Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homes

Tag: Jenkintown

  • Pa. residents stand to lose an average of $520 a month in Social Security benefits in six years unless Congress acts

    Pa. residents stand to lose an average of $520 a month in Social Security benefits in six years unless Congress acts

    For 30 years, Nettie King, 92, has relied on Social Security to survive.

    She and her former employers at the Oak Lane Diner near her home paid into Social Security through payroll taxes for years.

    While the storied institution closed in 2015, the Social Security benefit checks that King’s work generated have kept coming. “It’s been comfortable,” explained King, who said she was the diner’s first server of color in 1963.

    But now there’s a problem.

    King is among 68 million Americans facing possible reductions of 22% to their benefits by 2032 unless Congress acts, according to a new report by Social Security Administration (SSA) trustees released last month.

    Pennsylvania residents could lose an average of $520 each from their monthly Social Security checks, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan think tank. That would affect an estimated 255,000 Philadelphians receiving Social Security benefits, according to Olivia Mitchell, director of the Boettner Center on Pensions and Retirement Research at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

    “Losing that much would be a disaster,” King said. “I pray the money doesn’t stop.”

    It won’t if Congress overcomes its partisan divide and creates a workable solution to make Social Security solvent, say advocates for the elderly — including AARP, whose senior vice president Bill Sweeney warned in a recent press call that “the longer they wait, the harder it gets.”

    Speaking for the Trump administration, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement, “We are working to preserve Social Security … and recognize that more work remains to secure benefits for future beneficiaries.”

    Someday soon

    Analysts have long predicted the Old Age and Survivors Insurance trust fund from which most retired Social Security claimants draw benefits could dissipate, said Temple University labor economist Samuel Solomon. But that was always regarded as a “someday” event.

    “Someday” may now be just six years away. “That’s a big deal,” Solomon said.

    The SSA wouldn’t stop paying benefits altogether, Mitchell said. Although the report predicts the fund’s reserves could be tapped out by 2032, “continuing payroll tax revenue [from people currently working] would cover about 78% of scheduled retirement benefits,” she added.

    At nearly $1.6 trillion annually, Social Security represents more than 20% of the U.S. budget and is the nation’s largest single expense, Solomon said.

    Various factors have combined recently to accelerate the fund’s potential depletion, according to the report submitted by SSA trustees, who include Bessent, as well as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

    First, the fertility rate this year is going down faster than predicted: 1.75 children per woman vs. 1.9.

    Also, immigration is lower than estimated. That trend will continue as the government maintains restrictive immigration policies, experts say. It represents a potentially immense loss of revenue, according to Wharton research, which shows that “unauthorized immigrants” paid $24 billion in Social Security payroll taxes in 2024, despite being ineligible to collect any benefits.

    Both the slowed fertility and diminished immigration rates have lowered the anticipated number of workers and the payroll taxes they’d have contributed to Social Security, said Kathleen Romig, Social Security expert with the Center on Budget Priorities and Policies, a left-leaning research group.

    The final factor, the trustees report said, is that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that decreased income tax rates has reduced revenue that would’ve flowed into the program.

    The SSA didn’t respond for requests to comment.

    The Social Security system had been strained long before the trustees report. The giant baby boomer generation has been retiring since around 2011, siphoning millions from the program, Solomon said.

    In 1950, when the first boomers were 4 years old, every 100 workers paid the Social Security benefits of 13 elderly people, Solomon said. Today, it’s 25 elderly people per 100 workers — “more responsibility on a single working person to support more retirees,” Solomon said.

    That worries Doris Kitt, 81, of Jenkintown, a Social Security benefits recipient who still works at a South Jersey pediatric dental practice.

    Doris Kitt talks with coworker Asia Bagby. Kitt, who is 81, still works and also collects Social Security benefits.

    “Less Social Security when rent and food continue to cost more is a challenge,” Kitt said.

    ‘Give me what I’m due’

    Through the years, Republicans and Democrats have forwarded competing remedies for repairing Social Security.

    GOP suggestions include raising the retirement age to 70, and privatizing the system.

    Democrats call for raising payroll taxes and ending the payroll tax cap. (Currently, wages above $184,500 are not subject to Social Security taxes. Democrats would eliminate the cap so higher-income earners pay into the system on 100% of their earnings.)

    In a statement, U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Northeast Philadelphia Democrat running for reelection in November against Republican challenger Jessica Arriaga, said the trustees report makes it clear that “we must act to protect Social Security benefits for all generations.“

    He referenced a bill he introduced in May 2025 that would require Americans earning more than $400,000 to contribute a greater percentage of their wages to Social Security. It’s now before the House Ways and Means Committee.

    U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker, a Republican representing Lancaster County, also issued a statement, saying Social Security could be fixed by a “bipartisan fiscal commission” to “build consensus” and eliminate depletions of benefits. Smucker is being opposed by Democrat Nancy Mannion in his bid for reelection.

    “We must preserve the trust fund millions of Americans rely on and keep our promise to those who have been paying into the system their entire lives,” he said.

