Schwenksville

"No Skateboarding" signs may pop up here to join the "No Parking, No Standing, No Stopping" placards seen on many streets. Tomorrow, the Borough Council plans to curb skateboarding on all public streets, alleys and sidewalks, which will leave skateboarders in one of Montgomery County's tiniest municipalities with no place to roll, twist and jump. If the proposed ordinance is adopted, Schwenksville will join the growing ranks of towns in the region in which skateboarding already has been prohibited or restricted.

In the 1920s, Philadelphians went by the trainful to cool off on the banks of Montgomery County's Perkiomen Creek, hike nearby Spring Mountain, and rock on the porches of Schwenksville's resort hotels. But the belching locomotives are gone now. So are the summer hotels, save for one. The Woodside Inn, scarred by weather and plundered by vandals, sat vacant for two years before Rick and Gayle Buckman fell in love with its past and decided to give it a future. "I just kept driving by and thinking, 'I want to save this building,' " Gayle Buckman said.

The Montgomery County Health Department will euthanize nearly a dozen cats here to contain what is being called the county's first confirmed rabies case of 1995. The cats, which had served as a sort of rodent patrol in a Schwenksville barn, will be trapped and put to sleep in accordance with the wishes of the two men who feed them. Thomas and Robert Wiley, Schwenksville brothers who had previously ignored two Health Department orders to produce one of the cats, Homer, for testing, on Thursday told county officials to pick up the nine or 10 cats that congregate around their barn.

It's just another hot and humid day in early January. Two-story African cacti tower above ferns flourishing in the moist heat. The weather outside may be frightful, but inside the 50-foot-high glass atrium of Ott's Exotic Plants near Schwenksville, it averages 66 degrees year-round. The swooping glass dome and the tropical flora amid the mist are about the last things you'd expect along this sparsely populated stretch of Route 29 on a winter's day. Inside, a path overhung with date palms and pungent flowers winds up a hill.

This weekend's Philadelphia Folk Festival will offer more than just musical moments for the kids. Along with special concerts for young audiences, the three-day extravaganza in Schwenksville will feature a separate children's area, in the shady Dulcimer Grove, with puppet shows, storytelling, environmental workshops, hands-on crafts and more. The family festivities will begin at 3 p.m. today with a potpourri of children's entertainment. Youngsters can join musicians Dave Fry and Jackie Pack in an interactive program of original play songs, learn folk dances from around the world with Hanny Budnick and watch as the handmade puppets of Tucker's Tales Puppet Theater bring fairy tales to life.

To Montgomery County officials, an old railroad right-of-way in the northern part of the county is a nature trail waiting for hikers. To some landowners, it's the front line of a battle against a government takeover. The county has sued four landowners who it says are blocking development of the Perkiomen Trail on county property. The suit, filed Friday, requests a court order to remove fences, bridges and other impediments to the recreational trail. In dispute is a strip of land stretching from Pennsburg to Schwenksville that was a Reading Railroad right-of-way before the county bought it from the bankrupt company in 1978.

Thirty-two suspects have been arrested for roles in a meth-trafficking ring operating in Montgomery and Philadelphia, officials announced this morning. The alleged ring, "consisting of distributors, users and pushers," was a "family affair," with brothers Jeffrey and David Penna distributing methamphetamine from Jeffrey Penna's Hatfield Township home, in league with Francesco Messina, also of Hatfield, according to a statement from Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman and various local law-enforcement officials.

Earth Day was celebrated Saturday at the Pennypacker Mills park in Schwenksville. There were exhibits, crafts, games and storytelling with an environmental flavor for participants.

A class on basket-making was taught by Claudy Slifer of Lafayette Hill at Pennypacker Mills in Schwenksville on July 15. Slifer, who has been teaching basket weaving for 10 years, conducted the class on the porch of a historic house at Pennypacker Mills.

A veterinarian who makes house calls isn't that unusual - unless she only makes house calls. That is what Susan Moiser of Lansdale has been doing for five years. The road show will end next year, when Moiser, who sees about five patients a day, moves into an office in Schwenksville.

Thirty-two suspects have been arrested for roles in a meth-trafficking ring operating in Montgomery and Philadelphia, officials announced this morning. The alleged ring, "consisting of distributors, users and pushers," was a "family affair," with brothers Jeffrey and David Penna distributing methamphetamine from Jeffrey Penna's Hatfield Township home, in league with Francesco Messina, also of Hatfield, according to a statement from Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman and various local law-enforcement officials.

