Brookline Fire Company will be celebrating it's 100 year anniversary on Saturday, June 7, 2014. Fire companies from all around the area and even some from Boston will be present for the event. We've gathered some official and unofficial information about the parade, the traffic routes, what to expect and more. Please share! We also have a discussion over on our Facebook page. Brookline Official Page Brookline Fire Company Facebook Page (check here for photos after the event, share your photos too) From the Official Facebook Page for the Parade: "Come join us for a day of Emergency Vehicles, Marching Bands, Bag Pipes, and many other vehicles to help celebrate our 100th year of service! Parade will kick off at 12 Noon and will travel from Manoa and Allston roads, and will travel Manoa Rd, Earlington Rd, and Brookline Blvd. The parade will end at station 35." Details: Parade time: Noon to 2 P.M. Silent parade, no sirens. Over 100 Firetrucks to see and tour. Bring the little ones! NO PARKING signs already up length of parade route and more on Darby Road to Rte 3. Parade route: A. Parade Start: Route 1.3 miles long Registration: Leedom Road and Mill Road Apparatus Staging: Brookline Blvd. & Darby Rd. to Darby Rd. & Park Ave. Marching Units Staging: Chatham Park Elementary School Brookline Fire Company: Awards presentation Reviewing Stand Brookline Fire Company Staging Non Fire Staging: Kennmore Rd. Apparatus Parking after parade: Middle and High School B. End of Parade BASEBALL and SOFTBALL CHANGES From an email from Brookline Baseball: "Due to the parade, Brookline Baseball & Softball has had to alter its playing schedule. Chatham Park, a staging area, will be shut down and traffic around the Police Field will be slow but not impassible. We are fortunate to have Joe Hagan from the Haverford Twp. Police, on our Board. Joe has shared with us the following information to help those whose … [Read more...]
Biting Back at Mosquitos in H-Town
I love my town. And its mosquitos love me. Endless Love H-Town is a fantastic place to live. The people are great, the lawns are all squared away (for the most part) and we’ve got plenty of good bars lying around. The only thing I hate are the mosquitos. When I say they are a pain in my neck or they come back and bite me in the ass, I mean it quite literally. _____________ Summer Nights I’m not one of your typical bug-bite getters. After a 10-second step out to our standard-issue minivan, welts the size of dimes, nickels and sometimes quarters appear like Dementor magic on my skin. The swelling usually subsides in a day or so but the itching lasts for weeks. We’ve attacked this itchy invader problem with aggressive and defensive strategies. I’d baptize myself in DEET. We had the lawn guys put down pellets in the grass. We set up Citronella Torch Stonehenge around the patio table. We ran through the must-be-true-because-they-were-on-the-Internet bug-beater commands: carry a dryer sheet (like Bounce) daily dose of Brewer’s Yeast & Vitamin B Dab on Tea Tree Oil on light (or dark?) clothes wear long pants and long sleeves, but don’t sweat. Or breathe. Or be human. We also made sure to empty gutters clear any pooling water get rid of certain weeds dump bird baths and kiddie pool water at least once weekly (we have neither) perform ancient Celtic Rituals while dressed in plaid lederhosen. Nothing worked (not even the lederhosen, which is usually so powerful). So inside we went and there we stayed, watching the summer nights pass us by. But even indoors I wasn’t safe. I am so-well-loved by these Biting Creatures of Minuscule Mass that I had to spray myself with DEET before I went to bed. If I didn’t, I’d wake up with itchy welts not only on my body but on my face. I'm too old to look like I'm stressed out about the SATs. (For the amateur scientists who are surely wondering: Eau d’ DEET repels more than just insects in a human … [Read more...]
Walgreens stalking the corner of Eagle & Darby
One day about 30 millionz yearz ago when we moved here to H-Town and promptly got our first case of raging poison ivy (Seriously, people, we need to monetize this township's poison ivy. It's industrial grade), we asked all around town for this miracle cure stuff called Zanfel that our neighbors swore by. No store had it, except Katz Pharmacy at the corner of Darby and Eagle Rd. Which meant I had to go in there. Katz was one of "those" businesses. It was the kind of place that just looked... private, like not the kind of place non-townies just strolled into and browsed around. I'd never set foot in the place and now I had to endure the Awkward First Customer Silence of Northeastern corridor small town shops. Southern shopkeeps save up their awkward silence for their own people, usually in efforts to pretend they don't know their regular customer has a scalding case of herpes which he just generously handed over to the preacher's daughter. Strangers, though, are overwhelmed with southern hospitality, good-natured questions and smiles. Northerners at most will acquiesce a cold "Let me know if I can help you with anything," which is basically saying, "We don't know you and aren't convinced we even want your money." And then they give you the shoplifter stare until you actually flash some cash in their face (which they'll still test with those stupid fake highlighter markers anyway). Katz Pharmacy seemed like exactly this kind of store. But as more and more of this wretched rash spread throughout my system, I was desperate to try anything. I had to get the Zanfel quickly, so first I called Katz under the guise to see if they had any in stock but in reality it was to pre-announce my arrival in hopes to avoid all of the aforementioned awkwardness. Whether it was my phone-in strategy or just the general ease of the pharmacists, my trip to Katz wasn't painful. The only squirmy part of the whole transaction was me. Some of that due to my anticipation of First … [Read more...]
