Month: June 2008

Holiday Weekend Events in Lancaster

The cornerstone of the City of Lancaster’s Independence Day celebration was last Friday’s “Celebrate Lancaster” festival, which included street vendors, concerts, and a fireworks display. But here are some of the other events the City and various groups have planned for Independence Day: Musser Park, at Lime and Chestnut streets, will hold its annual “Old […]

WSJ article re LGH parallels NewsLanc’s findings

On June 28, the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled “Opting Out’ Old Order’ Mennonites and Amish Who Shun Insurance Face Rising Bills. Should Hospitals Cut Them a Break?” The WSJ article anticipates one of NewsLanc’s findings in its extensive ongoing research into the causes for Lancaster General Hospital’s exceptional profitability. NewsLanc’s “editor’s note” […]

Is Art Morris whistling past the grave yard?

The estimable Art Morris, Sunday News’ guest op-ed writer, in a column headed “Sen. McCain is fit for the future” opines “As we each of us makes a choice for president, I hope we do it based on issues and not on age, race or other baseless reasons.” Certainly Morris does not mean for us […]

Lauds current Convention Center Board

we are so fortunate to have the current Convention Center board. They will go down in history as creating the life preserver needed to enable this plane to land as safe as possible with as few casualties as possible. We better not forget the time and effort they are spending , their positive attitude, and […]

Have Fulton invest LCCCA construction funds

When I shared this information with my financial advisor earlier this week who does risk managing for municipalities, his advice was the LCCCA shoould better call in their monies and not even consider collateral. My personal suggestion to the finance committee is to go to Fulton Bank, a past limited partner of Penn Square Partners, […]

LANCASTER POST

Kudos! Its June 27 front page article “No ‘Helping Hand’ from Highmark: Insurance giant denies money for parents’ preferred procedure” describes how “Highmark would cover the surgery cost of $150-200,000” but would “only pay $4,907.18 of the $15,600 total billed” for prosthetics that give the same appearance and avoid complicated major surgery. WATCHDOG: It is […]

Clarification concerning LCCCA bond proceeds

Wachovia sold the LCCCA’s construction bonds in late March of 2007, and administers their funds. As a part of the deal, the $64 million in bond proceeds was handed over to M&T Bank, which is responsible for investing the bond proceeds until the money is actually spent. The investment was put out to bid, in […]

NEW ERA

Published on June 28th an editorial favoring paper ballots and a column entitled “F&M’s presentation on rail yard fails to win over skeptics.” WATCHDOG: New Era earned double kudos! First, an Editorial entitled “Paper ballots on comeback trail” states “Following Florida’s presidential election fiasco in 2000, many states abandoned punch cards – once used by […]

EDITORIAL: Opportunity for School Lane Hills Residents

At last month’s organizing meeting of the School Lane Hills Neighborhood Association, a lanky, bearded and socially uncomfortable old man stood up and suggested that dues be set higher so that the organization could be represented by an attorney in discussions with John Fry over F&M’s desire to move the Norfolk – Southern freight yards […]

If the lights go out at King and Queen…

Last night the attendance at the Convention Center Authority board meeting was scant. As I sat there and listened to ALL the change orders, the quote “It is what it is” kept running through my mind. Looking up at the board, I humbly respect all the time and effort put forth on behalf of our […]

“Good Samaritan” Policies Save Lives

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, which makes policy recommendations addressing the concerns of the nation’s cities, just unanimously adopted a resolution in support of comprehensive overdose prevention policies such as 911 Good Samaritan laws. Good Samaritan laws encourage people who witness an overdose to call 911 by providing limited immunity from drug possession charges. This […]

LCCCA Bond Investment in Jeopardy

When the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority sold $25 million in construction bonds, it invested that money with a public bond insurer. “With an amount that large, you don’t simply have it sitting around in the bank,” Finance Committee Chair Laura Douglas said. The Authority’s funds are invested with a financial management group called MBIA. […]