top 10 2012 stories
1. HURRICANE SANDY
Hurricane Sandy might not have been the worst stormto hit Bucks and Montgomery counties, but it sure felt like it.
The storm swept through the area on October 29, uprooting hundreds of trees (some of which fell on people's homes), tearing down a couple hundred miles of power lines and damaging several hundred utility poles. Roughly three-quarters of a million PECO, PPL and Met-Ed customers in southeastern Pennsylvania lost power.
Particularly hard hit by fallen oak trees were the Thornridge and Oaktree sections of Levittown.
Many residents of Bucks and Montgomery countieslived for five days or more without electricity. Schools across the counties closed. Many towns rescheduled trick-or-treating. Construction of the new Bucks County justice center was delayed.
But as much damage as the storm did and as frustrating as it was to not have electricity, the storm brought out the best in some people.
People who had generators shared them with neighbors. People who had power opened their homes to friends and neighbors — and even strangers. A group of people got together the weekend after the storm to help clean up the damage around Bucks County.
2. SCHOOL CLOSINGS
As student populations at public and private schools dropped and school administrators struggled to get a handle on the rising costs of education, some area school districts and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia considered closing schools.
The archdiocese announced in January that it would close Conwell-Egan Catholic High School and 12 elementary schools in the region. There was a significant outcry from the Catholic community, and many rallied to try to save the schools. Some parish leaders even contested the archdiocese's decision.
The archdiocese announced in February that it had reversed its decision on Conwell-Egan and on all but one of the elementary schools. It added another elementary school — St. John the Evangelist in Lower Makefield — to the list of schools to close.
The Centennial School District opened two new -- and larger -- elementary schools and expanded and renovated Willow Dale Elementary School in Warminster. It closed small neighborhood schools in the process, including William W.H. Davis Elementary School in Upper Southampton and Everett A. McDonald Elementary School in Warminster this year. The plan closed a total of five elementary schools.
The future of three schools in the Neshaminy School District is undecided after a committee recommended their closure. Among the recommendations was the construction of a new school at the current Tawanka Learning Center property in Lower Southampton, the construction of a large addition to Pearl S. Buck Elementary School and improvements to the remaining elementary schools. The schools that could face closure are Lower Southampton in that town, Oliver Heckman in Middletown and Samuel Everitt in Middletown.
A Pennsbury School District committee is recommending closure of Village Park Elementary School in Falls to save about $1 million. It's a controversial topic in the community.
3. DECISION 2012
The presidential race brought First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to the area.
Biden was the first to make an appearance. He visited Central Bucks West High School in Doylestown in January to encourage students to go to college and to talk to adults about what the administration was doing to try to reduce college costs.
Romney planned to stop for food and fuel at a Wawa in Milford in June, but changed his mind after he learned that a couple hundred Democratic protesters had gathered there. He went instead to a Wawa in Richland, where he talked with a few ardent supporters and TV reporters who were in on the secret switch.
Romney returned to Bucks the Sunday before the election and spoke to a freezing cold crowd of 20,000 or more in Lower Makefield.
Clinton came the following day to speak to Obama supporters at Montgomery County Community College.
Roughly 73 percent of voters cast their ballots on Election Day, and Obama won Bucks and Montgomery counties — and the nation.
4. COUNTY GOVERNMENT STREAMLINES
Bucks County government laid off dozens of workers in 2012, in an effort to control spending in the face of state cutbacks and uncertain economic times.
To save $2.1 million, the county eliminated 27 full-time positions in 11 departments. Most positions were eliminated through attrition, officials said.
More cutbacks are expected in the coming year, with commissioners saying they plan to eliminate 50 full-time positions by June 30, 2013.
Bucks enacted a hiring freeze and held the line on taxes.
5. 202 PARKWAY OPENS
After decades of emotionally charged debate, the long-awaited Route 202 Parkway opened to mixed reviews on Dec. 3.
The nearly 9-mile road from Montgomeryville to Doylestown -- officially known as U.S. Route 202 -- was designed to alleviate traffic on the former 202 and give drivers a limited-access highway for easier travel.
PennDOT spent $200 million on the 40-mph road, the state's first new roadway in 20 years. The largely two-lane parkway has 11-foot-wide lanes, plus lanes for walkers and bicyclists.
While the road has been warmly welcomed by many in the region, who praise its bucolic scenery and traffic easing, others criticized the lanes as too narrow, the speed limit too slow and the trucks too big.
For those along the old 202 corridor, especially in Chalfont and New Britain Borough, the parkway offers a respite from the vehicles that choked the center of the Central Bucks communities.
6. BUCKS COUNTY PLAYHOUSE REOPENS
Shuttered and in disrepair, New Hope's famed Bucks County Playhouse was renovated and ushered in a new season, under new ownership.
The ambitious project to restore the historic theater to its former glory was undertaken by a nonprofit, founded by Doylestown Township couple, Sherri and Kevin Daugherty. They paid just shy of $2.1 million in a cash deal, bank officials said. The exact price was not disclosed.
More than a year after its former owner of 33 years, Ralph Miller, lost the iconic property in bankruptcy, the Daugherty's Bridge Street Foundation bought the riverfront site, investing in significant upgrades to the theater's sound and electrical equipment, lighting and rigging.
The 450-seat building was made handicapped-accessible and, for the first time, a fire alarm and sprinkler system were installed.
Problems arose late in the year, as the foundation sought zoning approval to add a riverfront promenade, a bar area and an elevated wooden deck to enhance income and expose residents and visitors to the waterfront.
The approval hit a roadblock when it was learned an updated federal emergency management agency map could place the project in a flood zone. Playhouse officials had sought a variance because there's a discrepancy in FEMA's maps. The zoning issue is sure to continue into 2013.
