South Heidelberg woman plans Narcan training -- how to save overdose victims

by Steve Reinbrecht

Police chiefs in Southwestern Berks have told me they don’t see much crime involving opioids – highly addictive painkilling drugs like heroin, oxycontin and percocet.

The Berks coroner’s office lists only three opioid-related overdoses in the area since the beginning of 2014, and two of those deaths were men who lived at the state-run correctional center off Penn Avenue just west of Wernersville.

Brenda Allen, who lives in South Heidelberg, doesn’t buy this.

She said the problem is as rampant here as anywhere.

“There’s tons more [deaths in the area]. … It’s a pandemic across the country.”

Allen has started a group to educate parents about the dangers of drug abuse. Her son, Jimmy, 26, has been recovering from opiate addiction for two years. He stopped using drugs in prison, she said.

She and her group, Not One More, have planned an event at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 31, at the West Reading Fire Department, Station 64.

Aug. 31 is International Overdose Awareness Day.

Allen plans to give a training on how to use nasal naloxone –a spray up the nose designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdose. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved it in November.

Allen asks that people who want a free naloxone kit to contact her by Tuesday to reserve one.

NotOneMoreSEPA@gmail.com

Emergency responders told me the spray is effective and easy to use. One told me a benefit is that it’s safe to use even if a person is not having an overdose, so responders can administer it quickly even when an overdose is only suspected.

In March, Bern Township police used the drug to revive a man at Blue Marsh, the Reading Eagle reported.

Allen said she’s heard of two overdoses in the area this summer -- a woman finding her grandson dead in the bathroom, and a young woman found blue and dying in her bedroom.

Western Berks Ambulance officials have not returned requests for comment.

Many drug-related deaths are recorded as heat attacks or organ failure, Allen believes. She thinks there is official pressure on some crime fighters who don’t want it to appear as a big problem, she said.

Allen’s “Not One More” chapter, which began meeting in May, meets in the YMCA just west of Sinking Spring from 8 to 9 p.m. on the last Tuesday of the month.

For one thing, Allen wants to educate parents on the signs of addiction. Missing cotton balls or Q-tips is a clue, as users use cotton to filter the mixture before sucking it up in a syringe. Too much time in the bathroom is a sign. Allen said he son thanked her for cleaning his room before he was addicted, but after he was hooked, he got mad at her if she cleaned it.

Gas explosion averted in Lower Heidelberg home; Green Valley owners urged to inspect basement lines

by Steve Reinbrecht

Officials are warning people who live in the Green Valley development that gas lines in their basements could break, resulting in disaster.

Plastic brackets supporting a metal gas pipe in the basement of a house on Pacific Avenue recently cracked, allowing the gas pipe to rupture, according to a yellow paper stuck on my mailbox Saturday.

Gas flowed into the house for hours.

No one was injured.

The notice urges homeowners to inspect their brackets.

In my house, built in 2007, white plastic brackets, spaced every 5 feet, support a 1-inch-diameter black pipe. None appeared cracked or faulty.

According to the notice, if the house was built before 2010, Grande Construction will make corrections at its expense. The company will contact homeowners.

For homes built before 2010, owners should fix the problem themselves or call a plumber. They can use inexpensive metal brackets from a hardware store.

The notice says that the building code was changed to require metal brackets after Jan. 1, 2010.

Grande Construction: 610-678-9925

Lower Heidelberg Township: 610-678-0818

No fire escapes required in Sinking Spring building struck by fatal fire

by Steve Reinbrecht

Fire escapes were not required in the apartment building from which two young women jumped – one to her death – as fire destroyed their apartment early Monday, borough manager Mike Hart said Wednesday.

Maira Bazan, 24, died after jumping from a third floor window and landing in an alley.

Brooke Maione, 21, who also jumped, remained in critical condition Tuesday, the Reading Eagle reported. A family with two young children who lived below escaped from the first floor.

The third floor, from which the women jumped, had a window that looked onto a flat roof. It’s possible that fierce heat and smoke roaring up a stairway from the second floor blocked the women from that window, Hart said.

