Normandy residents growing
impatient over promised streets

By Lauren Fritsky
Times Staff Writer

Kevin Koch promised the Normandy Civic Association more than a year ago that the Department of Streets would correct a shoddy paving job on Normandy Drive and Nestor and Norcom roads.
The Times documented Koch’s vow in a Feb. 16, 2006, issue. Koch, the department’s chief highway engineer, said repair work would get under way in May of that year.
A year later, the roads remain unfixed.
Councilman Brian O’Neill (R-10th dist.) announced at the civic group’s May 9 meeting that he had sent a letter to Koch requesting his presence before the group that night.
Koch didn’t show, but O’Neill gave him the benefit of the doubt since he had only delivered the message a few days prior. To be safe, O’Neill included the date of the civic’ group’s June meeting in hopes that Koch would attend.
"It’s come up at every other meeting I’ve been to in the last year or so," O’Neill said.
Koch did not return calls from the Times seeking comment on the issue.
The two-part process of street paving involves the removal, or milling, of old asphalt by a private company followed by the laying of new asphalt by the streets department.
In other news from the May 9 meeting:
• The civic group reported that at its April meeting residents voted overwhelmingly to support the installation of a police and emergency training facility at the Philadelphia Memorial Armed Forces Reserve Center on Woodhaven Road.
The center is slated to close under the federal government’s Base Realignment and Closure program. The other bid for the property involved converting the facility to a new special admissions high school. A workshop regarding the reuse of the reserve center will take place Monday at 7 p.m. at the Norcom Community Center.
• O’Neill asked the civic group to support his bill limiting the construction of overflow storage tanks within 1,500 feet of a residential area or institutional development district.
Residents in East Torresdale are currently opposing a plan by the Philadelphia Water Department to put a multimillion-gallon sewage-storage facility underneath city parkland along Poquessing Creek behind Holy Family University.
• John Marcellini, a principal in DiMarq Inc., said that he still plans to convert the old Flat Spin restaurant at 2850 Red Lion Road to an upscale Italian eatery.
The project, on ground owned by Northeast Philadelphia Airport, stalled about a year ago after problems arose surrounding the company’s lease with former Flat Spin owner Fred Hagen. The site’s future may be determined through a bidding process, according to information supplied by airport officials in previous Times articles.
• The civic group plans to host a block party at Normandy Park on Saturday, July 21, at 1 p.m. The event will include activities for children and adults and refreshments. The money raised will go toward cleaning the park.
The civic group will also hold a fund-raising gala on Friday, Oct. 26, at Cannstatter’s, at 9130 Academy Road.
• The civic group completed the island on Nestor Road but needs people to water the plants there. The group may ask residents living along the street to take turns tending to the vegetation.
• The group approved a zoning application involving a
one-story addition to a home on the 2800 block of Nestling Road. ••
The Normandy Civic Association’s next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, June 14, at 7 p.m., at the Norcom Community Center, 10980 Norcom Road.
Reporter Lauren Fritsky can be reached at 215-354-3038 or lfritsky@phillynews.com