The West Philly Tool Library is hiring a part-time tool coordinator. The job hours are from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays and occasional weekday nights.

Here are the job responsibilities (from an e-mail from the Tool Library):

• Maintaining and basic repair of tools
• Keeping the Tool Library organized and clean
• Accepting tool donations
• Checking tools in and out to members of the community
• Collecting late fees
• Performing simple bookkeeping
• Maintaining computer database that tracks tool use and member information
• Promoting the Tool Library and recruiting volunteers
• Communicating with the Steering Committee about areas for improvements

And here are the requirements:

• Basic knowledge of tools with a desire to learn more (strong knowledge of tools preferred)
• High level of organization
• Attention to detail
• Excellent communication skills
• Commitment to promoting community in West and Southwest Philly

This position pays $12.00 per hour. They are looking for someone who is committed to the project and reliable about running the Tool Library.  They hope to hire for this position as soon as possible.

Please send your cover letter and resume to the attention of Michael Froehlich at info – at – westphillytools.org or by mail to West Philly Tool Library, 4620 Woodland Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19143.  Women and people of color are encouraged to apply.

Kia Gregory wrote a story for the Philadelphia Inquirer that we think everyone can relate to: The first hints of spring and the draw of water ice.

She profiles Morrone’s Water Ice, a West Philly institution at 63rd and Race. The store has been there since 1925.

One father, Rodney Mason, told Gregory: “Water ice drives my kids crazy.”

We noticed that the water ice cart was out at Clark Park yesterday as well and later in the evening I heard the first ice cream truck song of the season.

Philadelphia Weekly published an important story yesterday about opposition to the proposed rehab of the 52nd Street shopping corridor.

One street vendor, Bashir Postley, was vocal in his opposition to the city’s multimillion plan to “revitalize” the historic shopping strip.

“Let’s call it what it is,” Postley told Philadelphia Weekly. “They gonna take the urban culture out of 52nd Street and make it into a little shopping mall for white people.”

The city’s plan includes the refurbishment of storefronts along 52nd Street.

Many vendors are angry that the city has taken down the custom awnings erected in 1976 to shield shoppers and vendors from the elements. The city has said that it was a necessary first step to determine how much work needed to be done. The city had originally planned to take the awnings down in 2009, but protests from vendors put that move on hold.

If you have reveled in telling everyone who cared that the Charles Dickens statue in Clark Park was the only one in the world, these might be the worst of times.

A second Dickens statue, which disappeared some 40 years ago, has been fixed up and placed in Centennial Park in Sydney.

The author famously told his family that he wanted no public commemorations or testimonials. No statues. No buildings named for him. The Little Nell statue, commissioned in the late 19th century garnered accolades in public exhibits until settling into Clark Park in 1901 and there it remains, despite several attempts to move it to more prominent spots in the city.

The Sydney statue shows a contemplative Dickens holding a quill and scroll. The Telegraph newspaper reported last month that the statue was also commissioned in the late 19th century, but was removed in 1972 because of vandalism. Somewhere in transit the head was damaged and the statue was placed into storage until the company housing it went bankrupt.

The statue went missing until Sandra Faulkner, the president of the New South Wales Charles Dickens Society, began a public search for the statue in 2006.

“I received about three calls over the course of a few days from people who didn’t want to give their names but who knew the statue and knew where it was,” she told The Telegraph.

The statue turned up a year later in a private garden about an hour outside of Sydney.

Stonemasons spent the last four years making a new head, quill, scroll and finger for the statue.

The statue was replaced last month just in time for the novelist’s 199th birthday.

A fire early this morning at a transformer at the SEPTA sub-station at 33rd and Market Streets disrupted rush hour El and trolley service. As of 9:30 a.m. service on the Market-Frankford Line had been restored, but shuttle buses are still carrying passengers on several trolley lines.

The Philadelphia Inquirer has reported that one SEPTA worker sustained a “non life-threatening” injury.

West Philly News has reported that Rev. Zachary Navit, who recently headed the St. Francis De Sales Parish in West Philly, is one of the 21 priests that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia placed on administrative leave because of allegations of sexual abuse or other inappropriate behavior with minors.

Navit currently serves as a priest and part-time director in the Office for Special Projects & Closures at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Buckingham, PA.

Navit, who was ordained in 1994, served as pastor of St. Francis de Sales (4625 Springfield Ave.) from 2004 until taking the position at Our Lady of Guadalupe. In 2008, he oversaw the merger of St. Francis de Sales with Most Blessed Sacrament Parish in Southwest Philadelphia.

As pastor of Saint Francis de Sales, Navit helped oversee the parish school, which serves 500 students.

The Archdiocese announced on Tuesday that 21 priests had been placed on administrative leave following a Grand Jury issued on Feb. 10, but no names were released.

“These have been difficult weeks since the release of the Grand Jury Report: difficult most of all for victims of sexual abuse, but also for all Catholics and for everyone in our community,” Archbishop Cardinal Justin Rigali said in a statement released Tuesday.

The Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday published a list of 21 names that included Navit.