Chief Pettine is retiring. One of HPD's own, John Viola, was promoted. He starts Monday. Details in the News-o-Delco (more about John Viola and the US OPEN on philly.com below): John Viola becomes police chief in Haverford Published: Wednesday, January 13, 2016 By Lois Puglionesi For Digital First Media HAVERFORD >> After a career that has spanned more than 45 years, former Deputy Chief of Police John Viola became the township’s new chief of police, effective Monday. The commissioners voted unanimously in favor of Viola’s promotion. Viola succeeds former Chief Carmen Pettine, who is retiring. Family, friends, supporters from multiple police departments, Brookline Fire Department and several county officials were on hand as Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael Green administered the oath of office. Commissioner and Chair of the Police Committee Stephen D’Emilio noted that Viola has served in many capacities during the course of a distinguished career that began in January 1970, when Viola joined the Patrol Division. In his earliest role as a police medical emergency responder, Viola helped transport sick and injured persons on police medical wagons, D’Emilio said. Appointment to the Youth Aid Division and Detective Division followed in 1975. Then in 1991, Viola joined the Highway Safety/Special Operations Unit, honing skills for major accident investigations. Additionally, Viola trained in arson investigations and SWAT/crisis management and has served as Tactical SWAT commander for over 15 years, D’Emilio said. Viola was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 1994 and became special operations supervisor several years later. Subsequent roles included assignment as Delco’s lead law enforcement representative on the Southeastern PA Terrorism Task Force and serving on the Five County Terrorism Task Force under Homeland Security as the Haz Mat SWAT Commander and as commander on the Major Incident Response Team, … [Read more...]
Brookline Fire Company Parade Info
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...]
Haverford Spring Fest Today!
Update 9:00 pm May 18, 2014. Here are some pics from the day! Hey all! The Haverford Spring Fest is opening up today, May 18, 2014 at 11 a.m. and will go until 7pm tonight. Don't forget to wear your sunscreen! It's going to be a nice 64 degrees F and sunny today. A great day for some SPRING celebrations! You know what else is great? Proceeds are going towards local non-profits, like Haverford Township Free Library. It's free to enter, but there are vendors and artists and face painters and fun stuff to buy. Please come out and hang with your coolest of the cool H-Town neighbors and hear 6 fantastic local bands. More info from the festival: Great food and drink, beer available from our vendors (Beer can be enjoyed anywhere inside the fest grounds. 21 or older, ID required. Drink responsibly.) Great local business and craftspeople will be exhibiting as well as lots of fun in the kids Fun Zone. ($10 wrist band gets you all day play.) Plus local organizations will have plenty of other fun activities for everyone. Admission is free to the fest grounds. $2 voluntary donation benfiting local groups is appreciated. Use the #haverfordspring hash on your sharing sites. Here's more info, from the festival: … [Read more...]
Kaya’s Closing. ¡Vivan las tapas (y margaritas)!
First time I went to Kaya's was as a participant of a belly dancing group run by a local adult school teacher slash Chatham mom at the time. Small BYOBs like Kayas are usually dark, black holes to me because I have a serious case of Celiac's disease. Health-nut hipster I am not. Wheat gluten literally wears away at my insides (I'm not using "literally" figuratively here). So I tend to stay away from tiny, owner/chef restaurants. A chef's job is hard enough on any given night. They don't need a needy diner to boot. But I shouldn't have waited. The dinner Mr. Hawthorne of Kaya's presented was amazing. My meal was made just for me, with many of the similar ingredients to what the other diners were having. It was just scrumptious. I cleared my plate. Then I got up and did some belly dancing, in a room of mostly middle-aged white women. Fun times. Sorry to say that Kaya's just announced that they are closing, and some other outfit is coming to take over their lease. Unfortunately, it is a restaurant where I probably won't bother eating, as many of the traditional items contain mucho gluten. La Tez will be a tapas restaurant. Not familiar with tapas? It's basically fancy snack food to munch on while you drink. The main point of a tapas place is to drink (and chat. But mostly to drink). But here's where it gets interesante: La Tez is a Bring-your-own-boozle (not fighting the bottle vs. booze war here) establishment. The restaurant will provide the margarita mix ingredients (no alcohol therein) and we the customer are to provide the tequila. Which, as it so happens, contains 0% gluten. Which makes it one of my most preferred liqueurs. Which I had too much of last month to celebrate my birthday... Anyhoo! Here's what wikipedia has to say about the origin of "tapas:" The word "tapas" is derived from the Spanish verb tapar, "to cover". According to The Joy of Cooking, the original tapas were the slices of bread or meat which sherry drinkers in Andalusian … [Read more...]