Mexican Feast Day Celebration Set for Dec. 12

Submitted Photos

A mariachi band will perform as part of the Feast of Our Lady
of Guadalupe Dec. 12 at Christ Episcopal Church.

Blogger's Note: The following was  provided by Centro Cultural Latinos Unidos, Inc.

For the first time in Pottstown the Mexican celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe will be held Dec. 12 at 4 p.m. at Christ Episcopal Church, 316 High St. in Pottstown.

Sponsored by Centro Cultural Latinos Unidos, Inc., the Pottstown-based Hispanic activist and cultural education group,  the feast day celebrates the “ Virgin of Guadalupe,” also known as the patroness of the Americas.

It is a Catholic title associated with a Marian apparition and a venerated image enshrined within the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

According to Wikipedia, the basilica is the world's third most-visited sacred site, and the Pope Leo XIII granted the venerated image a Canonical Coronation on Oct. 12,  1895.

The story of Our Lady of the Guadalupe, is unlike any other apparition of Virgin Mary, in that it is the first and only apparition which left what is said to be a miraculous image of herself unmade by human hands.

One of the most lively and spiritual religious celebration anywhere, the feast day of our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated in Mexico City on Dec. 12 of each year.

The celebration in Pottstown will feature Spanish food, a mariachi band and dancing. It is free and all are welcome.

Council OKs $900,000 in Street Repairs for 2017

No matter if its red, blue or green, the streets colored on this map are on the schedule to be paved. The colors simply indicate whether the paving is in concert with a water project, sewer project or straight out of the liquid fuels fund.

Pottstown has 70 miles of streets and 15 miles of alleys. Ten miles of those roads are state roads.

And between now and Oct. 30, about four miles of them are going to be paved.

At least that's what I Tweeted from Monday's council meeting.

The borough has since posted this map on its web site, indicating all the streets that will be re-paved, either as the result of a water line project, a sewer line project, or just straight paving (hence the different colors).

It looks like more than 3.95 miles to me, which is what I saw at the bottom of a list of the streets to be paved, so maybe I was looking at the wrong list.

Some of the re-paving will follow water or sewer line
replacements, 

like this one on High Street last year.

Anyhoo, people complain on The Mercury's Facebook page all the time about the condition of the roads in town, so it occurred to me you might be interested in the fact that some of them are going to get better.

I also Tweeted to check the borough web site for a list, but I couldn't find one, so, my bad.

If you can't make out whether your street is getting paved from the map above, you can check it out on the borough web site by clicking here, where it can be enlarged.

The bid for the overlay paving was awarded to  Joseph E. Sucher and Sons, Inc., of Eddystone, in the amount of $742,446 according to the bid, which is now linked to the on-line agenda for the council meeting (a feature I am LOVING by the way).

Council also award the bid for street painting to A-1 Traffic Control of Douglassville in the amount of $8,200.

Then there is the $83,650 bid that council awarded to Trenchless Line Co. of Bridgeport for manhole rehabilitation,

And don't forget the $63,193 bid they awarded to Cleaver Cable Construction Inc. of Glenolden for clean and televise sewer lines and you've got a grand total of $897,489 being spent to improve the streets (above and below) in this humble borough.

If you're still having trouble figuring out if the paver is coming your way, contact the borough council member in your ward. They LOVE answering questions like this.

Free Classes through Pottstown Library

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by Pottstown Regional Public Library.

Pottstown Regional Public Library announces that Pottstown library card holders now have free access to over 500 online continuing education courses through a new online learning tool called Universal Class.

Courses are led by expert instructors. Topics include business, office skills, web development, arts and photography, alternative medicine, crafts, pet and animal care, home and garden, teacher tools, writing help, self-help, homeschooling and more. 

The menu of courses includes something for everyone, including homeschoolers, adults getting ready for GED exams, business start-ups, job seekers, and business owners.

Quick Facts about Universal Class:

• · You will need a Pottstown Regional Public Library card and a valid e-mail address to create a Universal Class account.
• · Access your courses 24/7 via the Internet.
• · Attend class and do assignments on your schedule.
• · You have up to 6 months to finish each course.
• · Each course has a real instructor with whom you may communicate using e-mail.

For those considering a new career or job opportunity, Universal Class offers Continuing Education Units (CEUs), which are accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training. 

It also provides printable certificates documenting the completion of courses. For employers, this service offers the ability to upgrade staff skills and receive documentation that the training was completed satisfactorily.

Free access to the Universal Class is made possible by the generosity of the Friends of the Pottstown Regional Public Library.

Universal Class joins a menu of free digital services available to the Pottstown Regional Public Library cardholder from home, in the office, or on the road, including Brainfuse Homework Help, JobNow, Freegal Music, Mango Languages, Zinio Magazines, Overdrive e-Books and Audiobooks, Tumblebooks for Kids, and more. Two special digital resources (the Foundation Directory and Ancestry.com) are available in the Library. 

Check out the Virtual Branch of the Pottstown Regional Public Library at http://ppl.mclinc.org/.

Get ready to learn something new! Register at http://pottstownpa.universalclass.com/

About Universal Class:Universal Class, Inc. [also known as UniversalClass™ or UniversalClass.com™] is an education technology company that provides online services to schools, corporations, organizations, educators, and students throughout the world. It aims to advance intellectual exchange in teaching, research, and service with its technology and belief that education should be affordable to all people of all cultures.

With a Little Help from Their Friends

Julie and Alden Lanphear

I've written uncounted obituaries in my time as a reporter, but there is one that sticks out in my mind -- the one for Alden Lanphear.

I remember it not because it was particularly well written, but because of the person I was writing about.

Alden died in 2011, at the age of 74, after a lifetime of helping others.

For 39 years, he was the executive director of Woodrock Inc., the non-profit organization that brought urban youth from Philadelphia to Fellowship Farm in Limerick.

He was also tapped to keep the Cluster Outreach Center going as interim director when they were undergoing a (successful) change in leadership.

Knowing Alden for years, as a result of covering organizations with which he was involved, I also got to know his wife Julie very well.

In fact, there was little Alden did that Julie was not also intimately connected with. They were a real team.

And beyond those they helped in the community, that included their family, two sons and five daughters.

One of those daughters, Jody, has cerebral palsy and lives in a facility that cares for her in Media.

Jody on an outing.

But Julie and Jody's siblings visit often and take her home or on outings -- or at least they did, until the handicapped van they used to transport Jody went "kaput," as Michael Lanphear wrote on www.gofundme.com 

That's where he and his family are trying to raise $10,000 to buy a replacement van, which they have identified.

"Jody is 40 years old with cerebral palsy, which has left her wheel-chair bound, but for us and those who know Jody, we know that this chick likes to get out and do her thing," Michael wrote on the site.

"My Mom -Julie Lanphear is now the sole caretaker of my sister Jody," Debi Rutkowski, Jody's sister, wrote to me in an e-mail. "Her van just died and now she has no way to get Jody home for short visits or even on an outing from the facility she lives in."

I have written a few appeals before. 

I'm a little wary as The Mercury has been scammed at least twice that I know of by people who claimed to have needs, problems and even diseases they didn't have.

But I know the Lanphears and that is not the case here.

I also know all the help the Lanphears offered to others, which made them very happy, did not make them rich.

So it is without reservation that I ask for anyone who is so inclined to make a contribution on the funding site the family has set up through gofundme.com -- http://www.gofundme.com/aqtdt8 -- and make a contribution if you can, so Julie can bring her daughter home.