Twelve-year-old Daniel Tobin was presented with the Chairman’s Award for Youth Involvement at Pennsylvania Downtown Center’s (PDC) annual Townie Awards gala, yesterday evening, June 15. Tobin was selected for the prestigious award based on Frankford Main Street’s endorsement of his efforts, which illustrated his unwavering efforts to help better the Frankford Main Street community.

The Townie Awards are a festive and venerable element of PDC’s annual conference, and are designed to recognize the commonwealth’s core communities for creation and implementation of programming and events that exemplify the goals of PDC’s community revitalization mission. Pennsylvania Downtown Center’s nearly 300 member organizations are eligible for the Townies, making the awards an annually anticipated event.

“It is rare to see someone Daniel’s age who possesses such ardent dedication to his community and exhibits an interest in helping his fellow residents,” said Bill Fontana, PDC’s executive director. “PDC views Daniel’s laudable efforts as a benchmark for his fellow Frankford residents and we look forward to seeing where his dedication to the Frankford community will take him.”

PDC’s statewide conference is held in a different commonwealth community each year in order to highlight the respective city or town’s accomplishments in downtown and neighborhood revitalization. The 2010 conference, held in downtown Lancaster, was attended by more than 400 individuals, including borough and municipal officials, experts in community planning and landscape architecture, and dozens of Main Street and Elm Street managers. Highlights of the conference included nationally-recognized speakers, more than two dozen educational sessions, walking tours in the downtown and mobile workshops to Mount Joy, Manheim, Elizabethtown, Lititz and Ephrata.

For information about Frankford Main Street or Daniel Tobin, contact Main Street coordinator, Theresa Hanas at (215) 743-6580 or mainstreetcoordinator@yahoo.com. For information pertaining to Pennsylvania Downtown Center, contact Norah Griffiths Johnson at (717) 233-4675 or norahgriffiths@padowntown.org.

Well yesterday we saw folks trying to fix the blight problem.  Today there is news on the gun issue.  Legislators at work:

HARRISBURG — A Democratic state legislator from southeastern Pennsylvania is trying to close the “Florida gun loophole.”

Rep. Bryan Lentz of Delaware County, who is running for a Congressional seat in suburban Philadelphia, wants to make it harder for Pennsylvanians who have been denied a license to carry’ firearms in this state to simply get one from another state, in particular, Florida.

Currently, state law generally requires a person to be licensed by the state of Pennsylvania in order to carry a concealed weapon.

But there is this exception allowing firearms for “any person who possesses a valid and lawfully issued license or permit to carry a firearm, which has been issued under the laws of another state, regardless of whether a reciprocity agreement exists between the Commonwealth (of Pennsylania) and the state.”

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10165/1065547-100.stm?utm_source=PA2010.com+First+Read+Opt-In+List&utm_campaign=ad662cd615-The+First+Read+6%2F15&utm_medium=email#ixzz0qw5PqAnC

There is a bill in the Pennsylvania Senate that would make it easier to penalize property owners for their neglect of their properties.  It would allow local municipalities to attach other of the owner’s property to pay for clean up or demolitions or whatever needs fixing.  Right now only the property with the problem can be attached.  That would put some of the slumlords in the city in a tight spot.

As a sweeping blight-fighting bill moves slowly through the state Legislature, it has come under increasing fire from landlords and mortgage lenders.

Senate Bill 900 cleared the state Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this week, but some proponents worry the bill may be watered down.

“If there is no asset attachment and no permit denials in the bill, you might as well not even pass it. There’s nothing there,” Jeri Stumpf, a member of the statewide Blight Task Force who authored parts of the bill, said this week. “The asset attachment is critical. It affects everybody’s lives and everybody’s pocketbooks.”

Supporters of the measure argue blight has become an increasing problem across the state, with dilapidated buildings posing dangers to the community and driving down property values for neighbors.

Read the entire story here in the Pottsville republicanherald.com

We have been advised by Rev. McDuffie that the Hosanna Christian Life Center has moved from 2059 Orthodox Street to 4442 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19124.  Click here to see their current outreach flier.

Reverend McDuffie 267-269-6374

Mission Statement

To Restore, Rebuild and Replenish Hope in the Individual, the Family, the Community, and the Church by providing Advocacy, Support and Educational Services.

3^rd John 2 –Dear friend, I wish above all things that you prosper and be in good health, even as your soul prospers.

For I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these, you’ve done unto me.’ Mathew 25:35-36 & 40.

This Thursday from 12:00-12:30 on CBS 3 Talk Philly one of our very own businesses from Frankford will be featured.  This segment is about the UnLitter Us program we launched a few weeks ago in Frankford and it’s impact in the Frankford community.