Community members are invited to the monthly meeting of the Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA) on Tuesday, Feb. 10 to meet Henry C. Lea Principal Jennifer Duffy, who will talk about the happenings at Lea.

Duffy is in her first year as principal of Lea and one of about 50 first-time principals hired across the School District of Philadelphia this year. Duffy has placed a priority on raising academic standards and strengthen the school’s relationship with the University of Pennsylvania, where she is a doctoral student in Educational Leadership.

The SHCA meeting gets underway at 7:30 p.m. at the association’s headquarters (257 S. 45th St.)

In other Spruce Hill news, the zoning committee meeting to consider the well-publicized plans to build a residential/retail complex at 43rd and Baltimore (across the street from Clark Park) will be held Feb. 19 beginning at 7:30 p.m. at The University of the Science’s Rosenberger Hall (the small building on the west side of 43rd Street, just north of Woodland Avenue). This is the meeting originally scheduled for Jan. 26 that was cancelled due to weather.

The meeting actually begins at 6:30 p.m. when committee will consider a liquor license request from Fresh Grocer at 40th and Market and a residential project at 4100-02 Ludlow St. This is also open to the public. The 4224 Baltimore Ave. project discussion will begin promptly at 7:30 p.m. The development team for the site is preparing materials for presentation to the City Planning Commission’s Design Review Committee and will share those plans to date.

It always seemed too good to be true. The experiment in buying wine at special kiosks in grocery stores around the state, including one at the Fresh Grocer at 40th and Walnut, is over.

The Pronto Wine Kiosk program which included around 100 kiosks across various Pennsylvania locations is being shut down due to some monetary disputes between the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) that runs the kiosks and the machine supplier, a Conshohocken-based company Simple Brands L.L.C. The PLCB claims to not have been reimbursed by Simple Brands for over $1 million in expenses it incurred from the kiosks wiring and stocking. Simple Brands were supposed to supply the machines at no cost to PLCB, while sharing the profits.

The kiosks had all kinds of age verification technology and even a built-in Breathalyzer (important for the one at 40th and Walnut streets, which is surrounded by students). But customers often said the kiosks were difficult to operate.

Penn’s student newspaper The Daily Pennsylvanian reports that the Fresh Grocer has expressed disappointment over the kiosk closing. It quotes Carly Spross, the Fresh Grocer Marketing Director, who said that this service brought “convenience” to the Fresh Grocer’s customers and “helped bring in additional foot traffic to our stores.”