7. Act 13
Pennsylvania's booming natural gas industry raised serious concerns in Bucks County, where two municipalities challenged the controversial Act 13.
In March, Nockamixon, Yardley and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network joined several Western Pennsylvania communities to sue the state's Marcellus Shale gas drilling law, claiming it stripped their constitutional rights.
The state's Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling sometime in 2013.
The oil and gas law, enacted in February, was aimed at strengthening environmental regulations and providing consistent rules for drilling companies and landowners who want to sell their mineral rights.
However, communities were also mandated to allow drilling in all sections of a town, regardless of a well's proximity to homes, schools and water resources.
In July, the state issued a temporary moratorium on drilling in Bucks and Montgomery counties.
Although there's been no drilling in Bucks County in recent history, about 300 gas leases have been signed in Upper Bucks' Nockamixon Township.
8. Doylestown Township standoff
A picturesque Father's Day afternoon was shattered when an off-duty Clifton, N.J., police officer opened fire on police with high-powered weapons, terrorizing a Doylestown Township neighborhood.
Richard Klementovich turned his firepower on the Doylestown Lea development from his former home on Bittersweet Drive. No one was seriously injured during the 10-hour standoff.
Police said Klementovich had tricked his estranged wife out of their home by telling her he'd meet her and their two children elsewhere for something to eat. Instead, he barricaded himself inside the family home and called police to report a dispute between neighbors.
The first officer to arrive, Doylestown Township's Shaun Magee, said when he got to the home around 1:45 p.m. he only found a note attached to an envelope lying in the driveway.
It read: "I have the house barricaded. I have two scoped rifles sighted in and a handgun. I have a gas/cn mask I am a police officer 18.5 yrs I served in the first Persian Gulf War a 82nd Abn. I have about 2000 rounds. I have come here to die."
A series of gun battles, with Klementovich firing the bulk of the bullets, ensued, while families in the normally quiet, upscale neighborhood sheltered in their homes, fearing for their lives.
Klementovich was ordered to stand trial on six attempted homicide charges. A judge also ordered numerous counts of aggravated assault, assault of a law enforcement officer, possession of an instrument of crime, criminal mischief and institutional vandalism held for court.
9. Chalfont cop fakes own shooting
Jon Cousin, a three-year veteran of the Chalfont Police Department, radioed dispatchers shortly after 3 a.m. Aug. 27, saying he was checking a suspicious vehicle parked at the Lenape Valley Swim Club in the small borough.
Moments later, he broadcast over the police radio that he'd been shot. He described a fleeing gunman and two other people in a car.
Over the next 36 hours, police across the region were on the lookout for the brazen cop shooters. Cars matching Cousin's description were pulled over and neighbors in the suburban community were fearful.
As time passed, authorities said, Cousin's story began to ring false. While there was a bullet lodged in the officer's ballistic vest, there was no associated bruising.
Cousin, a father of four, including triplets born in 2012, told officials he fired back three times. Investigators found the shell casings from his .45 caliber police gun, but none from the matching .380 slug taken from his vest.
The gravel in the area of the alleged shooter's car was largely undisturbed, with no sign someone had sped away.
By Aug. 28, investigators believed Cousin had faked the shooting. After further evidence was uncovered, he was arrested.
Cousin, who was 30 at the time, is set to stand trial in Bucks County Court.
10. Thanksgiving weekend turns deadly
Aggressive and reckless driving may have contributed to one of the worst weeks of fatal crashes in Bucks County's history, an investigator said.
Six people between the ages of 9 and 51 were killed and at least one person remains in critical condition after four vehicle accidents over just five days.
"I've never seen anything like this in my 10 years with the district attorney's office," said prosecutor Robert James, chief of the homicide by vehicle division.
The first fatal accident occurred on Thanksgiving eve.
Nine-year-old Holly Huynh was killed and her 55-year-old grandmother, Suzanne Berry, of Plumstead, was critically injured when a Mustang Cobra rear-ended their vehicle, police said. The impact created what James called, "the largest crash scene I've ever seen."
Although Thanksgiving is always a time of increased accidents, rarely does the region experience so many deaths, said James.
On Nov. 24, in Bensalem, two were killed and at least four others critically injured in a crash on northbound Interstate 95. The accident occurred at about 6:25 p.m. between Street Road and Route 413, police said.
A 2003 Oldsmobile Bravada driven by Carlee Tran, 19, of Philadelphia, left the southbound lanes of the highway, hit the guide rail and went airborne, according to police.
In the northbound lanes, driver Brian McHugh, 51, of Pennington, N.J., didn't have a chance to avoid Tran's vehicle, state police said. Tran's car flipped and landed partially on top of McHugh's vehicle, according to the police report.
On Nov. 25 in Silverdale, police said, Mary Dodds, 49, of North Wales, was traveling at a high rate of speed when she rammed into the back of Stacy Byrne's Chevrolet Cavalier.
Byrne, 32, of Croydon, was stopped at a red light in the northbound lane of Route 152, but the impact of the collision sent her car across Route 113, where it smacked into a utility pole and then collided with a bin for donated clothing, according to the police reports. Dodds and Byrne were killed.
Byrne's husband, Ian, who was a passenger in the Cavalier, escaped with non-life threatening injuries, police said.
The latest of Bucks' fatal Thanksgiving weekend crashes occurred late Nov. 25 in Milford. That crash claimed the life of 19-year-old Karisa Lauren Kade of Quakertown. Investigators said Kade was one of three in the 1995 Saturn station wagon that crossed the roadway and struck a tree.
The driver was Amanda Marie Helveston, 22, of Quakertown, and the front seat passenger was Jonathan Michael Simpson, 20, also of Quakertown. The three weren't wearing seat belts, police said.
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