Whether a school for troubled boys is a stable, controlled business to fill a trash-strewn vacant lot or a new draw for outside people recovering from addiction was the central focus of the Frankford Civic Association meeting Thursday night.

At next month’s meeting, to be held April 7, residents are encouraged to attend to ask questions and ultimately vote on supporting the Bridge along Adams Avenue, as first discussed at a public meeting last month.

“I’m torn,” said new President Brian Wisniewski. “The school has a lot of outpatient services…but the Bridge seems like a responsible facility.”

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Bridge Program Director Michael Ogden

Marquis planned on running away when he got to The Bridge school for boys, but he didn’t.

The fit 18-year-old was sent five months ago to the transition facility after being arrested for a petty theft charge, and he said upon arrival he was surprised to feel welcomed.

“There wasn’t fighting. It wasn’t a prison,” he said last night at the Northwood Civic Association meeting [See other photos of the meeting on our Facebook page here]. “The Bridge helped me change my life.”

Now he says he’s preparing for his official GED test and has already started some college preparatory school. He has gone from “only making oodles of noodles” to aspiring for a culinary arts education. Marquis was accompanied by Andrew, who was sporting a goatee and glasses and shared his own story of wanting to avoid the path of his parents, whom he said are drug addicts.

“I thought I was going to be a bum like my mom and my dad,” said Andrew, who has taken classes in plumbing and security camera installation. “Now tomorrow I’m taking the final GED test.”

Those are stories that Bridge Program Director Michael Ogden says he wishes would get out more. He’ll need stories like them if he and the rest of Bridge administration can coax a letter of support from the Northwood Civic Association toward their moving from their Fox Chase headquarters to new property along Adams Avenue.

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This post has been updated to include the letter that was sent hom to parents of St. Jerome students yesterday.

Three priests with connections to St. Jerome Parish in Winchester Park and one former teacher have been charged with various counts of rape, indecent exposure and sexual assault.

District Attorney Seth Williams has charged Fathers Edward Avery, 68, Charles Engelhardt, 64, and James Brennan, 47, and former teacher Bernard Shero, 48, with rape and indecent sexual assault. continue reading »

Disabled senior citizens were “snuck in on Christmas Eve” to a Northwood home bought in 2009 by Volunteers of America Delaware Valley, says that neighborhood’s civic association president.

“A year ago it was going to be a drug rehabilitation center and we fought it, now they’re putting the elderly in to get around the rules,” Northwood president Barry Howell told two dozen at Tuesday night’s meeting. “We’re not saying anything against the people they put in there, but we have a problem about them ignoring our deed restriction.”

The deed restriction, of course, is the decades-old Burk Deed Restriction that limits portions of Northwood real estate to remain single-family residences. It’s a zoning code add-on that has helped the neighborhood win nearly a dozen variance battles. Howell says the restriction will soon push the VOA operation at 4871 Roosevelt Blvd out, though it was partially city-funded and has government sanction as a necessary part of health services.

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Al Taubenberger, the  President of the Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce who ran unsuccessfully in 2007 as the Republican mayoral candidate, will run for an at-large City Council this year.

While walking near 16th and Arch streets, Taubenberger told NEast Philly his number one priority: continue reading »

A Frankford resident, who says she didn’t know her after-hours social club was breaking various city ordinances, took on a barrage of questions and criticisms from the Frankford Civic Association board, its members and others in attendance at Thursday night’s meeting.

In the fall, flyers were circulating Frankford promoting a private club with liquor, underage patrons and a cover charge on the third floor of 4651 Frankford Avenue, admits Roselyn González, who says she has since taken responsibility, authority and leadership of the haphazard club. But that has all changed, she says.

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This obituary will continue to be updated. Help us honor Frances by leaving comments of your memories of her, and contacting us here with further details.

Not a month after calling for a moment of silence honoring another board member’s passing, Frankford Civic Association President Frances Clay died Wednesday.

Clay was 57.

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State Senator Christine Tartaglione is “disappointed” with outgoing Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell’s veto of a bill that would extend the requirements of municipalities to provide health coverage for firefighters diagnosed with various cancers.

House bill 1231, dubbed the cancer presumption bill for firefighters, had some bipartisan support, but Rendell, who vetoed two other bills the same day, expressed concern about excessive costs to already burdened local governments. Nearly two dozen Pennsylvania mayors signed a letter urging Rendell to veto the measure, which was introduced by state Rep. Kevin Murphy and backed by Tartaglione, among others.

“I’m very disappointed with our outgoing governor,” she said of Rendell, while addressing just three residents and a handful of executive board members at the Frankford Civic Association meeting inside Aria Health Frankford. “This bill will come back next year.”

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Finalizing a city energy authority and better empowering the city to fight blight are the two top resolutions in 2011 for Councilman Darrell Clarke, he told residents at the Northwood Civic Association meeting Tuesday night.

To a crowd of roughly 12, perhaps limited by clouds and rain, Clarke spoke at length of those two focuses:

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Thelma Young at the September 2010 Frankford Civic Association meeting, of which she was a member for at least 15 years, according to the board's president. Click to enlarge.

Updated: Nov. 13 @ 11:14 a.m. with more family background.

Updated: Nov. 15 @ 10:22 a.m. with more personal details, courtesy of Northeast Times reporter John Loftus, who shared to limit the burden on the family.

NEast Philly will continue to update this profile of Thelma. We encourage anyone to contact us with additional information or share your memories of her in the comments below.

Thelma Young, 76, the feisty, passionate and funny, gray-haired, bespectacled and baseball-capped Frankford Civic Association board member, has died, a fellow board member has confirmed. Her age has not yet been confirmed, nor has the cause of death, though zoning board member Pete Specos referred to it as “sudden.”

“She was always active in the community, always looking to better the place she lived,” said Frances Clay, the President of the Frankford Civic Association. Young was a member of the both the civic association and the 15th Police District Advisory Council, or some form of it, for at least 15 years, Clay said. Young had spoken briefly during meetings about growing up in Frankford, though Clay couldn’t confirm details.

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