Home brewing supply shop opens; Lasers offer Infinite engravings
HOP HEADS
Personal experience showed Deborah Lewis and her husband, Jim, that finding home-brewing supplies could mean a trip to Pensacola or an order via the Internet. With new-found space available to them through their other business, Computers Plus, the couple opened Hop Heads.
“My husband and I have been brewing beer for years,” Deborah Lewis said. “It’s just a great hobby.”
With Hop Heads, they offer grains, barley, hops, supplies and advice.
“We’ll have kits that all you have to do when you get home is supply water,” Lewis also said.
Since Hop Heads opened early this May, Lewis said all the inventory has yet to arrive. Some plans include the addition of a grain mill for home brewers who like to crush their own. Other plans include classes and possibly a brewer’s club.
The entire concept of Hop Heads, Lewis added, comes from the pure enjoyment of the brewing.
“I haven’t had a bad batch of beer that we’ve made,” she said. “I think there’s something about making it yourself and the satisfaction.”
LOCATION: 26-C N.W. Racetrack Road, near Choctawhatchee High School
HOURS: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Fridays
TELEPHONE: 863-9742
EMAIL: info@hopheadsfwb.com
WEBSITE: www.hopheadsfwb.com
***
INFINITE LASERS LLC
Very few things exist that Drew Cooper can’t engrave upon, he said.
Cooper and his daughter, Maddi Cooper, opened family-owned Infinite Lasers in April 2012, and by December they had relocated to a larger space in the McGuire’s plaza in Destin.
“When I was in the military, I handled a lot of the memorials and going-aways, and I had always been interested in the engraving aspect,” Cooper said, adding that he brings the old-school know how to the shop while Maddi brings the new-school.
“We can engrave on metal,” he continued. “It’s not the traditional engraving like an etch.”
They can also create custom awards for people, providing affordable recognition pieces for sports teams, squads and organizations as well as military memorials or honorariums. The Coopers can engrave on glass and acrylic, laptop computers and iPads, even guitars and rocks.
“It’s imagination,” Cooper said. “You bring in an idea and a piece of what you want engraved, and we’ll engrave it.”
Although Infinite Lasers did take over the phone number for the now-closed Destin Trophy shop, Cooper said “we’re a new business.”
LOCATION: 45 Harbor Blvd., Destin, near McGuire’s restaurant
HOURS: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Fridays
TELEPHONE: 424-3759
WEBSITE: www.infinitelasersllc.com
EMAIL: cooper@infinitelasersllc.com
Annual yard sale event slated for Saturday
Enlarge Image
JOSHUA A. BICKEL/THISWEEKNEWS
German Village resident Sam Gedert poses for a portrait with an old bicycle he’s selling at Village Valuables, an annual yard sale in the neighborhood. Along with the bike, Gedert is selling a variety of items including home-brewing equipment, electronics and sci-fi memorabilia.
By
GARY SEMAN JR.
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Sam Gedert is just a regular dude with a bachelor pad and lots of stuff he doesn’t need.
Many of his friends fit in that same category.
The owner of E-Roots Consulting, a tech-support business downtown, Gedert will participate in Village Valuables, an annual yard sale to be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 18 throughout German Village.
His stop, 845 S. Third St., will offer a variety of quirky merchandise — consumer electronics, sci-fi memorabilia, home-brewing supplies, auction-hunting leftovers and vinyl records.
“If it’s priced right, you can get rid of anything,” Gedert said.
To sweeten the pot, he will pump out music for Village Valuable patrons and plans to hand out water.
Gedert said he looks forward to rubbing elbows with bargain-hunters.
“It’s just a real fun, festive environment,” he said.
Just as it has in recent years, the event will coincide with the Komen Race for the Cure, which will help bring thousands of people to Village Valuables.