More Snowmageddon Info Feb 13 2014
Here is information from two press releases & a phone call from Township officials concerning the latest snowy onslaught and newest state of emergency. We don't know about your houses, but the Havertownies Headquarters now has 4 more bottles of wine and some scotch. School What-Daze-Is-It-Again? No school for the whole district tomorrow, BUT: Friday is a FULL DAY OF SCHOOL for Haverford Middle School, instead of the half day and conferences originally planned. If you had a conference scheduled for Friday, forget it. That sucker will be rescheduled. It isn't Valentine's Day, It's Get To Love Your Garbage day. NO TRASH PICKUP tomorrow, Thursday, Feb 13 or February 14, 2014. We have special guests coming to our house Saturday, so we'll have to find more room in the cans out back and hope the squirrels show us some mercy. Them guys ain't comin' to haul yer rubbish 'til Tuesday. Hush, hush now, with yer complaints. Voices carry. Mooove Yer Vehickels! We like to keep things super secret here in H-Town, so we don't mark the snow emergency routes. Either that or we just don't feel like ponying up the bucks to pay for signs, like the rest of Pennsyltucky. Anyhoo: We suspect the township is a bit more serious this time around about snow route clearing, seeing that they sent a press release with the affected roads in it, AND traffic was all jumbled up for hours on Darby and Brookline roads yesterday as crews with a huge front loader were scooping up piles of snow from the curbs and dumping it on the medians (or in some pile on Brookline). To wit, here's a direct quote from their press release: "The Township is requesting that all vehicles be removed from the streets as soon as possible. As the storm arrives and intensifies the Township would like to remind people to be careful and that only essential emergency personnel should be on the highways." So go over to our other post and check out the list. If your car is on it, move it off now, as the State of Emergency … [Read more...]
What ‘State of Emergency’ means in H-Town
With today's icy conditions causing massive power outages (10,000 Township residents was the last updated number via Commissioner Dan Siegal), the Township has officially declared a "State of Emergency." That's nice and all, but... what the heck does that mean exactly? Well, we dug around the ridiculously dull terribly interesting township codes and found a bunch of stuff. Here is the relevant part: Chapter 175: VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC § 175-59, Article XI Schedules – §175-98 Schedule XXIII Emergency No Parking Areas: Ardmore Avenue Both Between County Line Road and Darby Road Burmont Road Both Entire length College Avenue Both Entire length Colonial Road Both Entire length Coopertown Road Both Entire length Darby Road Both Entire length Drexel Avenue Both Entire length Eagle Road Both Entire length Earlington Road Both Entire length Glendale Road Both Entire length Haverford Road Both Entire length Landover Road South Entire length Lawrence Road Both Between Eagle Road and West Chester Pike Manoa Road Both Entire length Marple Road Both Entire length Mill Road Both Between Earlington Road and Darby Road Township Line Road North Entire length West Chester Pike Both Entire length Wynnewood Road Both Entire length That means, if your car is parked on any of these specific lengths of roadway, you are asked to remove them so the township services can clear the area of snow and debris. Also, all non-essential travel is suspended. Now, from what we can gather from various sources, there are states of emergency and then there are STATES OF EMERGENCY. Governmental bodies can apply for state aid to help "weather the storm" of clean-up costs when they declare states of emergency. So, declaring one isn't all THAT special. Today's ice and power outages certainly warranted it. Why struggle to get it all paid for ourselves when … [Read more...]
