The three P's: principles,process, plurality. All were visible at the marathon meeting November 19th. My take home gift was waking up with a cold...Thanks Lower Merion for always keeping it real....

Ok, had anyone else heard about this little item? Sure seems pretty important, and will Lower Merion be passing the ordinance that is discussed by December 8th? Has the issue even been publicly vetted in Lower Merion, Ardmore, or Radnor Township?

Who knows anything about the Uniform Municipal Deed Registration Act which goes into effect on December 8?

The article from the Times Herald I am about to post says this act passed house and senate, that local reps never discussed with townships. Unless I'm missing something, there is no way notice requirements can be met to have in place such an ordinance - or has there been something about this floating around???

The more things change, the more things stay the same in government?

Thorny issue in ‘deed’
Monday, November 17, 2008 1:14 AM EST
By CARL ROTENBERG
Times Herald Staff

• Government approving a problematic or even a bad plan over a principle that is not necessarily applicable is not good government is it?
• Developing to say a community has completed recent development is not necessarily good government is it?
• Approving development plans without clear community consensus as a result of an inclusive and open planning and visioning process is not good government, is it?
• We should welcome developers who encorage and believe in a true public process, and discourage cookie cutter one-size-fit-all development, shouldn't we?
• It's o.k. to say what you DON'T want in your community, but non-productive if you don't tell people what you do want in your community and WHY.

I was checking my e-mail today and found a notice from Lower Merion Township as to whom will succeed Supt. Joe Daly at LMPD. And it will be Captain Mike McGrath.

For more, check out the press release:

Manager to Nominate Capt. Michael McGrath to Succeed Supt. Joseph Daly
Nomination Anticipated to be Considered at December 3rd Police Committee Meeting
Posted Date: 11/14/2008 5:00 PM

Now Ardmore's Dr. Foo is a renaissance man for sure, and he has started a blog so everyone can see his flowers and his paintings...of course if you go for a mean at Hu Nan Restaurant in Ardmore, his paintings can be seen in person!

Here is the address: http://mudanfoo.blogspot.com/

Wednesday November 19th has several very important items shoved into an unrealistic one night stand of a meeting schedule. Items of crucial, township altering, pocketbook altering importance. Are you all in Lower Merion OK with this?

Residents of Lower Merion, are you o.k. with these ridiculous meeting schedules? Are you? Are you among those who attended the Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 Board of Commissioners who expected things to run according to the published schedule? As in:

Library Committee 11/12/2008 6:30 PM
Economic Revitalization Committee - REVISED 11/12/2008 6:45 PM
Finance Committee 11/12/2008 6:50 PM
Building & Planning Committee 11/12/2008 7:00
Board of Commissioners Special Meeting 11/12/2008 8:00 PM

Cliff notes version: the schedule did NOT even come close. The meeting went until midnight or maybe later. I actually fell asleep watching it. And a lot of important stuff happened after all that.

UPDATE:The Delco Times has a very nice article today, albeit slightly inaccurate since neither Radnor nor LMT has publicly heard Ben's presentation at a meeting, although he did speak in front of Haverford Twp. BOC last week (I hope he will be allowed to be heard in Radnor and Lower Merion before year end). Septa needs to know glow in the dark decals won't cut it, rail safety needs to take more of a priority...and the comments on the Delco times website were kind of unfeeling and ignorant all things considered....

Here is an excerpt of the Delco Times article:
Victim’s father on mission to make SEPTA route safer
Sunday, November 16, 2008 6:17 AM EST
By Lois Puglionesi Times Correspondent

HAVERFORD — Ben Breskman’s oldest son, Brian, was fatally electrocuted on the third rail of SEPTA’s Route 100 trolley line in a tragic accident Breskman wants to keep from happening to anyone again.

As Breskman sees it, unsafe conditions along the Route 100 contributed to the “perfect storm” Brian walked into the night he died.

A graduate of Episcopal Academy, Brian, 19, had completed his freshman year at Penn State and was home for the summer, when on May 25, 2007, he went to the Bryn Mawr home of an old high school buddy. Ben Breskman said he later learned a parent improperly served alcoholic beverages.

The decision to take a midnight walk to 7-Eleven after cocktails proved disastrous for Brian. When a police cruiser stopped to question him outside the store, Brian panicked and fled into a wooded area. Looking for a shortcut back to his friend’s house, Brian came down an embankment in the dark, about 80 yards south of the Rosemont stop on the R-100. With no fences, lights, or visible warnings, Brian began crossing the tracks and stumbled, his foot grazing the trolley line’s electrified third rail. A lethal jolt killed Brian instantly. Charred over three-quarters of his body, Brian was later hit by an oncoming train....In the course of a wrongful death action against SEPTA, Breskman subpoenaed records documenting about 1,000 “unscheduled stops” since 2003, many involving children.

The trolley was halted near Beechwood-Brookline on June 14, 2006, for example, because of three young boys “jumping tracks with skateboards.” On Jan. 22, 2005, children were sledding “and almost made contact with train” near Pennfield. A bicycle was found wedged between the track and third rail south of Parkview in November 2004, while “juveniles playing chicken with the train” caused another stop near Rosemont.

SEPTA did not release information regarding fatalities, Breskman said...For more information about Operation Lifesaver: http://www.septa.org/inside/safety/operation_lifesaver.html

ORIGINAL POST:

I have gotten to know Ben Breskman just a little bit since he has begun his quest for rail safety, especially on the R100 Septa line. (But I know he has obvious concerns about the R5 as well, because much of that track is not fenced off, either).

But the R100, the trolley line is doubly deadly with that 3rd rail that is electrified. As a matter of fact, Ben presented to Haverford Township's Board of Commissioners this past Monday thanks to 5th Ward Commissioner for H.T. Jeff Heilmann, and the Board of Commissioners of Haverford Township, and they put forth this:
To Surrounding Communities Re: R100 Septa Line

November 12, 2008
TO: ALL INDIVIDUALS IN THE TOWNSHIP OF HAVERFORD AND
SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES

FROM: Township of Haverford – Board of Commissioners
SUBJECT: R100 SEPTA LINE

I am all about being green and eco friendly, but man, this article is just ghoulish :<}

Sigh...Kermit will tell you "It's not easy being green"

Main Liners can now be eco-friendly even in death
By Richard Ilgenfritz

Great article by Sam Strike in Main Line Life on a very under publicized storwater meeting in Radnor on October 23rd. Too bad more people did not know about this, or you would have had some folks from North Wayne with a thing or two to say, especially from Little Chicago.

Like the People on Pennsylvania Ave who have been getting literally swamped with water since the work on and around the Wayne Train Station began? I am guessing removing all those trees and that wierd stone pit thing over there has something to do with it? As well as the fact that stormwater from both sides of the tracks seems to be now designed to run off on the Pennsylvania Avenue side? (I actually asked the railroads - Amtrak and Septa- about this, but haven't had a response).

I have a favorite poem by Langston Hughes:

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly.

Hold Fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

What made me think of it? After the election dust settled...I remembered it.

I hit on it in my editorial this week in Main Line Life (and I am entitled to my opinion) :