VOLUME TWENTY SIX, NUMBER 9
DECEMBER 2012
Budget wizards work magic again By Mary Graff
A monthly fee increase of only 2.5 percent for 2013 has been set for residents in apartments, villas, Personal Care and the Health Center. According to a chart included with the agenda distributed before the annual budget presentation Nov. 20, the 2013 increase is only slightly higher than the previous two lows, 2 percent each in the 1999 and 2010 budgets, and as much as 5.5 percentage points lower than the three highest increases—8 percent in 1990 and 7 percent in 2002 and 2005—in our 24-year history. The average over the years from 1990 to 2011 was just under 4 percent per year. The 2012 increase was 4 percent, although this shrank to 1.7 percent after adjustments for savings to residents from the new
telephone and Internet systems. The fees include Beaumont’s comprehensive medical program, real estate and school taxes, housekeeping, an average of one meal a day, flat linen service, scheduled transportation, and all utilities including Internet, telephone and television (80 channels). An analysis of 2012 fees by President Joe Fortenbaugh showed Beaumont comparing favorably over-all with two of its major competitors, Quadrangle and Waverly. At the community budget meeting in the Beaumont Room, Mr. Fortenbaugh singled out for comparison the square footage and cost to a single occupant of a twobedroom apartment with den at Waverly—$5,914 a continued on page 7
What happened— and didn’t happen— the night of the fire By Mary Graff
Shortly after 8:30 p.m. Oct. 29, the Monday night Sandy blew high winds into Lower Merion Township, a large branch crashed onto Ithan Avenue. It came from a tree on the Harriton High School property across from Beaumont. The branch tore down a live power line, which started an electrical fire. To understand what happened next: ■ Beaumont gets its electrical power from PECO, with two generators of our own as backup, both fueled by natural gas. The Beaumont kitchen does most of its cooking on gas. ■ As Information Technology Director Mark Surkin explains it, most phones communicate over our Internet connections. We have two such connections: a primary line, fed via fiber optic cable, which can be seen running between telephone poles out Photo by E.C.P. Mastroianni on Ithan Avenue, across the street on the Harriton Spotting flames flaring intermittently across Ithan Avenue from her side, and a backup line fed via Comcast from Gulph villa, Dr. Elaine Pierson Mastroianni grabbed her camera. (Tan mass at left is a wall; the one on top is part of a roof.)
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