Upcoming Event: 3rd Annual Ambrose Schultz Motorcycle Run

August 4 2011 by Andrea Kimes in Uncategorized |No Comments

This event is dedicated to the memory of:
Trooper Robert Ambrose, NYSP
E.O.W. 12/19/2002

Trooper Jeffery Schultz, PSP
E.O.W. 9/16/2008

$20.00/person
Includes BBQ

RAIN OR SHINE
Registration begins at 8:30 AM at the Pocono Township Fire Company
Route 611, Tannersville, PA
Escorted
Kickstands Up at 10:00 AM

BBQ at 12:30 PM
Non-Riders welcome to BBQ
$15.00

100 mile escorted ride through the Poconos

For more information or to download a registration form please visit www.troopersfund.org or call 570 213 2882

Tpr. Robert Ambrose, NYSP
E.O. W. 12/19/2002
Trooper Robert Ambrose, age 31, was in his Ford Interceptor writing an incident report on a minor accident when he was struck from behind by a person, with a suspended license, who was driving while intoxicated. Trooper Ambrose’s vehicle burst into flames and both he and the driver of the vehicle were killed. He is survived by his parents, Wayne and Evelyn, brother Paul and sister, Christina.

Tpr. Jeffery Schultz, PSP
E.O. W. 9/16/2008
Trooper Schultz was known as a “real trooper”. In 2002, five years after enlisting in PSP and realizing a life-long dream, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Over the next several years, Tpr. Schultz endured four brain surgeries, radiation and several bouts of chemotherapy. Throughout this time, he continued to work, never took a day without pay, and never went on disability – a “real trooper” in every sense of the word. His will to live and his positive attitude impacted so many people. He is survived by his wife, Julie, his son Jacob, and parents, Thomas and Theresa.

Makeup & Makeover Expo To Benefit the United Way of Monroe County PA

July 7 2011 by Andrea Kimes in General, Pocono Events |No Comments
Makeup and Makeover Expo

Makeup and Makeover Expo

How can you support a local charity and get a girls day out?  Go to the Makeup & Makeover Expo Featuring “Makeup Artist to the Stars” Eve Pearl at the Chateau Resort in Tannersville on Sunday July 17th.  It will be held from 12:00pm to 4:00pm and is sure to be a great time.

There will be many local vendors as well as a makeup demonstration by 5 time Emmy Award-Winning celebrity makeup artist Eve Pearl.

You have a chance to win prizes, get mini-makeovers, FREE chair massages and much more.

Tickets for the event are available by calling Chateau Resort at (570) 629-5900. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door. The first 200 tickets sold receive a VIP bag filled with goodies.

All Proceeds from the event benefit the United Way of Monroe County.

Out with Boston Market & Arbys, In With Wendys & Popeyes

June 12 2011 by Andrea Kimes in Pocono Restaurants |No Comments

One of the most amazing things I find in this area is that once spring hits construction and remodeling projects fly!  You’ll see the starting of a building one day and within a few weeks it’s completed and up and running.

This was the case on North 9th Street in Stroudsburg near the Stroud mall (opposite side across from Raymour and Flanigan/AC Moore Plaza). Sometime this past fall/winter I noticed that Boston Market & Arbys had both closed their doors.  That area remained dormant for a few months and I was left wondering what could possibly go in their place.

A few weeks ago I noticed they started construction(in my head it was about 2 weeks but it was probably more then a month), and some “coming soon” signs indicating that a Wendys & Popeyes were going in.  Last weekend we drove by to see “Now Open”.

Normally it wouldn’t be such a big deal, just some more chain restaurants, right?  But what stood out to me was how packed both of them were.  There’s a McDonalds and Burger King literally a block away so you would think Wendys might not get that much traffic, but they did.  Popeyes though – there were people parking outside the parking lot on 9th street it was so busy.  Heck, maybe people were parking in the Wendys lot for Popeyes as well! lol

It seems like it’s a much welcomed addition to the area so I thought I’d bring it to anyone’s attention that might have missed the memo that they’re now in town.

We have a few Wendy’s but the closest previous Popeyes I knew of was out in the Allentown area.  So here’s the official contact info if anyone needs it:

Popeyes
1137 N 9th Street
Stroudsburg , PA 18360 US
570-476-1200

I’m sure a lot of people groan about chain restaurants, and more buildings and less trees, and I feel you on that.  The area has been greatly built up even over the past 5 years – but with the economy coming out of a slump more businesses = more jobs = a better economy.  How do you see it?  Leave us a comment to let us know how you feel.

Home Remodeling In The Poconos

June 3 2011 by Andrea Kimes in Pocono Business |No Comments

We had the opportunity to sit down recently with John Beresch of John Beresch Contracting to talk about Home Improvement and Home Remodeling in the Poconos.  I think it’s a topic a lot of readers think about this time of year as spring is here and we’re heading into summer it seems like

John Beresch of John Beresch Contracting

a perfect time to get renovations underway.

PoconoTalk: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us today John, to start with, can you tell our readers a little bit about you and your company?  What exactly is it that you do?

John: We’re a building contractor that offers home improvement services like decks, roofing, siding, additions and garages.  We also do new construction as well.  I’m the guy that from start to finish I coordinate, work with the homeowners, work with the subcontractors, building departments, basically I’m the guy in charge of it all.  We’ve been in business in the Poconos for over 30 years now.

