In this week's newspaper...

Hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend. I came back, tired and saw that I had more than 50 new messages. That's the only downside to a three-day weekend.

In this week's Southern Berks News:
• Construction will occur on Sundays for the Exeter Commons shopping center.

• The Daniel Boone Optimist Club will hold a community days celebration this weekend in Amity Township. This will be a great event for people of all ages. If it doesn't rain there will be fireworks on Sunday around 9 p.m.

• Douglassville based Thunder Outreach is helping out with the Boyertown Inn makeover.

• Kessler presented grants to area fire companies and an athletic club.

• Gokey wrote a letter to the editor about demanding officials take action on a puppy mills bill.

For more information, pick up a paper today!

Also, I've been receiving a lot of anniversaries and wedding announcements recently. I wanted to let everyone know that we don't have any policies on how long ago the weddings or anniversaries were. I'd say just use your best judgement. If it happened in January or February, it may be old news by now.

You can send announcements to my e-mail htassmer@berksmontnews.com or mail to Heather Tassmer, 124 North Chestnut Street, P.O. Box 565, Boyertown, PA 19512. If you want your pictures back, make sure to make a note of that.

Berks-Mont is looking for interns (fall, spring and summer.) As you can see, our interns built up their portfolios this summer and were a great help. For those who are interested in interning, send resumes and clips to the above addresses. Thanks!

Yay for summer interns!!

Another production day has passed at The Southern Berks News.

“Production Day” is journalism jargon for the process of putting the paper together-formatting pictures, editing, and laying out the paper.

This week I decided to spotlight Exeter Township yet again.

Our new intern, Ben Dalton, talked to the Concerned Citizens of Exeter Township and a township supervisor about a fund to restore trees cut down for the Exeter Commons project. Citizens are concerned the money won’t be spent on the environment. Township officials are offended that people don’t trust them and are in the process of deciding how the money given to them by the Exeter Commons developers for the trees will be spent.

Ben also did a great job on writing about two church anniversaries. One church celebrated its 215th anniversary and another celebrated its 10th anniversary. Ben snapped a great picture of a child competing in a pie eating contest.

Mark Eddinger is another college student interning at Berks-Mont’s Boyertown office. Mark has also been doing a phenomenal job for us. We are definitely going to miss both of the interns when they go back to school in August.

I’m probably going to be tackling the economy/gas price issue in the near future. If you would like to share how you’re coping with gas prices, send me an e-mail htassmer@berksmontnews.com or call 610-367-6041 ext 225. You can also write a letter to the editor and send it to Heather Tassmer, 124 N. Chestnut Street, P.O. Box 565 Boyertown, Pa. 19512.

I hope everyone has a great and safe holiday for July 4th. I’m headed back to Lancaster County for mine and am looking forward to a cookout.

For some reason, Ben's awesome photo won't load:( so I'm headed out.

Traffic on 422

I was traveling on Route 422 through Amity and Exeter townships this Tuesday and encountered construction and delays.
In Amity, there was a short delay not far from where you make a left to go to Route 82. Then I encountered quite a delay when I reached Exeter due to a lane closure close to the Exeter Commons construction site.

Exeter Commons is a new shopping center that is scheduled to open in 2009. The center is going to be anchored by Target, Giant and Lowe’s. A groundbreaking ceremony was held at the end of May in Exeter. Officials and developers have named creation of jobs, additional places to shop, increasing the commerical tax base and fixing up roads as benefits of the center. A total of $18 million is being used to improve parts of Route 422.

In Exeter it was a stop and go situation and I felt a little frustrated since I had not even reached my destination yet. (I was probably delayed along the stretch of highway near Gibraltar Road for about 10 minutes, which seems a lot worse when you’re in a hurry.)

On the positive side, it looked like the lane was going to be widened so that will be great when it’s all done. Township officials have said that construction is also going to take place in the evenings which will definitely eliminate delays for drivers.

For updates on the Exeter Commons project, keep reading The Southern Berks News and visit the Exeter Township Web site, http://www.co.berks.pa.us/exeter/site/default.asp.

I think it’s great Exeter Township and developers are keeping the public updated through the Web site rather than leaving area residents wonder what's going on.