legal, they may be more concerned than ever.”

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20140203_ap_ea57de2926384e6087d93750dc244999.html#uC9fqrd0erf0e8Y4.99

Bolaris: Snow Amounts Climbing A Bit

Snow has been falling at rates of 1-2 inches per hour, with some places, such as northern Chester County counting 7 inches as of 11 a.m., and Horsham and Worcester in Montgomery County and West Rockhill Township in Bucks County, counting 6 inches.

Some places in Lehigh Valley are reporting 6 inches, as well.

Closer to the City of Philadelphia, Brookhaven in Delaware County, near the airport, was reporting 3.5 inches as of 10:30 a.m.

Just across the river, as of 11:15 a.m., the rain-snow line has halted, and actually in Haddonfield has changed back to some rain and sleet as that line oscillates around 10 miles south and east of the city.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Bolaris_Snow_amounts_looking_like_4-8_inches.html#4O5Kac2dYdbyZwqk.99

POTTSTOWN POLICE: Two Officers Assaulted While Aiding Shooting Victim

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(Updated 2:45 p.m.) POTTSTOWN, PA — Two borough police officers were attacked and injured as they attempted to aid a shooting victim outside the Montgomery Elks Lodge on Walnut Street early Sunday morning, police said.

Both officers were taken to an area hospital and “treated for their injuries,” according to a release from the Pottstown Police.

Pottstown Police Captain Robert Thomas said the officers, who were not identified, will both be “OK” after the incident which began around 2:45 a.m.

The officers, who were nearby, responded to the Elks Club on the 600 block of Walnut Street for the report of a shooting, according to a Pottstown Police release.

Read more: http://www.pottsmerc.com/general-news/20140202/pottstown-police-two-officers-assaulted-while-aiding-shooting-victim