Ben Franklin

Benjamin Franklin has a special meaning for the people of Philadelphia. Because he spent the first half of his adult life here, he has always been identified with the city. Philadelphia owes much to Franklin, for almost single-handedly he made it the most enlightened city in 18th-century North America. No civic project was too large or too small for his attention. He maintained the best newspaper and almanac in North America here. He organized a subscription-lending library, the Library Company.

City Council, after rejecting the school district's pleas for more tax dollars in May, has decided to take a more personal approach to improving education: Yesterday, amid fanfare, it "adopted" Benjamin Franklin High School. As part of the district's adopt-a-school program, in which businesses, organizations and individuals establish programs in schools and work with students, Franklin's student government will have access to Council. Students will work as Council interns and attend legislative sessions monthly.

Clearly, Ben Franklin was having a ball. There he sat at a table in what can only be described as a speakeasy, watching a couple of flappers dance the Charleston while a third whispered sweet somethings into his ear. When the music stopped (the number was "I Want to Be Loved by You"), Ben Franklin, eyes a-twinkle, thumped the stage with his cane and cried, "More!" Never satisfied. Things haven't changed a bit with Old Ben. This was Friday at the Mummers Museum, Second Street and Washington Avenue, where the company of a revue called Philadelphia Melody was going through a touch-up rehearsal for today's opening performance.

Ol' Ben's lost his head. "Yup, Ben Franklin is history," says Steve Meyer, building manager of the Forney Transportation Museum in downtown Denver. On Wednesday, bandits broke into the Forney's wax museum and ran off with the heads of Ben Franklin and the lesser-known William MacLeod Raine (writer of rip-roaring Westerns). Going West, young man, has its perils. The museum has posted a reward: $500 for information leading to the capture and conviction of the marauders, who also made off with a skull used in part of the "Colorado Maneater" exhibit.

History books describe Benjamin Franklin as a short, stout, balding and bespectacled man who discovered electricity. He also is known as the author of Poor Richard's Almanac, as a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution and as the face on the $50 bill. Few would think of him as a magician. But George Hample, Ben Franklin impersonator, does. Hample, who described himself as fifty-something, has been impersonating Franklin for three years and practicing magic for 40. The full-time graphic artist spends his evenings, weekends and some vacation time portraying Franklin in about 20 shows a year.

The Philadelphia Public League basketball season will be marked this year by two major differences. One is the three-point shot, which takes effect this season after being successfully tried out in the Catholic League. The second is that Southern High is not considered a championship favorite. The Rams, who are coming off two straight Public League titles, lost their first eight players from last season, and that has left coach Mitch Schneider in a realistic frame of mind.

Ben Franklin boys' basketball coach Pete Merlino, 53, a well-liked and well-respected fixture in the Public League through the 1980s and '90s, died yesterday at Hahnemann University Hospital, two days after suffering a heart attack. "It's a terrible shock and a terrible blow to all of us," Ben Franklin principal John Chapman said. "He was greatly admired and loved by a lot of folks. We are going to miss him terribly. " Mr. Merlino was in his first year of coaching the Electrons after spending the previous 15 seasons at Franklin Learning Center.

With his high school coaches, his friends and his mother at his side, Alex Wesby announced his decision yesterday to continue his basketball career at Temple University. One of the city's top prospects, Wesby, the slender and fluid 6-foot-6 swingman who led Ben Franklin to its first Public League title since 1984, had attracted many offers and made visits to Siena, Massachusetts, Tulane and St. Bonaventure before signing with Temple. "I was up really late last night, probably midnight, before I decided," Wesby said at a news conference yesterday at Ben Franklin.

Last year at this time, the Crystal Ballroom of the old Benjamin Franklin Hotel was merely a memory. Developers had converted it to ordinary office space. But today, the ballroom is back, resurrected because of pressure from the National Park Service. The park service notified the hotel's developers that unless the ballroom, as well as the original bronze finish on the building's exterior, was restored to its previous appearance, the Ben Franklin rehabilitation effort would be declared ineligible for $11 million in federal tax credits.

Anyone who has scraped paint knows what a messy job it is, but imagine how tricky it is to contend with a suspension bridge with as many as 20 coats of the brittle stuff dating back to 1927, much of it laced with lead. The Delaware River Port Authority is learning how big a task lies ahead now that a contractor has completed stripping and repainting a 150-foot section of the 7,456-foot-long Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Consider one number: Workers removed 60 tons - 120,000 pounds - of lead paint from the 50-yard stretch on the Camden side of the river, said Paul Drayton, the bistate agency's chief executive officer.

