The North Suburban Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual Halloween Parade on Saturday, Oct. 29.

The parade starts at 11 a.m. at Avalon Elementary School and travels along California and Lincoln avenues to Bayne Park in Bellevue. It is open to all North Boroughs residents.

Registration begins at 10 a.m. at Avalon Elementary. Cash prizes will be awarded for the best costumes in preschool through sixth grade, adults and combined group categories.

A fall festival will be held in Bayne Park immediately following the parade.

The one part of this job that I enjoy the most is when I get to take photographs of kids for the paper. They get such a kick out of seeing their pictures and names in this little weekly newspaper that their excitement is actually contagious. It quickly spreads to me, and to their parents and grandparents.

Every now and then we hear from people who remember the time, many years ago, when their pictures were printed in The Citizen. It still means something to them, and that's pretty cool.

A spaghetti dinner will be held on Election Day, Nov. 2, at Bellevue United Presbyterian Church, 457 Lincoln Ave., next to Bellevue Elementary School.

Barely 24 hours after Bellevue Council appointed a new third ward representative, Emsworth Council accepted the resignation of one of their own.

Lynn Tennant Heffley was chosen in a unanimous vote by Bellevue Council Tuesday to fill the third ward council seat left vacant when Mark Panichella resigned after two years on council.

A lifelong resident of Bellevue who lives on North Jackson Avenue, Heffley is a teacher at Bellevue Elementary School.

A burglary at a residence in the 400 block of Lincoln Avenue was reported Feb. 6.

Coins were reported stolen from a machine at an Ohio River Boulevard business on Feb. 1.

Prescription medication was reported stolen from a North Bryant Avenue resident on Feb. 5.

Police were called to the area of South Bryant and Laurel avenues on Feb. 2 when a resident reported that a juvenile was trying the door handles on cars. The youth ran when confronted by the resident.

There are no clocks, no mirrors, no pictures, no plants, and no cell phones ringing in the Yoga on Fremont studios. And the only furniture is the instructor's desk, along with some "cubbies" where students can place coats and personal items before lessons start.

Once the sessions, which last approximately 75 minutes, begin, sounds are limited to the voice of the instructor leading students through their routine, with music playing whisper-soft in the background.

Aidan Sommers of Ben Avon, age 10, will enter fifth grade at Avonworth Elementary School this year. He's on the Avonworth and Baierl YMCA swim teams, plays soccer, and enjoys activities typical of friends his age.

An ordinary kid in every way, except one.

He and his dad, Bob, have just put the finishing touches on an iPhone game app that, if all goes well, would finance his college education through a post-doctoral degree.

A pause here for anyone who has not succumbed to tech terms.

App…an application.

It was a year for breaking records in the accelerated reading program at Bellevue Elementary School.

The program, coordinated each year by teacher Lynn Tennant-Heffley, encourages students to read and understand books. Students earn points based on the difficulty of a book, and must pass a computer test that measures comprehension of each book.

At the end of the year, students have the opportunity to win prizes and cash awards based on the points they’ve accumulated.

The next step in the construction of a primary center in the Avonworth School District was successfully made Monday night, as the school board approved the purchase of 8.45 acres of property.

A crowd of about 150 people -- most of them parents of young children and elementary school staffers -- watched a presentation by board member Patrick Stewart that outlined financial issues facing the district and argued in favor of construction of the $20 million facility that will ease overcrowding in the current elementary school by moving grades K-2 to another building.

Editor:

We have an unacceptable problem at Avonworth Elementary School with 750 students expected this fall to be crammed into a building built for 550. However, given the current and expected population, the proposed solution of a 19 classroom K2 school is not in line with the scope of the issue.

The Gallery on Baum in Oakland will exhibit art selections by Avonworth junior Krystina Thomas, pictured here preparing a canvas for future work, through Feb. 20.

The pen-and-ink drawings display patterns and line work "…inspired by nature," said Krystina, whose interest in art began in elementary school where she recalls starting simply by "doodling." Kristina hopes to make a career of her art talents and plans to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore following graduation.