Montgomery County will move its 9/11 memorial to Elmwood Park in Norristown on Sept. 1 in advance of the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attack.
The goal is to make the memorial more accessible for county residents and visitors than it is at its current location at the county’s emergency operations center in Eagleville, Jamila H. Winder, chair of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, said in a statement.
The monument, which was commissioned by the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners in 2003, was created by sculptor Sassana Norton, who used an I-beam from the North Tower of the World Trade Center in the 18-foot monument honoring victims and first responders. It was erected at the Montgomery County Courthouse in September 2005and then moved to the Eagleville campus in 2021 due to courthouse construction.
Members of the public are invited to watch the procession of the memorial starting at 9 a.m. on Sept. 1. The monument will travel from Eagleville through Lower Providence and West Norriton Townships to Elmwood Park in Norristown. The procession will be accompanied by a Norristown Police Department motorcycle escort as well as other first responders and representatives from across the county.
A rededication ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. on Sept. 11 at Elmwood Park.
“Norristown is proud to host the County’s 9/11 Memorial in Elmwood Park,” Rashaad Bates, president of Norristown Municipal Council, said in a statement. “We are honored to provide a permanent home where residents can gather to remember, reflect, and pay tribute to those whose lives were forever changed on September 11.”
Shapiro, a first-term Democrat running for reelection and a rumored 2028 presidential contender, had been an early champion of data center development in the state, including a $20 billion commitment from Amazon to build at least two data centers in Bucks and Luzerne Counties.
Now he is taking a hard-line stance against the burgeoning data center industry he once courted, as proposed projects draw increasing bipartisan backlash across Pennsylvania.
The far-reaching executive order does not include a moratorium on data center development. However, the order requires local approval for projects to receive state permits, which in effect may block many developments from moving forward.
Shapiro used his executive powers Tuesdayto push through his previously proposedGovernor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development standards, which wereinitially pitched as voluntary incentives for data center developers to receive tax breaks, but failed to receive support from the GOP-controlled state Senate. All projects will be required to follow GRID’s environmental, economic, and transparency requirements in order to move forward.
“I have no other choice than but to take this executive action to protect the good people of Pennsylvania from these predatory developers and from these projects that would negatively impact our communities,” Shapiro said after signing the order.
Shapiro’s order also:
Removes all data center developments, including those by Amazon, from the fast-track permitting program, and no data centers will be considered for the program moving forward.
Requires data center projects to sign legally binding agreements to certain transparency and environmental requirements in GRID, such aswater conservation standards and early and transparent public notification of proposed projects ahead of key local approvals. Companies must follow GRID guidelines to access the state’s existing sales tax break for data centers.
Prohibits any state agency from signing a nondisclosure agreement related to a data center project.
Instructs the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to publish a publicly accessible map of current permitting information for all proposed data center projects.
Mandates that the projects bring their own electricity generation and pay all costs associated with increased energy usage.
Requires a community-benefit agreement that includes promises to hire and train local employees, as well as developer investments in schools or infrastructure.
UnderscoresPennsylvania’s unique state constitutional rights to clean air, pure water, and environmental preservation — a focus of many residents who oppose data center projects.
‘On notice’
Pennsylvania has become a top target for data center projects, due to its key placement near some of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, its energy production potential, and its vast rural areas.
But data centers have become increasingly unpopular in the year since Shapiro championed the Amazon deal as one promising that the future of artificial intelligence “is going to run right here through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
In a June poll conducted by Quinnipiac University, 76% of registered Pennsylvania voters said they would oppose a data center in their communities. Only 24% of voters said they approve how Shapiro is handling data centers in Pennsylvania, including 40% of Democrats — a drop from his 51% overall favorability in the same poll.
A yard sign protests the proposed data center on New Elm Street near the Closed Cleveland-Cliffs steel mill photographed on Thursday, June 4, 2026 in Conshohocken, Pa.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
“Archbald and Montco are just two examples of dozens of communities being overrun and overwhelmed by developers who don’t give a damn about us and think they can have their way,” Shapiro said. “Today, I’m formally putting them on notice.”
Shapiro took specific issue with the more than 100 speculative projects across the state, which include some from real estate developers who are seeking building approvals without determining or disclosing the company for which they would be storing the data.
The Data Center Coalition — the leading data center group representing Amazon, Microsoft, and other top developers — said in a statement that distinguishing between real, company-led projects and proposals is important and that rules should not be “changed midstream” for “verified and responsible data center projects.”
“Companies have made plans, communities have prepared for economic opportunities, and workers are ready to build the next generation of digital infrastructure right here in Pennsylvania,” said Dan Diorio, the executive vice president for state policy and government affairs at the Data Center Coalition.
Diorio previously told The Inquirer that Shapiro’s GRID standards were “extensive” compared with the 37 other states that offer sales tax exemptions.
