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Frankford doesn’t need
this kind of help
City Council is in the process of re-establishing a Frankford Special Services District along Frankford Avenue that generally includes the 13 blocks from the 4000 block to the 5300 block.
This special district has not been a success in the previous five years, so I am asking, why again?
Should small businesses have to pay an additional 10 percent of real estate taxes over and above the recent city increase of 35 percent to their real estate taxes to get cleaner streets?
The business community has shown its dislike for the special district by signing objection forms, which were sent to City Council. The deadline for sending those forms is Monday.
The total number of business property owners, private and vacant properties in the Frankford corridor amounts to 200.
This large amount of concerned Frankford community business members should certainly stop City Council members from supporting a Special Services District.
For businesses to remain and serve the Frankford community, a different kind of help is needed — not more taxes, which increase operating overhead.
David Goldshlack
Victor Stores
5205 Frankford Ave.
In Philly, the victim
pays the penalty
It’s a question I have been asking myself a lot lately, and I think I finally have an answer. It took a truck being broken into and my entire purse being stolen to get it.
On Nov. 10 at 1:15 am, I walked out to the truck to leave a party in the lovely North Philly, only to find the window smashed, my clothes all over the ground and my Coach purse missing. In this purse was my license, health insurance cards, debit cards, ATM cards, checkbooks, house keys, school keys, school ID and so on.
As you can tell, the emotion that ran through me at this moment was not pleasant. When the 23rd district police arrived along with the Temple police, I was informed that it would be pointless to file an incident report since they would never be able to find the thief. After some crying, screaming, and yelling, I did not file the report. I went home and handled some things in the morning with my bank, only to find out the person was trying to use my debit card at McDonald’s on North Broad Street.
After waiting to get the window fixed and talking to my neighbor, a retired police officer, I was finally convinced to file the incident report over the phone. When I called the 23rd district the officer was appalled when I had told her that one of her fellow officers told me how useless it was to file a report, identity theft?
When the report was taken I felt relieved that things were somewhat being taken care of, at least until I got back to school. Once arriving on campus I was told that I had to pay for a new ID ($25) and room keys. A police report number meant nothing to them; I needed the actual report papers in my hand. God forbid they picked up the phone and called the district and verified the number, but that’s another story.
So I called the district once again to ask them to fax me a copy of the incident report and what was I told? That they do not fax copies or hand them out, I would need to appear at the 23rd district with a $25 money order to fill out an application to send away for my incident report. Don’t I have a right to my own incident report? If only the officer on the scene would have just taken the incident report instead of telling me how useless it would be, this wouldn’t be a problem because I would have a copy.
What if I had credit cards and needed to send them a copy? So in conclusion, the fine 23rd Police District wanted me to pay them $25 to remove a fee I was being charged at school of $25. Ironic, isn’t it?
What is wrong with this city is that the victim continues to pay and be punished for someone else’s criminal acts. When do the taxpayers ever receive help from those that they pay their taxes to?
Theresa Ulmer
Holme Circle
Welfare recipients
should take the test
Every city/civil service employee has to pass a urine test. As a city employee, I have no problem with this. I work for my salary and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit.
I do have a problem with the fact that the government gives my taxes to people on welfare that do not have to pass a urine test. I have no problem helping people get back on track and allowing them a "temporary" or "short-term" period of government assistance. I do have a problem with helping someone who "mooches" off of hard-working citizens’ tax dollars, and doing drugs while I work two jobs.
I can’t even imagine how much money would be saved if people had to pass a drug test to get public assistance. This is another one of the liberals’ ideas that has the government "providing" for the people that don’t deserve it.
Something has to change in this city. Hopefully Michael Nutter can make something happen.
Jeff George
Mayfair
Farewell, graffiti
I and many other persons living in the Fox Chase/Rockledge area wish to thank the person or persons for covering over the graffiti these many years. I am referring to the SEPTA railroad bridge going over Pine Road north of Rhawn Street.
