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.

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.

Tempers flared as about 100 Woodbury residents packed the Gloucester County Courthouse last night, saying the recent relocation of the county's Adult Probation Department has brought a "criminal element" into their neighborhood. Appearing before a meeting of the Gloucester County Board of Chosen Freeholders, residents and community leaders said they had no warning of the relocation, which took effect about a month ago. The probation department was moved four blocks - from Broad Street, which is a main thoroughfare, to a county-owned brick building on Glover Street near Lincoln Street, in a residential area.

The communications center, on Egg Harbor Road, handles requests for firefighters and EMS services for 37 county towns and police services for 32 towns, Keashen said. Other employees remained in the center and dispatchers returned to the building in about an hour, he said. The electrical problem in the server room occurred shortly before 1 p.m. and did not cause a fire, Keashen said. Employees went through a drill in March that simulated a similar scenario, he said. Contact Darran Simon at 856-779-3829 or dsimon@phillynews.com.

Forty-four percent of corporate executives surveyed by Atlas Van Lines believe the economy will improve in 2012, the moving company said Wednesday. Of 360 executives completing the first-quarter survey, 26 percent said their firms plan to relocate more workers this year than last, while 86 percent of companies will spend as much or more on relocation in 2012 than in 2011. After progressively declining over the past two years, 65 percent of firms are offering relocated employees full reimbursement, far more often than lump sum or partial reimbursement, the Atlas survey showed.

Because of structural problems at Bayard Taylor Elementary School, about 400 of its students spent the day at Roberto Clemente Middle School. Whether the situation will continue Tuesday or beyond depends on the conclusions of a damage report expected late afternoon, according to school district spokesman Fernando Gallard. Loosened bricks were falling from an exterior wall, probably because of water intrusion, so buses transported students from Taylor this morning and were to return them for dismissal at the end of the day. he said.

Getting justice for the victims of childhood sexual abuse in Philadelphia might have gotten a little easier Tuesday. In what he called a "major announcement" for the city, Mayor Nutter signed a bill that will relocate the Police Department's Special Victims Unit, the Department of Human Services' Sexual Abuse Investigations Unit, and the Philadelphia Children's Alliance to a single facility on Hunting Park Avenue in North Philadelphia. "This is one step to making city government more efficient, and I would say more humane and sensitive to the victims of abuse," Nutter said.

What happened to the homeless people who were evicted from under Interstate 95 in Port Richmond last week? The Daily News touched base with four of them Monday. Three were staying in shelters Monday night, and a fourth has been living temporarily in Kensington. After going to Washington last Tuesday with Occupy Philly and Fight for Philly folks to rally for the extension of unemployment insurance, these four and others returned to Philadelphia Friday. Paul Klemmer, 53, an educated man who said he had dropped out of college, said he's still working toward creating a commune with like-minded people.

The eviction notice was in: 48 hours. At a news conference Friday afternoon, Mayor Nutter announced that those camping out on the City Hall apron of Dilworth Plaza as part of Occupy Philadelphia have until 5 p.m. Sunday to pack up their tents and leave. The notice was posted on trees and poles, and handed out to about 300 people in Dilworth Plaza. "This announcement today serves as the promise," Nutter said of those encamped, "you must remove all of your possessions and yourself from that location within the next 48 hours.

Question: I have been married for over 20 years. I love my husband, but I am unhappy because we don't live near my family, and I was promised our hitch in the Midwest was for only five years. He laughs it off and just says, "I won't make as much," or my personal fave, "It won't be the same. " I have been homesick for years. He won't actively look for work, and our kids are both sophomores, one high school, one college. I hate it here. Should I divorce him, since he won't take me seriously?

Should Philadelphia be allowed to buy up property in Tinicum Township to expand the airport and relieve congestions and delays? On Tuesday, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit heard oral arguments from lawyers representing Delaware County and Tinicum Township, where two-thirds of the airport is located and which oppose the expansion, and the city of Philadelphia. No decision was expected immediately. In August, a lower court ruled that the city could buy land in Tinicum Township for the airport's expansion.

The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office offered relocation services Wednesday to a Wynnefield family whose home was riddled with gunfire in an apparent case of witness intimidation. Sharletta Ambey's rowhouse was hit by almost 20 bullets one night in late July while she was inside with her fiancé, three youngest children, and toddler grandson. The Inquirer on Wednesday profiled Ambey and her family. Police suspect the attack was meant to intimidate her son Anthony Shelley, 19, who is scheduled to be called to testify next month against a man who allegedly shot him in the face in January on a playground.

The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office offered relocation services Wednesday to a Wynnefield family whose home was riddled with gunfire in an apparent case of witness intimidation. Sharletta Ambey's rowhouse was hit by almost 20 bullets one night in late July while she was inside with her fiancé, three youngest children, and toddler grandson. The Inquirer on Wednesday profiled Ambey and her family. Police suspect the attack was meant to intimidate her son Anthony Shelley, 19, who is scheduled to be called to testify next month against a man who allegedly shot him in the face in January on a playground.