Relocation

This letter is in reference to the Oct. 4 editorial "Send Roxborough Deer North," in which the writer proposes that overpopulated deer at Schuylkill Valley Nature Center be moved to northern Pennsylvania, where they will disappear into the woodwork, or into the woods in this case. The editorial is written quite authoritatively, but the writer is neither an authority on relocation nor did he do much research. Fortunately, others have considered relocation and done research.

RE YOUR Nov. 18 article "Blight fight targeting occupied homes": The story was correct that only 2 percent of the properties scheduled to be acquired through the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative will require the relocation of residents. Indeed, one of the principles the city has followed in identifying properties for acquisition is to minimize the need for relocation. In those few cases where it is required, the city is committed (and the Redevelopment Authority is required by federal law)

Traffic again was a major topic of concern at the Pennsbury Township Board of Supervisors meeting. The board Monday discussed relocating Chandler Road so traffic would be rerouted to enter U.S. Route 1 at a safer intersection. Chandler Road connects Route 1 with Pennsbury Way West. The proposal would close the Chandler Road-Route 1 intersection, and Chandler Road would be relocated to meet Pennsbury Way West at a point closer to Route 1. Traffic could then cross Route 1 at Pennsbury Way West, where there is a traffic light.

Options Inc., a Philadelphia career-counseling service, has been selected to provide job-hunting assistance to spouses of Eastman Kodak Co. employees who will be transferred to the area to work for the company's new pharmaceutical division. David M. Rapp of Kodak's corporate personnel-relocation department said the company decided to offer the service because several employees who have been relocated in the past said they would have benefited from such assistance. Options has been helping spouses of workers who have moved to the Philadelphia area since the nonprofit organization opened in 1970.

This year's Academy Award-winning documentary, "Broken Rainbow" - the story of the forced relocation of more than 400 Navajo families - will be screened tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at the Friends Center, 1501 Cherry St. The relocation, the result of a 1974 law whose deadline in July 7, is "the largest (such) project since Japanese-Americans were interned at camps in World War II," according to Navajo spokesman Larry Anderson. The screening is a benefit presented by the Big Mountain Support Group of Greater Philadelphia.

The city breathed new life yesterday into its $45 million program to compensate owners of the hundreds of sinking homes in the Logan area. The boost for the troubled program came when the nonprofit Logan Assistance Corp., an arm of the city, hired a former federal official to manage the relocation effort. The agency also approved a $1 million contract with the city's Office of Housing and Community Development, clearing the way for the first payments to Logan-area homeowners displaced because of the poor soil conditions.

The growing number of companies moving from Center City and other parts of the country to eastern Montgomery County is prompting many real-estate firms to expand their relocation services. Merrill Lynch Realty announced last week that it had signed a lease on a new building that would double the size of its relocation office in Fort Washington. "The reason we needed to expand our Fort Washington service is because eastern Montgomery County is one of our biggest markets in the Philadelphia area," said Susan Pickett, a spokeswoman for Merrill Lynch.

Bringing up Kenny was always a full-time job, rife with worry and focused on the future. It is not much different now that he is an adult, a grown man with a child's mind. Twenty-five years ago, the thought of institutionalizing him appalled his parents. Last fall, the idea of deinstitutionalization was nearly as upsetting. "I was on pins and needles," Kathryn Myers said, recalling the period just before her son was moved from the Pennhurst Center - the Chester County complex for the mentally retarded that was ordered shut in a landmark 1985 court decision - to a CLA, a Community Living Arrangement.

Seventh and eighth graders from Carnell School in Northeast Philadelphia will be relocated from an annex to a former Catholic school in January because of structural concerns about the annex's facade, the Philadelphia School District announced Friday. The district said the Department of Licenses and Inspections had asked the district to vacate the annex at 901 Devereaux Ave. in Oxford Circle that houses the Carnell Middle Years Academy by Jan. 30. When seventh and eighth graders return from winter recess Jan. 2, they will attend classes at the former St. Bernard school at 7360 Jackson St. in Holmesburg.

NAACP President Jerome Mondesire waded into the decade-old morass of the sinking Logan homes yesterday and promptly started sinking into a nasty political swamp of his own. Standing at a press conference he had called on a corner of the 35-acre tract at Roosevelt Boulevard and 9th Street, Mondesire slammed city officials for their "foot-dragging" over the relocation of the remaining "100 families" in the sinking homes of Logan Triangle. He pledged to use all political and legal means to get the city moving.