A door at the bottom of the steps may have helped, he said.

A borough inspector noted that the apartments had smoke detectors during an inspection last year, Hart said.

The fire started on the second floor, state police spokesman Trooper David C. Boehm said Wednesday. The cause was undetermined, he said.

The tragedy puts an urgency on a drive to equip homes with working smoke detectors, said Jared Renshaw, of the Western Berks Fire Department.

A fundraiser for the effort is planned Tuesday, Aug. 30, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Five Guys Burgers and Fries, 3580 Penn Ave.

Firefighters and others plan to install smoke detectors in homes on Sept. 17 on North Galen Hall Road in South Heidelberg Township and Oct. 8 on Woodrow Avenue and South Hull Street in Sinking Spring.

According to her obituary, Bazan was born in Reading. She played soccer for Tulpehocken High School and graduated in 2010. She graduated from RACC. She worked at Dieffenbach's Potato Chips in Womelsdorf. She left behind her parents, brother, sisters, and four grandparents.

The latest fire death in Sinking Spring had been in January 1991, when Francis Seidel III, 44, a lawyer and former borough solicitor, and his son, Francis IV, 12, died when fire destroyed their home at 445 Penn Ave.

Bank robber tries get-away in car-dealer shuttle, South Heidelberg police say

by Steve Reinbrecht

A man who lives at a state corrections center near Wernersville robbed a bank Monday off Penn Avenue, briefly eluded police on foot, talked himself into getting a shuttle at a car dealership, and headed to Reading before officers stopped the car in Wyomissing, South Heidelberg Chief Barry Whitmoyer said Monday night.

Whitmoyer gave this account.

The man walked into the M&T Bank at 4830 Penn Ave., near Redner’s Market, about 2 p.m. and gave a teller a note that said something like “Give me your 50s and 100s.”

After he left with some cash and fled along railroad tracks, a township officer spotted and chased him. A state police helicopter was called to help search.

The suspect got to Performance Toyota and said he needed a shuttle to Reading, where his car was broken down.

About 2:30 p.m., Wyomissing and South Heidelberg police stopped the shuttle and took the man into custody with no trouble.

When the man seemed to have trouble breathing, police called an ambulance.

The man had no weapon or mask. The driver and teller were not harmed.

Bank workers identified the man as the robber.

He lives at the Wernersville Community Corrections Center.

Sinking Spring, Wernersville libraries are among best-used in Berks

by Steve Reinbrecht

Circulation grew at only two Berks County libraries from 2014 to 2015 – and one is in Southwestern Berks County.

While the number of items circulated in the entire Berks library system dropped 6 percent, Sinking Spring Library’s circulation grew 1.9 percent, from 68,292 to 69,605 items – 190 a day.

From 2014 to 2015, among Berks libraries, only Schuylkill Valley Library’s circulation grew more than Sinking Spring’s, by 7.1 percent. Every other branch saw circulation decline.

But circulation alone is a poor way to judge activity and value at a library. These days, libraries are much more than places to borrow books. They provide access to the Internet and help navigating it. They have vast collections of TV shows, movies, documentaries and music. They have lively people who conduct classes and community activities. You can apply for a passport at the Sinking Spring branch.

See the data from Berks County Public Libraries: 2014, 2015, municipal support.

Although its circulation increased just a smidgen, Sinking Spring Library had 27 percent more visits in 2015 over 2014. As a whole, Berks’ number of visits dropped slightly.

Sinking Spring leads the county in how much it contributes to its library based on population. The borough donates $8.23 per resident, way higher than the next most-generous, Hamburg, which gives its library $6.53 per head.

Though Wernersville borough donates an admirable $4.01 per capita to the Wernersville Library, South and Lower Heidelbergs cough up only about a dollar per resident each, leaving that library to get about $1.50 for each resident it serves.

Nevertheless, support from Lower Heidelberg is growing. In 2011, it gave $3,000 to the Wernersville Library, raising that to $6,891 this year, Supervisor Debbie Scull told me.