    That covenant must be honored, said Shirley Stringfield, 70, a retired city worker from Germantown.

    “I spent 55 years of my life paying into Social Security,” she said, “so I want them to give me my due. I expect to receive my benefits until I expire. I need every cent.”

  • 40 new apartments are coming to Jenkintown at the site of the former Helweg funeral home

    40 new apartments are coming to Jenkintown at the site of the former Helweg funeral home

    Construction is underway on a mixed-use apartment building facing York Road in Jenkintown.

    Plans for the new building, which will sit at the intersection of Route 611 and Cherry Street across from Dunkin’, include 40 apartments and a ground-floor commercial space.

    The four-story structure also includes a parking garage with 48 spaces. Eight of those will be reserved for the retailer, developer and owner Vincent Celenza said.

    Rendering of an apartment complex at Route 611 and Cherry Street in Jenkintown set to open next year.

    Some Jenkintown residents have previously voiced concerns about parking permit arrangements for new apartments, arguing that charging for the spots encourages occupants to use free street parking instead.

    But Jenkintown Borough Manager George Locke said he’s heard some argue that no-cost parking permits could present a different problem: “[An] owner might just work the cost of parking into all leases and that might negatively affect those who chose not to drive and use public transportation instead.”

    Celenza said he hasn’t decided yet how to handle parking permits. “That was one of [the borough’s] concerns,” he said.

    An older building on the site, Helweg Funeral Services Inc, was demolished earlier this month.

    Celenza bought the land in 2022 from the trust of the Helweg family funeral home’s owner, Mary Welham Wurmstedt, according to property records.

    Newspaper archives indicate the Helweg funeral home had operated on the property since at least the 1930s. Helweg’s has merged with another funeral home and is now located two miles down the street in Abington.

    Celenza went through several rounds of planning with Jenkintown, which requested fewer apartments and a wider sidewalk on Cherry Street, Locke said. Celenza agreed to those requests in the final plan submitted last summer.

    Construction is underway on a new 40-apartment complex and commercial space at Old York Road and Cherry Street in Jenkintown.

    The developer will also add a small public area with two benches on a back corner of the property at Cherry and Johnson Streets.

    The apartment complex, named 459 Flats, is set to open in June 2027, Celenza said.

    Average rent for the apartments, which range from studios to two-bedroom units, will be about $2,400 per month.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • Five wacky things I saw on the Nic Cage bar crawl

    Five wacky things I saw on the Nic Cage bar crawl

    Like many, I’m big fan of Nicolas Cage’s work. How big? On my bachelorette party to New Orleans a few years ago I requested we tour St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 so I could get a pic of me and my girls with Cage’s nine-foot pyramid tomb.

    Not only can the man seriously act, he can also seriously overact. As a writer who loves puns ( especially bad ones), I appreciate someone who has fun with their art form to the point it causes eye rolls.

    And so, when I learned about Uncaged in Jenkintown: A Nic Cage cocktail crawl that happened on Sunday, I wanted to check it out. In some ways, it turned out to be like a lot of Cage movies — not a blockbuster, but still quirky and fun.

    “Honeymoon in Vegas” plays at Buckets Bar during the Nic Cage cocktail crawl on Sunday in Jenkintown.

    The crawl was spread across four Jenkintown bars — the Keep Easy, the Drake Tavern, Buckets Bar, and King’s Corner. Each one featured Cage-themed cocktails and hosted a “Cage match,” where participants went head-to-head in challenges based on Cage films.

    Organizer Mel Hager, an owner of the Keep Easy, said she sold out of the 50 Uncaged kits she’d prepared for $15 a pop. While the crawl was free to attend, those who bought a kit — including yours truly — received a passport book, which got you a free Cage match at each establishment (otherwise they were $2 to play); a piece of Cage cash, which was good for one shot at any of the bars (it’s a tiny dollar bill with Nic Cage’s face on it, I’m never spending that); and one of a variety of Cage masks (I felt like I won the lottery when I got the Con-Air Cage).

    While I didn’t drink, I hopped around to the bars, tried my hand at the Cage matches, and talked with fellow Cage fans about what brought them out to the event. Here are five of the wackiest things I saw at the Nic Cage bar crawl.

    1. H.I. fashion

    Vicky and Mike Hutz, of Huntington Valley, at the Keep Easy during the Nic Cage cocktail crawl on Sunday in Jenkintown. Mike Hutz is dressed as Cage’s character from “Raising Arizona,” H.I. McDunnough.

    When H.I. McDunnough kidnaps one of the Arizona quintuplet babies in the 1987 Cohen Brothers classic, Raising Arizona, he proclaims to his wife: “I think I got the best one.”

    Of the few Cage character costumes I saw Sunday — which included Ronny from Moonstruck, Cameron Poe from Con Air, and someone portraying Cage’s first role as an unnamed burger shop worker in Fast Times at Ridgemont High — Mike Hutz’s H.I. McDunnough costume was undoubtedly the best one. Hutz, of Huntingdon Valley, had the open Hawaiian shirt, a wig, and McDunnough’s mugshot board.