Shapiro’s administration appeared prepared to face legal challenges from the deep pockets of the data center industry or property developers. The order includes a severability clause, something not traditionally used in executive orders, that says if any parts of the order are “held to be invalid,” the rest of the order still stands.
Shapiro has previously said his position on data centers has evolved. But his order Tuesday is perhaps his most dramatic shift: He has gone from consulting Amazon and the data center industry on his GRID principles earlier this year to pulling the tech giant and others from the state’s fast-track permitting program and requiring community-benefits agreements for the projects to move forward.
Gov. Josh Shapiro signs an executive order restricting data centers in Pennsylvania during a ceremony in the Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., Tuesday August 18, 2026.Kalim A. Bhatti / For The Inquirer
The Amazon projects currently underway in Pennsylvania have already passed through the first phase of permitting, and will be required like all other projects to follow the requirements moving forward, a spokesperson for Shapiro said.
An Amazon spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
There aresix data center projects under construction in Pennsylvania,and 10 have received at least one state-level permit approval, Shapiro’s office previously told The Inquirer.
Shapiro and the General Assembly have been under pressure by anti-data center activists to enact guardrails on the massive projects, with many arguing that Pennsylvania moved too quickly and sacrificed the state’s safety in favor of Big Tech. Pennsylvania lawmakers nearly unanimously supported ending the sales tax exemption for the projects, but failed to implement a measure during the spring legislative session.
At the news conference Tuesday, Shapiro invited representatives from the Pennsylvania Association of Township Supervisors — the main group representing the local governments at the forefront of pushing for data center restrictions — in addition to advocacy groups including the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project and the National Resources Defense Council. The groups praised Shapiro’s plan.
Though Shapiro’s order was widely lauded by Democratic state lawmakers and environmental groups, it was met with criticism from some of his detractors, including his Republican challenger for governor in November, Treasurer Stacy Garrity.
Garrity’s first TV ad featured Shapiro’s support for data centers, and on Tuesday she said in a statement that Shapiro is “trying to gaslight the people of Pennsylvania into not believing what they’ve seen with their own eyes for the past 13 months.” (Garrity’s position on data centers has also changed since the June 2025 announcement, which she lauded at the time; she has since said Pennsylvania needs to put a “pause” on all data center development.)
Megan McDonough, the state director for advocacy organization Food and Water Watch, said in a statement that “Shapiro knows that he’s been acting out of accordance with what Pennsylvanians actually need,” but that the order falls short.
“Shapiro is feeling our heat because Pennsylvanians have made it impossible for him to ignore us,” she said. “The only solution to addressing AI data centers’ many woes is by placing a mandatory moratorium on all new data center development.”
Candidates are trading debate challenges in a contentious congressional race in a key swing district in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Democrat Bob Harvie is challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick to four debates, his campaign told The Inquirer.Fitzpatrick, after learning of Harvie’s challenge from The Inquirer, countered with 10 debates — but only if Harvie releases files related to an FBI investigation that Fitzpatrick and allies have routinely alleged focuses on the Democrat.
Harvie does not have files to release, said Dan McCormick, the candidate’s campaign manager. Harvie also has never been under investigation, lawyers for his campaign said. And he has already filed a defamation lawsuit against a pro-Fitzpatrick super PAC for making the same claim.
“Bob would be happy to participate in 10 debates,” McCormick said. “Bob has no files to release and Brian Fitzpatrick knows it. If Fitzpatrick has proof as he says he does, he should put up or shut up.”
The back-and-forth emerged Monday when the Harvie campaign told The Inquirer that the two-term Bucks County commissioner would be challengingthefive-term GOP lawmaker to three debates in Bucks — one each in the lower, central, and upper parts of the county — and a fourth in the Montgomery County portion of the 1st Congressional District.
Harvie said that Fitzpatrick“refuses to answer questions here at home” and “has nothing to show for his nearly 10 years in Washington.”
The increasingly heated race is one of four marquee congressional contests in Pennsylvaniathat could decide which party controls the U.S. House in November.
“It’s time for Fitzpatrick to show up in Bucks and Montgomery County — not Manhattan or the Lavender Fields in France,” Harvie said in a statement, referring to the venues for Fitzpatrick’s wedding and engagement to Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich. “I’ll be there whether or not he shows, because I will never forget who I am fighting for.”
Heather Roberts, a spokesperson for Fitzpatrick, said as soon as Harvie releases “his full FBI files,” the campaign will move forward with date and venue selections for 10 debates.
“If the Subject of an FBI Corruption investigation is asking to be provided a platform by the only FBI Agent in Congress, he sure as hell will be required to come clean with the public and release these documents in their entirety,” Roberts said in a statement. “If he has nothing to hide, this should be an easy decision for him.”
Roberts also proposed a joint sit-down interview with Harvie and Fitzpatrick, conducted by The Inquirer, to discuss the allegations.
Roberts said that Fitzpatrick, who served 15 years as an FBI agent and a federal prosecutor, “is extremely familiar with this specific grand jury protocol and the documents that are generated.”
