Reading Thrift Shop Gets Huge Donation From Fleetwood Rotary Club

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An extremely rare donation graced the loading dock this week of a nonprofit shop dedicated to providing clothes to Reading’s homeless and impoverished.

An entire van filled with men’s clothing backed up to the rear door of the City Thrift Shop, 314 Penn St., and was unloaded by Jim Long of Rockland Township and shop volunteer Jan Buskirk of Wyomissing.

Donations of men’s clothing are the hardest to come by, said Christine Leonhardt, who began managing the shop about eight years ago.

A few bags at once is rare, let alone an entire cargo van.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=486631

Lawyers Slam Demolition Work At Center City Philadelphia Collapse Site

PHILADELPHIA – Attorneys for four people suing over the collapse of a downtown building that killed six people last week lambasted the demolition work after surveying the site Sunday.

Lawyers and consultants walked gingerly on piles of debris, indicating to photographers and videographers what they wanted documented. Meanwhile, other consultants on a hoist far above scanned the site where a four-story building under demolition gave way and toppled onto an attached Salvation Army thrift store Wednesday, killing two employees and four customers and injuring 13 others.

Afterward, attorney Robert Mongeluzzi, who said his firm represents three plaintiffs in lawsuits against the property owner and contractor, said his initial examination indicated that the building that collapsed had brick-bearing walls and wooden girders without steel support and should have been demolished by hand rather than using heavy equipment. In addition, he said, the backhoe appeared to not be high enough to pull the wall down on the side away from the thrift store.

“Of course, a demolition from the top down by hand would have been much more time-consuming and expensive but was really the only way to get this done safely,” he said.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20130609_ap_lawyersslamdemolitionworkatpacollapsesite.html#ibzXi0JbVdKrHgE2.99

Where’s The Collapsed Building’s Owner?

I STOPPED by the super swank Symphony House residences yesterday to have a chat with Richard Basciano about his killer building.

“Is he expecting you?” the cranky concierge asked.

Well, I didn’t know if the owner of the crumbling building that flattened a neighboring Salvation Army thrift store was expecting me.  But he should’ve been expecting someone – like officials from the city seeking answers about his choice of a discount demolition crew, for starters.

Basciano’s company paid some insta-demolition crew $10,000 for a job demo experts said should have cost closer to $250,000.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20130609_Stop_hiding__Richard_Basciano.html#eIFpQjReFm5KIPiW.99

Building Collapses In Philadelphia; 2 People Trapped

English: Map of Philadelphia County highlighting Center City (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

PHILADELPHIA — A four-story building being demolished collapsed today on the edge of downtown Philadelphia, injuring 12 people and trapping two others, the fire commissioner said.

Rescue crews were trying to extricate the two people who were trapped, city Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said. The dozen people who were injured were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, he said.

The collapse involved a building that once housed a first-floor sandwich shop and apartments above.  It collapsed, sending debris onto a Salvation Army corner thrift store next door.  The two are adjacent to an adult bookstore and theater that had been taken down earlier.

Rescuers were using buckets and their bare hands to move bricks and rubble to search for survivors.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=482938