Marty Higgins, of the Community Life Improvement Program, was the guest speaker at the recent Holme Circle Civic Association meeting.
Higgins invited residents to call the CLIP hotline, anonymously if they choose, at 215-683-2547. He also pointed people to atlas.phila.gov. The website shows information such as pending bills, Licenses and Inspections violations and nearby service requests about specific properties.
CLIP is known largely for issuing violations to property owners to comply on matters such as high grass. Higgins said it would be helpful for people complaining about trash dumping to supply a license plate number captured on a home surveillance camera.
Higgins cited trash in parks or people living in parks as an example of people to call 311.
Members asked about other cases, all of which can be submitted to 311, such as shopping carts off store property, abandoned vehicles and squirrel feeding.
One resident asked about late-night partying. Higgins told the man to call 911.
In other news from the Feb. 28 meeting:
• When members arrived at St. Jerome, they learned that the parish hall was being used for a parents meeting on the upcoming First Holy Communion. Jacquelyne Scott, a member of Bethany AME Church and a guest speaker that night, invited the crowd to meet at her church, at nearby 8898 Ashton Road.
Scott noted the church is 207 years old but currently does not have a pastor, so members attend services at other houses of worship. Bethany AME invites the community to the church every first and third Tuesday of the month at 2 p.m. for a food bank giveaway.
• Civic president Mike Fagan swore in Nicole Figueroa as a board member.
• Holme Circle Civic Association recently received a $2,000 Philadelphia Activities Fund grant. The group agreed to give $200 to the Bethany AME food bank and spend $100 on membership in the Crosstown Coalition of civic associations.
• Torresdale Library, 3079 Holme Ave., will celebrate its 52nd birthday on Saturday, April 20. There will be preschool storytime at 10:30 a.m.; airbrush tattoos from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; live animals from the Center for Aquatic Sciences at noon; and the band Minas performing The Beatles in Bossa at 2:30. Light refreshments will be provided by Friends of Torresdale Library.
• State Sen. Jimmy Dillon will hold a senior expo on March 28 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at MaST Community Charter School III, 1 Crown Way.
• Thomas Holme Elementary School, 9125 Academy Road, will be demolished and rebuilt. BSI Construction will do the work. Current students have been moved to the Austin Meehan Middle School site. The new school will be three floors and 140,000 square feet and house 1,200 pupils in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The cost will be $89 million. Construction will begin in the summer and last through the fall of 2025, with occupancy in January 2026. ••