Libraries in Southwestern Berks are offering more events and activities to keep people of all ages out of trouble. The number of people who went to library programs jumped 41 percent in Wernersville and by 13 percent in Sinking Spring. Program attendance rose about 5 percent across Berks.

Here’s a partial list of what’s offered at the Wernersville library:

• Craft night
• Yoga
• Movie night – such as Disney’s “Descendents”
• Babies and books
• Teen advisory board
• Scrabble club
• Craft night
• Lego club
• Science club
• Preschool story time

Although circulation is generally down, libraries remain crucial places to get answers. Librarians in Sinking Spring fielded more than twice as many reference questions in 2015 than they did in 2014. Questions to the Wernersville Library rose by 160 percent. Across Berks, the number of reference questions to its libraries jumped 16.5 percent, Google be damned.

So many people need the computers in libraries that in many branches, they have to take turns. Over the year, computer usage rose in Sinking Spring by 30 percent. In Wernersville’s and Spring Township’s two libraries, computer usage rose by about 12 percent. In Berks libraries overall, computer usage rose more slowly, about 4 percent in 2015.

Official conclusion: As mother was moving out, father murdered family, killed himself in Sinking Spring home

by Steve Reinbrecht

Mark Short Sr.’s wife and three pajama-clad children were on the living room floor among pillows and blankets when he killed them, and the dog, with a single bullet each.

Then he wrote a suicide note, left it on the dining room table, reloaded, and shot and killed himself.

On Monday, Berks County crime-fighters said the tragedy in Sinking Spring was the culmination of domestic problems and Megan Short’s decision to leave her marriage of 16 years. They gave the results of the investigation at a news conference in the county agricultural center.

Sinking Spring police found the bodies about 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, in the home at 51 Winding Brook Drive. County records show the Shorts bought it for $438,000 on Feb. 10, 2006.

The father was Mark Jason Short Sr., 40. The mother was Megan L. Short, 33. The children were Lianna G. Short, 8; Mark J. Short, 5; and Willow R. Short, 2. Willow had a heart transplant when she was six days old.

Law-enforcement officials and other sources gave this outline of events:

Over the summer, Megan and Mark Short were having marriage problems and were separating.

On June 4, hotel security staff were called for a domestic dispute in a room where Megan and Mark were staying in Philadelphia. On June 6, Mark turned 40.

On July 18, Megan called police from the home for help and told the dispatcher she had an argument with her husband and was afraid of him. When Sinking Spring police arrived, Mark had left, and they saw no evidence of physical injury. The officers advised Megan to get a protection-of abuse order, and she told them she would but didn’t follow up.

The next day, July 19, Mark bought a 5-shot, .38 caliber revolver and ammunition from a licensed dealer in Lancaster County. Investigators found the sales slip in the home.

On July 25, Megan leased an apartment in Yardley, Bucks County, and began moving.

On Aug. 1, Mark was demoted at his job as a loan officer because of poor attendance. On LinkedIn, Mark Short is listed as a sales manager [and previously a loan officer] at NVR Inc., a construction company in Reading.

On Friday, Aug. 5, Mark took his three children, but not Megan, to Hershey Park as part of a family day sponsored by his employer.

Friday night, a neighbor saw Megan park her car in the driveway about 7:30 p.m. behind her husband’s vehicle.

About 11:30 p.m., a post was made on her Facebook page.

On Saturday, Aug. 6, Megan’s mother and other relatives waited at her apartment to help her move in. Mark Short had agreed to rent a van to help his wife move to her new apartment that morning.

After Megan didn’t arrive, a family member called and asked a neighbor to check if Megan was home. The neighbor couldn’t contact anybody inside. She saw Mark's and Megan's cars in the driveway.

About 2 p.m., Megan’s mother called the police, and Sinking Spring officers broke into the house and found the bodies.

Investigators weren’t sure what time the victims were shot.