NEW YORK - The busiest passenger train station in the United States is a 1960s-era, utilitarian labyrinth in the basement of a basketball arena. Pennsylvania Station, a gateway to the nation's biggest city, was designed to accommodate about 200,000 riders a day. Now, it is packed with more than 600,000. At rush hours, it resembles a human demolition derby. All it takes to strand hundreds of thousands of people is a glitch on one of only two tracks linking Manhattan to New Jersey under the Hudson River.

Brook Lopez had 28 points and 10 rebounds, Deron Williams added 23 points and 10 assists, and the host Brooklyn Nets beat Chicago, 110-91, on Monday night. The Bulls lead the best-of-seven series, three games to two. Andray Blatche scored 10 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter and Gerald Wallace had consecutive baskets down the stretch as the Nets finally pulled away in a game they led most of the way. The Bulls were outscored by 15-1 down the stretch and failed to set up a second-round series with Miami.

Starting Monday, the Rally high school sports pages will appear at the back of the "Local News" section of The Inquirer. Rally's online home will remain www.philly.com/rally .

The Port of Philadelphia will gain a shipping line when Horizon Lines Inc. moves its northeast terminal operations from Elizabeth, N.J., in April. The Charlotte, N.C.-based shipping company said Wednesday that the Philadelphia port would handle cargo arriving from its operations in Puerto Rico. Richard Rodriguez, general manager of Horizon's Puerto Rican operations, said in a statement that the company expected the relocation to produce "significant advantages," including faster transit and turnaround times, and expedited cargo inspections.

The last seven days of news from the region's life-sciences industry was a mix of messages involving expansion, succession, relocation, contraction, and conclusion. Iroko Pharmaceuticals L.L.C. cemented its reputation as a company to watch Wednesday when it celebrated the opening of its new offices at the Navy Yard in South Philadelphia. Begun by veterans of the region's Big Pharma companies, Iroko has grown over the last five years to employ about 60 and could triple the number working in its new 56,412-square-foot building over the next few years.

Seventh and eighth graders from Carnell School in Northeast Philadelphia will be relocated from an annex to a former Catholic school in January because of structural concerns about the annex's facade, the Philadelphia School District announced Friday. The district said the Department of Licenses and Inspections had asked the district to vacate the annex at 901 Devereaux Ave. in Oxford Circle that houses the Carnell Middle Years Academy by Jan. 30. When seventh and eighth graders return from winter recess Jan. 2, they will attend classes at the former St. Bernard school at 7360 Jackson St. in Holmesburg.

The Whole Foods Market next to the Barnes Foundation near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway has signed a lease to relocate to an undisclosed new location near its existing store at 20th and Callowhill Streets by 2017, the company announced Wednesday. The grocer did not disclose an address for what it described in a news release as an eventual 55,000-square-foot mixed-use development "a short distance away" on three acres. "The exact address cannot be disclosed at this time per the developer," said Whole Foods spokeswoman Defausha Hampton in an e-mail exchange.

PennDOT will close the Platt Bridge from 9:30 tonight through 5:30 Friday morning for expansion joint replacement and concrete barrier relocation. PennDOT says detours around the bridge will be posted. The work is part of the $43 million project to restore the bridge and keep it open for another 30 years.

A proposed new safety rule requiring Pennsylvania utilities to move some residential gas meters from basements to exterior walls has triggered anxiety among preservationists, who fear a proliferation of unsightly devices on urban streets. Scores of commentators representing historical societies, neighborhood associations, and preservation commissions have submitted objections to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. The Independent Regulatory Review Commission, the state's advisory panel on new regulations, on Aug. 15 found so many faults with the PUC's proposal that it suggested the agency withdraw the plan.

Are the Sacramento Kings headed east? Inside Business of Norfolk, Va., citing sources who asked not to be identified, reported Thursday that Virginia Beach, Va., officials and the Maloof family, owner of the Kings, are expected to announce on Wednesday that the Kings will move to Virginia Beach. The report did not say when the relocation was to take place. How such a move would affect the NBA is unclear. The Kings play in the Pacific Division, and it's unlikely they would remain there if they moved to Virginia.