West Philly residents fanned out across the neighborhoods today to pick up trash, rake leaves and sticks and even clean up a stop sign or two as part of the spring cleanup activities around the city.

Organization is in the works for a cooperative cleanup of Cedar Park (50^th and Baltimore) on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon. Cedar Park Neighbors is sponsoring the event with help from the West Philadelphia Cooperative School and the University City District. Free coffee, juice and snacks will be available for those who help out.

Organizers would love it if people RSVP’d on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198483680174195.

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.