Wawa

Wawa has paid $12,500 to a Cumberland County man to settle claims that he was improperly denied service at a company store while accompanied by his service dog, state authorities announced Wednesday. Patrick Stark, 33, went to a Wawa store in Millville, where he lives, on June 13 to buy a sandwich, and was told he would not be served unless he took his dog outside. The self-employed glass artist explained that the animal, a Queensland heeler wearing special tags, was permitted in the store by law, but a store manager told him to leave.

The New Garden Planning Commission Wednesday voted, 5-0, not to recommend approval of preliminary plans for a Wawa convenience store at Route 41 and Newark Road because of unresolved traffic problems. The commission requested that left-hand turns in and out of the Wawa be eliminated by placing a concrete island at the store's Route 41 entrance and move an entrance on Newark Road toward the front of the property back away from the intersection. According to Richard Longo of Hillcrest Associates, planners for the developer, traffic for the Wawa would be interspersed throughout the day, producing far less congestion than a standard shopping center.

Neighbors of a proposed mega-Wawa in Cherry Hill say the store will be far from super - and far too close to their homes. "It's going to be ugly," says Mark Burckley, 50, whose house backs up on a strip of Haddonfield Road where Wawa intends to build a $6 million food market/gas station combination. A public hearing on the final plan is set to continue before the township Planning Board on March 5. The project does not require a zoning variance. Company officials say the store will feature 6,000 square feet of space, six two-sided gas pumps, and 50 parking spots.

About 200 Conshohocken residents packed the Washington Fire House on Wednesday night to speak for and against a proposed Wawa store on Fayette Street between 11th and 12th Avenues. It was the third and final public hearing on the proposal, which opponents say would exacerbate traffic and ruin the small-town character of Conshohocken. At issue is a proposed amendment to the borough charter to allow the Wawa at a site zoned for office and residential uses. The Borough Council will vote on the proposed amendment April 17. Planners for the borough and Montgomery County have recommended rejecting the plan.

A stickup man specializing in convenience stores has robbed Wawas in and near Center City at least 10 times in the last two months, police said yesterday. The same rotund robber hit one Wawa three times, said detectives. He struck another twice. Last Sunday night, he held up the Wawa at 12th and Walnut streets, then - within 30 minutes - strolled to the Wawa at 912 Walnut to rob again. No one has been hurt. But all this repeated crime has Wawa store employees throughout Center City worried.

The Pennsylvania Transit Expansion Coalition supports restored passenger rail service west of Elwyn, but is concerned about the escalating costs to extend the line three miles. The Wawa project is budgeted at $80 million, or $26.6 million per mile. Other transit agencies in the United States have made similar extensions at a lower cost per mile. PA-TEC recommends removing the 600-spot parking garage until growth dictates its need; reopening the Glen Riddle rail station on Route 452 to provide walkable access for residents at the Glenn Riddle Station apartment complex; removing the proposed railyard at Lenni; closing the Media yard; and scaling the Wawa train station to a fundable level.

Mitt Romney's small-town bus tour of swing states rolled across eastern Pennsylvania Saturday, allowing the Republican presidential candidate to campaign as a champion of the middle class in picturesque everyday American settings and to munch on a meatball hoagie at a Wawa in Bucks County. Yet a group of some 250 Democratic protesters led by former Gov. Ed Rendell and waiting to pounce at a scheduled Wawa stop outside Quakertown caused the Romney motorcade to divert to another Wawa several miles away on Route 309. The abrupt last-minute schedule change gave a taste of the fight ahead in what is likely to be a close presidential campaign, in a political climate where every move by one side is increasingly contested by the other.

A thoroughly mobilized Cherry Hill neighborhood was unable to prevail against a proposed mega-Wawa. A marathon township planning board meeting ended early Tuesday with unanimous final approval for a $6 million combination gas station and food store on Haddonfield Road, despite strong opposition from residents who live nearby. The new Wawa will rise on the site of a closed Toyota dealership on the west side of the roadway, just south of Yale Avenue. Homeowners on adjacent streets organized their neighbors, distributed petitions against the proposal, and engaged a consultant to assess the development's impact.

Two Wawa employees were injured Monday after a Camden woman tried to shoplift six candy bars and a handful of lollipops, police said. Police gave this account: About 2 p.m. Monday, Barbara Johnson, 32, and three other people - two women and a man - drove into the Wawa parking lot at Mount Ephraim and Woodlynne Avenues. While the others waited in the car, a white Cadillac, Johnson went into the store and stuffed six candy bars and several lollipops into a large handbag, police said.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer joined Wawa Inc. bosses Howard Stoeckel and Chris Gheysens Wednesday for the opening of the Delaware County-based chain's first store in the Sunshine State, a quick-turnover smokes-and-Cokes, gas-and-hoagies outlet drawing homesick Philadelphia expatriates and curious natives to Orlando's Central Florida Parkway. Wawa says it will "penetrate" central Florida between now and late August with two more stores in Orlando and two in nearby Kissimmee, with later sites planned for the Tampa area.