Tag: juniata civic association

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H. R. Edmunds School is Hot Topic at Northwood Civic

On Tuesday night, the Northwood Civic Association discussed at length the repercussions of the impending conversion of the H. R. Edmunds elementary school to a charter school.  Members were updated on the recent public meeting by Renee Hudson.  Concern focused on discipline, school growth and who would run the new school.

In others news at the meeting, Joe Krause reported on his recent meeting with Northwood Academy Charter School.  Take away from that meeting is that the school will not be adding a high school but will be Kindergarten to 8th grade.  The top floor of the new building will be a gymnasium and the ground floor will house a cafeteria.  They are considering trying to acquire the lot on the other side of the street (Adams and Orthodox) for parking.

Joe Krause also reported on the Juanita Civic meeting he attended where it was reported that construction on the Bridge school on the property at Adams Avenue will begin within the next few months.  It was also noted the the owners of the property now occupied by the concrete company on Castor Avenue have a potential tenant for a new building that would be erected at that location.  PHMC is considering it for the location of an adult day care facility. No decision has been made.

Association member Al Stuhl raised the issue of a membership drive to recruit new members and also a web site for public information.

Minutes of the last meeting were read by Gina Panchella and the Treasurer’s report was delivered by Renee Hudson.  The next meeting of the Northwood Civic will be held at St. James Lutheran Church on April 17th at 7PM.

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Post Election Notes

The primary election on May 17th was a low turnout event as was expected.  Councilwoman Maria  Quiñones-Sánchez defeated Danny Savage for the Democratic party nomination for the 7th District City Council seat.  Congratulations to them both for a hard fought contest.

I was curious about who was supporting which candidate.  Sanchez raised over twice as much money as Savage did, so I took at look at the contribution reports.  Both candidates got  a lot of money from other politicians, businesses, unions, lawyers, PACs and such.  There were also many small donors in the hundred dollar range.

There was only one surprise and I found it on the Sanchez contribution list.  The 8th largest contributor gave $5,200 on April 4th.  This contributor, COSAN LLC is the owner of the property where the Bridge has proposed to relocate on Adams Avenue.

 

A zoning variance is required before that can happen since the property is now zoned G2 heavy industrial.  At present the Northwood and Juniata Civics have both indicated that they would write a letter of support to the zoning board for the change (past coverage here).  Tony Payton, State Representative has also indicated support.  Councilwoman Sanchez at last hearing said she was undecided.

Jason Dawkins Says:
April 14th, 2011 at 12:04 pm edit

Bob, Councilwoman Sánchez did not express any decision on the Bridge. She stated before that she was going wait until all community members voted, before making any public decision.

There is nothing wrong with giving to the candidates.  Many of the donors gave to both candidates, I guess to cover all the bases.  Many of the donors gave to other candidates for other offices in the election.  The donors make their donations for various reasons.  See the Inquirer story from Sunday about the donations from the soft drink folks.

Thanks to a commenter, I have another surprise.  I did not know Terrence McSherry but he is the CEO of NET (Northeast Treatment Centers).  He donated $100 to the Savage campaign and $100 to Sanchez.  Thanks Kathleen. If anybody finds anything else, let me know.

Elections cost a lot of money.  Money has to be raised and there is nothing inappropriate in taking any donation you can get.  That is a fact of life.  It’s politics.

You can see what the donations for Sanchez and Savage look like below.  If nothing else, it’s interesting.  Thanks to the Committee of Seventy for help in finding the information.

Sanchez donations here.

Savage donations here.

 

 

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Frankford Civic Gives the Bridge a No

There was a good turnout for the meeting tonight with several new members signing up.

4271 Penn Street

First up was a presentation by Dawn Tancredi, Esquire representing Miosotis Jones.  Ms Jones is applying for zoning to change the use of 4271 Penn Street (Penn and Ruan Streets) from single family to four unit occupancy.  That would be made up of three one bedroom apartments and one studio apartment.  She is requesting a letter of support from the Civic.  The presentation was well done and the zoning officer will do some further investigation, the board will vote and a decision will be made within 7 days.  There was some community support for the change present at the meeting.

The operator of a family day care home in the 5100 block of Torresdale Avenue is looking for a letter of support for her change to a group home.  That means the capacity would go from six to twelve children.  Discussion of the issues followed and the zoning officer will make a followup visit.

The last piece of business at tonight’s meeting was a vote on whether to write a letter of support to the zoning board for the application by the Bridge to move on to the property on Adams Avenue.  The Board and eligible members voted 2 to 1 against the motion.  Letters of support have already been written by the Northwood Civic and Juniata Civic Associations.

Follow this link to NEastPhilly.com coverage of the meeting.

The next Frankford Civic meeting is scheduled for June 2nd.