Fran Weber
Fox Chase
You killed our dog, but we
still wish you a merry Christmas
I want to thank the kindhearted person that killed my daughter’s dog on Thanksgiving Day on Rhawn Street near Fuller and left her on the side of the road to die.
Even though she had her tag on to alert anyone where she belonged, this thoughtful, giving person never used a cell phone or stopped to ask a neighbor to call to let someone know where Bella was.
Instead, my grandson rode his bike around the neighborhood to look for her, only to be devastated to find her dead with tire marks on her back and a headlight laying next to her.
I’m sure you were anxious to get home to enjoy Thanksgiving with your own family, and this was not important to you, but you should know the scars you left on the hearts of the people that loved her, especially my three grandsons and my daughter — that was her baby — and she also left behind a brother that she was never separated from since birth.
Merry Christmas to you, and I hope you and your family have a wonderful guilt-free new year.
Pamela A. Krewson
Rhawnhurst
How to give soldiers
some holiday cheer
Many readers have already contacted my district office seeking information about sending holiday care packages to our military personnel serving in Iraq and also to the Iraq people.
If anyone desires information about sending parcels to our men and women serving in Iraq, or about sending care packages to the Iraqi people, please contact my district office at 215-674-3755.
We can provide you with details about what to send and also a current address of a soldier in Iraq who will be happy to receive and distribute the care packages.
Thomas P. Murt
State representative, 152nd Legislative District
Thanks for the spots . . .
how about more meters?
I recently wrote about the problems at the Fox Chase train station parking lot, complaining about the long lines at the meters to pay. In the letter I mentioned that there are not enough handicapped spots. After the Thanksgiving holiday, additional spots were added to the lot.
Whoever is responsible for the Thanksgiving miracle, I say, thanks a lot. Now if we could just get a couple extra meters added to avoid the long lines to pay, but I guess that’s asking too much.
Janice Jakubowitcz
Rhawnhurst
Keep the Boy Scouts,
dump the city officials
Guest Opinion
By Tom Lacey
Hardly a week goes by without another police officer being shot. Our city almost sets new records for murders each year. A common denominator in the overwhelming majority of those doing the killing is that they are young men who grew up without fathers or good male role models. In the inner city, the percent of young men growing up without fathers in the house is over 80 percent; up from less than 20 percent in 1964, the year the government got involved and decided they could replace fathers with a welfare check.
Countless studies tell us how important it is that young men grow up with positive male role models; without them, they have a good chance to inherit their values and behavior from other men on the streets.
Since 1910 the Boy Scouts have been providing good moral role models. They have been helping to mold boys into responsible men with a track record of helping them to be self-reliant, hard-working, physically fit and spiritually strong.
They have done this by adhering to time-tested values and policies. In Philadelphia, every administration since 1927 recognized the Scouts’ valuable contribution to the betterment of our city, by giving them some office space downtown. Prior administrations knew that each year the Boy Scouts perform 50 million hours of community service across our country.
They help the needy with food; assist the elderly and veterans, clean up parks, rivers and vacant lots, in addition to keeping young men safe and busy in character building activities.
A survey a few years back found that 63 percent of U.S. Air Force Academy graduates, 68 percent of West Point graduates, 70 percent of Annapolis graduates and 85 percent of FBI agents, and 26 of the first 29 astronauts, were all Scouts.
So what are our brilliant city leaders doing to help stem the violence in the streets of Philadelphia by young men? Are they implementing the same get-tough policies with criminals that former Mayor Giuliani instituted in New York City that reduced the murder rate by 65 percent? No! How about offering to assist those groups that are helping to build fine young men? No!
Our Democrat city administration, with the help of the two Republican Council at-large members, Jack Kelly and Frank Rizzo, are throwing the Boy Scouts out on the street. They have told the Boy Scouts that they must pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent or else vacate the offices they have been in for 80 years unless they accept homosexual Scout leaders.
Yes, our city administration thinks it is a great idea to send young men camping in the woods with those that have same-sex attraction. What’s next, forcing the Girl Scouts to send young men into the woods camping with them? This issue was taken before the Supreme Court and even the highest court in the land decided the Boy Scouts were within their rights.