    “What else are you going to do on a Sunday afternoon when you have a Nicolas Cage crawl option?” he said. “There’s nothing he can’t do and he does it with maximum cheesiness, which is just perfect for people who love cheesy.”

    2. The faces

    Seeing people at bars and walking the streets of Jenkintown wearing Cage face masks was both highly amusing and mildly unsettling, mainly because the eye holes were cut out wonkily, giving them a ragged, creepy edge.

    Masks included Face/Off Cage, Con Air Cage, red carpet Cage, and Dracula Cage (from the movie Renfield).

    Vicky Hutz, of Huntington Valley, holds a “Con-Air” Nic Cage mask at the Keep Easy during the Nic Cage cocktail crawl on Sunday.

    Julia Sousa and Josh Douglas traveled to the crawl from Roxborough because they love Cage and Jenkintown. Douglas walked from bar to bar with his Cage face mask on, which seemed to startle some passing motorists.

    “I’m pretty sure they thought I was Michael Myers,” he said.

    3. The Cage matches

    The games based on Cage films, while homespun, were clever and fun. At Buckets, the game was inspired by the scene in Honeymoon in Vegas where Cage skydives with a bunch of Elvis impersonators. Contestants had to throw toy parachute soldiers that were painted to look like Elvis onto particular spots of a mock-up of the Vegas strip for points.

    Julia Sousa and Josh Douglas, both of Roxborough, compete in the “Flying Elvis Cage Match,” at Buckets Bar during the Nic Cage cocktail crawl on Sunday in Jenkintown.

    At King’s Corner, where the challenge was based on the movie National Treasure, participants had to solve little metal mind-bender puzzles.

    For the Spider-Noir Cage match at the Drake, you had to keep a balloon bouncing in the air while putting on a cape, mask, and fedora.

    I failed spectacularly at all three of those challenges — and I was completely sober! The only one I did succeed at was called Ghost Glider. Based on the film Ghost Rider, the challenge was to to roll a penny down an inclined surface made to look like a road and into the tongs of a fork at the other end.

    The “Ghost Glider” Cage match at the Keep Easy during the Nic Cage cocktail crawl on Sunday in Jenkintown.

    4. Stickers and sage

    For winning the Ghost Glider challenge, I received a bundle of sage and a sticker for my passport book of a shirtless, reclining Cage coming out of a banana.

    Let’s address the sage first: Nobody could tell me why this was my prize for winning the challenge, which somehow makes it even better. I have two theories — it could be because sage rhymes with Cage, or maybe it’s because you light sage and in Ghost Rider, Cage lights on fire.

    Whatever the reason, I’m gonna smudge some stuff up this weekend.

    An a-peeling sticker columnist Stephanie Farr received for winning a Cage match challenge at the Keep Easy during the Nic Cage bar crawl in Jenkintown Sunday.

    Now onto this banana sticker — I don’t know why it exists, but I am so happy it does. Each bar gave a different sticker if you won a challenge, but this banana-Cage split one was, by far, the most a-peeling.

    Later at the Drake, I met Erica Adams of Bensalem and “her only friend of whimsy,” Amanda Knop, who’d driven from Baltimore to attend the Cage crawl with her. Adams had her own stickers of Cage’s head she was handing out like friendship bracelets at a Taylor Swift concert.

    “I just love his movies and doing silly, fun things,” Adams said. “Nicolas Cage himself is very unserious. He’s lived a million different lives in a short span already.”

    5. Picolas Cage

    Justin Walsh poses for a photo with “Picolas Cage” as Jessica Lopez takes the photo at the Keep Easy during the Nic Cage cocktail crawl on Sunday in Jenkintown.

    A giant cut-out of Cage as a pickle, aka Picolas Cage, was stationed outside of the Keep Easy during the crawl. As someone who likes Cage and cucumbers — but hates pickles — it was a jarring experience. But I saw others relishing the photo op so I didn’t make a big dill out of it.

  • Abington is planning a new, multi-million-dollar library to replace its 1950s-era building

    Abington is planning a new, multi-million-dollar library to replace its 1950s-era building

    Abington is planning to tear down and replace its flagship library building.

    The Pennsylvania Department of Education announced more than $11 million in grants in April for libraries across the state. Abington Township received $749,750 “to plan and design a library facility that is sustainable, accessible, efficient and tailored to the needs of the community.”

    Town officials are now hard at work doing just that, Abington Township Public Library executive director Elizabeth Fitzgerald said.

    The library has already put out a call for a fundraising consultant who will help raise the roughly $50 million total that township officials think they’ll need to replace the main library at 1030 Old York Road with something bigger. The consultant will be paid with private donations from the library’s endowment, Fitzgerald said.

    Officials hope some of that money will come from state and federal sources, too. Fitzgerald asked state Sen. Art Haywood about possible funding through the Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, according to minutes from the May library trustees meeting.

    The 1954 building was previously a Best and Co. department store. Abington took over the property in the mid-1970s.

    A 1957 image of the Best and Co. department store in Abington held at the Library of Congress.

