The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 29

Obituaries, B6. Weather, B7. Meson SECTION THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 2000 www.philly.com 3 yes Census estimates: Elderly are the fastest-growing local group The number of people 85 and older is rapidly increasing in the seven Pa. and N.J. counties surrounding Philadelphia, the Census Bureau says.

reau's estimates. In comparison, the county's total population grew 7 percent, meaning octogenarians increased their share of Burlington County's total population from less than 1 percent to about 1.5 percent. For all three New Jersey counties near Philadelphia Burlington, Camden and Gloucester the 85-plus group grew 48 percent, from 10,950 to 16,214. The total population of the three counties grew 4 percent. In Pennsylvania, Bucks County topped the list with 59 percent growth among its See CENSUS on B4 Chester County, which ended the decade as the fourth-fastest-growing county in Pennsylvania.

The growth of the 85-plus group also helped offset some population declines in other areas, particularly Philadelphia, where total population fell about 10 percent from 1990 to 1999, according to an Inquirer analysis of the raw census estimates. Most importantly, the explosion in the number of people 85 or older offers a glimpse of things to come. The numbers reflect the small baby boom just before World War I but does not take in the post-World War II baby boomers, a group whose oldest members are about a decade away from retirement age. "The baby boomers are coming," said Larissa B. Johnson, a spokeswomah at the Pennsylvania Department of Aging, which pegs many of its programs on U.S.

Census Bureau figures. Topping the list in the region was Burlington County, where the number of residents 85 or older grew 62 percent during the decade, according to an analysis of the bu By Thomas Ginsberg and Neill A. Borowski INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS Slowly but inexorably, Philadelphia and its environs are turning very gray. In its final population estimate before the release of the 2000 Census figures in the spring, the U.S. Census Bureau said this week that people 85 or older have become the fastest-growing group faster than Hispanics and Asians, the nation's two fastest-growing groups in every one of the seven Pennsylvania and New Jersey counties surrounding the city.

Long predicted by demographers, the growth of the oldest segment of society through the past decade helped sustain the total populations in some places, such as Teachers resolute as contract nears end Street pledges an all-out effort to halt collapses M- ml 83 nS 1 -'-if -ili! 1 1 vyi I' I'1' MlBMimM I 1 I i i 1 I I -i-i ti it? r. i. i5. (t At Philadelphia's only open -school, a new year-round one, the staff said it would work but was ready to strike. By Susan Snyder INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Regular classroom teachers at the only Philadelphia public school in session yesterday said they were ready to strike to preserve salary, benefits, and other contract provisions, even with the threat of a state takeover of the district.

They were not deterred by the possibility that the state could suspend their certification to teach. Teachers at the yet-to-be'-named middle school at Street and Olney Avenue said the district didn't have enough educators to fill its classrooms now. As of Tuesday, 204 teaching vacancies remained dis-trictwide with the start of school a week away. The state would be hard-pressed to fill classrooms if it took over the district, which employs about 13,000 teachers, and tried to break the union. "There's a teacher shortage.

They start playing around with this, and they're going to lose whatever they have. Chances are they're going to lose good people, and they're going to lose some of the new people that they just got," said Michael Levin, a fifth-grade teacher who has taught in Philadelphia for more than 20 years. Gov. Ridge's administration announced this week that the state had stepped up preparations for a possible takeover of the Philadelphia School District The city will "spend what it takes" in the battle against dangerous buildings, the mayor said. By Monica Yant Kinney INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Responding to the collapse of parts or all of at least 25 buildings over the last week, Mayor Street said yesterday his administration was prepared to "spend what we have to spend" to rid Philadelphia's neighborhoods of decaying properties.

The immediate cost to the city could be millions of dollars, Street said, citing the expensive emergency demolitions the city is ordering each day as more and more imminently dangerous buildings are discovered. "From this administration's point of view, there's nothing we are doing today that's more important than dealing with problems of vacancy, blight and deterioration that's taken place in the neighborhoods," Street said. "We are going to have to spend what it takes in order to make this city safe from these buildings." Within the next two days, Street said, he will contact Gov. Ridge and federal housing officials to ask for money to aid in the effort. One possible source of state assistance would be housing programs within the Department of Community and Economic Development.

"We've already been thinking about this. We're certainly willing to help out however we can. This is a profound problem," said Kevin Shivers, a spokesman for Gov. Ridge. Street said his administration is developing a strategy under which imminently dangerous houses will be removed immediately.

The city will take more time to decide what JONATHAN WILSON Inquirer Stall Barry Ambrosius of the Department of Licenses and Inspections fills out a report on a building near 18th Street and Susquehanna Avenue. to do with other, more stable abandoned housing. "We're going to have to go around this entire city and figure out what needs to go and what needs to stay," he said. "A major concern we have is the amount of demolition that any neighborhood has a right to expect and endure." Street also promised he would soon unveil his much-anticipated $250 million anti-blight initiative, which he intends to fund through the sale of municipal bonds. Also yesterday, 40 inspectors from the Department of Licenses and Inspections and the Philadelphia Housing Authority began walking the streets of the 100 census tracts known to have the bulk of the city's abandoned housing.

