Quakertown clothes are missing

Check out this story about a Quakertown dry cleaner that vanished from the community without a trace...and with many of its clients clothes. Enjoy!

Photo Credit: Kevin Rosseel, MorgueFile

10-year-old’s Berks County adventure

Two weeks ago my 10-year-old Noah and I traversed Berks County to explore some of the attractions the region has to offer.

I was surprised to learn that tourism remains the county’s second largest industry employing 9,500 earning combined direct wages of $242,000,000 a year.

The Greater Reading Convention & Visitors Bureau says Berks makes more than $624 million annually from the more than 9.5 million visitors that flock to the county each year.

The earnings translate to more than $60 million in state and local taxes. Amazing.

Noah and I did our share to fill the county coffers with trips to Crystal Cave, estimated to have been formed 100 million years ago. (See the photo above.)

The famed “upside down ice cream cone” has three flavors: vanilla (calcite), chocolate (calcite with rust) and mint chocolate chip (calcite with microplants).

And below Noah “apes” fear of one of the vintage animals on the miniature course at Sittler’s Golf Center near Kutztown, another stop during our outing.

To read the full details of our adventure, pick up a copy of the May 2008 Tourist Guide from Berks-Mont Newspapers in our Berks County publications this week including The Boyertown Area Times, The Southern Berks News, Westside Weekly, LaVoz, The Hamburg Area Item, The Kutztown Area Patriot and The Community Connection.

There’s a new sheriff in town

Joshua Sophy has taken over as editor of The Hamburg Area Item and is now also blogging at Item Meister, the paper’s new weblog.

Josh hails from the city of Pottsville in Schuylkill County and is the former editor and publisher of the Pottsville Free Press (not to be confused with our own Free Press), a virtually one man operation Josh ran with the help of friends and published successfully if irregularly for about 18 months with a total of 36 editions.

Before that he worked for the same coal region daily where I spent about 10 (feels like 20) years.

I hope Hamburg residents will welcome him to their community. I know he comes to the job with great enthusiasm. I also hope all the readers of our on line products will give Josh’s blog a regular read.

Photo Credit: Cheryl Rankin, MorgueFile

Former Boyertown teacher convicted

A former Boyertown teacher was convicted Thursday in Berks County court for possession of child pornography.

Peter J. Lamana, 41, of Bethlehem, was convicted on charges stemming from a pornographic video of children found on his computer at Boyertown Area High School in Nov. 2004.

Boyertown Area Times editor Matthew Reichl has details...(More)

Haddadmania

You could feel it in the air.

The support for Charles A. Haddad, president of Building a Better Boyertown and all around community leader was palpable…even if the 54th annual Citizen of the Year ceremony honoring Haddad and four other outstanding community leaders was excruciatingly long.

My wife Heather and I picked up a couple of Malibu Bay Breezes at the bar on our way through the crowded banquet hall of the Friendship Hook & Ladder Company No. 1 to the cheap seats in the adjacent apparatus room Saturday.

Then we picked up a couple more as the evening dragged on (four hours if you count dinner, three hours if you don’t.).

The food was great---chicken, beef and stuffing. Haddad was honored along with Kathleen Little, a fifth grade teacher at Saint Francis Academy, Bally, David Viola of the Colebrookdale District Police, Glenn Trate, first assistant chief of the fire company, and Katie Moatz, a Boyertown Area High School senior.

You can read the story I filed for our paper, which co-sponsored the event with the Boyertown Jaycees, here.

Charles regaled the audience with stories about panty hose fitters and the poetic Pennsylvania German dialect.

I think it’s important to honor community service no matter how much time it takes…as long as the Malibu rum holds out.

Local plant emptied for bomb threat

Employees of CEI Manufacturing at 447 Old Swede Road, Amity Township, were evacuated for two hours this morning after threatening notes were found inside packages shipped from the U.K. at about 7:15 a.m. A search of the building turned up nothing and employees returned to work. For additional developments be sure to check next week's edition of The Southern Berks News...

Students visit Berks-Mont

Boyertown Area High School senior Katie Wallace and junior Kimberly “Kimi” Yudt are shown how to run a newspaper by Southern Berks News Editor Heather Tassmer.

While in the Berks-Mont Newspaper offices recently, the pair were shown how a newspaper is put together, went on a sales drive with a sales rep and helped report a vehicle crash on E. Philadelphia Avenue.

From their essays, both Wallace and Yudt are interested in film production.

“In class, we have learned the history of television, filming, directing, sound, news casting and editing,” wrote Wallace, who will attend DeSales University in the fall, where she plans to major in Television/Film.

Yudt wrote her passion for film and broadcasting, stemming from being a TV anchor at Boyertown Junior High East.

“I spend a lot of study halls and sometimes lunch in the television studio, editing various videos for BASH-TV and occasionally for PC-TV,” she wrote. “I understand that my dreams are big, but with enough passion and knowledge, I know it is possible to achieve my goals.”

Photo and Article Credit: Matthew Reichl, editorThe Boyertown Area Times

McCain coverage in The Saucon News

Here’s a photo from our own Dave P. Anderson of the GOP presidential hopeful’s recent visit to Lehigh Valley Hospital Wednesday.

Be sure to pick up your copy of The Saucon News serving the Saucon Valley and Southern Lehigh School Districts for full coverage of the visit this week centering on the issue of health care. For further discussion on the 2008 presidential race use the comment section below...(More)

Breaking news at BerksMontNews.com

Centre Township man dies during police standoff

By Josh Sophy, Item Editor

A Centre Township man died following a four-hour standoff Wednesday morning when State Police armed with a felony arrest warrant arrived at his home.

Reading's Troop L Commanding Officer Capt. Steven M. Johnson says the unidentified man barricaded himself into the basement of his home in the 500 block of Plum Road around 6 a.m.

According to Johnson, police and SWAT teams surrounded the property, set several hundred feet off Plum Road. Shortly after arriving, police made contact with an unidentified, adult woman living at the property and escorted her to the State Police Reading barracks for questioning...
(More)