    Maintaining the 72-year-old structure has “caused countless interruptions in services and building closures,” Fitzgerald wrote in a statement announcing the grant.

    And the community has now outgrown it, the library director said. Earlier this month, the library hosted author Pam Jenoff at a Penn State building down the road in order to fit some 125 attendees.

    In addition to author events, the library hosts activities for kids, an adult literacy program, and a “library of things“ ranging from birding backpacks to electricity usage monitors.

    Nearly 24,000 people attended over 800 library programs in 2025, Fitzgerald wrote in the grant announcement. “Abington Township needs a new, 21st century library building that can accommodate the needs of our community for generations to come.”

    Next steps include hiring an architectural engineering firm using the state grant money, Fitzgerald said. The town expects to demolish the current structure sometime after September 2027 and rebuild on the same land.

    In the meantime, officials will seek community input on the project “with surveys, focus groups, town halls, and one-on-one conversations,” Fitzgerald wrote.

    “The planning is not in my hands,” she said. “This is the community’s library.”

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • There are plans for an 86-unit apartment complex next to SEPTA’s Jenkintown station

    There are plans for an 86-unit apartment complex next to SEPTA’s Jenkintown station

    Eighty-six new apartments are planned for Wyncote in Cheltenham Township as part of a development project that would also include an office and a commercial space.

    The building at the center of the 165 Township Line Rd. property would remain an office, while the project would convert a second existing structure into a 36-unit apartment building, and add a third, 50-unit apartment complex to the site with a parking garage and a retail space on the ground floor, according to a May review letter from the Montgomery County Planning Commission.

    The higher-density development would sit about 1,000 feet from SEPTA’s Jenkintown-Wyncote Regional Rail station, which SEPTA plans to rebuild with a pedestrian overpass and other features by 2027.

    The lot is zoned for multi-use development, but only the new 50-unit building meets that criteria. Cheltenham Township grandfathered the existing office building into the current zoning ordinances, and the planned 36-unit complex was granted an exemption in 2024.

    In addition to the 79-car garage, the plans include a repainted parking lot to boost spaces from 135 to more than 160.

    The project is expected to net about half a million dollars annually for the township and Cheltenham School District, according to a February fiscal analysis, and house an estimated six school-aged children.

    SEPTA, which aims to boost ridership by encouraging higher density, pedestrian-friendly housing along Regional Rail lines, said Tuesday that they’re glad projects like these are moving forward.

    “Transit-oriented communities reinforce the public’s investment in SEPTA,” spokesperson Kelly Greene said.

    JOSS Realty Partners, which had owned the entire property, held a joint open house with SEPTA in 2019 about a project that would’ve allowed SEPTA to use a parking lot on the site.

    JOSS still owns the office building that’s excluded from the proposal. The new development is planned to be built on about an acre of the site that was sold off to 165 Town Line Holdings LLC in 2025.

    The mailing address for the LLC is a property co-owned by real estate investor Edward Topolewski.

    In their review of the proposal, the Montgomery County Planning Commission called for more pedestrian and cyclist access.

    “We are glad to see new development proposed in the area of the Jenkintown-Wyncote Station,” principal county planner Chloe Mohr wrote.

    “For this to be a successful development, pedestrians need to easily and safely travel throughout the site, to the train station, and to other destinations.”

    That includes access to future walking trails, the planners wrote, and neighboring Wyncote House.

    County officials also suggested that Cheltenham consider improvements to the stormwater management plan.

    “It appears that there may currently be erosion and drainage issues here,” Mohr wrote. “With the steep slopes on this site, more may need to be done to remediate stormwater runoff.”

    The project was slated for review by the town’s Shade Tree Advisory Commission this month, Cheltenham Commissioner Jeff Chirico said, but the developer requested an extension.

    The proposal would then head to the township commissioner board.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • The man, the myth, the bar crawl: Jenkintown goes all out for Nic Cage-themed night

    The man, the myth, the bar crawl: Jenkintown goes all out for Nic Cage-themed night

    In an unbearably massive oversight, the city of Philadelphia has left National Treasure Nicolas Cage completely out of its Semiquincentennial festivities, despite the fact that he’s the only known person to have stolen the Declaration of Independence and climbed Independence Hall free solo in the last 250 years.

    But fear not, for a group of suburban bars have mustered to pay homage to this chameleon king of cinema, this skin-shedding Snake Eyes of the silver screen with their revolutionary event: “Uncaged in Jenkintown: A Nic Cage cocktail crawl.”

    Nic nugget: Cage has portrayed twice as many people as there were members of the First Continental Congress.

    From 4 to 8 p.m. June 28, four Jenkintown bars within stumbling distance of each other — the Keep Easy, the Drake Tavern, Buckets Bar, and Kings Corner — will be featuring Cage-themed cocktails, showing Cage movies, and hosting “Cage matches.”

    Songs from Cage’s films will be performed live in an alley, the local movie theater is hosting a late-night screening of a Cage film, and, for the Wild at Heart, even a tattoo parlor is getting in on the festivities.

    Nic nugget: Cage has a tattoo of a lizard wearing a top hat.

