We read all 26 pages of the April 8th Draft and were impressed with its thoroughness and professionalism. The following observations and concerns do not imply that NewsLanc does or does not favor a change in the form of County government. More on that later.

1) The Chair gets to appoint the committees. NewsLanc recommends that appointments be subject to the approval of a majority of all five members of the Board.

2) Contrary to what was previously reported in the Intell, the Board may deal directly with members of the Executive Branch “for the purpose of obtaining information and advice.” Otherwise they deal through the County Executive “exclusively.”

3) Wisely, adoption of an ordinance requires a majority vote of all five members, not just the three or four in attendance. Approval of resolutions and motions can be by a majority of those present.

4) Provides for an initiative petition of “a thousand United states citizens who are legal residents of the County.” Requires the Election Board to “pass upon the validity of the petition and the validity of the number of signatures thereon.”

But then, strangely, it directs the petition to be “considered” by the Commissioners. It is as though the public got all dressed up to put a matter on the ballot and are told the only place they can go is to the Board! There is no need for a thousand signatures in order to get up at a commissioner’s meeting and make a recommendation! NewsLanc recommends that such petitions be placed on the next ballot to become law. Either that or drop this sham provision.

It has long been observed that political engagement in general and voter turnout in particular tends to be greater in more affluent areas.

NewsLanc’s Election Day interviews demonstrate that Lancaster County is no exception.

In Lancaster Township’s Seventh District, 280 people had voted as of 1:30 pm, according to Judge of Elections Terrie Finger.

There are 1142 registered voters in the precinct.

But in more urban areas, turnout was less than a third of the affluent suburb’s numbers.

In Lancaster City’s Third Ward for example, the second precinct (voting in the lobby of the apartment complex at Farnum & Christian Streets) saw only 74 voters by 2:30 pm

At Carter & MacRae Elementary School on South Prince Street in Lancaster City’s Fourth Ward, First Precinct, they had just broken 100 by 3:00 pm.

Usually, the precinct sees about 50 people all day.

While the character of the neighborhoods varied greatly, one thing that appeared to be constant was the caliber of the poll workers.

All of them said that they feel motivated to volunteer by a sense of civic duty and community cameraderie.

Terrie Finger, the Judge of Elections in Lancaster Township’s Seventh District, said that she feels motivated by a sense of civic responsibility.

Laurie Olin, an Inspector of Elections in that precinct, agreed.

She says, “it’s good to see all your neighbors.”

Finger, who has been volunteering for about six years, works in advertising while Olin works for the Lancaster Foundation for Educational Enrichment.

Mary Codish is a volunteer in Lancaster City’s Third Ward, Second Precinct. She’s 86 years old, retired, and has been helping out at the polls for sixteen years.

She also volunteers with the Salvation Army.

Jack Yohn, the Judge of Elections in that precinct, said that now-County-Commissioner Craig Lehman encouraged him to volunteer two years ago when the two were neighbors.

“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “It needs to be done, it’s very important, and so it’s nice to be involved in something as important as this.”

A couple of blocks away at Carter & MacRae Elementary School, Judge of Elections Glenn Brooks was going the extra mile to help the more-than-20 voters who had come to the wrong polling place to find their correct one.

He used his cell phone to call the Elections Board to tell them where they needed to go.

It’s not a requirement of Judges of Elections, but Brooks feels it’s the right thing to do.

“It’s not about politics,” he says. “It’s about helping people to vote.”

His precinct also sees a significant proportion of spanish-speaking voters.

Brooks says he’s lucky to have found a volunteer from the district who speaks fluent Spanish.

“In November, I’d like to see at least one additional bilingual person,” Brooks said.

This is the fifth election for which Brooks has served as a poll worker.

“We’ve had people come in here who, if it wasn’t for our help, they never would have been able to vote today,” he said.

According to the County Bureau of Elections and Voter Registration, Judges of Elections are paid $105 for their time, while all other poll workers are paid $90.

This corps of volunteers – only 4 workers per polling place – sets up the polling places, oversees voting from 7 am to 8 pm, verifies the accuracy of the procedures, and returns all materials to the County Elections Bureau at the end of the night.

The Lancaster County Convention Center Authority is finding itself in over its head.

Finance Committee Chair Laura Douglas said Monday that the Authority is $129,000 short in its construction budget alone and that change orders are averaging $200,000 a month.

With some ten months of construction remaining, they are facing at least a $2 million shortfall.

And these are pre-opening expenditures only.