A little advice for the Boy Scouts. Don’t let these city officials do to your organization what they have done to this once great city and school system. These spineless cowards cannot stand up to radical left-wing ACLU and their allies, even if it means putting our youth at risk.
When they prattle on about tolerance and diversity what they mean is that the Scouts take your deeply held, time-tested values and policies that have been producing fine young men for over 100 years, and replace them with their values.
Scouts, if you give into the city’s hateful, intolerant, putting-young-men-at-risk agenda, the Boy Scouts will die, just as everything else that has been infected with their politically correct dogma. True tolerance is about tolerating others’ beliefs, but it is not about having values, policies and beliefs that you do not agree with jammed down your throat.
City officials always insist they have such concern "for the children." That is a crock. To the 87,000 Scouts in the Philadelphia area — many inner-city kids whose only chance to escape the insanity and crime of the inner city and to experience nature in a wholesome and safe environment is at summer Boy Scout camp — the message is clear: The city’s left-wing agenda is more important than any of you.
Boy Scouts, resist the foolish, intolerant, hateful city administration. Walk away from the offices as fast as you can. Their values and policies will only destroy you. Stand strong, have courage and keep true to the values and policies that have been successfully building responsible young men and keeping them safe for nearly a century. Good people will support you.
And please, hard-working people of Philadelphia who are too busy working to pay your taxes and raising your kids to pay attention to what those you voted for are doing, please pay attention before it is too late.
Tom Lacey
Holmesburg
How to cope with
the MRSA infection
Legislative Report
By George Kenney
Lately, residents have been hearing more about the methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, also known as MRSA, in the news media and an increased number of cases are being reported all throughout the commonwealth every day.
Over the past few months, newspaper articles have sprung up all over Pennsylvania talking about citizens affected with MRSA. Hopefully this article will inform residents of the dangers associated with this infection and ways in which to prevent it.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, MRSA usually shows itself on the skin as a pimple, boil or abscess that is red, swollen, and painful and may have pus or other drainage. In its early stages the infection may look like a spider bite or an ingrown hair. However, it is important that anyone who has these symptoms see a doctor.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that in 2005 MRSA caused more than 94,000 life-threatening infections and nearly 19,000 deaths in the United States. A study published in the Oct. 17 edition of the Journal of American Medical Association found that 85 percent of all invasive MRSA infections were associated with health care settings, of which two-thirds appeared in people who were hospitalized, underwent a medical procedure or resided in a long-term care facility within the previous year.
With the overwhelming number of MRSA cases reported in the hospital setting, residents may become complacent in regard to the community-based cases. These cases have steadily increased in recent years especially in schools, prisons and crowded public housing projects. Community-based MRSA is spread by skin-to-skin contact, inadequate personal hygiene and poor disinfection.
Community-based MRSA infections that are diagnosed in people who have not been recently hospitalized or had a medical procedure, can be easily prevented by practicing good hygiene. There are very simple measures that will help prevent the spread of the MRSA virus. They include:
• Washing hands thoroughly with soap and water, or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
• Keeping cuts and scrapes clean and covered with a bandage until healed.
• Avoiding contact with other people’s wounds or bandages.
• Avoiding sharing personal items such as towels or razors.
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed legislation that was signed into law that will help combat MRSA infections that occur in the hospital setting by requiring hospitals and nursing homes to report health care-associated infections, and for hospitals, nursing homes and ambulatory surgical facilities to implement comprehensive infection-control plans to stop its spread.
Additionally, legislation mandating that MRSA infections be reported to the Pennsylvania Department of Health will be introduced in the House of Representatives this week. This legislation will help control the spread of the MRSA virus by allowing the department to track and monitor cases reported in Pennsylvania.
For more information on the MRSA virus, visit the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Web site at health.state.pa.us, or the CDC Web site at cdc.gov ••
George Kenney, a Republican, represents the 170th Legislative District. He is former chairman of the House Health and Human Services Committee. ••
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