Shiloh Todorov, director of the German Village Society, said Village Valuables not only allows the neighborhood to strut its stuff, it will provide the Society with the opportunity to raise funds by selling reusable shopping bags as well as tickets to the 54th Haus und Garten Tour, slated for June 30.
“We estimate Village Valuables brings 10,000 people to German Village each spring, but we’ve never offered sponsors and partners a way to get in front of that audience,” Todorov said.
“In working with Raising Green Productions to raise $100,000 this year to fund our critical needs list, we saw an opportunity to connect our partners to all these consumers and in the process help (the) German Village Society raise the funds needed to keep this neighborhood great for all who work, live or play here,” Todorov said.
Two popular local restaurants will bring food trucks to the event.
Schmidt’s will be parked at the German Village Meeting Haus, while the Explorers Club will be located at the U.S. Bank building on Mohawk Street.
German Village Vet Hospital will have a table set up at the Meeting Haus and the Central Ohio Transit Authority will be parked at Third and Sycamore streets and instructing people how to use bus bike racks.
Goodwill will be on hand to haul away items that aren’t sold, Todorov said.
Mike Beargie, an employee and friend of Gedert, said available parking spaces fill up quickly. Beargie said patrons might want to consider parking at meters downtown or in the Brewery District and take a short bike ride over to the village.
“The earlier you get there the better,” he said.
Opinions From Candidates For Pottsgrove’s School Board
Opinions From Candidates For Pottsgrove’s School Board
Posted on 18 May 2013.
At the polls
POTTSTOWN PA – Extensive interviews with both slates of candidates in Tuesday’s (May 21, 2013) primary elections for seats on the Pottsgrove School District Board of School Directors have been conducted and posted online by reporter Evan Brandt of The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper. They’ve been available since Thursday (May 16) at Brandt’s YouTube channel, here.
Each of the two videos present discussions in which all eight candidates, in comfortable surroundings at The Mercury’s offices, talk about themselves; their hopes, aspirations and concerns for the district; what they believe to be issues that matter to voters, and their reasons for seeking election or re-election. They are informal and candid introductions to each group; The Post thanks and commends Brandt for performing a public service in providing them.
Unfortunately none of the participants are wearing individual microphones, so it may help to turn up the listening volume on whatever device you’re using to watch them.
The videos are embedded in the order in which they appear on Brandt’s channel.
Below: Diane Cherico, Scott Fulmer, Nancy Landes, and Michael Neiffer
Below: Don Clancy, Matt Alexander, Kelley Crist, and Rick Rabinowitz
Pottstown Woman Charged In Sanatoga Home Dispute
Pottstown Woman Charged In Sanatoga Home Dispute
Posted on 17 May 2013.
SANATOGA PA – A Pottstown woman was arrested Monday (May 13, 2013) on charges that included assault, after Lower Pottsgrove police alleged she was involved in an altercation in which one of her daughters was visibly injured.
Being held on counts of trespass, simple assault, harassment and disorderly conduct is Jodie Zaborsky of 268 Concord Rd.
According to a report by Ofc. David Slothower, police were called at around 4 p.m. to a town house in the 100 block of the Maple Glen residential community, near Maple Glen Circle on the south side of East High Street. A domestic dispute had escalated, he said, and upon arrival police found Zaborsky’s two daughters there. One of them reportedly had finger marks on her throat, as well as other injuries.
Police claim the daughters, who were not identified by name or age, were in the home but did not live there. Zaborsky also did not live there, and had entered the property without permission and then fled, police allege.
After later making contact with Zaborsky, police took her into custody. She was arraigned before an on-call judge, and was taken to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Eagleville PA in lieu of $5,000 bail. A preliminary hearing on the matter, in the Sanatoga courtroom of Magisterial District Judge Edward Kropp Sr., is scheduled for May 23 (Thursday).