    In an Adaptation of a typical bar crawl, participants who register for this event will receive a pretty Kick Ass “Uncaged Cocktail Crawl Kit” filled with goodies that would be a Dream Scenario for any Cage fan.

    Mel Hager — an owner of the Keep Easy who described her Cage fandom as “AhaHAhahAA [maniacal Cage laughter] OUTRAGEOUS OOooOO!!” — said the participating bars host a Festivus-themed crawl during the holidays and they wanted to create a summer-themed crawl too (luckily, there’s no chance of getting Snowden at this time of year).

    “Who doesn’t like Nic Cage?” she said. “It’s insane how he puts in the work. Every time I turn around I’m like ‘Is he a robot? How does he do so many movies?’ He’s an enigma but yet he does seem like all of us but also maybe he’s an alien? I don’t know, but it’s fantastic.”

    Nic nugget: Cage has never played an alien, but he was convinced he was one as a kid.

    The event is free to attend, but participants who want to compete for Cage-themed prizes will need to either preregister online for $15 or register in person the day of at the same price to receive their Uncaged kit. Each kit contains one of five random Cage masks to be worn during face-offs against opponents in “Cage matches.”

    Every bar will have its own Cage match competition that will pit two players in a tête-à-tête game based on a different Cage movie to determine who’s the Lord of War. The game at Buckets, for example, is called the “Flying Elvis” and it’s based on the scene in Honeymoon in Vegas where Cage goes skydiving with a group of Elvis impersonators. Contestants will have to throw toy parachute soldiers (hand-painted to look like Elvis) to see who can land them closest to a tiny mock-up of the Vegas strip.

    The games are designed to move quickly, with each Gone in 60 Seconds or so.

    Nic nugget: When Cage is gone he will be buried in a 9-foot-tall white stone pyramid he had built in a New Orleans cemetery.

    For every challenge won, participants will get a stamp in their Cage pub passport, which is included with the kit. At 7:30 p.m., an awards ceremony will be held and those with the most stamps will receive Cage-themed prizes. Hey, It Could Happen to You.

    Cage crawlers are also urged to get stamps in their passport for every Cage-themed beverage they consume. The Keep Easy will be serving “Mandy’s Electric Lemonade,” a reference to the surreal horror film, Mandy, that’s made with blue Curaçao, a libation just as colorful as Cage’s career.

    “We’re trying to bring out his spirit in our spirits,” Hager said.

    Also included in the kit is a photo scavenger hunt with challenges at every establishment, like snapping a picture with Picolas Cage, a life-size cut-out of Cage as a pickle (he’s kind of a big dill).

    “We had Picolas Cage already because we had a pickle crawl one year and I love Nic Cage…so he’s making a comeback,” Hager said, gherkin out.

    Those who preregister will also receive a piece of Cage cash, a very not legal form of tender with Cage’s face on it that will get you a specialty shot at one of the four participating bars, if you want to cash it in.

    Nic nugget: Cage once spent $276,000 on a dinosaur skull he later had to turn over to the Mongolian government.

    A Nic Cage-themed bar crawl? Just take our money now.

    During the crawl, local musician Gerard Regan will Rage in nearby Yorkway Alley, playing songs from Cage movies. Prior to the festivities, Nobleheart Tattoo Gallery will have a special on Cage-themed tats from 1 to 4 p.m. And following the crawl at 9:30 p.m., the Hiway Theater will show Cage’s 1988 film, Vampire’s Kiss, if you have Time to Kill.

    Costumes are encouraged and given that Cage has portrayed every kind of character from an angel to a vampire, the possibilities are endless. So get Primal with it, because you don’t want to be Left Behind.

    “It’s like the whole town is getting involved,” Hager said. “Like Nic Cage would, just come on out and have fun. You deserve it.”

    For more information on Uncaged in Jenkintown, visit the event’s Facebook page. To preregister for the crawl visit: uncagedinjenkintown.bigcartel.com.

  • Two Jenkintown ‘psychics’ will face a county judge in $600,000 theft case

    Two Jenkintown ‘psychics’ will face a county judge in $600,000 theft case

    Two Montgomery County women, in times of personal turmoil, turned to two self-proclaimed psychics in Jenkintown for comfort and guidance.

    Instead, they testified Monday, Gina Marks and Steve Nicklas strung them along, persuaded them to hand over a combined $600,000 in money and luxury goods, and threatened to attack and blackmail them when they tried to get the items back.

    One woman said at Nicklas’ preliminary hearing that she felt compelled to work with them because they told her that her ex-wife was being targeted by “black magic” and that her life was in danger.

    “As someone who loved my wife and my family, I felt like I had no choice,” she said. “I wanted to save them.”

    District Judge R. Emmett Madden dismissed four charges against Nicklas, 41, including racketeering and dealing in unlawful proceeds, but held him for trial on theft and related crimes. Marks, his paramour and business partner, waived her preliminary hearing and will face a county judge on all of the charges.

    Marks, 53, has been convicted of similar fraud before, in Florida and Maryland, including stealing $340,000 from clients she promised to rid of “curses.”

