Complaints

The squeaky taxpayers get the salt. That's one way the city Streets Department determines where to send salt trucks, after first making sure that major streets are cleared to accommodate heavy traffic and public transportation. "We've had thousands of complaints already and as long as we get complaints, we keep responding," said Kevin Koch, acting chief of highway engineering for the Streets Department. Koch said his office has received a number of calls from residents in northwest Philadelphia who complained that their streets had not been salted.

Monroe Township Mayor Carmen DiNovi will meet with the Township Council, Parks and Recreation Commission members and school and civic association representatives at 7 p.m. Thursday at Pfeiffer Community Center, Main Street and Blue Bell Roads, to discuss the future of the town's parks and recreation system. About a half-dozen residents complained about the township's Parks and Recreation Commission and related activities at the June 1 council meeting. Such complaints have become commonplace in recent months.

For leaders of Center City's First Unitarian Church, it was a remarkable directive. "Cease maintaining a place of public assembly for the entertainment of guests and patrons without a zoning and/or use registration permit," the city Department of Licenses & Inspections told the church in a "site violation" notice. Does that mean no wedding receptions, no birthday parties, no Easter egg hunts? How about bake sales, flea markets or, heaven forbid, a covered-dish supper? Not exactly.

After living the last year in what he says has been a constant traffic jam caused by a local plumbing firm, Burlington City resident Gene Massini says he has had enough. Massini and 20 other residents who live on Belgrade Avenue, asked Burlington City Council to do something about the traffic problems created by trucks entering and leaving the Burlington County Plumbing Supply Co. at 1311 Belgrade Ave. Residents told the council Jan. 12 that the trucks have caused traffic problems and an unsafe and unsightly environment for their children.

In its first official meeting of the new year, the Haverford Township Board of Commissioners heard complaints Monday night about its lack of progress on two potentially hazardous problems of long standing in the township. It also postponed action that had been scheduled on ordinances governing the height of fences and the use of satellite dishes. Complaints centered on an abandoned house at 109 County Line Road, which has been vacant for about six years, and on the Llanerch Quarry, where flooding has further eroded stone walls in the creek bed of Naylor's Run. Peter Moor, who lives near the abandoned house, which is on County Line Road, adjacent to the polo field, called the site "a hazard waiting for a tragedy to take place.

For the last two years, Art Linkletter has sung the praises of the Contour chair. He has one himself, he tells his television audience, and he says he enjoys it. And if a viewer wants to buy one, the manufacturer may throw in a TV, VCR or microwave. Other television spots have extolled the virtues of the Craftmatic adjustable beds. Both the bed and the chair, their makers say, are designed to reduce tension and enhance relaxation. Behind those advertising campaigns, however, Craftmatic/Contour Industries Inc., the Trevose manufacturer of adjustable beds and chairs, has been fighting a barrage of complaints.

I cannot believe that the mayor is going to appoint his wife to a position in the city of Philadelphia. What has me annoyed is that there are many people looking for work who need a job to pay their bills and have no other income - just let them try to get a city job. Maryann Zindell, Philadelphia Fie on Fidel . . . I find it hard to believe how Michael Smerconish can come off like a "kid in a candy shop" regarding his visit with...

Angered by an incident in which the failure of a walkie-talkie reportedly endangered the life of a police officer, the union representing Deptford Township's 43 police officers has drawn up a list of complaints that it plans to present to the Township Council within the next two weeks. Wayne Quesada, president of Lodge 72 of the Fraternal Order of Police, met with union members last week to formulate the list. Quesada said it includes complaints that rechargeable walkie-talkies remain charged for transmission for only about 20 minutes, and that there are a shortage of police cars, a lack of maintenance for weapons and insufficient training for officers.

WYSP-FM's (94.1) Howard Stern has some explaining to do. Or least his lawyers do. On Thursday, the FCC fined four radio stations $20,000 apiece and announced it was investigating four others on complaints of indecency. Not fined, but among those being investigated is WXRK-FM in New York, the 'YSP sister station from which Stern broadcasts his morning show. At issue is a skit Stern did Dec. 16 - which aired on 'YSP - that prompted eight letters of complaint to the FCC, mainly for his use of the word penis.

The district attorney's office received more than four times as many complaints of balloting irregularities yesterday as during last year's primary, some requiring further investigation, a spokesman said last night. "A lot of these complaints are polling-place bickering and that is supposed to be typical of committeeman elections," said the spokesman, Charles Cunningham. About 4,000 committee races also were on the primary ballot, along with major contests like governor. Cunningham said the complaints were "spread throughout the city, one here, two there," and Frederick L. Voigt, executive-secretary of the Committee of Seventy, a political watchdog group, said the alleged irregularities did not appear to be "part of a pattern or conspiracy.