Around Phoenixville

Councilman Senley's blog has an update on the Gay Street Bridge project . Highlights of the press release include: --- The Gay Street/Route 113 Bridge in Phoenixville Borough, Chester County, is scheduled to close Wednesday (April 2) for the construction of a new bridge over French Creek, several local streets, railroad tracks and the former Phoenix Steel site, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) said today. The new bridge is scheduled to open in early 2010. ... Construction crews will build the new bridge on the same alignment as the existing structure. The new bridge will have two 12-foot wide travel lanes; two six-foot wide shoulders; two six-foot wide sidewalks; and ornamental street lights. ... Motorists driving cars and other conventional passenger vehicles will follow Bridge Street, Route 29, Black Rock Road, Trappe Road (Route 113) and Black Rock Road (Route 113) to move from downtown Phoenixville to the north side of the borough. They will follow the

Received this today from Tom Lutz, a real estate agent with Prudential Fox and Roach. --- Tim Roach and I are presenting a workshop, “What Home Buyers & Sellers Need to Know in Today’s Market”, at the Phoenixville Public Library, tomorrow night, Thursday, March 27th from 7 PM to 9 PM . Reserve a spot by calling Mark Pinto, Adult Services Director, at 610-933-3013 , Ext. 32 or email him at mpinto@ccls.org ---

On April 1st, The Columbia Bar and Grille will join local eateries Molly Maguires, Iron Hill and Sly Fox Brewery and go smoke free throughout the restaurant.

Spiedie Bistro , which opened its doors during March's First Friday, is already looking to make a positive impact. For every cup of coffee or tea that they sell, Spiedie will donate ten cents to the Philadelphia affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure , benefiting women with breast cancer and medical research into the disease. Donations will be made every three months in what owner Brian Laing describes as a "continuous partnership." Spiedie Bistro is located at 100 N. Bank Street. Source: The Phoenix

They say time heals all wounds, and it appears this is the case with regards to the Phoenixville Fury bike race that was held last weekend and the anger it caused among local retailers. Due to a breakdown in communication between the Borough and said retailers, many were caught off guard by the race and felt they lost a tremendous amount of business as a result. However, at a meeting on Wednesday, these same retailers 'voted to endorse the race being staged again next year, with the caution that the borough and event organizers need to have better communication with the residents and merchants.' The feeling was that, with better planning and organization, the race could be a boon to local merchants, not only on the day of the race, but throughout the year as it would introduce them to visitors that otherwise would not have heard of them. For more, see the article in today's Phoenix .

As suspected, the dates given by the acting Borough Manager for the closing of Gay Street Bridge were a bit ambitious. Nevertheless, the project is rapidly approaching. Main Street will be closed starting Monday, March 24th, with work expected to take up to two weeks to complete. In addition to raising the trestles to allow emergency vehicles access to the North Side, a temporary traffic light will be place at the intersection of Main and High Streets. The Gay Street Bridge will not be closed until this work is complete. According to PennDOT spokesman Gene Blaum, this should happen early to mid-April. Source: The Phoenix

For those of you with little one(s), Calvary Bible Church is hosting their annual Community Easter Egg Hunt tomorrow (3/15) at 11am. From their press release --- Calvary Bible Church of Phoenixville, Pa. invites children ages 2-12 to join them for a free Community Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, March 15, at 11:00 a.m. There will be candy, prizes, refreshments, the Easter story, plus lots of fun! Rain date is March 22. Calvary Bible Church is located at the corner of Whitehorse and Valley Park Roads in Phoenixville, PA. For more information, please call 610-933-6225 or visit www.calvarybiblecares.org . Admittance is free. ---

Wanted to take a minute and thank you, the readers, of this blog. A little over a year ago I started tracking the # of people who visited the site and, in the first month of tracking, it received about 288 visits. This year, over that same period of time, we've had over 4300! My hope for the next year is to build on that momentum and make even more people aware of it. The conversations that have started in the various posts has been great and will become even better as more people contribute. Anyway, thanks again and please spread the word! Jim

Was reading through Councilman Senley's blog post about this month's borough council meeting , and saw this nugget in the 'Council Participation' section: --- "...direction to the CDC on inquiring on the possibilities of a minor league baseball team in Phoenixville" --- This is the first I am hearing of such a proposal and I am curious if anyone out there has any more information. I have read that West Chester is seriously considering building a minor league baseball stadium , is this just a matter of Phoenixville trying to keep up with the Joneses? Personally, I think its a pretty interesting idea. As a father of a young boy, it would be fun to have something so close to be able to take him to. But with the current state of borough finances, is it at all viable? Editors Note: Turns out if I had read the entire West Chester article I would have seen a line from West Chester mayor Dick Yoder in which he says the following: --- "I see this as the Cheste

Well, it appears we finally have some solid dates for both the closing of Main St. to raise the train trestles and the subsequent closing of the Gay Street Bridge. Please see Councilman Buckwalter's blog for more information .

Today's Phoenix announced that the borough council subcommittee in charge of hiring a new borough manager has retained the services of Keystone Municipal Services Inc., a 'professional executive recruitment firm' located in Mechanicsburg, PA. Keystone will be responsible for advertising the position and collecting resumes. Once resumes have been collected, Keystone, 'will do a first applicant screening prior to circulating the resumes "of perhaps three to five of the top applicants" to the committee for its consideration.' Keystone is currently assisting Kennett Square with a similar search and has also assisted searches in Jenkintown, Norristown and Easton. The borough will be paying Keystone $10k for their help. Source: The Phoenix

From the better late than never file, there is a pretty big bike race going on in and around Phoenixville as I am writing this. The Phoenixville Fury, a collegiate bike race hosted by Drexel, Penn, Temple and Villanova, started at 8:30am this morning and will be finishing up at around 4 this afternoon. The Fury is a new leg of the Philadelphia Phlyer bike race which is being held tomorrow. For more information, see the Phoenixville Fury/Philadelphia Flyer website . Thanks to reader Dawn for the tip!

This morning, the Vale Rio Diner was moved from its former location at 494 Nutt Rd. to its new (temporary?) locale at the corner of Starr St. and Nutt Rd. Reader Julie Duffy was able to take some pictures of the move with her cell phone. Julie has three more pictures up on Flickr if you're interested. Thanks to her for sending them along! Today's Phoenix has an article about the move .

On Sunday afternoon, a meeting was held at the Phoenixville Library to discuss plans for its expansion. The plan calls for an expansion across 2nd Street. --- The proposal puts priority on “protecting and enhancing the 1903 Carnegie library building,” especially in “retaining the reading room as a real reading room,” Carnevale said; on a larger children’s library, and space for young adult readers; on new dedicated space for public meetings, for materials collection increases and computer information access, and for staff services, though, Deveney said, the proposal as it stands “would require no increase in current staff.” Deveney granted, however, that a larger facility would entail larger utilities bills. “But the proposal also provides for renovation of some utilities, and additions of new, more efficient equipment,” he said. The concept plan proposes a three-floor addition to the Carnegie building, new construction that will also incorporate renovation of the library’s 1987 addi

The local chapter of Project Hot Seat is hosting a workshop at Earth Mart on Thursday, March 13 from 7-8:30pm. Reader Pete Johnson sent me this: --- Project Hot Seat is sponsoring a free workshop entitled "What do I say?-Answering the skeptics on Global Warming". Join us from 7 - 8:30 PM and walk away with a few ideas on how to influence your corner of the world. Will be held at Earthmart 235 Bridge St., Phoenixville, PA 19460. To register, contact Kelly at 610-203-9204 or kel3hagel@yahoo.com . ---