The debate drama is the most recent development in what has become an increasingly combative race, filled with personal jabs and legal filings related to controversial ads making allegations that Harvie is the subject of an FBI investigation.
Harvie, a former Falls Township supervisor, and other officials testified as witnesses to a grand jury in an FBI probe in 2022 into political donations and union contracts related to the Pennsbury School District. In 2020, the FBI interviewed several people connected to Falls Township and Pennsbury.
It has been fouryears since voters have been able to see a general election debate in the 1st Congressional District. In 2024, Fitzpatrick did not debate Democratic challenger Ashley Ehasz, after doing so in 2022.
The Harvie campaign said that it would be willing to work with the Fitzpatrick campaign on logistics and other event details, but that the commissioner’s preference is a town hall-style debate so voters can hear from him directly.
Fitzpatrick has held tele-town halls, including one in June, for constituents, and frequently posts on social mediarecapping the meetings and events he attends in the community.
A 24-year-old Portuguese man was sentenced Monday to seven years in federal prison for stealing more than $1 million in cryptocurrency from unwitting victims, including a resident of Montgomery County — crimes prosecutors said the man committed while he was associated with an international cybercrime network.
Ruben Filipe Gabriel Martins pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud and identity-theft charges for using sophisticated phishing tactics to obtain victims’ cryptocurrency account information, then stealing their investments.
Prosecutors said Martins committed his fraud while he was part of a group called “the Com,” a global network of people who use technology to commit a variety of crimes across the world, including extortion, theft, and even incitements of violence.
Martins, meanwhile, was associated with a subset known as “CryptoChameleon,” a group that uses a variety of deceptive tactics to obtain account information from cryptocurrency holders. In Martin’s case, prosecutors said, he pretended to be a customer support representative for Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange, and told his victims he could offer support for their compromised accounts — tactics he used to get into the accounts and steal the victims’ funds.
Martins then went on to transfer the proceeds into other cryptocurrencies, prosecutors said, and ultimately spent his ill-gotten gains on luxury goods, traveling, and gambling.
His scheme began to unravel in 2024, when prosecutors said a man from Towamencin Township told police that more than $60,000 had been stolen out of his cryptocurrency account after he’d replied to text messages and calls about its security. Authorities were ultimately able to link that activity to Martins, who was born in Portugal and went on to live in Scotland.
Martins’ lawyer said in court documents that Martins had never intended to become “a career criminal.” But after being raised in modest circumstances — including by working in a fish factory as a teenager — Martins was introduced to a host of wealthy benefactors due to his skill in online gaming, his lawyer said, and some of those people then flew him to Paris and recruited him to participate in their digital exploitation operation.
In court Monday, Martins apologized for his actions, saying he was in debt when he committed his crimes and viewed the scheme as a way to make “really easy money.”
“I made a mistake when I was really down,” he said, “and I’d just like to have another chance at life.”
But U.S. District Judge Gerald J. Pappert said it was a significant understatement to describe the crimes as a “mistake ” — saying Martins had used his computer skills and desire for money to turn himself into a “dangerous” person who stopped only when he got caught.
“Not one thing you did in two years was a mistake,” Pappert said. “You needed money. You saw what for you was an easy way to get a lot of money. … And I don’t know to what extent, if at all, you ever felt bad about it, because these people were all behind a computer, and you never had to look them in the eye.”
One of Martins’ victims has seven children, Pappert noted, and others were intelligent people who lost significant portions of their life’s savings.
Martins is expected to be deported to Portugal once he finishes his prison sentence. But Pappert said his victims may never get over the shame and financial hardship he caused them.
“These were horrible crimes,” Pappert said. “None of these people deserved this.”
Rebecca Foscolo acknowledges she was “extra spicy” at a Lower Merion school board meeting in June, when the board voted to repeal a policy that let parents like her opt their kids out of school-issued laptops and iPads.
Foscolo, who is part of a group of parents demanding that the affluent Montgomery County district scale back on screens, could not believe the board was moving ahead with the vote, after parents had pleaded for the option to say no to devices they said were imperiling their kids’ ability to learn.
“All these educated people are telling you you are doing something wrong, and you are sitting there and doing nothing,” Foscolo yelled at the board, while seated in a row in the Lower Merion High School auditorium.
Members of the district’s security came up to Foscolo, who left on her own.
Now she is no longer allowed to attend Lower Merion school board meetings in person, for a year.
After a second outburst during a board policy committee meeting on Aug. 3, Foscolo received a letter from the district’s solicitor, informing her she had violated Lower Merion’s civility policy.
A second parent in the Pencils Over Pixels group, David Smyth, said he had received a similar letter after the meeting.
In his Aug. 4 letter to Foscolo, Lower Merion solicitor Kenneth Roos wrote that at both the June 15 and Aug. 3 board meetings, she “displayed disruptive and bullying behavior, including yelling at school board members and administrators while they were conducting board business.” He said her conduct “contributed to the board needing to go into recess prior to the completion of each meeting.”
