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Week of March 10, 2008
Committee prioritizes road repairs
By: James McGinnis, Bucks County Courier Times
A committee of volunteers appointed by the Bristol Township Council has prioritized repairs for particular streets and recommends drainage work before others are repaved.
The roads committee recommended repairs on Return, Cypress, Outlook, Crosswood, Ridge, Daffodil, Cornflower and Ruby lanes, Inkberry, Gatewood and Inlet roads, Indian Park, Blue Ridge and Overbrook drives, Belmont, Fairview, Wyoming and Delaware avenues, Church Street, Red Cedar Pass, Dogwood Way and Dogwood Turn.
The committee also recommended the repairs to only certain sections of Holly, Red Cedar and Crabtree drives until low lying sections of those streets can get needed drainage improvements.
Demolition to start for turnpike project
By: Brian Scheid, Bucks County Courier Times
After nearly 16 years of planning, a $1.3 billion project that will include linking the Pennsylvania Turnpike with Interstate 95 will take a noticeable step forward next week when a year-long demolition plan starts to make way for the project.
A demolition crew is scheduled to tear down the vacant Neshaminy service plaza on the south side of the turnpike next week, according to Bernie Bydlon, a construction engineering manager with the Turnpike Commission.
In total 18 properties, including 14 homes, will be acquired and demolished to make way for the interchange project. If you have not been notified that your property will be acquired as part of the project, your property is safe, Jay Roth told a crowd of about 60 people at an information session Thursday night at the William Penn Fire Company in Hulmeville. Roth is a project engineer with Jacobs, Edwards and Kelcey, the main consultant on the project.
On the House: Learning to live in old house
By: Al Heavens, Inquirer Real Estate Columnist
I suppose, by others' standards, I live in an old house, since it was built in 1929.
Compared to my first two houses - constructed in 1848 and 1904 - this house is new, however. The fact that a couple of fellows spent 17 years and lots of money doing just about all the work it needed before I moved in is what makes it, hands-down, my favorite house.
That's not to say that, in retrospect, the other two houses didn't have their good points. No, it's just that you reach a certain age when climbing ladders, scraping paint, and crawling over roofs can be really hazardous to your health, and you try to avoid such tasks unless there is no choice.
I still find myself on the roof, on occasion. I was up there just a few weeks ago, removing clumps of tree debris from the valleys to ensure an unimpeded flow of water to the gutters.
The difference between today's roof visits and those of yesteryear is that I now have my 18-year-old son holding the ladder as I climb up and down, because that's the least safe part of the job.
In the old days, I'd tie a rope from the ladder through a window to the nearest radiator to keep the ladder in place - a recommendation from veteran old-house painters. I'd use stabilizers on the top of the ladder and on the ground, where that was possible.
Also, I was much younger and much more sure-footed.
One thing I miss about owning an older house is talking with others in the same situation. Of course, every week I exchange e-mail with several dozen readers about problems associated with older houses, but since I'm no longer on the front lines, I end up preaching instead of chatting.
If you own an old house and prefer to chat, may I recommend a trip to this year's Old House Fair? It's on March 22 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Germantown Friends School, 31 W. Coulter St. in Philadelphia.
That is where, 20 or so years ago, I first learned to network with other old-house owners and find experts and materials that the home centers didn't have.
Actually, the fair I attended was at the Second Bank of the United States on Independence Mall, not at Germantown Friends. The lesson I learned at GFS was that if I wrote a couple of big checks every year for 13 years, they would educate my older son.
Towns gather around open space funding
By: Jenna Portnoy, The Intelligencer
The last time Bucks County borrowed many millions of dollars to preserve land, about $1 million was left in the pot that was intended to help municipalities acquire open space.
That money was rolled over to other programs to protect natural lands from development. But when the county decided on a second round of open space borrowing last year, officials said it was crucial that even built-out boroughs had the chance to spend their money.
Municipal program guidelines are still being written, but planners say the program will be more flexible this time and will encourage partnerships among municipalities.
Philadelphia's real estate market improving
By: Alan J. Heavens, Inquirer Real Estate Writer
The local real estate market is starting to loosen a bit. Showings in some neighborhoods are up substantially this year, agents report, after being down almost 50 percent between August and the end of 2007.
Driving the upsurge in traffic, at least in part, are prospective first-time homeowners, who - in the first true buyers' market of the 21st century - don't have to worry about selling a house.
"On Monday, we received a two-page list of showings," said Kathy Conway, an agent with Prudential Fox & Roach in Center City. "Every day there are 20, compared with the normal of five to seven."
Because so many properties are just sitting, sellers are more willing to deal, said Tim Raybould, 26, of Lansdale, who works for an accounting firm. He and his wife, Jen, 26, a teacher, have been house-hunting in Montgomery County since December.
Gov’t role in mortgage crisis tests GOP
By Jessica Holzer, TheHill.com
Republicans are wary of Democratic proposals that would have the federal government play a starring role in rescuing homeowners.
Yet in some GOP districts, opposition to using taxpayers’ money to solve the deepening housing crisis must be weighed against cries from voters trapped in onerous mortgages worth more than their homes.
Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla) is among those who could be caught in the middle. The GOP conference chairman represents a state that is one of the hardest-hit by foreclosures. He doesn’t reject such ideas “out of hand,” but he argued for a solution that “does not resemble a government bailout.”
“We’re all interested in trying to mitigate the harm in the economy in a market-oriented way that does not reward bad behavior,” he said.
Wastewater treatment will add up for Ambler
By Melissa Brooks, Ambler Gazette
The cost of meeting stricter nutrient limits in the Wissahickon Creek could range from $80 to $400 per household, according to an internal study conducted by the Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant engineer.
Months ago the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection indicated Ambler should expect to see a total nitrogen limit of 3 mg/l and a total phosphorus limit of 0.1 mg/l.
The critical factor in setting the limits is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Total Maximum Daily Load study.
EPA calculated how much phosphorus and nitrogen can be in a stream and distributed the amount among all contributing sources, ultimately determining how much the treatment plant could put into the Wissahickon.
In November council authorized the plant's engineer, Environmental Engineering and Management Associates Inc., to conduct an initial study to evaluate the plant and determine what the borough would need to build to meet only the phosphorus limit or both phosphorus and nitrogen limits, taking into account its limited space.
Principal engineer Bill Brown asked Ambler Borough Council permission March 4 to send a letter to EPA on behalf of the borough, recommending the plant take on only phosphorus limits for now, not phosphorus and nitrogen limits.