Their mission: Find and document every imminently dangerous building in town. Officials believe the city has around 25,000 abandoned houses. Of those, city inspectors had previously identified 3,116 that could fall at any time. That list included none of the buildings that collapsed in the past week, evidence that the See DEMOLITIONS on B8 TOM GRALISH Inquirer Stall Photographer Demolition workers began tearing down a collapsed house in the 1 200 block of North 28th Street yesterday. Because it is so close to an occupied house, worker are forced to demolish it slowly, using only hand tools.

The work is part of the city's response to the collapse of all or part of at least 25 buildings within the last week. and will consider doing so if teachers go on strike. Ridge officials cite Act 46, a law that would allow the state to take over the district under a range of circumstances. If the state takes over and teachers continue to strike, the law allows Pennsylvania Education Secretary Eugene Hickok to suspend See TEACHERS on B4 In the midst of East Germantown, a leafy bower wants to be a national historic district. Awbury Arboretum petitions for a seal of distinction Catholic school union talks get a mixed review Germantown and Mount Airy, which have been trying to do more to promote their own historic attractions.

Awbury, said arboretum association board member and landscape architect Susan Mattison, "is an important cultural resource." Awbury was once the summer home of the Cope and Haines families. According to Awbury's nomination papers, written by Emily T. Cooperman of George E. Thomas Associates John S. Haines bought the first property in 1849 and built a large villa.

His father-in-law, Henry See ARBORETUM on B5 But Awbury's low profile may come to an end if, as described in arboretum literature, "the last remaining intact example of a 19th-century family estate, once common throughout Germantown," becomes a national historic district. With a $5,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the arboretum has submitted a nomination to establish the Awbury Historic District for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. As proposed, the district roughly bounded by Johnson Street, Ardleigh Street, Haines Street and Chew Avenue would include both the arboretum and 32 properties (many within or adjoining arboretum land), built between 1849 and 1940 as part of the estate. The national historic designation would be like "a Good Housekeeping seal that says Awbury has become a unique place," said Gerry Kaufman, executive director of the arboretum. The designation would also enable the district to qualify for federal and state funding programs, enhance planning and historic preservation, and make it "easier to raise money," Kaufman said.

It would also help focus attention on By Laura J. Bruch INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Awbury Arboretum is one of those Philadelphia gems refreshingly lovely, soothingly green, and practically unknown outside its East Germantown neighborhood. Even the entrance on Chew Avenue near Washington Lane is easy to drive by. The 55-acre world beyond the entrance portals is one of soft meadows and towering trees, wetlands, a pond, thriving community gardens, and private domiciles that once housed the family of a wealthy Quaker shipping merchant. Dailv navment niav be Dart of NJ, narole settlement By Rich Henson INQUIRER STAFF WRITER The Archdiocese of Philadelphia and its high school teachers' union are expected to resume contract negotiations today after a lengthy bargaining session yesterday that left one side optimistic and the other side disappointed.

"It was a good day in negotiations. Progress is being made," said archdiocesean spokeswoman Cathy Rossi. "The tone was cordial, which we could not have said Tuesday." But Rita C. Schwartz, president of the National Assocation of Catholic School Teachers Local 1776, whirh rprtrpcpntQ ahnnt 1000 lav teachers in the archdiocese's 22 high schools, said the negotiators "are still pretty far apart." "I would have hoped we would have made a lot more progress, but we really didn't," Schwartz said. "The archdiocese is going to have to do a lot better than they did today." The current three-year pact expires at 12:01 a.m.

tomorrow and Schwartz has said teachers likely will strike if a settlement is not reached by Tuesday. Classes are set to begin Wednes-See ARCHDIOCESE on B4 If prisoners are eligible for a hearing but fail to get one, compensation perhaps $17 a day is being considered. than one in 10 were so-called "past eligible." "I believe we are in agreement on the substantive issues," Diane Mor-atti, a state deputy attorney general, told Judge Joel A. Pisano during a status conference in U.S. District Court in Camden.

Although details of the tentative agreement were not disclosed during yesterday's hearing, people familiar with the negotiations said it may includes unique feature: a per diem payment to inmates who are eligible for release but have not had their case heard or decided by the Parole Board. The lawsuit does not seek monetary damages for inmates currently awaiting parole, but Elaine Selan, cofounder of Justice for All, a Philadelphia-based group that was instrumental in filing the suit, said lawyers for the inmates are negotiating a payment of $17 for every day inmates in the future sit in prison without having their case heard. State law entitles prisoners to a hearing 30 days before their parole-ehgibility date, but the lawyers for the inmates contend it is not unusual for prisoners to wait eight months or more for a hearing At $17 a day, the payment for waiting eight months would be more than $4,000. The proposed penalty is designed SeeSUIT on B7 The Attorney General's Office disclosed yesterday that it has agreed in principle to settle a suit filed in May by inmates who were fed up with waiting for the Parole Board to hear their cases. The state hastily entered into negotiations after its own investigation revealed that 3,409 of its inmates more By Eugene Kicly INQUIRER TRENTON BUREAU Close to settling a lawsuit brought by state inmates held in prison long past their parole-eligibility dates, the Whitman administration is wrestling with a big question: What price freedom? answer may be $17 a day..