The district on Friday announced that its meeting on Monday night, when the board is expected to approve a new technology policy, would be virtual only “due to disruptions at two recent meetings,” as well as “threatening comments on social media pages.” It did not say what the social media comments were.
Foscolo, who shouted at the board that “the way you’re responding is ridiculous” after it cut off public comment on Aug. 3 before she had a chance to speak, accused the district of violating her constitutional rights.
“They’re basically just trying to bully me and silence me,” Foscolo said in an interview. She and Smyth were banned from attending school board meetings until June 30, 2027. They can watch meeting live streams and submit written comments, Roos said.
”While we would have preferred that everyone remained calm, and we recognize that the behavior may have been perceived as disruptive, we do not believe banning concerned community members from all future board meetings is an appropriate or productive response,” the group said in a statement.
In another statement, Pencils Over Pixels said it was “disappointed” by the decision to make Monday’s meeting virtual.
Any threatening comments “were not condoned by any member of this group and any threatening language is promptly removed,” the group said.
Is it legal?
First Amendment lawyers said the district’s actions in banning residents could be running afoul of their constitutional rights.
“Unless there’s a threat of violence, there’s really no basis” to ban someone from public meetings, said Sara Rose, deputy legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. A person who is “truly disruptive” can be removed from a meeting, she said, and if the district referred the matter to prosecutors, a court could decide to ban the person.
“But the school district cannot unilaterally tell people they cannot attend future meetings,” Rose said, adding: “I haven’t found a single decision that says that’s permissible.”
The ACLU in November 2024 sued the Souderton Area School District after it banned two parents and a student from school properties, accusing them of threatening a school board member. The parents and student, who were part of a group of demonstrators protesting the board president, said they were wrongly accused, and the district lifted the ban in March 2025.
Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel at the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, questioned Lower Merion’s decision to end public comment after 45 minutes during its Aug. 3 policy committee meeting.
While governmentagencies are allowed to have guidelines for how long public comment can last, “there has to be flexibility,” Melewsky said. If there is not enough time to hear every person on a controversial issue, she said, agencies are supposed to schedule another meeting to finish the public comment, and “any proposed action has to be put off as well.”
Asked why the district believed its actions were legal, spokesperson Amy Buckman said that residents “were advised that intentionally disrupting a lawful meeting or the administration of a government function is a criminal offense in Pennsylvania.”
She noted the board’s policy for committee meetings includes a 45-minute time limit for public comment on agenda items, “unless extended by the board for special circumstances.”
Pencils Over Pixels said its members had been “assured by the board that the Aug. 3 meeting would be an opportunity to engage with the policy committee” and receive feedback to their questions about the district’s new technology policy.
Signs reading, “Screens down, pencils up,” are seen a school board meeting at the Lower Merion School District Administration Building on Monday, May 11, 2026, in Ardmore, Pa. (AP Photo/Joe Lamberti)Joe Lamberti
While Pencils Over Pixels said it had urged its members to remain “calm and professional,” some “were rightfully upset that they were unable to engage in dialogue with the committee as promised,” the group said. “Unfortunately, their emotions governed their behavior.”
Frustrations around tech use
Lower Merion parents have been appearing before the board to complain about school technology use since the spring, describing kids focused on gaming or visiting inappropriate websites instead of doing schoolwork. Others have criticized the district’s use of educational technology programs as low quality, and say they do not want their kids doing reading and math on computers. Hundreds of parents signed a petition in favor of opting out of computers.
The district, which has said it is not possible to opt out of technology use, rescinded its policy allowing for that option and has been moving forward with a new version that places more limits on screens.
Under the policy, which the board is expected to vote on Monday, kindergartners and first and second graders will no longer be issued personal devices, while third and fourth graders will have personal logins to computers in the classroom. The policy includes new guidelines for screen time by grade, and district officials say there will also be new tools for teachers and parents to monitor kids’ internet usage.
Parents pushing for stricter limits have called for the district to release its contracts with educational technology companies and data on how long students are on screens during the school day.
They also want more say in how technology is used, including through the creation of a committee to review the district’s educational technology programs.
“They’ve not been really having good-faith personal conversations,” Smyth, who has a seventh and an eighth grader, said of the board.
Smyth, who went up to the microphone after the board said that public comment was over Aug. 3 and called on the board to answer how many speakers remained, said in an interview he was “only disruptive to insist on continuing public comment.”
Foscolo, who has a rising first grader and a 3-year-old, said that while she had previously addressed the board about the technology policy and had met with several board members, she had repeatedly asked to meet with the board’s president, Kerry Sautner, and the policy committee chair, Anna Shurak.
When Sautner responded, she told Foscolo to come to the Aug. 3 meeting, Foscolo said. She was frustrated she was not able to speak then.