It remains to be seen whether the facility will attract a sufficient number of conventioneers to make the investment viable much less profitable.

But Chairman and Acting Executive Director Art Morris is optimistic that help is on the way.

He said Monday that he continues to receive assurances from Senator Gib Armstrong that the county is earmarked for $3.2 million in state grants.

When will that money be available?

“The expectation is that this will be packaged as part of the budget in June,” said Morris.

He went on to caution that sometimes the approval of the state budget is delayed for political reasons, as occured between Rendell and the Republican legislature in summer 2007.

He also noted that the actual receipt of the money would likely not occur until “months later.”

Morris himself has been serving as the Authority’s Executive Director without pay for the better part of a year.

With the recently-confirmed Kevin Molloy taking the helm in May, the paying out of his salary (and signing bonuses) will further reveal the Authority’s real cost overruns.

SUNDAY NEWS: “[Manheim] township said High must pay for about $27 million worth of traffic improvements at Harrisburg Pike and Route 30. High is eyeing government sources for most of the cost.”

WATCHDOG: Better said, High is eyeing taxpayers for most of the cost. High makes a specialty of so funding their projects .

The Sunday News April 20 editorial “A friend not in deed” is a lesson on how fragile are the rights of the accused to defend themselves, won with so much sacrifice of lives and fortunes over twenty-five hundred years; and how careless of those rights a provincial newspaper can be.

The editorial states: “…if the friend had been arrested for possessing stomach-turning child pornography, and you work for a center that helps victims of sexual assault, standing by your friend has to have a limit. Your first concern-indeed the first concern of society at large – has to be for the victims. It’s why we think the YWCA of Lancaster’s has done the right thing in distancing itself from two former employees who testified at a sentencing hearing earlier this month for Stephen Spiese, the local actor from Columbia who was convicted in Lebanon County Court on child pornography charges.”

Is Sunday News editor Marv Adams familiar with the Stalinist trials of the 1930s when innocent people were purged and either shot or sent to work camp and a slower death in Siberia? No one dared testify concerning the character of the accused or they too would have met the same fate.

Is Adams aware of the trials and persecutions by the Nazis, not just against Jews but also others whom they considered enemies of the state? No one dared testify for the accused there either.

One of the cornerstones of democracy is the right – indeed the obligation – of citizens to testify without fear of retribution either from the state or others.

No employee should be subject to censure or penalty for performing the patriotic duty of honestly testifying in court!

These witnesses provided vital information for consideration by the Judge in evaluating the history of Spiese. Their testimony had nothing whatsoever to do with whether Spiese watched child pornography or the propriety of such actions. If the YWCA doesn’t like the sentence, let them criticize the judge, not pander to the public by “distancing itself from two former employees.”

If it were up to this writer (and I say this in jest), Adams would be sentenced to return to college and take several courses in history and civics. He is a good man and otherwise has my respect, but his ignorance of the lessons of history and essence of democracy are shockingly apparent.

Robert Edwin Field, Publisher

Apparently reporters and editors of the monopoly (well they were!) Lancaster Newspapers failed to notice that thousands of copies of the initial issue of the Lancaster Post were being handed out downtown on Friday and Saturday….or they didn’t consider this news! Three guesses why.

According to Christiaan Hart-Nibbrig, Co-Publisher and Co-Editor of the Lancaster Post, free copies of the weekly tabloid “will be available at every Turkey Hill in the County starting next week, as well as at the Barnstormers opening day at Clipper Stadium, April 25th.”

During the initial week, copies were handed out in downtown locations by staff members and others.

The lead news story was about State Senator candidate Paul Thibault. The lead sports article was an interview of Von Hayes, former Phillies star and the new Barnstormers manager.

Gaining access for distribution to the premises of Turkey Hill stores is a major distribution milestone for the Post which plans a circulation of 30,000 copies per week.

While the entire financial structure and “deal” with our private “partner” along with the news coverage from a subsidiary of the same “partner” are offensive and a fraud on the public, they are not the worst part of this project, they are merely multipliers of the waste, deception, and corruption that piggybacks itself on such a large publicly funded white elephant.The worst part of the CC project, in my opinion, is the underlying premise that it will serve as an economic catalyst to 1) increase county-wide hotel occupancy, and 2) jump start and sustain downtown revitalization. There is no better indicator that this project will be a failure than the fact that the entire industry it was sold to support and bolster is against it.

This project is a hospitality industry project and it has not a single, uninterested (I am not counting High Hotels or the Brunswick) supporter within that industry. Even Willow Valley, called to support the LCCCA’s case during the hotel tax trial, has jumped ship.

