The Sanatoga Post

PASSING ON HIS KNOWLEDGE – Nick Duchan, director of land surveying for Bursich Associates, 2129 E. High St., Sanatoga PA, was a guest speaker Nov. 10 (2010) to dozens of students during the annual Career Round Table presented at the Reading-Muhlenberg Career and Technology Center and organized by the Homebuilders Association of Berks County. Duchan discussed land surveying and engineering as a career option. The event each year schedules experts in various fields to offer hands-on knowledge to students intended to help prepare them for future trade careers. Bursich, founded in 1972, is an engineering, planning, and land surveying firm.

IT BRR-WHITENED THE HOLIDAY – The first snowfall of the 2010 winter season in Lower Pottsgrove PA Township fell Thursday morning (Nov. 25, 2010; Thanksgiving Day) at about 9:45 a.m.

Weather forecasters had predicted the day would be cold enough for either snow or sleet, and there would be plenty of moisture in the air to make them possible. They were right on both counts. The first flakes seen in Sanatoga fell across a weathered wooden railing, left, where the colors of fall still clung to trees in the background.

Within only 10 minutes more, the accumulation was heavy enough to give cars and their windshields, at top, a coating of white.

WE WISH YOU ABUNDANCE – It’s Thanksgiving Day, and as it has for the past two years The Post again will take a 24-hour break to enjoy this holiday with family and friends. We are thankful for many things, and most certainly among them you, our readers. Please accept our best wishes for you and yours: love deeply, eat heartily, drive carefully, drink moderately, cheer loudly! We’ll have fresh news for you bright and early Friday morning.

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Bozo The Clown.

SANATOGA PA – As a reader , you may be asking “what the heck is this?” And, of course, we’re prepared to answer.

The 12-digit mix of numerals and capital letters you see above is a unique code, assigned Wednesday (Nov. 24, 2010) to The Sanatoga Post, to verify its identity to an Internet rating service called Technorati. The Post’s parent company, Career Education Media Ventures of Sanatoga, uses several such services to gauge the size and interests of its audiences. That information is among the things Post advertisers demand to know to ensure they’re spending ad dollars wisely.

The code is Technorati’s way of determining we’re the Bozos still running the operation, and not some other Bozos.

So how do we rate? Pretty well. Technorati as of Nov. 15 (2010) provided rankings for 1,246,913 blogs. Of those, The Sanatoga Post was rated No. 8,054, and its companion publication, The Limerick Post, was rated No. 8,653. Both are within the Top 1 percent of all Technorati-rated sites.

Both also are far below the Technorati’s Top 100, but just give us time …

Photo from The Huffington Post

POTTSTOWN PA – Television, print and online news services say a 19-year-old man was arrested Wednesday (Nov. 24, 2010) in the Sunday (Nov. 21) shooting on Rowan Alley, Pottstown PA, of a boy said to be living in the Rolling Hills community off Buchert Road, Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township. Here’s what’s being reported:

Montco man, 19, charged with shooting, wounding boy (Philadelphia PA Inquirer)
A 19-year-old man has been arrested on charges of shooting and critically wounding a 14-year-old boy on Pottstown on Sunday, authorities said today.

Man Arrested In Shooting Of Boy, 14 (WFMZ-TV, Allentown PA)
Donte Marcellus Banks was picked up Wednesday morning and charged with attempted homicide and assault. A judge set his bail at $500,000.

Suspected shooter: ‘I did it ’cause I had to’ (Pottstown PA Mercury)
With Video. The cause of the shooting was unknown as of Wednesday morning.

Related:

• Reportage And Commentary On Sunday’s Pottstown Shooting

We'll shop for more gifts during 2010, according to Deloitte.

POTTSTOWN PA – Here’s good news sure to warm the hearts of merchants across Lower Pottsgrove and Limerick (PA) Townships and the borough of Pottstown: a new survey says shoppers in the greater Philadelphia area this year will outspend their national counterparts on holiday gifts.

There is, however, another shoe to drop. The same survey says greater Philadelphia residents will spend less on the holidays overall, even if the gifts they buy are pricier.

Shoppers across the region are expected to spend an average of $530 on gifts during 2010, compared to a national average of $466, according to an annual holiday survey by the business consulting firm of Deloitte and Touche. Its conclusions were the subject of an article Monday (Nov. 22, 2010) in the Philadelphia Business Journal.

They’ll also buy more gifts, 18.6 gifts to be exact, compared to the national average of 16.8 gifts.

Regional residents are cautious of overspending, though, the study noted. Consequently, for holiday spending overall, they will shell out a little less – $1,091 this season – than the national average of $1,160.

Need motivation to start shopping? Remember …

• At Coventry Mall in North Coventry PA: Although it’s closed Thanksgiving Day, mall stores will be open on Black Friday (Nov. 26) from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday (Nov. 27) from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday (Nov. 28) from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. See its calendar of other holiday hours here.