To Foscolo, the board appears to be “placating” parents who have concerns about technology, rather than having genuine debate.
“You have a bunch of parents who want to help, and you’re like, ‘Don’t talk,’” she said.
Cheltenham’s new police chief is a longtime crisis negotiator who led one of the township’s most famous criminal investigations.
Richard Schaffer will be sworn in as Cheltenham’s new police chief next week to replace John Slavin, who is retiring after 37 years with the department. The salary range for the new chief was listed as $180,000 to $195,000 in the township’s job posting.
Schaffer has led a variety of community policing efforts in his 26 years at Cheltenham, spending more than two decades as a crisis negotiator and heading the township’s gun violence task force.
In 2024, he embedded a county mental health worker into the police department to assist in cases with behavioral health concerns.
Schaffer, who holds a master’s degree in criminal justice from St. Joseph’s University, made the case for community policing in a speech at a school board meeting this week.
The new chief takes the reins at a tumultuous time for Cheltenham School District, which has faced a range of safety concerns in recent years — most notably two alleged assaults in a high school locker room last year that led to criminal charges for four football coaches and six players.
“We have not lived up to our shared ideals. We must acknowledge the victims from recent cases, and we must promise to do things better not only for them but for future students,” Schaffer said.
“I would urge parents and the board to commit to a greater partnership with the police department.”
Some Cheltenham residents have advocated for removing a physical police presence from schools in recent years.
Schaffer pledged at the meeting to “push back on some of those who sought to drive the police from the schools.”
“Police interacting with students, faculty, and staff is a good thing,” Schaffer said. “We want to be proactive by leveraging information and our relationships to get ahead of problems.”
District spokesperson Kevin Kaufman did not answer questions Friday about the current status of security programs at Cheltenham schools.
Schaffer also led the 2005 investigation into allegations that Bill Cosby drugged and assaulted Andrea Constand at his Cheltenham home.
Although the Montgomery County district attorney declined to press charges at the time, the case was reopened in 2015, and Schaffer was eventually called to testify.
He testified in 2018 that he had believed Constand’s allegations at the time, and still did.
Cosby’s conviction was overturned in 2021 on procedural grounds.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
Cheltenham Township is buying a pool complex from a private developer for up to $4.5 million, which a resident’s lawsuit alleges violates public bidding rules.
The township commissioners approved a contract last month to lease 2.7 acres by Ashmead Road and Front Street to Melrose Pool LLC for $10 per year. Cheltenham agreed to pay up to $4.5 million for three public pools and a 5,000-square-foot building that Melrose Pool will build under the lease agreement.
Matthew Areman, president of the seven-member Cheltenham commissioner board, vowed this week that the township would share additional details in the “coming weeks and months,” but a lawsuit filed July 22 in Montgomery County Court by Cheltenham resident Sam Thacker alleges the agreement is illegal. Heclaimsit bypasses competitive public bidding laws that would normally apply to a town’s public pool, and wants a county judge to void the contract and issue an injunction to halt the project.
A Montgomery County judge has given Cheltenham and Thacker until Aug. 21 to file their legal arguments,but time is short: Under the lease, the township has to decide on a final pool plan by the end of August.
What the suit alleges
Areman said last year the pool parcel is worth several million dollars, according to the commissioner board’s meeting minutes.
If the township is leasing that land to the developer for just $10 per year, Thacker said, he believes the lease agreement also violates Cheltenham’s township code, which requires the use of “a system for obtaining independent appraisals … to assure that the township is obtaining adequate compensation” when skipping bidding on real estate leases. Thacker told The Inquirer he was unable to find a fiscal assessment for the pool project through Right-to-Know requests or a town spokesperson.
Township officials declined to explain the legal reasoning behind the leaseback agreement with Melrose Pool.
But in an FAQ posted this week, officials wrote Cheltenham had “received estimates from multiple pool consultants indicating that constructing a comparable standalone replacement pool would cost approximately $6-8 million.”
Holly Fishel, the policy and research director for the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors, who did not comment on Cheltenham specifically, said she had heard of leaseback agreements with townships before but was not sure of the legal mechanisms. In situations where a township is doing construction work on land it owns, “you would need to be doing the bid,” Fishel said.
But in this case, a private company is doing the work on land it has leased.
“That can’t be right that you can just evade public bidding requirements by saying something is a lease when it’s clearly a public construction project,” Thacker said.
Cheltenham is paying up to $4.5 million for three pools
A preliminary plan for the Melrose plot includes three pools of different sizes, but the July 15 lease notes that the developer is to provide a final plan by this week.
The township will then have two weeks to approve or deny the final pool plan.
Upon completion of the work, Cheltenham would pay up to $4.5 million for the new pools, or pay an additional rent up to $382,500 per year until the township comes up with the $4.5 million.
The two-week timeline for the township to approval a final pool plan is what led Thacker to file his lawsuit.
“The contract is structured essentially to rush this forward as quickly as possible,” Thacker said. “We have no idea if $4.5 million is a good price.”
