Category: Features

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Overington House Kids Gifted by Payless Shoes

Payless GivesTM Shoes 4 Kids announced one of its selected charity partners is Overington House, Inc., located at Overington and Griscom Streets.  The program implemented in all 50 states, Canada, Puerto Rico and 11 Latin American countries gave $1.5 million pairs of free shoes to children of families in need during the past holiday season.

A group of children served by Overington House participated in a shoe-shopping trip to the Payless ShoeSource store on Aramingo Avenue.  Over 30 children in two separate trips enjoyed shopping and selecting their own pair of free new shoes.  It was a fun time for the kids and moms.

Overington House, Inc. is a non-profit organization that is a community-based transitional housing program.

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Frank Bennett to Run for Judge

Frank Bennett for judge

Frank Bennett

Frank Bennett, Vice President of the Northwood Civic Association and President of the Northwood Frankford Y will officially announce his candidacy for judge in the 1st Judicial District at a petition signing party on Friday February 15th.  You can contact Heather@BennettForJudge.US for more information.

Frank has contributed to the community in countless ways since he returned to Frankford and we wish him well in the coming election.

 

 

 

 

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Dedication of New Wing Finally Brings Northwood Students Together

Northwood ribbon cutting web

Valerie Jefferson, Northwood Academy’s Board President, and son Steven Jefferson, cut the ceremonial ribbon for the new wing (center). They are joined on stage by Northwood students, Northwood CEO Amy Hollister (raised arm) and to the right, Marc Collazzo, Chief of Staff for PA State Rep. John Taylor, and Northwood principals Cindy Carey and Patricia Mychack.

On Tuesday morning, February 5, 2013, Northwood Academy Charter School unveiled their new gymnasium, cafeteria and primary education wing for grades K-3 with a commemorative dedication ceremony. The dedication began with a procession of all 788 Northwood students, faculty and staff members around the back of the school building and up through the front doors of the new wing.

Following the procession and ribbon-cutting ceremony, the K-3 students saw their new classrooms for the first time. The dedication represented a “Coming Home” for all members of the Northwood Academy community.

The school was founded at its Castor Avenue location in 2005, but due to a shortage of space it has been six years since all of its students attended school on this single campus.  The addition has been in the works for four years.

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Philly311 Mobile App Works

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Before

Manny Citron from PhillyRising never misses an opportunity to tout the mobile app for Philly311 whenever he is at a meeting in Frankford.  So I was almost happy when the opportunity presented itself a couple of weeks ago to test it out.  I noticed that a contractor, working on a house on our street, had left a pile of debris at the curb for pickup.  I’m not sure what made him think the city was going to pick it up but that is another story

Thursday, after the streets department had correctly ignored it, I went over and used the iphone to report it on the newly installed Philly311 app.  You can report it with a picture and it will even suggest your current location for you.  It was a few houses off the address so I entered it manually.

I made the report on January 30th.  I got a notice that afternoon that the request had been forwarded to the Streets Department.  The next morning came a notice that the request had been dispatched to a work crew.  I noticed that the mess had been cleaned up on the afternoon of February 1st.   It may have done late on the 31st.

I don’t know if it works this well with every request but it sure worked for this one.  The request still has not been closed out on the Philly311 system but I know from past experience that they seem to lag behind on that end.

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After

Also, we don’t know if any action was taken to collect from the property owner for the cost of that work crew.  Contractors who work in the city should know that they have to remove construction debris.  It will not be picked up by the Streets department.

Thanks to Matt Ainslee for the tip a few months ago.  He has been using the system through another app called Public Stuff. The PublicStuff app hooks you up directly with Philly311 so there is no difference there but their web page is better then Philly311 for lookup after you have submitted the request.

You can get both apps at the App store for your mobile device.  Its available for Android, Blackberry or iPhone.

Bottom line: this is a win for residents who want to use 311 on the go.

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Coming Up at the Frankford Civic Association Meeting

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1829 Fillmore St.

On Thursday, February 7th, the Frankford Civic will take up the issue of a variance for a day care center at 1829 Fillmore St.  There will be one other zoning issue.

Pete Specos, President of the Frankford Civic, testified at last Wednesday’s House Democratic Policy Committee hearing in Mayfair on the issue of methadone clinics and their regulation.  Some of those present that meeting will attend the upcoming civic meeting to talk about the issue and its impact on Frankford.

The Frankford Civic Association meets at 7PM in the 2nd floor conference room at Aria Hospital.