An autopsy Aug. 8 showed that Mark died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Investigators found five empty .38 caliber casings in the basement family room, close to a stock of ammunition. A fingerprint was discovered on an unfired cartridge in the gun recovered next to Mark. This round was placed in the gun after the first five rounds were fired and the gun was reloaded. That fingerprint was positively identified as Mark’s.

Investigators found a one-page, handwritten note on the dining-room table that Mark wrote after killing his family. Officials would not release the contents of the note other than that Short admitted to buying the gun and killing his family. State police had confirmed it as Mark’s handwriting. 

District Attorney John Adams would not say if the note explained Mark's reasons for killing his family. Adams described the writer as emotional over the pending separation from his wife. Mark’s family opposes releasing the contents, he said.

Investigators found no evidence of romantic affairs or that Mark was under treatment for a mental disorder.

Asked about the tragedy’s effect on the community, Adams said: “Whenever we lose youthful, innocent children, it’s never easy for a community to recover from that.”

A lesson is that it’s a dangerous time when an abused woman is leaving, Adams said. Women who are planning to move out should develop a safety plan and contact Berks Women in Crisis for assistance, he said.

Number of gun-license applications rise steeply in Berks County

by Steve Reinbrecht

Almost 10 times as many people in Berks County applied for a state license to carry a firearm in 2015 as applied in 2001, according to the sheriff’s office.

In 2015, more guns were sold in Berks – 39,013 – than in any county in Pennsylvania except Allegheny, which contains Pittsburgh.


From 2008 to 2015, the average annual denial rate was 1.9 percent.

Redner’s customers have until Sept. 3 to get new bonus cards

by Steve Reinbrecht

Redner’s wants customers to sign up for a new bonus system that requires getting cards that will replace the blue Pump Perks cards.

Existing bonus cards won’t work after Sept. 3.

On Saturday, employees wore blue T-shirts to promote the sign-up. Just inside the door of the Redner’s in South Heidelberg, just west of Sinking Spring, workers helped customers fill out the necessary form.

They are not too bad – just first and last name, birthday and phone number. Under the new system, if you forget your card, you will be able to get your points when you check out by entering your phone number.

The reward system doesn’t change much yet. You get a 10 cent discount per gallon of gas for every $100 you spend. With the new system, customers will be able to get a nickel off as soon as they spend $50.

You can get a form at the customer service desk or any register. You get your card right away, and your points are transferred – if you have your old card.

Redner’s Market’s Inc. has 44 warehouse markets and 20 convenience stores stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. 

The current Pump Perks system is carefully explained at the Redner’s website.

South Heidelberg police to get Tasers; public shooting-range questioned

by Steve Reinbrecht

South Heidelberg police officers are set to get Tasers soon.

And at their meeting Thursday, July 11, township supervisors tabled a decision that would permit a proposed shooting range off Penn Avenue.

Regarding the Tasers, Police Chief Barry Whitmoyer said he was surprised when he took the job July 1 to discover his officers haven’t been equipped with the weapons.

He said officers in adjacent municipalities have them.

Tasers and similar weapons fire tiny darts that are connected by thin wires to a battery in the gun. They deliver electricity to disrupt muscle control, dropping victims to the ground and leaving them unable to move for a moment.

Critics note rare injuries and deaths and the risk of abuse. Supporters say that such weapons reduce police injuries because they give officers an option between a wrestling match and shooting somebody.

In fact, Whitmoyer said, a township officer might have escaped injury if he had been able to use a Taser when two people attacked him this week.

According to the Reading Eagle, on Monday evening, Aug. 8, Officer Benjamin Shaner went to a house in the 200 block of North Sandy Lane to investigate a domestic dispute. When he tried to prevent Ariel Jimenez, 22, from leaving, Jimenez and his mother, Zenaida Altagracia Bisono, 51, attacked him, according to reports. Shaner, who was treated in an emergency room, has been cleared to return to duty, Whitmoyer said.

