Future Mill Creek Condos' Site Up for Auction Wednesday

Barker Mill has reportedly seen manufacturing and music recording.

A 2.2-acre Mill Creek Road property with rich history—and with zoning approval for 33 condominiums—is up for auction through Wednesday, auction company Sheldon Good & Company reports. Philadelphia-area developer Brian O'Neill owns the Barker Mill site at 1400 Mill Creek Road but is looking to sell it. From Sheldon Good & Company: Originally built as a gun factory, 1400 Mill Creek was constructed by David Nippes to produce government-pattern long riles for the War of 1812. Nippes sold the facility to Edward Barker in 1865. However, in 1870, a fire destroyed most of the building except for the foundation. The structures were rebuilt shortly thereafter. The property served as commercial space since the 1950s until being purchased by …

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Gladwyne Fire Was Arson, Authorities Say

Lower Merion police report a suspect has been identified.

Fire and law-enforcement authorities have determined a house fire Wednesday afternoon in Gladwyne was intentionally set, Lower Merion Chief Fire Officer Chas McGarvey said. A fire was reported on the third floor in the rear of 1401 Spring Mill Road about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, to which the Gladwyne and Bryn Mawr companies responded, with Narberth and Ardmore companies, and Narberth Ambulance, assisting. According to McGarvey, electricians working in the house heard a smoke alarm, found a window on fire in a third-floor bedroom and threw water on it. Smoke damage resulted, and walls had to be opened. No injuries were reported. Investigators determined that someone intentionally set the fire; township police and county and state investigators …

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Gladwyne Plan: Vets, Crops & Fish

Riverbend Environmental Education Center wants to dabble in aquaponics.

Riverbend Environmental Education Center in Gladwyne is proposing to build a greenhouse in which military veterans would raise crops and fish using the practice of aquaponics. Executive director Laurie Bachman told Patch that Riverbend would collaborate with Veteran Community Farms to find and train employees in aquaponics, in which aquatic animals and plants grown in water live in symbiosis. Mature fish (probably tilapia) and plants (Bachman envisions a variety) would be sold to markets, the proceeds helping to fund Riverbend educational programs, which would at that point expand to include teaching children about the aquaponics greenhouse itself. The project is in the early stages, Bachman said. Engineering plans are being tweaked. …

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JEFFREY

7:09 pm on Thursday, October 25, 2012

Laurie, I would like to talk to you about this project in more detail with you. Do you have a place where we could meet. I may have some helpful ideas. Best to reach me at "cprtrainingco@comcast.net". I'm looking foreward to meeting with you and maybe some of your team. --Jeffrey Dorfman   more ›

Church-Renovation Reactions Vary By Neighborhood in Lower Merion

Neighbors of an endangered Ardmore sanctuary want to see it converted to apartments. Residents in Gladwyne mostly opposed a similar plan on Righters Mill Road at Wednesday's township public hearing.

It was clear Wednesday night that Lower Merion's Board of Commissioners wasn't nearly ready to decide whether to move forward with a zoning scheme that would ease some restrictions for owners of former churches and historic halls seeking to convert them to housing. That did not diminish how urgently several residents expressed their opinions at the public hearing—some for and some against, the divide corresponding in most cases to the neighborhoods they live in. Neighbors of the First Baptist Church of Ardmore, whose owner has obtained a demolition permit, asked township officials to provide incentive for a different path. "Our position fundamentally is, do what you need to do to preserve this structure," said Jesse Roche, a member of the …

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Police: Woman, 90, Assaulted Outside Grocery Store

Someone tried to snatch the victim's purse, police said.

A 90-year-old woman was injured as someone attempted to grab her purse in the Gladwyne Super Fresh parking lot on Tuesday afternoon, Lower Merion police said. The woman was in the parking lot on her way into the store about 12:45 p.m. when another woman, described as in her 20s and wearing shorts, grabbed the victim's purse and began to struggle with the victim, police said. Visit Bryn Mawr-Gladwyne Patch for the full story.

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Obituaries from Lower Merion

Find recent death notices for local residents.

Gabrielle Schwarz Haab, 72, of Villanova Thomas Shallow, 71, of Gladwyne Myrl Hermann, 79, of Bryn Mawr Sister Kathleen O'Neill, 84, whose religious order founded Rosemont College in 1921 Evelene Hinckley Dohan, 84, who graduated from Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr and later taught at Agnes Irwin School Ernest A. Lucchesi, Jr., 46, born in Bryn Mawr JoAnn Downes, 81, formerly of Merion Pierina Ann DiPiano, 95, formerly of Ardmore

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Missing Gladwyne Senior Found

John Gildea was reported found after about five hours Tuesday.

(Update 7:40 p.m.: Gildea has been reunited with his family, authorities announced.) An 87-year-old Gladwyne man has been missing since 2:50 p.m. Tuesday, according to a Montgomery County alert sent on Tuesday evening. The man, John Gildea, is from the area of Righters Mill Road and Black Rock Road, according to the alert. He is white, 5'10" and weighs about 185 pounds. Gildea was last seen wearing a red maroon plaid shirt, grey slacks and laced shoes, the alert states. Anyone who finds Gildea, who suffers from dementia and Alzheimer's, is asked to call 911 or the Lower Merion Police Department at 610-649-1000.

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4th Annual Adam Spector Walk/5K Scheduled for April 28

A new website for the Adam R. Spector Foundation was also launched.

The fourth annual Adam Spector "Walk to Win" has been scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, April 28. The two-mile walk/5K run will take place at Harriton High School, where Adam, of Gladwyne, graduated in 1999 as valedictorian. He died of Hodgkin's lymphoma April 2007 at age 25. Funds raised at the Walk to Win benefit the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. There will be a surprise emcee at this year's walk/run, according to a flier announcing the event. NBC10's Dawn Timmeney was the emcee last year. For more information, read our story about the 3rd annual Adam Spector Walk to Win, or visit the new website for the Adam R. Spector Foundation at adamspector.org. Click here to look at photos from last …

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Sewer Connection to Park Postponed

Four contractors' bids all came in over Lower Merion's budget for the project.

Switching Flat Rock Park from septic tank to sewer service will have to wait. In December, bids for the project all came in above Lower Merion Township's budget, something that has happened generally less often in municipal construction bidding since the recession began. AJB Mechanical Inc. offered to connect the riverfront park's restroom building to River Road's sewer line and install a grinder pump station for $37,498, and three other contractors bid more than $60,000. The project's budget is $24,000, parks director Lindsay Taylor said. She has asked the Board of Commissioners to reject the bids at Wednesday's finance committee meeting. "In speaking with the bidders, we learned that there were some ways we can revise the specifications …

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Fast Forward

Fast Forward: A Lower Merion Downpour

It was better to watch Thursday's heavy rain from the covered porch of a coffee shop than drive around in it.

Today's Fast Forward comes from Thursday afternoon's torrential rain. A trip to Green Bean Coffee in neighboring Bryn Mawr-Gladwyne Patch lasted perhaps longer than it would have otherwise, and while the parking lot puddled up, we shot a little video. 

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