Photo from Parentinfantcenter.org

The Parent Infant Center and Spruce Hill community have lost a long-time resident and leader. Cindy Roberts, a former PIC parent and in the recent years, their Executive Director, passed away on February 10th after a year-long battle with cancer. She was 62.

A tribute to Roberts posted on the PIC website reads that even in the face of illness, she “continued to show her grace, never-ending generosity, and wonderfully quick wit.”

Roberts and her family moved to West Philly in 1985 and enrolled their two-year-old daughter at PIC. She was a “part of PIC’s culture for more than 30 years — first as a parent, then as a Board member, and finally as an administrator and Executive Director,” according to PIC’s tribute.

Cindy Roberts serving dessert at Charles Dickens’ Birthday Party in Clark Park in February 2013. (Photo from Friendsofclarkpark.org)

Roberts served as PIC’s Executive Director from 2007 to 2012. She led the expansion of the center and worked on the increase of access to quality pre-kindergarten to at-risk children and families. During her PIC leadership years, she was also behind the development of the innovative outdoor learning space, “Magic Circle.”

Roberts was also a fixture in the Spruce Hill neighborhood. She served as president of the Spruce Hill Community Association and of the Friends of Clark Park. According to Philly.com, Roberts, along with her husband Daniel R. Biddle, “was a tireless civic worker and the driving force behind the revival of Clark Park, just a few blocks from the couple’s home.”

A Memorial Service for Cindy Roberts will take place at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 27 at the Arch Street Friends Meetinghouse, 320 Arch Street. The family asks that donations in her memory be made to fund pre-K slots for disadvantaged children at the Parent Infant Center, 4205 Locust Street.

A new Science Leadership Academy middle school will open this fall to fifth graders in a temporary location on Drexel’s campus, the School District of Philadelphia announced today.

Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships (photo from drexel.edu)

The district expects about 90 fifth graders to enroll in the fall in the temporary space at Drexel’s Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships (3509 Spring Garden). Building plans for the school’s permanent home are under way on the site of the old University City High School and Drew Elementary School near 38th and Filbert.

Most of the fifth grade students will come from nearby Samuel Powel Elementary, a highly rated K-4 school.

Drexel’s School of Education will also support the middle school with help in planning and executing the curriculum, similar to the arrangement Penn has with the Penn Alexander School. Drexel President John Fry helped create the Penn Alexander school and other neighborhood initiatives as an executive vice president at Penn under former president Judith Rodin.

Costs to cover the start-up and planning of the new school will be covered by a $1.8 million grant from the Philadelphia School Partnership. The new school will be called the Science Leadership Academy Middle School (SLA-MS).

Students will remain at the Dornsife Center site for “at least two years,” according to the district. The new school will accommodate some 360 students when it is completed.

District Superintendent William Hite announced a plan last fall that included the Drexel-based middle school, the closure of other schools and the conversion of the Samuel B. Huey School to a charter.

UPDATE (2/9/2016): Due to the low snow accumulations, Streets Department crews will be collecting Tuesday’s trash and recycling on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Residents whose trash collection day is Tuesday can now put their materials on the curb.

On Monday, the Streets Department announced  that it cancelled Tuesday trash and recycling pick-up ahead of an expected snowstorm that will put garbage trucks to work as snowplows.

UPDATE (2/8/2016): More steam turbine testing will be conducted on Monday, Feb. 8, from 7 to 11 p.m.

The University of Pennsylvania Division of Facilities and Real Estate Services will conduct steam line venting as part of the Utility Plant upgrade at University Avenue and River Fields Drive, according to an announcement by the Division of Public Safety. This venting is necessary to clean out new steam piping prior to energizing newly installed steam turbines.

Venting will occur at various intervals over a three-day period Tuesday, Feb. 2 through Thursday, Feb. 4, between the hours of 7:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m.

Venting will consist of a series of approximately five steam releases into the air from the new steam piping, which will create a high white columnar-like cloud of vaporized water which may look like smoke as it condenses into the cool air. There will be corresponding loud sounds similar to a jet engine. Each duration of venting will be approximately 30 seconds to two minutes.

The developers of the old West Philly High School building recently secured $24 million in funding. According to reports, the loan has been arranged by Colliers International Capital Markets and will be used for the acquisition and redevelopment of the 442,200-square-foot, four-story building at 4700 Walnut Street. The 103-year-old building was acquired by New York-based developer Andrew Bank in early 2015.

The project to gut the building and convert it into 298 loft apartments was first presented in 2012, but it took more than two years for Bank to finalize the purchase of the building.

Bank, who is the Managing Director of the real estate development company Strong Place Partners, met with community members last summer to talk about the project. During a June 2015 Garden Court Community Association meeting, Bank told the attendees that his company had obtained all necessary permits and that some work on the building was already being done, including asbestos and debris removal and construction of a loading dock on the eastern portion of the building.

Bank also said that he was waiting for a loan settlement to begin building the first 130 apartments. He added that the project may include some commercial space along Locust Street.

Construction is set to begin in 2017.

More details are available on the armed robbery that took place at 41st and Pine on early Sunday morning and prompted an alert from the Division of Public Safety at Penn.

The robbery took place at around 2:30 a.m. when the victim was approached by two males with covered faces and was robbed at a gunpoint. The men took the victim’s phone and headphones and fled on foot toward 41st and Spruce.

Penn police were on the scene and patrolled the area after the robbery.

We’ll post more information when it becomes available.