Reminders, Corrections, and Central Presbyterian

Tomorrow is primary election day. Please get out to vote. The polls are open from 7 am to 8 pm.

A correction: Last week I said Val Arkoosh led the pack in quantities of junk mail. I was premature. As of today I declare Brendan Boyle undisputed Master Ruler of Junk Mail, some of it so big, it doesn't fit in my mailbox or bag for recycling (which, in my house, is where all political junk mail goes without reading). Candidates, please don't expect me to believe your pious words about the environment when you send out mountains of junk mail.

I can't declare a winner in annoying phone calls yet. So far the honors go to whoever ordered the exact same survey every week for the last month and a half. Just for the record, I lied on at least one item each time. I've been every age group, a man, a Republican, and from different races. I figure if politicians can lie to me, I should return the favor.

I'll be working inside the polls tomorrow, so I won't be posting a dairy entry. If you vote in 3-3, come in before 10 am and say hi. After that, I head for a polling place down in Pen Wyn.

One other correction. The Municipal Council Meeting on Wednesday night is at 6:30 pm, not 7:30. The agenda's been posted, if you want to check it out. I'll talk more about it on Wednesday.

Now, on to Central Presbyterian Church, located at Stanbridge and West Airy Streets. To refresh your memory, it was built in 1906 of Valley Forge Marble, with large stained glass windows by Nicholas D'Ascenzo, a nationally reknown artist. The church's original congregation had dwindled to 40 members. They shared space with an Hispanic ministry, but they had less than 60 members. Together, they couldn't keep up with the costs of maintaining and heating the structure. The building's been vacant for at least 18 months.

The property was to be auctioned off last Friday (though some notices said Thursday and it got confusing). The Times Herald reported that church members and their real estate broker called off the auction because they'd received several sealed purchase offers prior to the auction. Church members are due to open those bids today and decide the building's fate.

It's thought that two of the purchase offers are from other congregations, which would allow Central Pres to go on being a church. I hope ALL of the offers are from buyers who want to preserve the buidling, and not from developers who, say, want to level that beautiful structure to put up something like a Family Dollar or more horribly cramped stacked townhouses like we'll see at 1202 Dekalb.

As I said in a blog not long ago, it would be ironic that we're putting up Victorian style street light all over town, only to be demolishing our authentically historic buildings.