IRS lien placed on BEBASHI
The IRS has placed a $52,531. 20 lien on BEBASHI Transition to Hope, a local AIDS agency.
The lien was placed on the agency on June 4, according to court records.
Gary J. Bell, executive director of BEBSASHI, said the agency is working with IRS officials.
“BEBASHI is in the process of negotiating a payment plan with the IRS to resolve this debt,” Bell told PGN. “We have every intention of resolving this.”
Bell said the agency has occasional cash-flow problems.
“BEBASHI, like many other nonprofits, has, at times, encountered challenges that have affected our cash flow. However, as you can see, we have weathered these minor challenges, as we will this latest one.”
BEBASHI is located in Spring Garden. It was founded in 1985 in response to the increasing incidence of HIV/AIDS in the city’s African-American community.
N.J. man wins health-coverage battle
Anthony Putz, a gay New Jersey resident, has won his battle to remain on his domestic partner’s health-care plan.
Putz, 47, was threatened with removal from the plan by his partner’s employer, GCA Services Inc., based in Ohio.
Putz said he was told by a GCA representative that the company doesn’t recognize civil unions such as the one entered into by Putz and his partner, Patrick Callaghan.
However, in a letter dated Aug. 27, Putz was informed that he will be allowed to remain on Callaghan’s health plan.
James Calamia, a senior regional manager for GCA, expressed regret for any inconvenience GCA caused Putz.
“The error was on our part,” Calamia told PGN. “It wasn’t our intent to disrupt his health-care coverage.”
The couple lives in Williamstown, where Callaghan works as a custodian at Williamstown Middle School.
Callaghan isn’t employed by the Monroe Township School Board, which owns the school, because the board contracts with GCA to provide custodial services.
Callaghan is represented by a union, which supported his request to have Putz remain on his health plan.
Calamia had no comment on whether GCA will now recognize civil unions entered into by all of its employees, or just those employees represented by unions.
— Tim Cwiek
Man murdered in Gayborhood
Police last week found the dismembered body of a man in the Schuylkill River who was murdered in the Gayborhood.
On Sept. 4, police responded to a call from a boater about a headless and limbless torso in the river in Grays Ferry.
The body was eventually identified as 40-year-old Frank Zarzycki, a loan officer and resident of Northeast Philadelphia who had been reported missing by his family.
Authorities said Zarycki was killed in an apartment at 220 S. 11th St. in the Gayborhood. The apartment was a front for a prostitution ring that Zarzycki frequented, they said.
Police last week arrested Keith Tolbert, 34, Angel Weston, 21, and Stephanie Foulke, 22, and charged the trio with murder. Police believe Zarzycki was murdered Aug. 26 in what began as a robbery.
“We believe it started out as a planned robbery, which escalated to a murder by suffocation and ended with his body being chopped up, bagged and thrown in the river,” Homicide Capt. James Clark said at a press conference last week.
Police believe the struggle began in the living-room area and ended in the bathroom, where Zarzycki’s body was dismembered with a hatchet. The rest of the remains have yet to be recovered. — Angela Thomas
