At a Special City Council meeting tonight, Director of Public Works Patrick Hopkins presented the Council with the results of today’s bond auction. According to Hopkins, the auction was a considerable success, as the interest rate offered by bidders dropped over 0.6% from the initial to the final bid of 4.33%. In the long-term, this 0.6% alone amounts to $2.2 million in savings.
Tag: News and Commentary
LETTER: Were the Lancaster Newspapers’ intentions good?
I suspect that Lancaster Newspapers’ involvement in the hotel and convention center project might have started out with good intentions. After all, LNP has made significant investments in downtown Lancaster in the past. But once they were legally bound to High, they found themselves being dragged along with S. Dale High’s personal ambitions. When opposition […]
Editorial: We don’t mean to bore you
NewsLanc believes that the incredible greed and dishonesty by business leaders throughout our nation which triggered the current severe recession also occurred in Lancaster over the past decade.
It’s culmination was an almost $200 million Convention Center Project without a single supportive Market or Feasibility Study and, resulting from their opposition to the Project, a district attorney witch hunt of conscientious former county commissioners.
PWC withdraws market studies, 2006
In a stunning development that could have substantial consequences for the proposed Mariott Hotel/Convention Center development, an email has surfaced from a senior PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) analyst, which says that because of the drastic changes in the nature and scope of the project, the powerhouse accounting firm asked that the board’s Executive Director, David Hixson, remove all reference to PwC from its website.
PWC Market Study: No vote of confidence
Despite repeated requests by the undersigned then city councilman and other officials and concerned citizens to view the PricewaterhouseCoopers 2000 and 2002 purported “feasibility studies,” access was denied. It was alarming to learn recently that the so called “feasibility studies” were merely market studies. But, upon finally having an opportunity to review the market studies, it is shocking to discover that they are more negative than positive in their implications. Here are quotes from the studies:
Chapter Eight: Uncommon Management
If the controversy over the historical buildings and the hoteliers’ lawsuit were among the first early skirmishes in the convention center civil war in Lancaster, then the fight over who would manage the taxpayer-financed convention center was its first major battle.
Lancaster medical rip off of insurers
(When the cast was removed from a simple wrist fracture, the local medical practice encouraged the patient to purchase a customized splint and sling for $476. It was explained that the insurer would pay all the cost. The patient objected and ultimately selected the least expensive standard version for $40.
The following is from the wife of a phsyician in Canada, where they have a single payer health system.)
NewsLanc format to change on Monday
NewsLanc plans to switch over to the WordPress.com publishing platform at noon on Monday, April 9th, thus offering viewers a state-of-the-art look and a variety of conveniences.
LCCCA meets to approve final purchases
Thursday evening the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority met for a brief supplemental meeting to approve a short list of line items that have emerged in recent weeks.
In the words of Chairman Art Morris, the purpose of the meeting was “to keep things moving”—undoubtedly in view of the Convention Center’s opening date, which last week was postponed from April 21 to May 11.
Why trolley cars are wrong for Lancaster
By Robert E. Field My son Richard and I have been conducting business in Eastern Europe over the past 15 years. As such, I have had considerable experience with trolley cars. In fact, we have had to design entry ways in a manner to minimize the lethal risk that trolleys engender. They do run silently. […]
Questions About New Hampshire Vote Count
For those interested in the complexities of assuring an honest vote count in our electronic age, NewsLanc passes along below a January 7th posting from Black Box Voting. THE CAT THAT CONTROLS NEW HAMPSHIRE ELECTION PROGRAMMING John Silvestro and his small private business, LHS Associates, has exclusive programming contracts for ALL New Hampshire voting machines, […]
25% of City School Children Live in Poverty
According to a report from the U. S. Census Bureau, the prosperity enjoyed by most in Lancaster County has not percolated down to our school children. In Lancaster City alone, approximately 4,000 youngsters suffer from poverty. And suburban and exurban districts also have significant pockets of poverty with rates of 1 out of 6 in […]
Budget, Move to N. Queen, Farmland Preservation Top Commissioners’ Stated Priorities
Asked by a NewsLanc reporter what their goals and priorities will be for their respective terms of office, Martin, Stuckey, and Lehman responded in generalities. Scott Martin identified two main issues. He began, “Our number one priority is the budget and we are already delving into that as much as possible. As a matter of […]
EDITORIAL: Intell / New Era finally merge
“That was to be expected” was the response of most astute Lancastrians in seeing the Intell headline this morning “Intelligencer Journal, New Era will combine.” The marvel is that it took so long in coming about.
But that was representative of how Lancaster old money has been squandered by a generation of inept managers and custodians of the wealth generated by others. This has lead to dreadful misdirection of community efforts and the enrichment of opportunistic business interests.