Roxborough

The president and chief executive of Prime Healthcare Services, the California company that bought Roxborough Memorial Hospital this week for an undisclosed price, resigned, the company announced Thursday. Prime Healthcare, which had already owned or managed 14 hospitals in California and one in Texas, has been operating under a cloud of allegations - spearheaded by a labor union it has feuded with for at least five years - that it was improperly billing Medicare for certain infections and other conditions.

A fast-growing California hospital chain has purchased Roxborough Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia, giving the 137-bed institution its third owner since 2002. Prime Healthcare Services, of Ontario, Calif., near Los Angeles, said Wednesday that it bought the hospital from Solis Healthcare L.L.C. but did not say what it paid. Prime Healthcare, a for-profit company founded in 2001 by its chairman, Prem Reddy, a cardiologist, already owned or managed 15 hospitals, 14 in California and one in Texas.

A 22-year-old man was killed in a car crash Monday afternoon in the city's Roxborough section, police said. The man, whose name was not released, was driving a Volkswagen at 1:34 p.m. when it struck a curb, swerved into oncoming traffic, and struck another vehicle in the 6000 block of Henry Avenue, police said. The driver of the Volkswagen was transported to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:10 p.m. The driver of the other vehicle suffered minor cuts and bruises.

Nobody liked losing school aides, administrative positions, or the supply budget at Shawmont Elementary School, but staffers and parents dealt with it. Times are tough; everyone did more. Teachers spent more money out of their own pockets; parents sent in supplies, too. But losing the school police officer was the last straw for Janet McHale and Michelle Havens, the Roxborough school's Home and School Association co-presidents. "We realize that in these tough economic times, something needs to be done to help stop the madness of overspending," McHale and Havens wrote in a letter to me. "We can deal with having to send in reams of paper so that the teachers can make copies to assist our children in learning.

A taxicab hit a pedestrian and then crashed into a shoe store Thursday in Roxborough, police said. The taxi was traveling west on Leverington Avenue and turning left onto Ridge on a green light at 2:31 p.m. when it hit a 64-year-old man. Medics took him to Temple University Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. The taxi crashed into the front of Sneakertown at 6188 Ridge Ave., but no other injuries were reported. - Robert Moran

Roxborough's business corridor is getting a face-lift. Officials held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for a $2.2 million streetscape project scheduled to be completed next summer. Construction began Sept. 19 on the plan, which calls for refurbishing sidewalks, planting trees, and replacing streetlights on a half-mile stretch of Ridge Avenue between Roxborough and Ripka Streets, according to Bernard Guet, executive director of the Roxborough Development Corp. Guet said he hoped the upgraded lighting and sidewalks improved safety for pedestrians and attracted more shoppers to the business district, which runs along three miles of Ridge Avenue.

Roxborough's business corridor is getting a face-lift. Officials held an official groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for a $2.2 million streetscape project that is scheduled to be completed this summer. Construction began Sept. 19 on the plan, which includes refurbishing sidewalks, planting trees and replacing streetlights on a half-mile stretch of Ridge Avenue between Roxborough and Ripka Streets, according to Bernard Guet, executive director of the Roxborough Development Corp., a community advocacy group.

Rebecca Bonner had taught middle school for 11 years, so she figured her daughter's sleepless nights and sudden weight loss signaled something more troubling than stress. The Swarthmore woman suspected the pot, but not the pills. "Her pharmacy of choice was her high school," Bonner says. "That's where kids get most of their drugs: Percocet, morphine, prescription painkillers. Parents have them around. ... This is very common. " Her daughter, Elly, tells the story this way: "A lot was going on at home, my parents going through a divorce, my sister going through some stuff.