    Nicklas’ attorney, Elizabeth Lippy, argued that Marks, not he, was the one who ran Jenkintown Psychic Visions and directed the transfer of money and high-priced items, including designer purses and watches.

    “This is not the Jenkintown mafia,” Lippy said, referencing the use of racketeering charges to disrupt organized crime rings. “This is a storefront psychic who advertised her own abilities, and giving money to Mr. Nicklas doesn’t create a corrupt organization.”

    Assistant District Attorney Christian Taffe presented evidence that between 2022 and their arrest in October, Marks and Nicklas encouraged the two women to make multiple wire transfers to bank accounts and a CashApp account operated by Nicklas. Marks also instructed them to withdraw large amounts of cash and to store the money in pillowcases as part of various rituals with supposedly paranormal purposes.

    One woman said she hired Marks in hopes that her ex-fiancé, who had called off their wedding, would reach out to her and come back into her life.

    She said Marks initially told her to keep the money in her home, but later asked her to bring it to her and Nicklas in person as part of a “marriage ritual.”

    That ritual, the woman said, also required a $6,000 Chanel purse that Marks told her to purchase after asking her to extend a higher line of credit with her bank.

    Marks, she said, promised to return both the purse and money to her.

    “She told me not to worry about money,” the woman said, “because ‘money comes and money goes.’”

    After months of cajoling Marks, the woman received a fraction of her money and the purse, which she was able to return to the store for a partial refund.

    When the women pressed for more money to be returned, she said Marks threatened to contact her ex and create fake social media accounts for her, using personal information she had shared during their psychic readings.

    The other victim said Marks placed similar demands on her: In addition to a pillowcase full of money, she was directed to buy expensive Rolex and Cartier watches, again as part of a ritual.

    When the woman tried to get her money back, Marks became irate, she testified. Nicklas would then join the conversation, telling her to “trust the process” and promising that everything would be returned to her if she completed the ritual.

    Lippy, Nicklas’ attorney, asserted that no theft had occurred. Both women, she said, believed in the paranormal and had agreed to pay for psychic services.

    “Both of these victims have free will,” she said. “When a psychic promises their services, it’s a service nonetheless.”

  • Eleanor M. Kelley, longtime French teacher, lifelong athlete, and mentor to many, has died at 79

    Eleanor M. Kelley, longtime French teacher, lifelong athlete, and mentor to many, has died at 79

    Eleanor M. Kelley, 79, of Philadelphia, longtime French teacher at International Christian High School, onetime adjunct professor at Temple University, role model, mentor to many, and lifelong athlete, died Friday, Feb. 20, of complications from Parkinson’s disease at Rydal Park & Waters retirement community in Jenkintown.

    An honors graduate at Abraham Lincoln High School and twice at Temple, Mrs. Kelley was a compassionate, faith-driven intellectual who excelled at languages, teaching, and friendship. She taught French for two years as an adjunct professor at Temple and then for 48 years, from 1972 to 2020, at Cedar Grove Christian Academy and its successor, International Christian High School.

    She worked with thousands of students from around the world at International Christian in Olney and chaperoned nine trips to Paris with her French classes. She connected with students, they said in online tributes, by smiling often and singing songs and quoting the Bible in French.

    Former students called her “intellectually challenging” and “fiery when it came to teaching French.” They said: “You never gave up on us.”

    Mrs. Kelley was honored online by colleagues at International Christian High School.

    Her achievements were recognized by educational organizations, and she told her husband, Bill: “I need to find new ways to challenge the students. I must avoid getting caught up in the routine of teaching.”

    Nearly everyone called her Madame Kelley, and they dedicated three school yearbooks to her. Several of her online tributes were written in French. “Au revoir, Madame,” they said. “Merci.”

    Survivors give advice about mourning their loved ones, as told to The Inquirer’s obit writer

    On Facebook, Benjamin Brittin, head administrator at International Christian, said: “Mrs. Kelley was a devoted co-worker, wise, fair-minded, loving, and faithful in her support of both students and colleagues.”

    She also taught English and health, and was the school’s discipline administrator and director of the Honors Society. She served on school and church committees, and helped her husband coach the International Christian boys’ basketball team.

    Mrs. Kelley played basketball and volleyball at Abraham Lincoln High School.

    “She was one in a million,” a former school colleague said in a Facebook tribute. Another said: “I will never stop striving for the perfection you maintained with incredible grace.”

    Mrs. Kelley played basketball and volleyball in high school, and later earned 10 medals and trophies at local running events. One time, her husband said, she slowed near the end of a race so a friend could pass her and win a medal.

    When parents die, even the mundane memories comfort their children. Here are their tales, as told to The Inquirer’s obit writer.

    She earned three awards for coaching the boys’ basketball team at International Christian, and she and her husband ran often in Wissahickon Valley Park and along Kelly Drive.

    “Teaching was her passion, indeed a promissory gift to so many of her students,” her husband said. “She was a fisher of minds and souls who made ideas matter.”