Cast Your Vote Before May 28 For Pottsgrove’s New Look
POTTSTOWN PA – Focus groups have already had their say on creating a new logo, or brand identity, for the Pottsgrove School District. Now, Superintendent Shellie Feola declared in a Wednesday night (May 15, 2013) e-mail, it’s time for the public to voice its choice.
Feola distributed three new but still somewhat familiar looks (at right) created by its marketing consultants, The Communication Solutions Group of Jenkintown PA, as the candidates from which a winning brand will be chosen. And she invited district residents to go online, here, to cast ballots for their favorite by no later than May 28 (Tuesday).
All three designs feature Pottsgrove’s falcon mascot, in the traditional maroon-and-white colors, with upswept wings. Each is accompanied by the typeset words “Pottsgrove School District” divided into two lines, with Pottsgrove in larger-sized letters. All three also include a tagline, what Feola called a “brief statement that expresses the District¹s culture and aspirations.”
The brand themes vary, however, in the positioning and look of the falcon and other components. Two are flying to the right, a third to the left. Two are talon-less; a third looks ready for attack. A new gold-colored sweep or slightly curved line has been added to two, and a third color, a blue, added to one. Two use the tagline “Soaring to Excellence,” and a third relies on “Where opportunities take flight.”
The looks are the result of focus group research Communication Solutions conducted last month (April 2013) in separate “visioning sessions” of administrators, board members, staff representatives and community volunteers, Feola said. “The whole experience … afforded us the opportunity to gauge the level of pride, concern, expectations, and aspirations of the community for our schools,” she added.
Communications Solutions was paid $3,000 for its efforts.
Since the start of the year, Feola has regularly stated her interest in beefing up Pottsgrove’s public persona.
- She began issuing a bi-weekly newsletter on Board of School District decisions in part, she said, because she wanted to beat news outlets to the punch in describing them and their effects;
- She gave Technology Director Michael Wagman the additional title of Communications Director, and asked him to handle public relations chores; and
- The board, at Feola’s recommendation, hired Communications Solutions for an additional $12,000 annually to produce quarterly issues of the Pottsgrove Achiever community newsletter.
None of this is extraordinary for local school districts, many of which budget for public relations work conducted both within and outside their organizations. “We hope that communicating and internalizing our brand over time will play a small role in our comprehensive continuous improvement efforts,” Feola noted.
The next task will be to make the new brand, once popularly chosen, visible wherever appropriate, Feola said, “through all of our district publications, stationary, new website, and so on.”
Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ May 14 meeting):
- Cast Your Vote Before May 28 For Pottsgrove’s New Look
- Pottsgrove OKs New Textbooks As Standards Debated
- Pottsgrove School Board’s First May Meeting Tuesday
Images from the Pottsgrove School District
On Tap: Home-Brewing Supplies, Advice At Local Hobby Shop
Before Rich Loomis went to work for Brew and Wine Hobby, he was a massage therapist, a clerk at a package store and an assistant manager at Strawberries music store.
If you think the package store experience was the best preparation for his current gig, you’d be wrong.
“Somebody comes into a CD store and sings a bar, you have to know the artist and match them up with what they’re looking for,” said Loomis, now co-owner of the home-brew and winemaking supplies store.
It’s the same now. “They might know they want a red wine [kit] and they might know they want a stout,” he said, but it’s up to the staff to figure out what will please them most.
Bob Carangelo of Glastonbury was shopping there recently on a weekday afternoon, and he said he spends $30 to $40 on ingredients to brew beer a couple of times a year. He first shopped there almost 20 years ago, but hasn’t always been a regular customer.
“The fellow who runs the desk here is very, very helpful,” he said. “He’s extremely helpful and knowledgeable.”
That kind of customer service seems to be fueling steady growth for the store, though the economy is also playing a role, Loomis believes.
The growing popularity of craft beers can’t hurt. This week was CT Beer Week and Sunday is the American Homebrewers Association rally at Backeast Brewery in Bloomfield. Store staff will attend, and they’re donating prizes to the raffle.
