Family events in Conshy, October 7 to 13

Here is a sentence that makes you sit up at the breakfast table. During its meeting on Thursday, October 8, the Whitemarsh Township Board of Supervisors will consider a $12 million contribution toward the preservation of a 67-acre quarry property in Plymouth Meeting. That is the headline as MoreThanTheCurve reported it, and I am going to be careful with it, because the word doing the heavy lifting is "consider."

Nobody has voted. Nothing is approved. The board is looking at a proposal, and the source material I have does not spell out every term of it. So I will not tell you who gets the money, what it buys, or what the quarry becomes. I would be making it up, and I would rather be boring than wrong.

What I can tell you is the shape of the question. Twelve million dollars is a contribution "towards" preservation. That is not the same as a price tag, and I did start to do the per-acre napkin math before realizing a contribution is not the whole purchase price. So the math goes back in the drawer. Well, yes, I am a little disappointed too.

Why should a Conshohocken family care about a quarry across the township line? Because open space in this corner of Montgomery County is a limited resource, and decisions about it tend to ripple outward onto traffic, taxes, and where the kids end up playing soccer. Whether that happens here, I guess we will find out Thursday.

If you want to see how the sausage is made, the meeting is the place to watch. Check the township for the time and agenda before you head out, since that detail is not in what I have in front of me.

Let us start with the civic homework. The Borough of Conshohocken says its Borough Council will hold its regularly scheduled public meeting tonight, Wednesday, October 7, at 7 p.m. The notice on the borough website says the purpose is for Council to conduct its general business, and that is as much detail as I have. Public meeting means public, so you are allowed to go.

Next, the part where your commute gets a vote it did not ask for. The borough recently announced paving and concrete work on Hallowell Street, expected to run four to six weeks. Four to six weeks is the kind of range that really means "we will see." If Hallowell is on your school run or your dog walk, give yourself some slack and a backup route.

Over on Ridge Pike, the car wash at 416 Ridge Pike in Plymouth Township is in the process of being sold to the regional chain Flagship, per MoreThanTheCurve. The Patch morning newsletter adds that it is a long-closed wash, that construction on the modernized version is nearly finished, and that township council is set to approve transferring improvement guarantees. In plain English, someone has to promise the township the finished work will actually be finished, and that promise is changing hands along with the keys.

That is the real news this morning. Plenty of other stories are floating around the region, but not many that touch our borough directly, and I would rather give you a short list that is true than a long one that is padding.

A new business is coming to town, and its pitch is the sort of thing that sounds either brilliant or suspicious depending on how you feel about car payments. MoreThanTheCurve reports that Flexcar is opening in Conshohocken. Flexcar, per that report, is "a service that provides you with a car with one monthly payment that includes the vehicle, insurance, maintenance, roadside" help, and the summary cuts off there, so I cannot tell you what else is on the list.

Let us dissect that sentence, as is my habit. One payment. Vehicle, insurance, maintenance, roadside assistance, all in the bundle. For anyone who has ever opened three separate envelopes about one car and wondered which one hated them most, the appeal is obvious. The catch with any bundle is that you do not see the price of the parts, which is exactly how they get you. What I do not have from the source is the price, the contract terms, or the address, so I am not going to guess at any of them.

Now my biases are obvious. I like a local opening, and I like a pitch that admits cars are a pain. I also like reading the fine print before cheering. If you are curious, read the full report and ask Flexcar directly about the monthly number and the length of the commitment before you do anything else. A good question costs nothing.

Conshohocken has a lot of cars and a lot of people who would rather think about them less. Welcome to the neighborhood, Flexcar. We will be watching to see how it goes.

Saturday, October 10, is shaping up to be one of those days where the problem is too many good options, which is a nice problem to have. Here is what the sources actually say, with my commentary stapled on.

First, the sure thing. The Conshohocken Farmers' Market, presented by Velocity Ventures, runs 9:00 a.m. to noon on October 10. Go early, buy something you did not plan to buy, and call it breakfast.

Then there is the Elmwood Park Zoo, which has stacked the same day like a pancake tower. Harvest Fest runs 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. with carnival games, carousel rides, and live music. Boo at the Zoo runs 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and is billed as a kooky, spooky Halloween celebration for your little ghouls and ghosts. The Fire Smart Safety Weekend goes 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and World Migratory Bird Day goes 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. I will be honest, four events on one Saturday is an overlap puzzle, and I would pick the one that matches your youngest kid's patience level.

One more local item. Wells Street has a Fall Clean Up listed for October 10 on the Colonial School District community announcements. I do not have the time or details, so check that post before you grab the gloves.

Two heads up for the calendar. The zoo's Zoo Snooze overnight campout is listed for Friday, October 9, starting at 5:00 p.m. And Beast of a Feast on Thursday, October 8, is ages 21 and up only, so that one is a grown-ups night and the kids stay home.