Community

Two days before the School Reform Commission was scheduled to vote on closing Beeber Middle School, parent Katherine Stokes' phone rang. Beeber had been spared. Bowing to concerns about safety and a lack of choice for families, Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. rescinded the recommendation Tuesday. Officials will instead work with the community to explore developing an arts academy to attract more students to the school. "We're just utilizing the recommendations that the community put forward," Hite said.

One in a continuing series spotlighting the real estate market in this region's communities.   Whoever coined the phrase "You can't get there from here" overlooked Mount Laurel. One of the township's selling points to home builders and buyers alike has long been its accessibility to everywhere: Center City via Route 38 and the High-Speed Line's Woodcrest Station; the rest of New Jersey, New York, and Delaware on the turnpike and I-295; and Northeast Philadelphia and the Atlantic City Expressway by way of Route 73. Many of South Jersey's major employers are located here - PHH Mortgage is the largest, with 4,800 workers - and the transient workforce population is estimated at 60,000.

Recently, this space has been devoted to reader complaints that builders of over-55 housing aren't meeting the physical and financial needs of aging baby boomers. It's a discussion that was initiated a few weeks ago by a reader who was disappointed by what she considered to be the options the market offered. In response, I received more than 100 e-mails and calls supporting her observations, some of which I quoted in a subsequent column. The result of that, of course, was 150 more e-mails.

Joseph W. Strode Jr., 83, of West Chester, an acclaimed community worker, died of a kidney ailment Monday, April 8, at Chester County Hospital. Mr. Strode was the third-generation partner in Strode's Sausage & Scrapple, a business in West Chester that his grandfather started in 1876. The family had the distinction of operating one of the original booths in the Reading Terminal Market. He sold out in the 1980s. The son of Ethel and Joseph Strode, Mr. Strode spent his life in West Chester.

Its website has a new look, Twitter and Facebook are getter ever-higher profiles, and now the Upper Darby Township Police Department has signed on to Nixle, an instant-alert system that has gained popularity around the country. "Social media is a big thing," said Upper Darby Capt. Anthony Paparo, adding that it's a high-tech version of an old concept: community policing. The department also has set up an email address for crime tips. Nixle essentially is an electronic community bulletin board that can target alerts and advisories all the way to the block level, Pararo said.

A couple of teenage pals named Jack and Chester kicked off spring and kicked up some dust in a gritty Trenton neighborhood Tuesday. The handsome pair of Belgian draft horses pulled a plow that furrowed the earth in the Garden of Three Points, delighting Gene Roberson and others eager for the start of planting season. "Watermelon, peanuts, field peas, collards, mustard greens, squash," said Roberson, 74, describing typical crops he'll be putting in "around Mother's Day, when the ground'll be good and warm.

GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. officially opened its soaring glass Navy Yard building on Saturday, but the pharmaceutical giant was already embarked on a street-level project to help it connect with consumers of its medicines, toothpaste and other products - its Healthy Communities initiative. Philadelphia, St. Louis and Denver are cities in which Glaxo and the Atlantic magazine have hosted leaders of community groups that directly or indirectly help people with health care. While not exactly alike, each city faces problems of aging populations with chronic diseases, bulging waistlines and shrinking budgets.

Temple University Health System said it established an Institute for Population Health to put under one umbrella numerous existing efforts to move health care into the community.   Among the programs being moved to the institute is the training of community health workers, who work to reduce readmissions and unnecessary visits to the emergency room, said Paula Stillman, Temple vice president of health care services and director of the institute.   A second class of 30 community health workers is scheduled to start training in May. Another program is a Transition Center, which ensures that primary care physicians are notified when one of their patients comes to the ER or is admitted to the hospital, among other things, Stillman said.