The 15th District PSA1 meeting was held at Aria Health on Tuesday night August 10th.  I had some idea that there would be a good crowd but I’ve not often seen 50 people squeeze into that conference room, especially on a sweltering hot summer night in August.

Officer Andrews got the meeting rolling with a summary of old business.  Tim Wisniewski, executive director of the Frankford Special Services District, announced that the Safety Ambassadors would begin using the now vacant police trailer at the corner of Foulkrod and Frankford Avenue as an manned office.  The trailer has been a sore point in the community since everyone knows that it is useless as it is now unused.  It has been mocked by the drug dealers and prostitutes who go so far as to do their business in its shadow.  The safety ambassador’s presence will make that a bit more difficult.

So what brought all these people out to the meeting?  Several groups have issues on their blocks and all happened to come out on the same night.  The smart thing was that small groups of people got together and organized and decided to show up and ask for help.  They came from all parts of Frankford.

Officer Andrews recorded each issue and the sergeants made comments about them when something was known.  Followup will take place next month.

Sometimes there are no quick and easy solutions to these problems but if you don’t report it you can guarantee that it will just go on getting worse.  Let’s see if we can get more people out to the next PSA meeting.

I was on vacation last week so I have two weeks worth of Frankford Links:

• 1211 Herbert Street gets listed for $195,000 [trulia]
• Holiday Thriftway gets 1 out of 5 stars [yelp]
• Violent crime down in the 15th district [NE Times]
• Housemate charged with murdering mother,son on Leiper St [nbc3]
• Fencing has been proposed to protect Overington Park’s trees [NE Times]
• Cop charged with theft from Pat’s Cafe [NE Times]
• Leandro Street Pizza House at Meadow St gets 3 out of 5 starts review [yelp]
• Kenny’s Soul Food gets a 5/5 star review, didn’t this place close down? [yelp]
• Frankford Civic approves request for DiCicco car sales to start washing em too [NE Times]
• 1204 Haworth St gets listed for $195,000 [trulia]
• Leandro’s Pizza at Sellers St gets a 5/5 review [yelp]
• Friends Hospital gets restored to Magellan Health Services network after it was able allay concerns of staffing levels [NE Times]
• Safe Routes Philly stopped by at John Marshall School to promote bicycling as a healthy, low-cost, and environmentally-friendly form of transportation and recreation

photo credit: serlingrod on flickr

Coming up tomorrow night at Aria Health, 2nd floor conference room at 7:00 PM.

John Loftus reports on last week’s meeting:

Drug dealers are operating at Foulkrod and Griscom streets as well as at Frankford Avenue and Foulkrod Street and Foulkrod and Salem streets, said Jorge Santana, state Rep. Tony Payton Jr.’s chief of staff.

Santana, speaking at last Thursday’s meeting of the Northeast EPIC Stakeholders, said he hopes Frankford residents will attend an upcoming 15th District’s Police Service Area 1 meeting to ask police to sweep away the narcotics trafficking.

The session is slated for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the second-floor conference room of Aria Health’s Frankford campus, 4900 Frankford Ave.

Read his entire story here.

Phil Pappas, left, and Mike Mawson, of West Frankford Town Watch, outside the Thriftway at Frankford Avenue and Pratt Street around 2 a.m. Sat. July 10.

NEast Philly demonstrates again what a real hyper local news outfit should be about as it rides along with the the West Frankford Town Watch.  Friend of Frankford Chris Wink was out with Phil Pappas and Mike Mawson as they patrolled the surrounds of Frankford on July 10th.  The profile shows their dedication while noting how other neighborhood town watches have their memberships eb and flow over the years.  Great work guys.

To contact the West Frankford Town Watch: