Month: August 2008

Trolley bus driver derides street car scheme

On LancasterOnLine.com, a contributor who self identifies as a driver “for the Historic Downtown Trolley (a bus in another costume)” states that there are only about 25 passengers a day and that most of them are “the original passengers from 4 years ago.” (Editor’s note: Terry Dohl identified himself as the driver in a “In […]

SUNDAY NEWS

On Aug.31, the paper ran a one-third of a page ad by Turkey Hill featuring both a pitch for four brands of cigarettes, and an offer of free candy with a soft drink. The ad shows boxes of Sundance, Marlboro, Camel and Newport brand cigarettes. The “Surgeon General Warning” was too small for most to […]

Present at the creation

I’ve been doing a little bit of research about the origins of the [convention center and]hotelproject…. The Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Lancaster Alliance, the LancasterCampaign, and Tom Baldridge [former head of the Lancaser Alliance] were repeatedly mentioned in newspaper articles about the project during its origins.

LCCCA Receives $500,000 of Earmarked $1.5M in State Grants

The Lancaster County Convention Center Authority, which has been anticipating a shortfall of at least $400,000, received relief in the form of a $500,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, it was announced at their board meeting, Thursday night. The funding is part of the $1.5 million in “contingency funds” for […]

An example of raw political clout

Usually invitations for fund raising events come from local committees, with a chair, several co-chairs, and various sponsors. It isn’t easy to attract potential donors to these events, so the trick is to line up co-chairs and many committee members before hand to attend and bring along other likely contributors. But this isn’t the case […]

INTELLIGENCER JOURNAL

The Aug. 28 “Letters to the Editor” contains one headed “Who’s the next keynoter?” and which criticized Ted Kennedy as follows: “This is the same great American who, about 40 years ago, drove off a bridge with a young female passenger in his car, got himself out and left her to drown. He failed to […]

LETTER: Public Dollars Should Beget Public Disclosure

“It has been a contention of mine from the start of the Convention Center project that the presence of any public money in that project, that great for everyone public-private partnership, should require full and complete public disclosure. The reality has been the opposite… every chance they can, the private parties say, ‘we are private’, […]

County preserves 253 acres of farmland, opts not to participate in state gypsy moth spraying program

The Lancaster County Commissioners voted to preserve three more farms totaling 253.69 acres at their meeting, Wednesday. The added farms, located in Strasburg and East Cocalico Townships, bring the total number of preserved acres in the county to 78,437, Director of the County’s Agricultural Preserve Board, Matt Knepper, said. In addition to local taxpayer revenue, […]

LETTER: Requests names of Alliance members

“Would you please publish the names and addresses of the members of the Lancaster Alliance? I would greatly appreciate knowing who has sold us down the river and I believe many other people would also be interested in knowing.” Editor’s Response: According to the Lancaster Post which obtained the information from public filings, the list […]

COMMENTARY: Is the new SD of L "broom sweeping clean"?

Several months ago, NewsLanc was advised by a knowledgeable observer that the School District of Lancaster had two huge problems: The first was the leadership of its athletic program. The second was the administration of McCaskey East High School. It is worthy of note that within less than two months of Pedro Rivera assuming the […]

SD of L stengthens athletic department

NewsLanc learned today that Merv Witmer will join the School District of Lancaster to “support the Athletic Department” and for the time being act as interim athletic director. Witmer previously served for fifteen years as Athletic Director of the Ephrata School District before his retirement. He also served as President of the Lancaster-Lebanon Athletic Directors […]