Beer and Wine Hobby was founded 38 years ago, and Loomis started working there four years ago under the second owner, a wine lover who only owned it for two years.
Nearly three years ago, Loomis and a partner bought the place.
From the beginning of 2010 through the end of 2012, sales grew by 40 percent. And Loomis said while he hasn’t crunched the numbers in 2013, it seems like they’ve done four months’ worth of business in the first three months.
Brew and Wine Hobby moved in September, doubling its space to just under 5,000 square feet. Nearly all of its close neighbors are industrial businesses. But on a busy weekday, he’ll have about 35 customers, and on a busy Saturday, he’ll have more than 100.
Loomis now employs two people, though he’s about to lose Dana Borque to a new business Loomis will also have a stake in — Firefly Hollow, a brewery and tap room scheduled to launch in Bristol within two months.
Borque asked in 2010 if he could volunteer at Brew and Wine Hobby. Loomis said he’d hire him one day a week, because that was all he could afford. Now his employees add another 60 hours a week of coverage, not counting independent contractors who run hands-on classes.
Those workers make $10 to $12 an hour, and Loomis, who first decided to join the business because he had a child on the way, still makes just $40,000, about the same he did as a masseur, but he works at least 60 hours a week. “This wasn’t quite the jump up [in pay] I expected,” he said.
He hopes that as the store continues to grow, he might be able to pay himself more. Loomis supports a family of four on that salary.
A distributor’s representative told him recently: “I expect you to do about a million in gross sales” in a few years. His response: “Really?!”
Hands-on classes at the store began at the beginning of this year, and are held most Saturdays. Since they began, about 10 percent of customers each week are first-time buyers.
On a recent Saturday, Peter Olguin of West Hartford and his wife, Betsy, were among those bottling beer they had brewed in the store a week earlier, under Borque’s supervision.
“You have to be a little bit of a do-it-yourselfer,” Olguin said to Borque as they worked, describing who would get hooked on home-brewing.
While the DIY aesthetic has blossomed in recent years, Loomis said he thinks that segment is about 20 percent of his customers.
“Those are the people that stick with it the longest,” he said.
But Loomis said the largest segment of his customers are those looking to save money — and that motive is why he thinks the poor economy is driving growth. You can get nearly 50 bottles of beer for $30 of ingredients, and 28 bottles of wine for $100. The frugality motive is also a challenge for the store. Home-brewers “bargain-hunt everything,” he said.
And speaking of bargain-hunting, Loomis said a Living Social deal he offered on classes is working beautifully. Most of the class attendees on a recent Saturday got the discount. Loomis said of a typical 12-person class, two households will buy the equipment and supplies that day, and he thinks two others come in over the next few months.
“We had a huge influx of people who were online shoppers, didn’t know we were here,” he said. And each class usually has two couples who have never tried it.
Jen Kirchner, 31, of Berlin, bought the class for her husband, Shaun Cecil, 33. She said they’d definitely start brewing at home.
“It’s super easy, it’s a minimal expense,” she said. “It gives couples something to do together.”
Brew and Wine Hobby Shop is located at 12 Cedar St. in East Hartford, 860-528-0592.
On Tap: Home-Brewing Supplies, Advice At East Hartford Store
Before Rich Loomis went to work for Brew and Wine Hobby, he was a massage therapist, a clerk at a package store and an assistant manager at Strawberries music store.
If you think the package store experience was the best preparation for his current gig, you’d be wrong.
“Somebody comes into a CD store and sings a bar, you have to know the artist and match them up with what they’re looking for,” said Loomis, now co-owner of the home-brew and winemaking supplies store.
It’s the same now. “They might know they want a red wine [kit] and they might know they want a stout,” he said, but it’s up to the staff to figure out what will please them most.
Bob Carangelo of Glastonbury was shopping there recently on a weekday afternoon, and he said he spends $30 to $40 on ingredients to brew beer a couple of times a year. He first shopped there almost 20 years ago, but hasn’t always been a regular customer.
