Daily Archives: April 6, 2015
Althouse Arboretum April News
Friends of the Arboretum, Hark!
Monday, April 13th 6:30 pm
Under the pavilion at the Arboretum
in case of bad weather, 2019 Mimosa Lane
Will post on the website and Facebook if we move it from the Arboretum.
If you want to know more about what’s going on at the Arboretum (lots!), if you’d like to participate in the Friends mission to share ideas, develop resources, and plan ways to enrich the Arboretum experience for all, if you want to see how you can become part of the action – come! All invited!
If you can’t attend the meeting, you can still email us your ideas! Your input is valuable!
Forest Easter Egg Hunt – A Success!
Over 150 people came out to search for eggs and visit with our very own Easter Bunny. The event was planned, organized and run by Pottsgrove High School’s Spark the Wave Club with healthy snacks donated by Kimberton Whole Foods Douglassville.
Heard someone leaving say, “See, this is what we used to do for Easter at Grandma’s.” – ah, family memories and good times in the making!
Here’s a wonderful article with delightful pictures by the Sanatoga Post where you can read all about it.
Pottstown Challenge
Another success! Over $5,000 was raised to meet the Pottstown Challenge. The Greater Pottstown Foundation will now match our $5,000 giving us the funds to provide special summer programs for at-risk and low income children at the Arboretum. The money will pay for transportation, program costs, and provide scholarships for local high school student interns who will run the programs.
Individuals and businesses who contributed will be featured on our soon to be available trail map. You’ll be able to pick one up at the Arboretum or download one from the website. We strongly encourage you to support our sponsors and thank the individuals who support the Arboretum and its programs. There’s still time for individual’s to get on on the map. Just click the Matching Grant Donation button at the website. Put the name you want on the rock in the box and add your $50 donation so we can let everyone know ‘you rock!’ Hurry! Only a little time left!
Just for Fun
April is “Garden and Poetry Month!” (No foolin’!)
Message us on Facebook or email us with your best original short garden or Arboretum Poem. Winners will be announced in May and the winning poem will win a gift card and be posted at the Arboretum!
Special Project: East Coventry Farm Exemplifies Sustainability Movement
East Coventry Township, PA – From the front, the white house at 253 Harley Road looks like any other home in the neighborhood. A short walk back reveals that appearances can be deceiving. For behind this particular house, there’s a chicken coop, greenhouses and a small farm where sustainable, organic growing is taking place.
Jubilee Hill Farm was started about three years ago by owners David and Wendy Ryle. The married couple grows produce on 1.5 acres of a 10-acre property left to Wendy by her grandparents. She said they plant food for humans but they want the land to also be a safe space for other living creatures.
“The idea was that this would be a wildlife refuge and it still is…it’s not a battle of the wildlife, it’s just sort of living in harmony with them,” she said.
Sustainability practices are those that keep in mind that the future survival of humans and other organisms are dependent on preserving the natural environment, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency .
Read more:
1Killed, 3 Injured In Hill District Shooting
One person died and three were wounded in two shootings Sunday evening in the Hill District, authorities said.
Police at the Zone 2 Station on Centre Avenue heard gunfire from an area near Dinwiddie and Wick streets about 5:20 p.m. and went to investigate, Public Safety spokeswoman Sonya Toler said.
Officers found two men wounded at the scene and another dead with a wound in the torso on nearby Kearney Way, a tiny alley between Dinwiddie and the parking lot of a Shop ‘n Save grocery store.
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the man who died as Christopher Richardson, 20, of West Oakland.
Read more: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/8113177-74/dinwiddie-wick-wounded#ixzz3WYC0WZar
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook
New Beginning: Allentown’s Warrington Avenue Poised For A Makeover
The crowd inside — and eventually outside — 816 E. Warrington Ave. one recent evening gathered to showcase a newly renovated Allentown property. The former Ken’s Variety had been vacant for more than 20 years.
As the evening deepened, “Open in Allentown,” a “pop-up” event with a garage-style glass door rolled up, became a stew of neighborhood leaders, investors, consultants, residents of Allentown and nearby neighborhoods mingling over cocktails and catered nibbles.