The figure is cheaper than the $6.1 million estimated in 2023 to redo the Conklin Pool, which the Melrose pools would replace in 2027. The township has one other public pool, in Glenside.
But other residents have questioned whether it is even possible to build three public pools for $4.5 million, given the Conklin pool estimate.
Private development planned beside pool
The pool is part of a larger redevelopment of the former Melrose Country Club — at 116 acres, one of the largest properties in Cheltenham — that includes new townhouses and commercial space.
The lower price tag for the new Melrose pool comes in part from construction efficiencies, Cheltenham wrote this week, since the property will already require site preparation, grading, and utilities for the new buildings.
The property’s developer, an LLC associated with BG Capital, gave the township the 2.7 acres for free last December to advance public welfare and for an unspecified “advantage” to the developer.
BG Capital and the LLC’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment, but court filings Tuesday for Melrose Pool LLC argued that the bidding process Thacker cited under the state’s procurement code does not apply “to the landlord/tenant relationship” between Cheltenham and the LLC because the code applies only to state agencies.
Melrose Country Club project changed
Some residents, including Carl Freedman, have raised concerns at public meetings about the larger project. An earlier plan included both a pool and a community center, Freedman said, and would have allowed more much-needed commercial space.
Cheltenham’s recently approved long-term township plan calls for bringing in more business to bolster the struggling tax base.
Freedman, an architect who sits on the Cheltenham Planning Commission, said the panel no longer supports the project and is sending the township a letter to that effect.
“The loss of the community center is what is making the retail unmanageable,” Freedman said, because the center would have drawn potential shoppers to the site. “This project has taken a left turn.”
Chloe Mohr of the Montgomery County Planning Commission, which reviews local development projects and offers recommendations, said the county commission plans to release a new review of the revised plans late next week.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
The board announced new leadership — with plans to appoint veteran educator Chris McGinley as interim superintendent — and an independent review of district policies, with recommendations to follow in 60 days.
But questions remain about how the board will respond to the district’s alleged mishandling of the situation, including by employees faulted in a grand jury report. Parents on Tuesday, including some who have alleged the district’s safety problems extend beyond the football program, voiced skepticism of the board’s promises.
The district will pay former Superintendent Brian Scriven, who resigned last week, as part of a separation agreement, according to a spokesperson, but terms have not been disclosed.
Here is what happens next as the board deals with the aftermath of the criminal charges announced two weeks ago, and the lack of confidence expressed by community members:
A former superintendent returns
The board said it plans to tap McGinley, a longtime educator who served as Cheltenham’s superintendent in the early 2000s, to lead the district following Scriven’s resignation.
McGinley, who more recently worked as an education professor at Temple University, will be appointed by the board at a special meeting Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., district spokesperson Kevin Kaufman said Thursday.
Chris McGinley, center, and Angela McIver, right, at a meeting of the Philadelphia Board of Education on Jan. 30, 2020.Charles Fox / Staff Photographer
McGinley, who began his education career as a teacher in Philadelphia, joined Cheltenham in 1999 as an assistant superintendent, where he oversaw efforts to address the district’s racial achievement gap. He then became Cheltenham superintendent, leaving the district in 2006 before becoming superintendent two years later in Lower Merion, which he led through 2014.
McGinley then served on the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, which oversaw the city’s schools while they were under state control. He was later named to the Philadelphia school board by former Mayor Jim Kenney, leaving the board in 2020.
McGinley could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Scriven had received a new five-year contract in December. Kaufman said in an email Thursday that “the terms and conditions of Dr. Scriven’s separation agreement will be negotiated (in accordance with Dr. Scriven’s contract and applicable law) and approved publicly at a future meeting.”
An outside lawyer’s review
The board has enlisted Leigh Dalton, an education attorney based in York, Pa., with the Saxton & Stump firm, to review its policies and procedures and produce recommendations to the board in 60 days.
Board president Leah Mulhearn said Tuesday that the review would “include consideration of the grand jury’s findings and how to address them.”
None of those findings were discussed by the board Tuesday. In a scathing report accompanying the recommendation of criminal charges, the grand jury accused the district of “incompetence” while describing the actions of three employees at the high school.
Taryn Knox (left) speaks to School Board President Leah Mulhearn and Director of Business Joshua Sweigard during the Cheltenham School Board meeting in Elkins Park on Tuesday, August 11, 2026. The school board was meeting for the first time since criminal charges against four football coaches and six players were announced, and since Brian Scriven resigned as superintendent. .Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
The trio — labeled in the report only as Employees #1, #2, and #3 — texted one another after the mother of the 15-year-old victim reported her son’s assault on Sept. 7. One said the student had a “chip on his shoulder” from not making varsity and said he had steered the mother away from coming to the high school in person.