Transit and bicycle advocates supported a revised proposal Tuesday for a walkway without switchbacks on the Camden end of the Ben Franklin Bridge. The cost estimate of the no-switchback option has been reduced to $2.9 million, engineers said at a public session Tuesday evening at the Camden headquarters of the Delaware River Port Authority, which owns the bridge and will build the ramp. The estimate had been $3.7 million. Two other ramp options, one with three switchbacks (estimated cost $2.8 million)

KEVIN METZ says in a letter that the governor's comments are taken out of context and he doesn't mean what most people (probably Democrats) think he means. So, Kevin, what do you think he really meant when he cut food stamps for the poor? What do you think he really meant when he cut school funding? What do you think he really meant when he endorsed the voter-ID law? What do you think he really meant when he said he wouldn't endorse any taxes on the gas-drilling companies? What do you think he really meant by rejecting funding from the federal government for medical-insurance costs?

AFTER 9/11, cities across the country banned under-bridge parking, worried a bomb- or bazooka-wielding zealot would take one out. Nearly 12 years later, such fears have eased enough that some cities - including Philly - have mulled reopening the areas for public access. Delaware River Port Authority officials met a few months ago to consider allowing commuters to park under the Ben Franklin Bridge, as they did before 9/11. Now, a DRPA spokesman says parking under the bridge is unlikely - but not abandoned altogether - because of liability, security and financial concerns.

A New Jersey-bound PATCO train filled with pre-St. Patrick's Day revelers - many reportedly inebriated - became disabled on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday, stranding passengers for more than an hour. The riders were picked up by a second train at about 7:30 p.m., said PATCO spokesman Tim Ireland. The disabled train was still was on the bridge into the late evening. The cause of the malfunction is being investigated. "It was the impression of the police I spoke with that there were a number of well-lubricated passengers on the train," Ireland said.

Three switchbacks? One switchback? No switchbacks? Those are the choices for a planned pedestrian ramp on the Camden side of the Ben Franklin Bridge, as outlined for the Delaware River Port Authority board Wednesday. All three of the alternatives would allow wheelchair users, as well as cyclists and walkers, to use the walkway on the south side of the 1.5-mile-long bridge. Currently, the walkway on the Camden end of the bridge ends in a steep staircase with 39 steps.

Ever since the Parkway opened nearly a century ago, Philadelphians have been trying to figure out how to fix it. The grand diagonal that slices from City Hall to the Art Museum is famously modeled on Paris' Champs-Elysees, but the Benjamin Franklin Parkway is no urbane boulevardier's paradise, especially west of the traffic circle we nostalgically insist on calling Logan Square. The crowds thin dramatically as the blocks grow dull and empty. The mere act of crossing from Eakins Oval to the Art Museum steps remains one of Philadelphia's signature terrors.

THE BEN FRANKLIN Parkway, already on a hot streak, will see even more updates by the time Mayor Nutter leaves office. The city Department of Parks and Recreation on Monday will release a plan called "More Park, Less Way: An Action Plan to Increase Urban Vibrancy on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. " An agency spokesman said Tuesday that the title is suggestive of what the public can expect to be unveiled. "We heard from many in the community and specifically those neighborhoods that are adjacent to the Parkway," spokesman Patrick Morgan said.

Should motorists pay less to cross the Delaware on the underused Betsy Ross Bridge than on the crowded Ben Franklin? Should drivers on the spans once again get an E-ZPass discount? Should PATCO passengers pay higher fares to cover more of the trains' costs? Leaders of the Delaware River Port Authority will consider "more sophisticated" fare and toll structures for the agency's bridges and PATCO among other options as they plan DRPA's future, Board Chairman David Simon said.

David Johnson set a Communications Tech single-game record with 33 points in a 69-47 nonleague victory over visiting Ben Franklin on Friday. The senior broke the record of 32 established by Scootie Randall in 2008. Randall is a senior on the Temple team. As a senior at Communications Tech, Randall led the Phoenix to a Public League title and finished as the program's career scoring leader. Communications Tech led by 22-5 after one quarter and cruised to the win. Ben Franklin 5 17 12 13 - 47 Communications Tech 22 11 19 17 - 69 BF: Amir Crippen 7, Anthony Darden 8, Quahdir Devine 14, Bycil Elliott 2, Derrick Gant 1, N.Young 5, Emmanuel Young 10. CT: Briheam Anthony 9, Terrence Brown 10, Kevin Brown 4, Samir Doughty 9, Nyfis Humbert 2, David Johnson 33, Mohamed Sherif 2. Contact the Rally staff at rallysports@phillynews.com .