WZAR News

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They say “You Meet the Nicest People” on a Honda… or at least that’s what the advertising campaign was in the 1960s.  It was a plan from Honda’s motorcycle division to give bikes a different image from the gangster-tough-guy mentality.  Nearly fifty years later, Preston McEvoy wants to revive this image as he takes his 1965 Honda Dream 305 on the road… and he’s got quite a route in mind.

His response to how long he’ll be gone was “a few days,” but the goal of his travels isn’t for the novelty of it and not for the fun of it.  It is simply to spread goodness to other people, and nothing more.

The motorcyle sat in a barn since 1968, and a few years ago Preston and his dad revived the motor that only had three-thousand miles on it.  Now, with a few more miles on it, original paint, and even the original tires, it’s ready for the ride of a lifetime.

Friends and family met with him early on Friday, September 3rd at Saville’s Diner to see him off.  After a few revs of the engine, the humble Preston rode off down the road, onto an unpredictable adventure, one that his mom and dad fully support.

Preston has a video camera with him and WZAR will be catching up with him upon his return to see just what he ran into, and how many lives he touched.

You may have noticed recently that we haven’t been all that active on Twitter, our news coverage hasn’t been quite as plentiful, and our Mile27 show keeps getting pushed off. Why you ask? We have a good reason!

We’ve been spending lots of time working on our new facility on Congo Road in Gilbertsville. So instead of spending 12-16 hours a day covering local news and working on video projects, we’ve been spending that time working on our new location. Please be patient with us as we work on this great new place that will allow us to better serve the community and also give folks a place where you can meet us and learn about our video products and services.

As we always say, please stay tuned…

Since our crew was out of state on a shoot in Las Vegas, we’ll leave the news coverage to the people who were actually in the same state!  More information on the fire truck accident from our friends at the Reading Eagle: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=242344

The Boyertown Area YMCA will be making a huge presentation at the Boyertown Community Pool. The Boyertown Community Pool Splash Pad will resurrect the wading pool, shut down since 2006, and replace it with eighteen above ground water elements creating fountain-like sprays throughout. The Splash Pad will entertain children in the community that are between infancy and five years old and be an attractive and environmentally friendly recreational area. The new creation will be presented to the public at 7p.m on August 12th.

Below is a sketched rendering of the splash pad layout.

The lucky family that was selected for the famous home makeover lives in Tilden Township, Berks County, near Hamburg.  We will publish any information we learn throughout the week, however since this is extremely out of our coverage area, we will likely not be on-site for coverage.  We invite you to follow WFMZ 69 News for video coverage:  http://www.wfmz.com/.  Thanks for staying with us to find out who was selected!

The First Energy Stadium in Reading, Pennsylvania is well known in Berks County for the Reading Phillies Baseball Team that calls the stadium home.  But on July 21^st there was a different team and a different group of fans occupying the stadium.  A team of producers from Extreme Makeover Home Edition was playing to the fans of their popular show Sunday nights on ABC.  The show is coming to a lucky family somewhere in Berks County to be announced on July 29^th.  The Home Builders Association of Berks County and Extreme Makeover held a pep rally at the stadium to bring awareness that the show was coming to the area and they would need help from volunteers to make this a successful build.

The Home Builders Association (HBA) has never built a home in a week and is looking forward to the challenge even though it’s going to be the biggest they’ve ever faced.  Several members of the group spoke to spectators about how this build came about and that it’s all been happening very fast.  Ron Rohrbach, Executive Director of HBA, was first called by producers of the show on June 10th and on the very next day representatives from the show flew East to put plans into place.

Extreme Makeover’s senior producer, Milan Vasi, addressed the crowd with information regarding the show’s history and what they do along with a few inspirational videos of prior builds.  Milan also introduced design producers and project management team members who spoke about what they do and how the community can help.  The actual build will take place between July 29^th, when the family is announced, and August 5^th when they “move that bus.”

Volunteers and donations are needed to complete the build and you can find a complete list of items and services, along with information on how to volunteer, at www.hbaberks.org.  Click on Extreme Makeover or you can get updates by going to http://abc.go.com/shows/extreme-makeover-home-edition.  Spectators are welcomed during build week and can find spectator information on the same website after the family is announced on July 29^th.  Come on out on August 5^th and let’s “MOVE THAT BUS!!”

Video available by clicking here.

It’s what’s called a minipark. It might not be an attraction that people come for miles for, but to this community, it’s something they take their kids to every day.

The park is located on the corner of Fifth and Franklin in the borough, right in the middle of a tight-knit residential area, but lately, the park has been turning into a hangout of teens and twenty-somethings, which wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t for what’s been happening. The young adults that have been spending time there are rude and disrespectful to the children and parents, and are creating a hostile environment.

Some borough council members and Boyertown Police held a meeting on Saturday, July 10th, at borough hall to discuss the matter with concerned residents, many of whom were very willing to tell their experiences.

Said a regular user of the park, “They got in my face and called me names, and nasty names, to me.”

And this is on the light end of things… other residents at the meeting claimed to have seen other things including drug use and even urinating down the sliding boards. Others described being threatened and having smoke blown in their face.

Also, some playground equipment has been getting damaged by skateboards and bikes, as well as vandalism, some of the writing even attacking a child in the neighborhood.

Regardless of what’s been happening, it was agreed that something needs to be done about it.

Several methods of regulating the park were discussed. Many residents did not want to make an age limit on the park, for fear of locking out the kids that don’t cause trouble. They also discussed the possibility of removing the basketball court since they seem to draw an older crowd and there are other courts in the borough. While there were varying levels of agreement on these topics, a few things seemed to have a universal agreement: that the park needs some sort of fence, not necessarily to lock people out, but to create a boundary to make the park safer… the park needs updated and appropriately worded signage to assist in rule enforcement… but one of the easiest and best things to do is to have a presence it the park and call the police when there is trouble.

Chief Barry Leatherman explained that calling and standing by your complaint is very important in the fight against crime, otherwise law enforcement has must see a crime in action to prosecute.

Regardless of what was discussed at this meeting, any modifications or changes will need to be presented to borough council and approved by the borough manager. But this was a great way to put heads together and write out some possible solutions.