Patch ax and finding our own news
LOCAL TURNOVER You probably haven't noticed but we've had quite a few different Patch writers over the years. Turnover was common. The working conditions were notorious, with editors having to cover multiple towns just to piece together a living. Can't imagine the writers did much better. Patch made quite a stir in the media market when it came online in 2007. Patch Media was promptly bought up by media giant AOL (yes, AOL still exists. No, "AOL" does not mean "The Internet"). Some say AOL ran Patch into the ground. Patch did seem to suffer from overspending and erratic leadership. There was a famous incident last year when a Patch CEO fired a photographer on a very public conference call (The photographer's offense? Taking pictures!). Some bloggers are reporting that 2/3rds of the Patch staff are getting pink slips. The new ridiculous-majority stakeholders, Hale Global (AOL still owns a piece), seem to be on a tear to get Patch's rumored $100 million in yearly spending down to at least match the supposed $40 million in profits. Seems logical. But the long arm of Hale's ruthless budget cuts have hit us here at home. Sam Strike, our local Patch reporter, posted this on the Haverford-Havertown Patch Facebook page on January 29: I have worked at Patch for almost three years. This morning I was told that it would be my last day. Working here has definitely been an adventure. And I do not regret joining this start-up company – it has been a great learning experience. I want to thank everyone who has read the Patch or contributed to the Patch over the years. I have met so many interesting people and I have enjoyed the work. I do not know the details of the plan going forward, so I’m afraid I can’t answer any questions about the site’s future. If you want to contact me in the future you can email me at samstrike@hotmail.com. Thanks everyone!! Sam As of this writing, Ms. Strike couldn't be reached for further comment. We wish her the best. MEDIA … [Read more...]
De-Xmas-ing
Stars are falling, angels are being stuffed into boxes, and lights are going out. It's the de-christmas-afying of Haverford Township. We're making better progress today than we predicted. What we thought would be a 3-day takedown will probably only amount to 2 broken days' worth. We've gotten everything off the upstairs tree and everything that is coming off the downstairs tree is boxed up (yes, we have TWO trees. More on this ridiculousness in a bit). Our upstairs tree is a balsam acquired on Dec. 8th at the Manoa Shopping Center Parking lot. It's still going quite strong. It's a shame to throw it out - it's even spawning new needles! Replanting a cut christmas tree isn't possible, but we may be able to get a cutting to work. Judging by the way our kids are talking about the environment and recycling, we'll soon be one of those weird families whose uncut tree come with a root bag. I'll have to construct a tree skirt out of old king size bed sheets. We'll need a jackhammer to get through the frozen topsoil to plant it. Our house will be easy to spot, though. In 10 years, the lawn will look like an abandoned pine project in some remote corner of Merry Place. Somehow the Christmas decor is getting more pervasive as our kids are growing. This year, our 8th-grader and 2nd-grader discovered the artificial tree we used as a carefree, apartment-dwelling couple in Center City. This artificial tree is about 20 years old, so no lights, no pre-assembly. All 4 of us spent 2 days bending and shaping the wired branches and finagling them down into their slots. We wired the 8-foot metal-and-paper monster up with white mini lights and real-tree discard decorations. We're going to take a hint from The Grinch and try to stuff the tree up (into the attic), assembled and pre-lit. This will probably not go well. The real tree is destined for the curb. We're lucky to live in Haverford Township, where Public Works collect and recycle xmas trees. The first pick-up will … [Read more...]
Vote for HMS’s 7th Heaven in B101’s Choir Competition
B101 Christmas Choir Competition They went to the finals last year and they're in the finals again this year! Remember to vote Thursday morning beginning at 7 a.m. for Haverford Middle School's 7th Heaven choir in B101's annual school choir Christmas music competition. The voting is a volume issue, so vote early and vote often! (multiple votes are allowed) This year we're looking for the win, which would bring the music program $5000. See and listen to all the songs. Thanks, and good luck to our students! … [Read more...]
MRSA in HMS
Just got an email from the Haverford Middle School. Turns out the NFL isn't the only organization with a bacterial problem. A student has been diagnosed with MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, colloquially pronounced "MERR-sahh" by the medical community). This is a very strong, antibiotics-resistant bacterial infection that can kill people. Although the numbers of deaths have decreased in recent years, it can still be a cause of death for the infected. It is not a very strong bacteria outside the body but it is still highly contagious in skin-to-skin contact and skin-to-surface contact (fabrics, toilet seats, etc.). The HMS sent out a notification, but the CDC says it is not necessary to close a school or even inform the public if a student is infected with MRSA: Closing a School Because of an MRSA Infection The decision to close a school for any communicable disease should be made by school officials in consultation with local and/or state public health officials. However, in most cases, it is not necessary to close schools because of an MRSA infection in a student. It is important to note that MRSA transmission can be prevented by simple measures such as hand hygiene and covering infections. Keep an eye out for red, swelling infections, and get more informed about MRSA. Scan the CDC website. Here's some more reading from trusted authorities: Maryn McKenna Superbug. (Click on this affiliate link to buy the book and help support this website). WIRED Science MRSA The attached PDF is a letter from Mr. Horan, HMS school Principal. He says they will be cleaning the school. He includes some preventative steps your child can take to help her avoid the infection: • Wash hands frequently using soap and warm water. • Shower immediately after all athletic practices and competitions. • Wash all practice gear immediately after game days and frequently after practices (including pads). • Do not share towels, razors or personal … [Read more...]