The employees also indicated they trusted the head coach, Terence Tolbert, and did not believe the mother that Tolbert — who, along with three other coaches, has since been charged with conspiracy and endangering the welfare of a child — had instructed the victim not to tell his parents what had happened. The report said the district then included Tolbert in its investigation.
Asked about the status of the three employees, Kaufman said Thursday that the district “doesn’t comment on specific personnel matters.”
On Thursday, Cheltenham High School principal Benjamin Hammond informed families that Mark Hoff, who was vice principal at the high school last year but had been reassigned to Wyncote Elementary in July, would be returning to the high school this fall.
“Due to the heightened environment about student safety and culture, and acknowledging community concerns, the district has decided to continue Mark Hoff’s assignment as vice principal at Cheltenham High School,” Hammond said in a message to families, adding that Hoff would “provide stability this upcoming school year.”
“While communications between counsel are privileged, the board does intend to report out on the recommendations that she makes where appropriate,” Kaufman said.
Football is still canceled
The board will also be reviewing all athletic programs, “top to bottom,” Mulhearn said. And there is no timetable for when football, which the district already canceled in May, will resume.
“Football will not return until we address this, no matter how long it takes,” Mulhearn said.
Safety changes
Mulhearn said some safety changes were already underway. The district is “ensuring that all staff members have current criminal history and child abuse clearances on file,” she said. The grand jury report had said that at least five of the district’s football coaches last year were not up to date on clearances related to child abuse reporting requirements.
She also said the district was “communicating and reinforcing coach expectations and plans for improved locker-room supervision.” While there was an office in the football locker room, coaches did not use it last season, leaving players unsupervised, according to the grand jury report.
Cheltenham has “begun implementing” recommendations from an audit by the Center for Safe Schools, Mulhearn said. She also said the board had retained the Bucks County Intermediate Unit “to audit our human resources function.”
The Cheltenham school board meeting Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026, in Elkins Park.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
The criminal cases
Three coaches and the two players charged as adults by the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office will face a district judge at a preliminary hearing scheduled for Aug. 27. (Ralph Burnley, the fourth coach charged, has not yet been arraigned in the case, and there is no indication he has hired an attorney. He did not respond to a request for comment.)
The four players charged as juveniles will face separate proceedings in juvenile court that are not open to the public.
At the preliminary hearing for the other defendants, prosecutors will present evidence to the judge to support the charges through witnesses. Defense attorneys will be given the opportunity to cross-examine those witnesses and make arguments to the judge for their clients’ innocence.
After the hearing, the judge will determine whether the prosecution has proved the validity of the charges and, if so, will send the cases to county court.
Staff writer Jess Rohan contributed to this article.
A Holmesburg man who killed his wife after he said she disrespected him was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in state prison by a Montgomery County judge.
Jose Luna, 59, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder late Wednesday before Judge Wendy Rothstein. The plea, negotiated with prosecutors, spared him from a trial scheduled to begin next month on first-degree murder and related charges.
Luna shot Alisett Schubert, his wife of seven years, five times on Feb. 21 as she drove them home from a family party in Rockledge, according to prosecutors. The murder weapon was Schubert’s .38-caliber revolver, which Luna had grabbed from his wife’s purse as they began to argue.
Luna’s attorneys, Scott Frame and Joe Schultz, said he pleaded guilty to spare his wife’s family the pain of sitting through a trial.
“This was his wife, he loved his wife, and he has to live with this rest of his life,” Schultz said. “He feels the weight of what he’s done.”
The sentence handed down by Rothstein effectively puts Luna behind bars for the rest of his life, something Frame said Luna has acknowledged and accepted, remorseful for his actions on the day of the shooting.
Jose Luna shot Alisett Schubert, his wife of seven years, five times in February, according to prosecutors.Vinny Vella / Staff
In Schubert’s obituary, her family described her as “a spirited soul whose love for life was unparalleled.”
“The circumstances surrounding her passing are a heartbreaking reminder of the fragility of life,” her family said. “Suddenly and tragically taken from us, Alisett’s absence leaves an unfillable void in the lives of those who knew her.”
In a statement read in court, Brinda Millican, one of Schubert’s best friends, said her death “has left an emptiness that cannot be repaired.”
“She should have been able to continue living her life and making new memories with the people who loved her,” Millican said. “Instead, her life was violently taken from her by the person who should never have been the one to cause her harm.”
From the outset of the case, Luna admitted he killed Schubert, 48, prosecutors said.
During an interview with detectives hours after the shooting, Luna said he slapped Schubert during a family party after she disrespected him, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. He told her, after hitting her, that he didn’t care if her family saw the dispute.
The couple continued to argue on the drive home from Rockledge. During the dispute, Schubert stopped the car and told Luna to get out and walk home.
Luna saw that his wife was holding her purse, and he knew her gun was inside it. The two began to fight over the bag, the affidavit said. Luna grabbed it, pulled out the gun, and shot his wife once.
As Schubert turned to get out of the car, Luna shot her four more times, according to prosecutors. He then fled, pausing to throw away his hat and jewelry to avoid being recognized.