• At Upland Square shopping center in West Pottsgrove PA: Days and hours will vary by store. Check the hours for its major tenants, Target, Giant and Best Buy.

• At Philadelphia Premium Outlets in Limerick PA: Some stores will open as early as 9 p.m. Thanksgiving night (Nov. 25); others will open at 10 p.m., and still others at 11 p.m. Every store in the outlet center will be open at midnight on Black Friday, and remain open until 10 p.m. Then, Saturday hours will run from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

• Patronize small business owners too. Many local retailers in Lower Pottsgrove, Limerick and downtown Pottstown are advertising terrific buys, and some items they carry won’t be found at bigger stores.

Jimmy Case.

POTTSTOWN PA – Just one short year after a tragic automobile accident took the life of Pottsgrove High School student and lacrosse stand-out Andrew Case, his younger brother Jimmy – a Pottsgrove sophomore – tried to impress coaches last weekend (Nov. 20, 2010) during the Philly Showcase for lacrosse at Episcopal Academy. He did well enough to be named to the all-star sophomore game. And yes, he said, he knows he made his brother proud.

Jimmy Case’s story of triumph following his family’s sorrow, and his obvious love for his brother, was the subject of a detailed story written by Chris Goldberg and published Monday (Nov. 22, 2010) by PhillyLacrosse.com.

Read the story, titled “Case (Pottsgrove) keeps playing with his late brother close to heart,” here.

Related:

• Pottsgrove’s Jimmy Case Keeps His Late Brother At Heart
• Perhaps, Further Closure
• School District Praised For Accident Response
• Funeral Services Set For Accident Victims
• Pottsgrove Student Accident Widely Covered
• Social Media Reflects Sorrow And Loss

POTTSTOWN PA – Local churches and charitable organizations want to help western Montgomery County consumers get a head start on their holiday shopping, with bazaars, fairs and shows that offer a variety of crafts, foods and other goods. The following is a list of what The Post has been advised is open this weekend (Nov. 26-28, 2010) and in weeks ahead.

• As a service to both our readers and organizers, The Post is publishing this list every Wednesday through the end of the 2010 show season … whenever that may be. Got an appropriate event to add?; e-mail details to The Post.

Be aware: most events start early in the morning and end by mid-afternoon. If you’re going to several in one day, plan a route accordingly.

Friday, Nov. 26

The 21st annual “Season’s Best Craft Festival” will be held Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the social hall of the Gilbertsville Fire Company, 1456 E. Philadelphia Ave., Gilbertsville PA. The event features more than 70 tables of craft vendors, and has no admission fee. Proceeds benefit area youth programs. For more information, call 610-367-9857.

Saturday, Nov. 27

Crafters and other vendors can showcase and sell their products in time for the Christmas holiday at the Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Community Christmas bazaar, to be held Nov. 27 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Blessed Teresa Education Center, Swamp Pike and Nieffer Road, Limerick PA. Vendors may reserve a 6-foot or 8-foot table space, with electricity available upon request. For more information, call 610-287-2525.

Photo from Clipart.com

LAHASKA PA – Residents of Pottstown and Limerick PA were among those named last week as winners or finishers in the 30th annual Gingerbread House Competition and Display presented by the Bucks County PA entertainment and shopping center known as Peddler’s Village, at the intersection of U.S. Route 202 and Street Road in Lahaska PA.

Second-place winner in the “traditional” category was Dorian O’Connell of Pottstown. Honorable mention finisher in the “student” category was Mekhi Jackson of Limerick PA. Their entries, and all those of other contestants, will be on public display at the center through Jan. 1 (2011).

The pair was among the more than 30 named winners and honorees in the competition that distributed more than $4,000 in cash prizes.

The 42-acre, 18th Century-style shopping plaza holds several seasonal events like the gingerbread contest throughout the year. For more information, call 215-794-4000.

Photo from Clipart.com

POTTSTOWN PA – Only the first 45 seconds of this more than 12-minute flight video has relevance to Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township and Pottstown PA area residents, but think of it as a starting point to your own personal game of “WazzThat?”

A traveler from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, flying to San Francisco CA, shot a video through his cabin window earlier this fall as the jet on which he was a passenger followed the Schuylkill River for awhile and flew over Limerick, Pottstown, Birdsboro, Reading, Palmyra, and Harrisburg PA, and beyond. The piece was posted last Tuesday (Nov. 16, 2010) on YouTube.

Planes stacked up on a take-off runway at JFK Airport in New York.

To play the game watch the video, stopping it every few seconds. Find a landmark that probably is familiar from ground level but might not seem so in an aerial view, and answer the question, “what’s that?”

Send The Post an e-mail and tell us what you found.

• Watch the video, above, or see it at the YouTube account of backpacktrot.

Photo from Panoramio.com