Reading Has Tossed 98 From Health Plan

In a move to save more than $1.3 million, the city so far this year has thrown 98 people off its self-funded health insurance policy, and plans to remove another 77 if arbitrators allow.

Carole B. Snyder, city managing director, said the total of 175 people includes 89 dependents of current city employees, nine nonpolice retirees, and 77 police retirees and/or their spouses, all of whom the city says are not eligible for city-paid insurance.

The Fraternal Order of Police has objected, and the city has agreed to wait on the police retiree purge until an arbitration panel rules. A hearing is slated for March.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=450169

Two Killed, Two Wounded In New Year’s Shootings In Reading

A 1947 topographic map of the Reading, Pennsylvania area. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two men were killed and another two were wounded in a series of overnight shootings in Reading, investigators said.

One man was shot to death and another grazed about 3:50 a.m., according to city police Sgt. John M. Solecki.

According to Solecki:

The pair and another man were driving around northeast Reading looking for a club where they were supposed to pick somebody up.  They stopped to ask directions from a man walking in the 900 block of Amity Street who fired several shots into the vehicle, fatally wounding the driver and grazing one of the passengers.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=440178

Foundation To Run Reading-Owned Pagoda

When Francis G. Acosta came to Reading from Puerto Rico, he went to the Pagoda, looked out over the city and proclaimed, “The sky’s the limit.”

Fifteen years later, as president of City Council, Acosta returned to the Pagoda on Thursday night and declared it a beacon of hope for a city in need of an uplift.

“Reading can use the Pagoda as inspiration for the great things we can achieve,” Acosta said.

His vision captured the spirit of “Sunset At The Pagoda,” an event that drew about 100 civic leaders to the distinctive landmark atop Mount Penn.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=412953