Nonprofits Give More Money, Manpower To Reading

Editor’s note:  Sometimes you just have to ask!

From a $10,000 gift to Reading police to clearing a trash-clogged storm drain, the city’s three-month effort to get more local nonprofit groups to voluntarily pay either cash or services in lieu of taxes is paying off.

The city has received $27,000 in new payments it didn’t get last year from more than a dozen churches and several other groups.

It’s also gotten more than 9,000 new volunteer work hours in more than 30 new service projects including more than two dozen cleanups – worth $65,000 at minimum wage – from local groups.

“We have received an overwhelming response,” Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer said.

Read more:http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=409729

Constables Fight To Keep Share Of Parking Ticket Fines

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

Berks County state constables make hundreds of thousands of dollars each year serving warrants for unpaid citations issued by the Reading Parking Authority.

Last year, the authority helped draft a state bill that would allow it to handle its own delinquent parking tickets and collect an estimated $500,000 lost to what city officials call inefficiencies in the city’s constable and district court system. The measure, House Bill 1803, cleared the state House in June and was referred to the Senate.

Last month, fearing for their livelihoods, the constables launched a lobbying effort to kill the bill.

Led by Thomas Impink, elected state constable for Wernersville and president of the Pennsylvania State Constables Association, the constables pressured state Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, a Delaware County Republican, to send the bill to committee, stalling its progress.

Read more:http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=408108

Reading Crime Summit Ideas

Attacking crime in Reading will take more than law enforcement and government officials sitting down for a meeting, community leaders said Tuesday in response to a call by U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. for a crime summit in August.

State Rep. Thomas R. Caltagirone, a Reading Democrat, said more police officers would help, but money is not likely to be readily available from the state or federal governments because of their budget situations.

So the key to success will be getting parents to take responsibility for their children and schools to provide more athletic and educational activities for youths, he said.

Representatives from faith-based organizations, fraternal and social groups and businesses must be at the table, Caltagirone said.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=405208

Reading Phillies Want To Extend Stadium Lease

The Reading Phillies want to extend their lease of the city-owned FirstEnergy Stadium by 16 years to allow the refinancing of a loan that paid in part for the stadium’s recent $10 million makeover.

But City Council first wants to ask R-Phils‘ managing partner Craig Stein if the team is willing to pay more than its current lease that brings the city only $22,000 a year.

The current lease and the loan payments expire in 2021.

Michael Vind, the city’s financial consultant from S&Lutions, told council last week that Fulton Bank had been unwilling to extend the loan beyond the lease, but had to keep the annual payments to what the R-Phils could afford: $278,000 a year.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=390681

Downtown Farmers Market Opens Season In Reading

AnnaMae Adams pushed a blue, folding shopping cart up to the produce stand as Friday’s winds ruffled her short gray-and-white hair.

She looked over the potatoes, strawberries and tomatoes with a big smile on her face. Friday was the opening day for Penn Street Market, an outdoor farmers market in downtown Reading, and Adams was just getting started.

On each Friday that the market is open, said Adams, 82, she will be hitting every stand she can.

“Are there any rhubarbs?” she asked the stand’s vendor, Ray Zimmerman.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=390395

Reading Mayor Tags Along With Quality-Of-Life Inspectors

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

Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer tailed Reading’s quality-of-life inspectors Thursday along West Douglass Street to learn how they determine whether properties are violating city regulations on such items as high grass or trash buildup.

City inspectors issued 46 citations for conditions including improper trash receptacles, weeds, litter and other violations during the sweep through the neighborhoods around the 100 block of West Douglass.

“And that was just the two to three hours that they were out there this morning,” said Marisol Torres, assistant to the mayor.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=378189

Jobless Rates Fall In Reading, Berks

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

February unemployment rates fell in both Reading and Berks County. Reading’s rate fell 0.8 percentage points from a revised 11.7 percent in January, and Berks County’s rate fell 0.3 percentage points from a revised 7.8 percent in January, according to statistics provided today by the state Department of Labor and Industry.

The seasonally adjusted county rate decreased 0.7 percentage points from February 2011.

In the city, the unemployment rate was down from 12 percent a year earlier, or 1.1 percentage points. That rate is not seasonally adjusted.

The decreases to jobless rates are significant for both the county and the city, said Steven Zellers, department industry and business analyst

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=377464

New Reading Mayor Calls Coordination Key To Jobs Plan

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Piggy-backing on a positive national report on job creation, Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer on Friday recounted what his administration is doing to create jobs in the city.

Primary among them will be to complete a plan on how the city and the Reading Redevelopment Authority can cooperate on economic development, he said.

The city already has a wider economic development plan, urging it to focus on one site at a time and find a new tenant for it.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=362749

Before Fire, 15 Lived In Reading Home With No Water, Toilets

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The city has placarded as unfit for human habitation a fire-damaged row home in the 800 block of Greenwich Street.

The placarding is for damage from the Monday morning fire, but city codes manager Ron Natale said Thursday the home must remain vacated until numerous issues are resolved.

The home, filled with trash and mattresses, was an illegal rental, with no working toilets, no water service and no kitchen facilities, Natale and other city officials said.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=362692

CNA Insurance To Move Operations Out Of Reading

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CNA Insurance said Thursday that the company plans to move its operations from its building at 401 Penn St. to another location in Berks County.

Mayor Tom McMahon confirmed that the insurance company officials told him they want to move to smaller quarters because only 25 percent of the building is in use, so it has become difficult for the company to support it financially…

Read the rest of the article here: http://readingeagle.com/Article.aspx?id=339019

2010 Crime Stats Released For Berks County And Reading

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The 2010 crime statistics for Berks County and the City of Reading have been released.  The stats show a drop in violent crime but a rise in property crimes (probably due in part to the recession).  The city and county also showed a decrease in the overall number of crimes reported.

The report is a mixed bag of news as violent crime is on the rise in Berks county but decreasing in the City of Reading.  To read the article from the Reading Eagle, click here: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=336977

Reading Headed Toward Financial Crash And Burn

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Our neighbor to the west received some very bad news Monday night at a City Council meeting.  The projected $9 million dollar budget deficit will now be more to the tune of $17.2 million.  The city will run out of money by November!   

Reading also needs to add $900,000 to next year’s budget to begin paying off a loan.  (Pottstown residents will relate to this.)  The city borrowed $11.5 million from the sewer fund to pay bills.  In Reading’s case, they are not allowed to do this after a 2004 ruling by a federal judge and the U.S. Department of Justice.  Now Reading is scrambling to pay the money back before fines are levied.   

Reading is suffering from the economy and bad financial practices which hamper City Council’s ability to make good decisions.  Hopefully the help they receive under Act 47 will allow Reading pull themselves out of their current financial abyss.