In the 1920s, Philadelphians went by the trainful to cool off on the banks of Montgomery County's Perkiomen Creek, hike nearby Spring Mountain, and rock on the porches of Schwenksville's resort hotels. But the belching locomotives are gone now. So are the summer hotels, save for one. The Woodside Inn, scarred by weather and plundered by vandals, sat vacant for two years before Rick and Gayle Buckman fell in love with its past and decided to give it a future. "I just kept driving by and thinking, 'I want to save this building,' " Gayle Buckman said.

Richard F. Furia, 66, of Wynnewood, a lawyer, died of lung cancer Friday, Sept. 16, at home. Mr. Furia practiced general law for 40 years and had been founding partner with the firm of Furia & Turner in Center City since 1991. "He was an old-school family lawyer who made house calls whenever his clients needed him - nights, days, weekends, and holidays," said his daughter, Gina Rubel, who is also a lawyer. Mr. Furia chaired several Philadelphia Bar Association committees.

Bernard Meyer Auerbach, 91, a teacher and administrator in Philadelphia public schools, died of heart failure Monday, April 11, in the home in Northeast Philadelphia that he and his wife purchased new in 1955. Mr. Auerbach grew up in Strawberry Mansion. After graduating from Central High School when he was 15, he was an apprentice at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and received his teacher's training at Philadelphia Normal School. In 1941, before shipping overseas with the Navy, he married Beatrice Neidich.

Thomas P. Cannon Sr., 80, of Schwenksville, a retired Philadelphia police officer and soccer referee, died of a heart attack Saturday while shoveling snow. During his 25 years with the Philadelphia police, Mr. Cannon was an officer in the 14th District in Germantown, a member of Capt. Clarence Ferguson's vice squad for more than eight years, and a court liaison officer in the District Attorney's Office for 10 years. After retiring in 1978, he was a chauffeur for executives with what is now GlaxoSmithKline until 2001.

Richard deFrenes helped make possible the first handheld cameras to show both Rocky Balboa and Ron Jaworski getting the punk beat out of them, then triumphing. "Dick was the Thomas Edison of NFL Films," Steve Sabol, the firm's president, said in a statement yesterday, marking Mr. deFrenes' passing. "He was a brilliant engineer, a tireless technician, and an ingenious inventor. " Mr. deFrenes, 78, who died of lung cancer Sunday at his home in Schwenksville, was director of camera technology when he retired in 1996 after almost 22 years with NFL Films in Mount Laurel.

Come one, come all to the 46th annual Philadelphia Folk Festival at the Old Pool Farm in Schwenksville for "another amazing adventure in folk wonderland. " This three-day event, full of traditional and contemporary music, dance, crafts, camping, and children's activities, opens at 10 a.m. today and continues until 9 p.m. Sunday. Enjoy listening to top performers like Doc Watson, Mavis Staples, John Flynn, and the Lovell Sisters among more than 50 folk, old-timey, bluegrass, world, and roots artists.

N.J. seniors ask: This is property-tax relief? My husband and I live in Cape May Court House. We are both on Social Security, as are most people who live here. Our property taxes were $5,000 a year. We received a new bill after a reassessment. We now pay $10,000. I think something is very wrong, since Gov. Corzine said property taxes would be lowered. Most people have lived here since the 1950s and are retired. They can't afford to pay these taxes and cannot sell their homes.

Gertrud "Trudi" Luffert Eberhardt, 83, of Schwenksville, an artist who with her husband, Fritz, operated a bookbinding and book-restoration workshop in Montgomery County for more than 40 years, died of kidney failure Aug. 30 at Rockhill Mennonite Retirement Community in Sellersville. Mrs. Eberhardt and her husband immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1954, and in 1962 they set up their business in a barn next to their farmhouse in Harleysville. Over the years, clients included universities, libraries, and wealthy patrons such as the du Ponts.

Watch battle reenactments and get a feel for life in civilian and military camps during the Civil War Reunion weekend at historic Pennypacker Mills in Schwenksville, Montgomery County. The two-day event will feature more than 250 reenactors, including many children. Linda Callegari, assistant administrator at the historic site, says the weekend is especially interesting for children who have studied - or are about to study - the Civil War. "A lot of the stuff they demonstrate here is stuff they don't cover in class," Callegari says.