“The fellow who runs the desk here is very, very helpful,” he said. “He’s extremely helpful and knowledgeable.”
That kind of customer service seems to be fueling steady growth for the store, though the economy is also playing a role, Loomis believes.
The growing popularity of craft beers can’t hurt. This week was CT Beer Week and today is the American Homebrewers Association rally at Backeast Brewery in Bloomfield. Store staff will attend, and they’re donating prizes to the raffle.
Beer and Wine Hobby was founded 38 years ago, and Loomis started working there four years ago under the second owner, a wine lover who only owned it for two years.
Nearly three years ago, Loomis and a partner bought the place.
From the beginning of 2010 through the end of 2012, sales grew by 40 percent. And Loomis said while he hasn’t crunched the numbers in 2013, it seems like they’ve done four months’ worth of business in the first three months.
Brew and Wine Hobby moved in September, doubling its space to just under 5,000 square feet. Nearly all of its close neighbors are industrial businesses. But on a busy weekday, he’ll have about 35 customers, and on a busy Saturday, he’ll have more than 100.
Loomis now employs two people, though he’s about to lose Dana Borque to a new business Loomis will also have a stake in — Firefly Hollow, a brewery and tap room scheduled to launch in Bristol within two months.
Borque asked in 2010 if he could volunteer at Brew and Wine Hobby. Loomis said he’d hire him one day a week, because that was all he could afford. Now his employees add another 60 hours a week of coverage, not counting independent contractors who run hands-on classes.
Those workers make $10 to $12 an hour, and Loomis, who first decided to join the business because he had a child on the way, still makes just $40,000, about the same he did as a masseur, but he works at least 60 hours a week. “This wasn’t quite the jump up [in pay] I expected,” he said.
He hopes that as the store continues to grow, he might be able to pay himself more. Loomis supports a family of four on that salary.
A distributor’s representative told him recently: “I expect you to do about a million in gross sales” in a few years. His response: “Really?!”
Hands-on classes at the store began at the beginning of this year, and are held most Saturdays. Since they began, about 10 percent of customers each week are first-time buyers.
On a recent Saturday, Peter Olguin of West Hartford and his wife, Betsy, were among those bottling beer they had brewed in the store a week earlier, under Borque’s supervision.
“You have to be a little bit of a do-it-yourselfer,” Olguin said to Borque as they worked, describing who would get hooked on home-brewing.
While the DIY aesthetic has blossomed in recent years, Loomis said he thinks that segment is about 20 percent of his customers.
“Those are the people that stick with it the longest,” he said.
But Loomis said the largest segment of his customers are those looking to save money — and that motive is why he thinks the poor economy is driving growth. You can get nearly 50 bottles of beer for $30 of ingredients, and 28 bottles of wine for $100. The frugality motive is also a challenge for the store. Home-brewers “bargain-hunt everything,” he said.
And speaking of bargain-hunting, Loomis said a Living Social deal he offered on classes is working beautifully. Most of the class attendees on a recent Saturday got the discount. Loomis said of a typical 12-person class, two households will buy the equipment and supplies that day, and he thinks two others come in over the next few months.
“We had a huge influx of people who were online shoppers, didn’t know we were here,” he said. And each class usually has two couples who have never tried it.
Jen Kirchner, 31, of Berlin, bought the class for her husband, Shaun Cecil, 33. She said they’d definitely start brewing at home.
“It’s super easy, it’s a minimal expense,” she said. “It gives couples something to do together.”
This Week: Time Bank Party, Backpack Run, Career Prep
This Week: Time Bank Party, Backpack Run, Career Prep
Posted on 13 May 2013.
