August 31, 2006 Issue                                       

©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Local News

Police nab burglar found by Wyndmoor homeowner
by JENNIFER KATZ

Officers at the corner of Gravers Lane and Prospect Avenue during a manhunt for two would-be Wyndmoor burglars. (Photo by Scott Alloway)

Police nabbed a burglar in Chestnut Hill after a multi-unit chase from Springfield Township just after noon on August 24. A second suspect was able to escape capture.

Springfield Township police arrested David Williams, 23, for burglary in the 400 block of East Gravers Lane in Chestnut Hill. According to Police Chief Randall Hummel, they caught Williams, of Olney, hiding behind a house after fleeing the scene of the burglary in Wyndmoor.

Commerce, community reach compromise
The bank will conform to special zoning district controls for Germantown Avenue.
by KRISTIN PAZULSKI

The Chestnut Hill Community Association and Commerce Bank seem to have come to an agreement on the design of the branch at 8600 Germantown Ave., ending the 10-month-long battle between the two parties leading up to a Zoning Board of Adjustment hearing on Tuesday morning.

The Philadelphia Reader illuminates the elite well, misses big picture
by PETE MAZZACCARO

In the forward to The Philadelphia Reader (Temple University Press, $18.95 paperback), a collection of 29 profiles culled from the pages of Philadelphia magazine, writer Buzz Bissinger tries to sum up his hometown in a few words. An exercise he is quick to admit is futile.

“Trying to capture the essence of Philadelphia in fewer than 1,500 words is both an honor and a plague,” he writes, concluding at the end of his 1,500 or so words that the city he has spent many years in, as a resident and as a Pulitzer-winning reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, cannot be captured easily. It is a city that offers much more than the blue-collar, joyless stereotype that is so often applied to it by outsiders, but even more often by its residents.

Can shared cars relieve parking woes in Mt. Airy?
PhillyCarShare sells auto alternative to residents.
by KRISTIN PAZULSKI

City residents who use cars only for a few annual road trips, visits to the supermarket and or daily runs to day care, are finding PhillyCarShare a less expensive alternative to car ownership.

Floor collapse sends two workers to hospital
by JENNIFER KATZ

Workers were injured while doing demolition work to the last of two structures at the intersection of East Phil Ellena and Musgrave streets. A church on the corner was previously demolished. (Photo by Jennifer Katz)

Two teenage workers were injured during the demolition of a building in East Mount Airy on August 23. Daniel Williams, 18, and Calvin Teachey, 19, both of North Philadelphia, were reportedly trapped under bricks and rubble after falling through the floor on the first level of the house 15 feet into the basement. The medic unit of the fire department transported the two men to Albert Einstein Medical Center in Olney. Teachey was treated and released the same day, according to hospital spokesman Steve Gary. Williams was also treated and released that day, said Gary.