At the meeting, supervisors Thomas Bryne and David Schaeffer authorized Whitmoyer to get prices for the devices. Supervisor Richard E. Hummel was absent. Byrne said donations would cover some of the cost of providing a Taser for each of the township's 11 officers.

As for the shooting range, resident Sal Franco asked if township officials were aware of any studies that connected public shooting ranges with violence.

“I’m not against guns. I’m just thinking of the safety of the community.”

Chief Whitmoyer said he had no worries about the proposed business.

The planning commission had unanimously recommended the ordinance be approved.

CP Tactical Solutions filed a sketch plan for the shooting range and gun and ammunition shop on Caramist Drive, off Krick Road, behind the former Shurfine market. It would have room for eight to 10 shooters at a time and need to comply with noise requirements.

The use is not permitted in that zone. The proposal is for officials in Lower Heidelberg, South Heidelberg and Sinking Spring -- who share a zoning plan -- to allow the use in the C3 zone.

Whitmoyer and Gombar, the township’s lawyer, said restrictions by the township could run into Second Amendment challenges.

Supervisors also approved a design for a new sign to replace the one destroyed by a drunken driver in April. And they named office manager Shelly B. Keehn as interim township manager while they search for a replacement for Ron Seaman, who has taken a job as Berks County’s top administrator.

Southwestern Berks is next to rabies hotpot; reports here are rare

by Steve Reinbrecht

I’ve heard of two cases of rabies recently in Southwestern Berks County.

In early May, during the day, a resident killed a rabid skunk in his yard on Faust Road in Lower Heidelberg, according to the township. Because skunks, raccoons, foxes and bats are nocturnal, seeing them active during the day is a warning sign.

And a rabid bat was reported July 15 in Sinking Spring, according to the state agriculture department, which keeps track of cases in animals.

So far in 2016, Berks overall has had only seven reports of rabies, out of 223 reports year-to-date in Pennsylvania.

But Southwestern Berks is adjacent to the state's rabies hot spot.

“The southeast area of the state has reported the most rabies cases to date in 2016,” the state’s website says. “The southeast region frequently reports a high number of animal rabies cases in Pennsylvania.”

We abut Lancaster County, which has had 18 reports so far in 2016, the most in the state. Nearby Chester County has had 16 reports this year, the second highest number. [Maybe they have more disease; maybe better reporting.]

I’m from the generation that watched “Old Yeller” and “Cujo” in horror and recall gruesome stories of multiple painful shots in the belly as the only option to certain death. Rabies cases are rare and treatment much better. Only two or three people die of rabies in the U.S. each year, according to the federal CDC.

In the first seven months of the year, across Pennsylvania, rabies reports were up by almost 20 percent over the same period in 2015 – from 187 to 223.

Raccoons are by far the most common carrier, but don’t rule out other mammals: six cows, two goats and a horse were infected in Pennsylvania in the first half of 2016.

Lower Heidelberg dog park set to open Sept. 10

by Steve Reinbrecht

Dogs from Lower Heidelberg who want to run but need a fence to be safe are looking forward to the township’s dog park opening Saturday, Sept. 10.

All township dogs are invited to the opening celebration that day from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Soon, though, dogs will need to prove they have licenses and rabies shots to use the new park, at the township building at 720 Brownsville Road.

Their people will need to prove they live in Lower Heidelberg. Then they [the people] will get key-fobs -- little plastic strips with a code – to get through the dog-park gate.

Dogs will have almost an acre for romping. Small dogs get their own, smaller, section.

Christopher Leisey, a Boy Scout, is installing obstacles so dogs can practice agility skills.

Part of the park is designed to be an ice-skating rink in the winter, for people.

Township workers and volunteers did much of the work getting the park ready. The township paid a contractor to install the fence.

Owners must clean up after their dogs. Those who don’t risk having a surveillance camera observe the violation and having their key-fobs deactivated.

Dog parks are good for dogs, who get to run safely and play with other dogs. It’s good for people, too, who get to go outside and socialize.

Wilson School District offers counseling to students, families after deaths of family

by Steve Reinbrecht

Counselors will be available Monday, Aug. 8, if people want to talk about the deaths of the members of the Short family in Sinking Spring.