Officers in Rockledge found Schubert on the ground, unresponsive. She was later pronounced dead at Jefferson Abington Hospital.
Luna was arrested about a mile away from the crime scene, still holding the gun. He raised the revolver to his head, telling responding officers that he had lost everything, and pulled the trigger.
A former cardiac thoracic surgeon at one of Main Line Health’s flagship programs says in a federal lawsuit that he was fired after reporting a series of bad patient outcomes.
Gianluca Torregrossa accuses the nonprofit hospital system in the Philadelphia suburbs of failing to thoroughly investigate a pattern of complications among the patients of another senior surgeon, including one instance that led to a heart transplant.
The Italian physician attempted to have the cases reviewed multiple times during his tenure, which was just short of five years, but instead Torregrossa was marginalized by hospital leadership, suspended, and eventually terminated before the end of his contract, according to the suit.
The termination caused issues with the physician’s visa, which required him to return to Italy without his wife and daughter while he got his new visa in order, according to the complaint. Torregrossa, who began working at Cleveland Clinic in June, says he also lost wages during the three-month period and his reputation suffered.
“Cardiac surgery is a small professional field, and news of his suspension and termination spread nationally and internationally, creating questions about his professional standing despite his clinical outcomes and subsequent employment by Cleveland Clinic,” the suit says.
Torregrossa’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit, filed July 31 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, names only Main Line Health as a defendant. The health system declined to comment on the active litigation.
“Main Line Health’s Robotic Cardiac Vascularization Program is an important part of our commitment to providing advanced surgical care,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “The program helps ensure patients have access to specialized surgical expertise and innovative, minimally invasive treatment options close to home.”
Torregrossa was recruited by the Montgomery County hospital system in 2021 to assist in expanding the robotic heart surgery programbased at Lankenau Medical Center, the lawsuit says.
The opportunity to join Main Line Health was lucrative. The surgeon signed a five-year contract starting at $800,000 a year, plus bonus, according to the lawsuit.
Main Line Health is a national leader in a robotic procedure to replace a clogged artery with a new one, known as coronary artery bypass graft, which is the most commonly performed heart surgery in the United States. But at Main Line it is often performed in an uncommon way.
Shortly after joining Main Line Health, Torregrossa became concerned about the outcomes of patients whom Sutter operated on robotically that the physician believed were preventable, the suit said.
Torregrossa asked in 2023 for a review of seven of Sutter’s cases, the complaint says, but a team discussed them “only superficially, no meaningful follow-up was initiated, and the pattern of complications involving a single surgeon was not examined.”
The physician continued to raise concerns over allegedly preventable complications through 2025, as well as ethical breaches in patient assignment at the program, according to the complaint.
The Inquirer was unable to reach Sutter, who retired in July, based on publicly available records.
Michael Carboine (left), physician assistant, and Jeff Roman (right), scrub nurse, watches the monitor as lead surgeon Francis Sutter moves the robotic instruments in the patient’s heart on Monday, June 26, 2023. Lankenau Hospital, part of Main Line Health, uses robotic coronary bypass surgeries at a higher percent than other hospitals.Allie Ippolito / Staff Photographer
Following his internal reports, the suit says, Torregrossa was marginalized by leaders of the program and hospital.
Human resources opened an investigation into Torregrossa based on a comment he had made in a brief recruitment interview, according to the complaint. The documents do not repeat the comment or provide more context to what was said.
“That HR event reflected a broader pattern in which routine professional interactions involving Dr. Torregrossa were escalated against him, while more serious concerns involving others, like patient safety, were not meaningfully investigated,” the lawsuit says.
In November 2025, the hospital system told Torregrossa that his contract would not be renewed past June 30, the suit says.
Torregrossa continued to push internally for reviews, but his pleas fell on deaf ears, according to the complaint. In January, he submitted an external patient safety report to the Pennsylvania Licensing System and the Joint Commission, a hospital accreditation organization, which conducted a surprise visit to Lankenau shortly after.
The surgeon also circulated an anonymous letter about the Sutter cases in question, the suit says without saying who were the recipients.
Sutter’s medical license is active and Pennsylvania Department of State records show no disciplinary history. Lankenau has passed a series of Pennsylvania Department of Health inspections since January that found the hospital in compliance.
Main Line Health placed Torregrossa on administrative leave in February and barred him from accessing the system’s hospitals and clinics. The system accused him of disparaging the health system during a presentation and engaging in unprofessional conduct.
The lawsuit says both excuses were false and pretextual, leading to his March termination.
The complaint accuses Main Line Health of violating the Pennsylvania whistleblower protection law and breaching his employment agreement. It asks for damages in an unspecified amount greater than $75,000.
“Being removed from practice for approximately three months deprived him of the ability to operate, teach, proctor, maintain case volume, and continue refining a rare and demanding surgical technique,” the lawsuit says.