PoconoTalk: Do you think new home construction in the Poconos is a smart move in the current rebounding housing market?

John: Right now it’s more advantageous to remodel and put money into your existing home.  You want to build equity in your current home, so some suggestions would be to add an addition, or remodel your existing home.

PoconoTalk: So if I live in the Poconos and want to hire someone to do some work on my home, how can I tell which contractors aren’t going to rip me off?  Is there anything I should look out for, any red flags?

John: If someone shows up one of your first questions should be “Are you licensed in the state and do you have proper insurance in the state?”.  Go with your gut feeling, if someone shows up in a beat up rusty old truck and beat up clothes then he’s not the guy.  If you’ve had competitive bids and this guy is exceptionally low you should definitely red flag that guy. Use your common sense.

PoconoTalk: I see you have a #PA on your website – what exactly does that mean?  What if a company doesn’t have that, would it be smart to hire them?

John: If they do not have a PA Contractor # do not hire them, it is the law, they HAVE to be registered with the state attorney general’s office. They’re trying to run underneath the radar – it’s at virtually no cost to the company to do that, it’s about $50 per year.

PoconoTalk: You have some great testimonials from home owners willing to vouch for your work on your website, should people be alarmed if they ask for references and the company doesn’t have any, or won’t give any?

John: I honor a homeowners privacy, so although I have some testimonials on my website, if a customer wants I am always willing to provide additional references.  If a company will not provide you any references when you ask, you should probably not go with them.

PoconoTalk: So you’ve been doing home improvement and remodeling in the Poconos for over 30 years now, what are some of the most common home remodeling projects that people have done living in this area?

John: Additions are huge, and general remodeling such as roofing, siding, and especially getting windows replaced.  There’s a lot of people updating the interior, primarily kitchens, even more so now with the housing market the way it is.

PoconoTalk: As a homeowner who wants to add value to their home for future resale, what are some home remodeling options you can suggest that could possibly give a return on investment in the future?

John: Curb appeal is big, you want to have a nice looking house – you want to update your siding, roofing, windows, and if it needs to be painted, then paint it.  Your house is like your car, you can’t leave it alone for 10 years and expect it to run right.  All of those improvements will increase resale and longevity of your home.

PoconoTalk: Well thanks again for taking the time to educate us a little bit about home improvement.  It give us homeowners a better insight as to what to do and what to look for when looking to hire someone for home remodeling.

If people are interested in contacting you about having a home remodeling project done, what is the best way to contact you?

John: They can either call me at 570-629-0823 or check out my website www.JohnBeresch.com for more information and pictures of work we’ve done.

If you have a business in the Poconos and would like to be interviewed to talk about your products and/or services  send an email to media@poconotalk.com

Severe Storms Hit The Poconos

May 31 2011 by Andrea Kimes in Pocono Living |1 Comment

 

Last Thursday, May 26th heavy storms moved through the Poconos and left a large path of destruction behind them.  Although tornados are rare in the Poconos (there was a small one 2 years ago that took out a barn), there is still a small threat of them and with the tornado season across the county taht we’ve seen already this year, it’s a scary possible reality.

We lost power Thursday night at about 9:00pm – unfortunately for us we have well water so when the power goes out that means no running water, no showers, etc. and you quickly start to realize (especially with 3 little kids) just how much of a necessity having power is.  The next morning we still didn’t have power so we got our son off to school and headed into Stroudsburg(where there was power) and got breakfast and took some photos of what we passed along the way.  There were multiple large trees on lawns, in the road and it seemed like although there was work being done there was so much to attend to that a normal thing like a downed tree in the middle of the road was there for hours.  One of the pictures was taken in front of Penn Hills Resort(which has been closed for awhile) and a cone had simply been placed on the ground in front of where a tree was blocking one side of the road.

Power was not restored for us until Saturday(although we didn’t stay at home), and for other parts of the area until Sunday/Monday.

PPL Electric seemed to handle the situation very well calling in crews from other states to help assist in the process and keeping people up to date on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/pplstormteam

There is another set of storms moving through with a cold front that will be nice(the cold front not the storms) but hopefully it will be on a much quieter scale this time around.

From pplelectric.com:
“Thank you to everyone involved in the storm restoration effort over the past four days.

We appreciate the patience and understanding of all our customers who were without electric service for extended periods of time.  We understand this interruption of electric service can be an inconvenience and a hardship.

After the tornadoes and the first round of thunderstorms, PPL Electric Utilities mobilized all available crews and requested assistance from neighboring utilities and contractors from other states to assist in the recovery.  More than 350 line crews and another 60 tree crews worked around the clock Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, responding to more than 1,400 cases of trouble.

In most cases, the outages involved tree clean up and electrical repairs that required multiple crews for several hours.  Some trouble required crews to work longer than a full day on a single case.  All of the work needed to be well coordinated and very deliberately completed to ensure the safety of workers and the public.

About 100,000 customers were restored in the first 24 hours, then additional storms through the weekend added to our workload. PPL Electric restored service to about 175,000 customers over the four-day period.  Additional work will continue for the next several days, as temporary repairs are made permanent and other trouble is addressed that did not involve a power outage.

PPL Electric thanks the crews from Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Ohio, Maryland, Tennesee, and Kentucky who came to assist in the storm recovery work.”

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