Wilson School District counselors will be available at Green Valley Elementary School starting at 9 a.m.

County detectives continued Sunday to investigate the deaths of the five family members. Police found their bodies Saturday in their home at 51 Winding Brook Drive.

The father was Mark Jason Short Sr., 40. The mother was Megan L. Short, 33. The children were Liana G. Short, 8; Mark J. Short, 5; and Willow R. Short, 2.

A relative became concerned when Megan did not show up to a lunch date Saturday and asked police to check the house. Police forced their way in and found the bodies and a dead dog in the living room. All had been shot. A gun was found near one of the adults – the news release from the district attorney's office doesn’t say near whom.

Investigators found a murder-suicide note.

“This is an apparent tragic domestic incident,” the news release states.

Here is the text of a message from Wilson School District Superintendent Curt Baker, posted Sunday:

“It is with great sadness that I inform you that one of the children killed in yesterday's tragedy in Sinking Spring was Liana Short, a rising third grader at Green Valley Elementary.

“Any time death touches us, it is extremely stressful. This sudden death may be quite upsetting to you and your children. For this reason, we especially want you to know of our caring and support.

“If you feel that you or your children would benefit from speaking to a counselor or other caring adult, counselors will be available this afternoon at Green Valley Elementary School from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. and tomorrow (Monday) starting at 9:00 a.m.

“Yesterday's events have come as a shock to all of us and I ask that you keep the Short family in your thoughts and prayers.”

Ron Seaman leaving, South Heidelberg needs a new manager or two

by Steve Reinbrecht

South Heidelberg Township Manager Ron Seaman started working for the township in May 2003 after a career in Berks County government.

Now Seaman, 63, is returning to county government, and an office in Reading, to be Berks County’s chief administrative officer, the county's top non-elected post. The three Berks commissioners voted Thursday to appoint him.

After 13 years, Seaman will leave the township offices Aug. 12 and begin work for the county Aug. 17.

“These types of things don’t come along more than once in a lifetime,” he said

His exit means the township is stuck looking for a new manager. Or maybe two.

He said supervisors are considering hiring two administrators. One would manage public works – roads, storm management, parks. The other would take care of finances and day-to-day operations.

In the meantime, office manager Shelly B. Keehn will be in charge.

Berks County’s chief operations officer, Carl Geffken, left in March for a similar job in Arkansas.

Commissioner Kevin Barnhardt, a township resident, said the job opening came up informally in a conversation between him and Seaman. When Seaman said he was interested, Barnhardt and the two other commissioners decided to choose him or eliminate him before starting a search.

Workers violate erosion rules in leaving South Heidelberg slope naked

by Steve Reinbrecht

I've updated this with new information from PennDOT.

July 28

A contractor hired by PennDOT violated environmental regulations in a project at Penn Avenue and Green Valley Road, in Lower Heidelberg, across from the Sheetz.

“The earth disturbance is related to a Penn Dot project; there was a complaint and violations which have been temporarily resolved,” Berks County Conservation District spokeswoman Tammi Bartsch told me in an e-mail. “All parties are working towards a final resolution.”

J.D. Eckman, of Atglen, is the main contractor on the project, said PennDOT spokesman Sean Brown. The workers have installed more erosion control as required, he said.

In an arrangement with the state, the county conservation districts handle initial complaints about erosion problems, such as giant machines tearing off turf and exposing bare soil on a slope.

Empty Sinking Spring stores are getting attention; fitness gym will open soon

by Steve Reinbrecht

Owners of an anchorless Sinking Spring shopping center are in talks with businesses interested in opening stores in the Spring Market shops off Penn Avenue.

This is good news for the Spring Market, 3564 Penn Ave., where wrangles among owners have slowed business activities.

“There’s certainly interest,” said Keith Seymour, a leasing agent at Equity Retail Brokers, in Plymouth Meeting, trying to find tenants. The firm would not release more information until a lease is signed, he said.