The event and mix of people signified what Hilltop Alliance executive director Aaron Sukenik called “Warrington Avenue in its reinvention phase.”
One mile from Downtown (Pittsburgh) and cradled by the hot markets of Mount Washington and the South Side Slopes, Allentown is riddled with residential blight, and 35 percent of its commercial properties are vacant. But the newly repaved Warrington Avenue is on the cusp of a transition from being seedy to being seen.
Read more:
Restoring Aging Lancaster County-Owned Bridges Tied To Natural Gas Impact Fee
On sparsely traveled back roads across Lancaster County, more than two dozen narrow, unassuming bridges built in a simpler era are showing their age.
Concrete is weathered and cracking. The decks are no longer safe for even moderate loads.
The Lancaster County commissioners are addressing the problem by turning to impact fee revenue from natural gas drillers. As of February, the county had $2.2 million available, said county engineer Scott Russell of Rettew Associates.
The commissioners are counting on continuing impact fee revenue to help fund the replacement or repair of nearly all 44 county-owned concrete or steel bridges over the next five years.
Read more:
Philadelphia Teen Shot In Nanticoke
A shooting in Nanticoke left an 18-year-old male injured Sunday afternoon, police said.
Mark Brown-Mathis of Philadelphia was found walking down an alleyway between Orchard and West Broad Streets by two residents around 1:30 p.m., police said.
Brown-Mathis allegedly told the residents not to call police prior to them reporting the incident to 911.
When police arrived on scene they discovered Brown-Mathis had a gunshot wound to his right upper arm, according to the Nanticoke police department.
Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/philadelphia-teen-shot-in-nanticoke-1.1858841
Violence Continues With Another Shooting In Wilkes-Barre
WILKES-BARRE, PA — City police said a man was found with a gunshot wound in the area of 247 S. Welles St. just before 1:30 a.m. Monday.
Police did not say where the man, whose name was not released, suffered the gunshot wound. The victim was transported to a local hospital for treatment, police said.
No further information was released.
The victim is the seventh person to be shot in the city within five days. Two of those shootings turned fatal.
Read more:
Food Truck And Wine Festival Cruising Back Go Pohatcong Township
Editor’s note: This is near Phillipsburg, NJ, right across the river from Easton, PA. Can’t go wrong with food trucks and wine ;).
Searching for food trucks?
You won’t have to go far. Alba Vineyard is hosting a Food Truck and Wine Festival later this month.
The Pohatcong Township vineyard hosted a food truck festival in November 2014, and will bring it back noon to 5 p.m. April 25-26.
Admission costs $10 for adults 21 and over, $5 for ages 13-20 and is free for children under 12. Parking is free; food prices will vary by the truck, according to a news release.
Read more:
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/food/index.ssf/2015/04/food_truck_and_wine_festival_c_1.html
Norristown Police Collaborate With Social Services For ‘Whole Government’ Initiative
Editor’s note: Alas, Pottstown leadership doesn’t seem to get this concept. Two thumbs up to Norristown leadership for being proactive and thinking outside of the box. We like what we are seeing.
NORRISTOWN, PA – Police are called with increasing frequency for complaints about a homeless man with mental health issues. A boy who lives in a household familiar to authorities for domestic issues has started skipping school and breaking curfew. An unemployed mother of three with no previous criminal record is arrested for drug possession.
These are examples of bad situations that many law enforcement officials agree often get worse.
But what if that was not necessarily the case? What if police and other public health and safety professionals collaborated on these cases using a comprehensive strategy that enabled them to mitigate risk factors and intervene to address small infractions before they snowball into larger ones, effectively reducing and preventing crime?
That is the goal of the Whole of Government concept, presented at the 2015 International Conference on Proven Collaborative Strategies for Improved Community Wellness and Safety recently held at the King of Prussia Radisson and conducted by the Penn State Justice and Safety Institute (PSJSI). The concept, which has a proven track record of success in Canada, is being implemented by a small number of forward-thinking law enforcement agencies in the U.S., including Norristown.
Read more:
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