Catasauqua Press

MAY

THURSDAY 23

Hanover Township (Lehigh County) Zoning Commission meets 7 p.m. in the municipal building, 2202 Grove Road.

TUESDAY 28

Catasauqua Borough Shade Tree Commission meets 7 p.m. in the municipal complex, 90 Bridge St.

Memorial Day services are planned across the region. The public is invited to attend the programs, organized by local veterans groups to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve and protect our freedoms.

CATASAUQUA

• American Legion Post 215 will travel to various locations in Catasauqua and North Catasauqua boroughs May 27:

10 a.m. — Fairview Cemetery, 2584 Lehigh St., Whitehall

10:15 a.m. — Pine Street Bridge, Catasauqua

10:30 a.m. — North Catasauqua William J. Albert Memorial Park, 701 Grove St.

Active duty and retired Pennsylvania State Police officers united ranks May 2 in front of their red brick barracks in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, to honor their dead. Family members and guests came in support.

The men and women were there for the Pennsylvania State Police Memorial Day ceremony hosted by Troop M, Bethlehem, headquarters commanded by Captain Richard H. D’Ambrosio.

Herve Rousseau, owner of the Dery mansion, 520 Fifth St., Catasauqua, held an open house for developers and Catasauqua residents interested in the 25,000-square-foot grand property, billed as the largest residential property in Lehigh County.

The troubled property has been through several developers trying to bring it back to its glorious elegance. Rousseau’s experience with successful stylish nightclubs was to be Dery’s next iteration.

Unfortunately, the restoration costs are overwhelming.

Parents using the St. Paul’s Child Care Center, Catasauqua, gathered in the church auditorium May 15 to listen to options to keep the center functioning. Len Witt, church council member, confirmed the new owners do not want to continue the program.

“We gave the new owners the financial picture and the advantages of the nursery. They reviewed everything but made the decision to close the nursery at St. Paul’s,” Witt said.

The announcement was not unexpected.

After completing a 13-week course studying the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect, 29 students received their Fraktur-themed diplomas from instructors Dave and Jean Adam. The graduation ceremony took place April 30 in the social room of Jordan Lutheran Church, Orefield.

Kelly Kiefer, of Catasauqua, at age 24, and Coopersburg resident Jen Fritz, at 26, were the youngest students to receive certificates. Kiefer attended classes with her grandmother Doris Kiefer.

The 2019 spring session was the second time the Adams have offered the course at Jordan Lutheran Church.

Mr. Stuart Guinther was born in Boston, moving to Kutztown in his youth and graduating from Kutztown High School in 1980.

He recalled, “I enjoyed all the math courses; they were taught by Mr. Gougler, a real perfectionist.”

Stuart pursued his education at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Ind., earning a degree in chemistry.

Mr. Guinther’s remarkable cement odyssey started as a chemist at Lone Star in Nazareth. He then moved to Michigan and was hired as a process engineer at St. Mary’s Peerless Cement Company.