    Mrs. Kelley and her husband, Bill, married in 1972.

    Eleanor Mary Tolia was born Feb. 12, l947, in Philadelphia. She enjoyed family vacations in Atlantic City when she was young and graduated summa cum laude from Abraham Lincoln High.

    She met Bill Kelley when both were students at Temple, and they married in 1972. He was on his way to basketball practice one afternoon when he saw her in her father’s diner, and he stopped in to meet her.

    Surviving spouses always remember how they met their mate. Here are the meet-cute stories told to The Inquirer’s obit writer.

    They lived in Roxborough, and he doted on her for more than five decades, including daily visits to her bedside over the last year. At Temple, she earned summa cum laude bachelor’s and master’s degrees in French.

    Mrs. Kelley and her husband made memorable trips to Cape Cod Bay in Massachusetts and the Jersey Shore. She loved flowers and Italian food, adopted three stray cats, and framed and displayed all 54 of the poems her husband wrote for her every Christmas.

    Mrs. Kelley “gifted me more of my humanity,” her husband said.

    She usually mailed more than 125 Christmas cards and stayed in touch with former students who became old friends. She wrote letters to the editor of The Inquirer about local events, filled 30 albums with photos, and saved practically every note and letter she ever received.

    Friends called her Ellie Kelley. “She showed more humanity than anyone I ever met,” her husband said. “She gifted me more of my humanity. She was my life. She was my hero.”

    In addition to her husband, Mrs. Kelley is survived by a brother and other relatives.

    Private services are to be held later.

  • House of the week: An end-unit townhouse in Elkins Park for $499,000

    House of the week: An end-unit townhouse in Elkins Park for $499,000

    She has been staying there only for a few months, but Samantha Robinson knows why her grandparents loved their Elkins Park end-unit townhouse and the neighborhood.

    “Everybody says hello,” she said. “Everybody looks out for each other.”

    Her mother, Kerry Rosenthal, said her dad “really liked the wall space and the lighting. Being an end unit made it easier for my mom to grow things.”

    Rosenthal said it’s possible to walk through the neighborhood and think you’re in a rural area until you hear the commuter rail train nearby .

    Her parents — Beverly Green, a writing teacher, and Stephen Green, an attorney — bought the condo in the gated Breyer Woods development in 2011, expecting to renovate it so they could age in place. The Greens died in October.

    The back porch with a permanent gas grill.

    The 2,936-square-foot house, built in 1993, has three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and two half bathrooms.

    The main level has a living room with a working gas fireplace, a deck, and a dedicated home office that could serve as a fourth bedroom.

    A two-car attached garage leads directly to the laundry room.

    The living room has a working gas fireplace.

    The upper level primary suite has vaulted ceilings and multiple closets.

    The finished walk-out basement has a half bath and kitchenette and opens to a second private deck.

    Community residents have access to a tennis court and can join the adjacent student center at the Elkins Park campus of Drexel University, which has a clubhouse and gym.

    The kitchen.

    The house is a short walk from the Jenkintown SEPTA station, and a supermarket is less than a half-mile away.

    The house is listed by Frank Blumenthal at Keller Williams Real Estate Tri-County for $499,000.

  • Meet the architect whose style defined modern Jersey Shore homes

    Meet the architect whose style defined modern Jersey Shore homes

    Coastal homes featuring wooden gambrel roofs, cedar siding, covered porches, and inside spaces that flow out to patios and pools are mainstays of Jersey Shore properties. The architect who brought that look to the area, arguably, is Mark Asher.

    For more than four decades, Asher has left his imprint on homes from Cape May to Rumson to the Philly suburbs, everything from 1,200-square-foot cottages to 15,000-square-foot mansions.

    Now principal of Asher Slaunwhite + Partners in Jenkintown, Asher has come a long way since designing his first house in 1986: an 1,800-square-foot Cape Cod in Ocean City for his parents.

    “I suppose my parents were looking for a return on their investment,” Asher said. “The house was serviceable. It stood up and didn’t leak, which puts me well ahead of most architects’ first-house experience.”

    Architectural blueprints in Asher’s office.

    That first solo experience taught him many lessons, mostly “that there was a lot to learn,” he said.

    One of those lessons he acquired along the way was that many cultural myths about architects exist, beginning with the notion that architects are generalists who know a little bit about a lot of things. In fact, he said, the reality is that you have to become very, very good at many, many things.

    “We are balancing the skills in land use, regulatory environment, technology, budget, and design,” Asher said. “And of course, client relationships. The house — the finished product — is the tip of an enormous iceberg.”

    Those relationships have been the cornerstone of his business. He has a long list of repeat customers and takes pride in designing homes for the children of former clients.

    Early in his career, Shore homes on Seven Mile Island, home to Avalon and Stone Harbor, were his bread and butter. Today, about 60% of his work comes from the Shore, and the rest from coastal clients who hire him for their inland homes.

    Steve and Nancy Graham had Asher design two homes: their Avalon beach house in 2003, and their primary home in Wayne a year later. Nancy had worked for a builder at the time, and was a true collaborator during the design process.

