I'm a bit late on this, but the honor is no less worthy of a MontCo Memo shoutout (which is far less embarrassing than when all of the servers at the restaurant your alleged friends took you to gather around your table to sing you "Happy Birthday.")
So congratulations to Timothy Kelly, recipient of the 2012 Charles A. and Elizabeth O. Gruber Memorial Scholarship Award from the Montgomery County Association for the Blind. He received $500 to put toward his goal of improving the lives of those who are visually impaired and blind.
Charles Gruber was a founder and officer of the association. Elizabeth Gruber, his wife, was an enthusiastic supporter of the organization.
They have been floating on air in Jenkintown lately, which isn't surprising since the "they" is Lisa Collins Vidnovic and her troops at the Metropolitan Ballet Company. Michael Weil, president and COO of American Realty Capital and father of the ballet company's own Peter Weil, recently pledged $100,000, which he'll pay over five years, to the Metropolitan Ballet Company. He donated the first installment of $20,000 in December.
The $100,000 will be the largest donation since the ballet company began in 2001.
I hadn't heard about the case in Texas concering a child adopted from Russia who died until I saw this press release in my email this morning from Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. Considering how many folks here were concerned when the Inquirer wrote about Russia halting adoptions by Americans not so long ago, I thought you also might be interested in this incident. I've pasted Landrieu's statement below because, well, just because I got it this morning in my email. Here are the opening paragraphs of a CNN story on the "suspicious death." Read the whole CNN story here.
(CNN) -- Officials in West Texas said Monday they are investigating the "suspicious" death of a 3-year-old boy, adopted from Russia, and a Russian official blamed the death on "inhuman abuse."
A West Conshohocken steelworker has sued his employer and the board of trustees of the Steelworkers Health and Welfare Fund for denying insurance coverage to the his husband.
The same-sex couple filed the suit in federal court Monday against the board and ArcelorMittal USA, a Chicago-based company that operates the Conshohocken steel mill where Bryce Ginther works as an industrial electrician.
The Daily News' Stephanie Farr has the full story.
Montgomery County commissioners are hoping to start a project aimed at reducing the recidivism rate among former county inmates.
The commissioners this week approved submitting a grant application for $185,000 to the Department of Justice, via the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. The money would be added to $270,000 in state workforce development funds.
The commissioners are "cautiously optimistic" that they will get the grant money, said communications director Frank X. Custer.
If snow falls and no one hears it, has it really fallen? Who cares? More importantly, Lower Merion Township just announced that, "Due to expected snow and ice in the overnight hours, all Lower Merion Libraries and the Ardmore Avenue Community Center will not open until noon on Saturday, February 9, 2013." That extra time will give the township's public works employees time to plow library parking lots and clear roads to them. Desperately trying to think of a pun that incorporates libraries and snow, but am coming up with nothing. Any contributions on that (storm) front appreciated.
This just in from SEPTA: "Regional Rail: The scheduled construction and shuttle bus service along SEPTA's Manayunk/Norristown Regional Rail Line has been canceled due to anticipated winter weather conditions. Trains will operate on a regular weekend schedule."
Okay, so I was a bit late to read the blurb by Michael Klein of philly.com about Shake Shack shimmying to King of Prussia. In case you wanted more details (as I, an avowed carnivore do dearly want), or you didn't know about it in the first place, here's part of a press release that the shack's Brandy Cerne, coordinator of marketing and communications, just sent me. Shake Shack also will be opening a restaurant in University City (there already is one at 20th and Sansom near Rittenhouse Square).
From the press release:
"Venturing out from downtown, Shake Shack’s King of Prussia location is scheduled to
open in Fall 2013. It will be a stand-alone Shack built from the ground up near the King
of Prussia Mall—one of the nation’s premier shopping destinations. It will also be Shack
Shack’s second solar powered restaurant, with a solar panel-covered roof that will
produce roughly 10% of its energy."
Pittsburgh's Monongahela River narrowly beat out the Schuylkill for Pennsylvania's 2013 River of the Year. Despite a last-minute push, the Schuylkill lost by 146 votes -- less than 1 percent.
The final vote count: Monongahela (8,156); Schuylkill River (8,010); Lackawanna River (5,286); Kiskiminetas River (2,310); Swatara Creek (1,213); and Juniata River (475).
"The show of support for Philly’s Hidden River was truly impressive, and goes to show that the Schuylkill holds a special place in so many people’s hearts," said Zoe Axelrod of the Schuylkill River Development Corporation. "SRDC plans to nominate the Schuylkill again next year."
Inquirer columnist Joseph N. DiStefano, in his PhillyDeals blog, reports that "Falling college enrollments and a drop in county and state support were cited by Moody's Investors Service for its decision to cut its bond rating for 9,400-student Montgomery County Community College to Aa3 from Aa2."
Read the whole story here.
Contact Davis at cdavis@phillynews.com or 610-313-8109.
Contact Parks at 610-313-8117, jparks@philly.com, or https://twitter.com/JS_Parks.