SANATOGA PA – The following events are scheduled to occur this week (Monday though Sunday, May 13-19), as provided to The Post calendar:
- May 13: Phoenixville Time Bank Annual Meeting (Phoenixville PA)
- May 14: Pottsgrove Board Of School Directors Meeting (Pottstown PA)
- May 15: Vietnam Veterans’ Food Fund-Raiser (Pottstown PA)
- May 15: Grief Support Group Meeting (Pottstown PA)
- May 15: Career Fair Preparation Workshop (Sanatoga PA)
- May 15: ‘Getting To The Core Of Good Balance’ Talk (Pottstown PA)
- May 16: Community Information Night (Limerick PA)
- May 16: Weight Loss Surgery Seminar (Pottstown PA)
- May 17: Relay For Life Clothing Drive (Pottstown PA)
- May 18: Master Gardener Plant Sale (Creamery PA)
- May 18: Relay For Life Clothing Drive (Pottstown PA)
- May 18: Operation Backpack 5-K Run (Pottstown PA)
- May 19: Wildflower Hike (Mont Clare PA)
- May 19: Falcon Football Mattress Sales (Pottstown PA)
- May 19: Relay For Life Clothing Drive (Pottstown PA)
- May 19: Weight Loss Surgery Seminar (Phoenixville PA)
- May 19: Presentation On ‘The Lenape’ (Elverson PA)
Photo from Clipart.com
Medical Distress Causes A One-Car Accident At CVS
Medical Distress Causes A One-Car Accident At CVS
Posted on 12 May 2013.
CVS Pharmacy in Sanatoga
SANATOGA PA – An 81-year-old Sunnyside Avenue resident who was in apparent medical distress drove his car into a dumpster Saturday (May 11, 2013) at about 12:23 p.m. at the parking lot of the CVS Pharmacy on East High Street in the village, Lower Pottsgrove Township Police reported.
The male driver, who was not identified by name, had suffered some kind of health-related problem, Ofc. Scott Weidenhammer said. Witnesses at the scene, who along with several other by-standers tried to help the man after the Mercury Grand Marquis he was driving came to rest, said it had entered the CVS lot in an erratic manner and then stopped after hitting a concrete-and-wood barrier surrounding the dumpster.
The driver was first transported to Pottstown Memorial Medical Center by ambulance, and then was flown to Lehigh Valley Hospital. His most recent condition is unknown.
Members of the Sanatoga Fire Company also responded to the scene, Weidenhammer said.
Past Spill Successfully Cleaned Up At Township Home
Past Spill Successfully Cleaned Up At Township Home
Posted on 09 May 2013.
POTTSTOWN PA – A spill of No. 2-grade home heating oil that occurred sometime earlier at the 1248 Crestwood Dr., Lower Pottsgrove Township, residence of Paul Maggio has been successfully cleaned and remediated, according to a legal advertisement published Sunday (May 5, 2013) in compliance with Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection requirements.
The work was completed by Trimpi Associates Inc., a Pennsburg PA-based environmental services company. “A release of petroleum,” the date of which was not specified in the notice, affected only “the shallow soil” on the residential property, it said. A final report by Trimpi on its efforts showed the department the oil and affected soil had been removed and the area cleaned to “residential statewide human health standards,” the highest and best among several clean-up levels.
The property will continue to be used for residential purposes, it added.
The content of the legal notice appears below:
Pursuant to the Land Recycling and Environmental Remediation Standards Act, the act of May 19, 1995, P.L. 4, No. 1995-2., notice is hereby given that Trimpi Associates, Inc. has submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) a Notice of Intent to Remediate (NIR) the Maggio property located at 1248 Crestwood Drive, Pottstown, Lower Pottsgrove Township, Montgomery County, PA. Notice is hereby given that remediation of a #2 fuel oil release has been completed on behalf of Mr. Paul Maggio. A Final Report has been submitted to the PADEP demonstrating attainment of the residential statewide human health standards. A release of petroleum impacted the shallow soil. The current use and proposed future use of the source property is residential.
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