    The house of Steve and Nancy Graham in Avalon, which architect Mark Asher designed for the family in 2003.

    They razed an existing cottage, replacing it with a two-story, 4,000-square-foot, six-bedroom vacation home for their family, which at the time included their three children. Now, eight grandchildren make memories there.

    The Graham’s Shore house was nothing like the Wayne house he designed for them, which replicated that house’s traditional, historical neighbors. Their Avalon property was Asher’s first foray into designing Shore homes and included a gambrel roof, cedar siding, and a covered porch.

    “I had designed many houses like this before anyone built one, but I kept getting shot down,” Asher said. “Once it was done, it was like a hit song, and it was all people wanted.”

    A childhood passion

    As early as he can remember, Asher loved to sail. Spending his summers at the Shore, he’d tool around in a small dinghy, hugging the Jersey coast from Brigantine to Cape May.

    “The sights and sounds, the feel, and even the smells of these coastal towns became etched in my memory,” Asher said. “So when I started to work in the various beach towns, it was really just going back to a place I’d already been.”

    He had a similar passion for architecture at an early age, curious about old houses. He’d park himself on the curb, sketch pad in hand, and draw the houses he found most interesting. Those were his Architecture 101 lessons.

    (From left) Laura Glantz, Jeanine Snyder, Mark Asher, and Deborah Slaunwhite chat in the office of Asher Slaunwhite + Partners in Jenkintown.

    “I grew up in old houses, warts and all,” he recalled. “They were constantly being worked on. Saturday mornings invariably meant a trip to the lumberyard or the hardware store. And I love old houses still — their history and their stories.”

    After graduating from Virginia Tech School of Architecture in 1982, he worked at various architecture firms, learning the subtleties of his profession. In 1992, the Ocean City Yacht Club hired Asher for a redesign, and in 1995 the Avalon Yacht Club followed suit.

    “This was pre-computer, pre-Internet, so the OCYC project was drawn by hand,” he recalled. “Hard work and passion will cover the sins of inexperience.”

    Building for today’s family dynamic

    Asher’s first home design came in 2000, a relatively small two-coastal cottage that cost about $125 per square foot to build. Today, that same house would cost about eight times that, outpacing the inflation rate by 1,200%, Asher said.

    His designs have evolved along with the needs of his clients. Shore houses today are often designed for three generations of living.

    “Now you need areas for people to come together, but also to separate under the same roof,” said Michael Buck, president of Buck Custom Homes in Avalon and Ocean City, who has worked with Asher on about 30 projects.

    A home in Ocean City designed by architect Mark Asher.

    Although homes previously housed multiple generations, they weren’t purposefully designed to accommodate the needs of extended families. In many cases, homes are shifting to a more contemporary style, with five en-suite bedrooms, an elevator, and dedicated HVAC closet.

    “Mark’s plans capture a certain simplicity of the coastal environment of the home,” Buck said. “His architecture speaks to a classic, thoughtful approach to how a house blends in with its environment on a micro and macro level.”

    Asher’s entry into coastal building brought a greater emphasis on the home’s exterior, both in beauty and function.

    “When Mark came to town, the shift toward second homes from purely rental properties had already begun,” said Jack Binder Sr., broker at Ferguson Dechert Real Estate in Avalon. “The affluent, personal-use buyer wanted to express themselves through custom housing that stood apart from the rest and featured high-end amenities.”

    “Mark married functional interior space that flowed to exterior entertaining areas allowing his clients to enjoy their home to the max,” Binder said.

    One of the homes designed by Mark Asher in Avalon.

    Asher’s home interiors are thoughtfully designed, said Allison Valtri, principal of Allison Valtri Interiors in Avalon.

    “His windows are very carefully placed so that the light comes in in a way that is unexpected,” Valtri said. “Some of my favorite windows are ones that are capturing the sky. That fulfilling moment of peace is very thoughtful.”

    Asher also brought a desire for lush, green lawns to replace the stones that had previously filled the yards. “The stones were hot in the summer, cold in the winter, and ugly all year round,” he said.

    “When I began, I was working in a very traditional architectural palette,” he said. “The ’70s and ’80s were not very kind to beach architecture — think big hair and shoulder pads or stucco and a fondness for inexplicable round windows. So I was on a sort of reclamation project.”

    If it’s true that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Asher should feel quite proud.

    An architectural model at the offices of Asher Slaunwhite + Partners.

    “He elevates and then watches everyone else catch up,” Buck said. “For example, not long ago, a wood roof was an anomaly, but now it’s mainstream.”

    But Asher sees it differently. Imitation just means he needs to challenge himself to find something better.

    He shares credit for his successes with those who have helped and inspired him, including his wife and longtime collaborator, Susan Asher, as well as his architect partners, Deborah Slaunwhite and Laura Glantz, and his business partner Jeanine Snyder. He also enjoys mentoring young architects.

    “Any profession has a responsibility for the generation that comes after it,” Asher said. “And I’ve often believed that my own start was a little rockier than it might have been. Some early guidance would have been helpful. So you pay it forward.”