Another good sign – a gym called “Iam Fit” – plans to open in the center in September. Permits were issued in June.

Southwestern Berks suffers few opioid overdoses, coroner's office says

by Steve Reinbrecht

It’s clear the world is having trouble controlling its use of opioid painkillers, with overdose deaths rising drastically in recent years in the United States, Pennsylvania and Berks County – but not in Southwestern Berks County.

In Berks, 64 people died of drug overdoses in 2014; and 69 died in 2015. Berks has had 22 heroin-related deaths this year through June, the Reading Eagle reported Monday.

But Southwestern Berks County has avoided many opioid deaths. The area – Lower Heidelberg, South Heidelberg, Sinking Spring, Wernersville -- had no opioid-related deaths in 2014 or so far this year, according to the Berks County coroner’s office. Drug information before 2014 was not stored in spreadsheets and is not feasibly searched.

In 2015, three people died of opioid-related causes in Southwestern Berks. A 31-year-old man died in his Sinking Spring home of an accidental overdose of Oxycontin.

Also that year, two men, ages 24 and 33, took heroin and fentanyl in the Wernersville Community Corrections Center in South Heidelberg and died of accidental overdoses. One died at the facility; one died at Reading Hospital.

In 2015, two other inmates of the state-run correctional center were charged with having heroin. One was caught selling heroin in Reading on work-release. The other had 36 packets of heroin in the center.

In other local opioid-abuse-related news, the Caron Foundation, another South Heidelberg institution, plans to borrow as much as $28.5 million to help build a 21-bed treatment facility at its campus near Wernersville.

Local police chiefs say opioids have not been a big problem in Southwestern Berks, nothing like a spike in abuse in the Topton area. At least five people from the Brandywine Heights area died from drug overdoses in early 2014.

In Pennsylvania, almost 3,400 people died of overdoses in 2015, up from about 2,740 in 2014 and about 2,425 in 2013. That’s a 40 percent increase over two years. Most involved opioids – highly euphoric and highly addictive painkillers such as heroin, fentanyl,Vicodin and Oxycontin that are based on opium.

Many people become addicted to opiates after using painkillers prescribed by doctors. Some steal the pills, which have saturated the United States, from family member’s medicine chests. As their tolerance for the drug increases, many users switch to heroin, which is often cheaper and easier to find, as regulations and wiser doctors are tightening diverted supplies of prescription pills. Heroin from Mexico has become stronger and cheaper, and is often adulterated with other opioids like fentanyl, which can create a fatal potency. 

Dog-license crackdown in Berks has underwhelming results

by Steve Reinbrecht

When I read in early April about dog wardens armed with $300 fines coming to Berks County to check if pet dogs have licenses dangling from their collars, I did the right thing.

As I was supposed to do at the beginning of the year, I went online and laid out $13 to properly license my two mutts for 2016.

The state requires that dogs have licenses and rabies vaccines. A license is one of the best ways to be reunited with your dog if you were to become separated, the department says.

It appears that lots of people responded to the Reading Eagle’s timely warning about the state’s canine crack down.

The number of dog licenses sold in Berks in the first half of 2016 jumped 15 percent over the number sold in the first half of 2015, according to the Berks treasurer’s office.

Should we have worried about a dog warden's knock?

I estimate 90,000 pet dogs live in Berks, using a calculator from the American Veterinary Medical Association.

In 2015, the Berks treasurer sold only about 27,000 licenses, so I figure the county was ripe for wide-scale enforcement among the 63,000 unlicensed dogs here.

When the dog wardens visited the week of May 9, they checked 753 houses in Berks County, according to Neil Logan, a state agriculture department spokesman.

They issued two citations in Berks County for not having a current rabies vaccination, he said. 

They issued no citations for not having a valid dog license.

Hall said the wardens typically give warnings so scofflaw dog owners have a chance to get their pooches legal. The idea is to educate owners, not penalize them.

In 2015, individual dog license sales generated about $6.3 million in revenue for Pennsylvania.