Why can’t this project find any support from within the industry…the premise simply does not work. Not only is the CC concept a general failure, read the Brookings Report, but it’s benefits will never outweigh its burdens in the Lancaster marketplace. I can go on and on with the reasons why, such as the lack ofinfrastructure, the seasonal nature of the market, etc., etc., etc, but the simple reality is that it is not the answer for Lancaster. Unlike other cities who do not have a significant tourism industry prior to going the CC route, we have something to lose/kill in the process of making bad decisions.As for downtown revitlaization, the key is occupancy. Whether the goal is to create activity (putting people on the streets) or consumption (people spending money), the CC will be dark way too much to have an impact. No store or coffee shop will be able to live off of a building with 20-30% yearly occupancy. Furthermore, the economic models used by PSP would require most convention attendees to make 100% of their expenditures within the four walls of the hotel and CC in order to meet those projected goals. Once again, the premise simply does not work. Say what you want about HACC, that would have meant thousands of people in that space at least 6 days a week fron morning through night.The best way that I can sum up the entire proposal is to say if it were to be built on Route 30 East, or somewhere in the “tourism zone”, which would make the most sense since that is a) where the highest concentration of hotel rooms exists and b) is the area which is responsible for drawing the majority of our tourists, I would still contend the project would still be a BAD idea and an ultimate FAILURE.

F&M’s Master Campus Plan 2004, the most recent published Master Plan, gives some idea of the increased parking problems that are being caused by F&M’s refusal to accept its responsibility and provide sufficient on-campus student parking. This problem, which will only get worse, is not being addressed at all in the Campus Master Plan.

Instead of increasing the number of parking spaces on the main campus proportionate to its increasing enrollment figures, the number of parking spaces is actually decreasing. The Master Plan 2004 lists the number of existing spaces on the main campus at 370 and planned (future) parking on the main campus at 300 – a reduction of 70 spaces.

Much of the existing parking is reserved for administration, staff and visitors. The present Williamson Field parking lot (entered from Harrisburg Pike) that used to be used by students is now reserved for visitors. The same is true of the parking spaces behind the Marshall & Buchanan dormitories.

At the same time, new dorms are to be constructed. A 150-bed Student Residential with Faculty House is to be constructed where the football stadium is right now. A small parking lot with no more than 50 spaces is shown in the Master Plan architectural drawing.

Another new dorm, already on the drawing boards, is to be built directly north of the Life Sciences Building. This dorm appears on the architectural drawing without any parking spaces being shown. The Apple Infirmary is to be turned into “Student Residential with Faculty House.” No parking is shown for this building or for the adjacent Marshall & Buchanan dormitories.

In addition, the Master Plan calls for ALL PARKING SPACES in the rear of the Administration Building and Marshall & Buchanan Halls TO BE REMOVED AND THE AREA RETURNED TO GRASS. These spaces are currently reserved for administrators, staff and visitors.

The total number of combined spaces, representing both the North and (Main) Central Campus, is being reduced.

The Campus Master Plan 2004 lists a total of 1,112 existing spaces on both the North and Main campuses. It lists the planned future parking as a total of 1,200 spaces. Included in this figure are 200 spaces on the Baker Athletic Field.

The plan to use the Baker Field for parking has apparently been canceled in favor of development. This acreage is currently being considered for a high-density alumni housing complex, according to John Fry who made an announcement to this effect at a public meeting last winter. Subtracting the 200 from the total planned spaces in the Master Plan leaves only 1,000 spaces, a figure which includes 700 spaces north of Harrisburg Pike.

Of the 700 spaces north of Harrisburg Pike, 400 of these spaces on the North Campus are for students living in College Row. Many, if not all, of the remaining spaces are reserved for patrons of Iron Hill Brewery and the other businesses occupying the first (ground) floor of College Row.

Subtracting 1,000 from 1,112 shows a reduction of 112 parking spaces from the 2004 figures, while at the same time the College is increasing its current enrollment of 1,980 to 2,180 and adding 20 new faculty over the next two years. And these 1,000 planned future spaces are not just for students; they are also shared by administrators, faculty and employees.

No wonder these students park their cars on city streets. The College has not provided an alternative.

This is why the City Zoning Board should not allow more students to reside in the planned James Street Properties off-campus student houses than the current zoning for these houses allow. These zoning regulations were created for a very good reason: to protect the rights and interests of other homeowners and residents living on those same streets.