Lititz Pike Detours Set To Begin May 29

750 mm by 600 mm (30 in by 24 in) Pennsylvania shield, made to the specifications of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), 2003 Edition (sign M1-5). Uses the Roadgeek 2005 fonts. (United States law does not permit the copyrighting of typeface designs, and the fonts are meant to be copies of a U.S. Government-produced work anyway.) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lititz Pike motorists will soon be forced to learn some new tricks.

On Wednesday, May 29, PennDOT is implementing the first set of road closings and altered traffic patterns necessitated by construction of a new Route 501 bridge over the Amtrak and Norfolk Southern train tracks.

That means drivers who have been using Route 222/501 for years to enter and exit the city will encounter some major changes in their routine.

McGovern Avenue will be closed from the Lititz Pike to Queen Street.  Consequently, southbound drivers unable to make the right turn onto McGovern Avenue will continue straight, to a new intersection at Liberty Street.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/850759_Lititz-Pike-detours-set-to-begin-May-29.html#ixzz2TfDre4N0

Lancaster City Wants To Be A Haven For Bicyclists

Bicyclists are being welcomed onto Red Rose Transit buses, businesses are opening their doors to bikes or designating parking areas for them, and city officials are considering ways to improve bicycle transportation.

During May, national bike month, efforts are being made around Lancaster city to enhance cycling safety and promote cycling as a form of transportation.

For example, during National Bike to Work Week, May 13-17, RRTA is offering free rides to bicyclists.  They can mount their bikes on the racks on the front of the buses and ride in and out of the city without charge during the work week.

Each rack holds two bikes, RRTA marketing manager Jennifer Boley said.  Additional bikes may be carried in the aisle.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/847168_Lancaster-city-wants-to-be-a-haven-for-bicyclists.html#ixzz2Sl7ekt41

Growing Own Produce Helping Lancaster Restaurants Cut Costs

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

LANCASTER, PA — If you order a turkey wrap at the Lemon Street Market this summer, or drink a mojito at Lancaster Brewing Co., the tomato on your sandwich and the mint in your drink might have been grown right outside the restaurants.

Six city restaurants are planting tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, herbs and other fresh produce in containers, hanging baskets and small beds.

They plan to harvest the fresh items and serve them to their customers, to promote healthy eating and local products, in a project sponsored by Lancaster city and a local health organization.

“We’ll use the cucumbers in our salads and the basil in sauces,” said Brent Eshelman, general manager of the Lancaster Brewing Co., which is growing plants, including hot peppers for its wing sauce, outside its new 50-seat patio at Walnut and Plum streets.

Rad more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130505/LIFE05/130509996/growing-own-produce-helping-restaurants-cut-costs#full_story

To Stay Open, Hotel Brunswick Must Meet 21 Conditions

It’s time for the Hotel Brunswick in downtown Lancaster to clean up its act, according to a judge’s order signed this morning.

Lancaster County Judge Jeffery Wright approved a series of agreements between the city and hotel owners that would essentially clean up numerous ongoing issues at 151 N. Queen St.

Wright ordered that 21 specific improvements be made or ownership risks a future court hearing that could shutter the hotel, deemed a “nuisance” last year.

The city and district attorney’s office each filed complaints last year alleging the hotel as a site of drug use, brawls and underage drinking.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/845230_To-stay-open–Hotel-Brunswick-must-meet-21-conditions.html#ixzz2SFCC9hVP

Lancaster Bible College Investing Its Trust In Downtown Lancaster

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Trust Performing Arts Center has been open less than a month, but it’s fitting quite nicely into the downtown arts scene.

During its first First Friday, April 5, more than 600 people came to check out the place.  And that makes the folks at the Lancaster Bible College, which runs the Trust, quite happy.

“There’s something very vibrant about downtown Lancaster, and we want our students to be a part of that,” says Robert Bigley, head of the music performance program at Lancaster Bible College.  ”We want them to get out of the church bubble, to get out in the real world.”

Like Millersville University, which runs The Ware Center, located across a parking lot from the Trust, LBC wanted a satellite location that would engage students and audiences apart from the campus.

Coming downtown was the goal.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/842459_LBC-investing-its-Trust-in-downtown-Lancaster.html#ixzz2Rri6xzvW

Why The School District Of Lancaster Is Financially Thriving When Similar Districts In Pennsylvania Are Failing

Times are tough for urban school districts in central Pennsylvania.

Saddled with stagnant tax bases and serving large numbers of low-income and special-needs students, they’re struggling to stay afloat in the face of steep cuts in state and federal education funding.

But School District of Lancaster isn’t experiencing the economic woes of its neighbors.

The school districts in York city and Harrisburg have been declared “financially distressed” by the state, which appointed financial recovery committees to develop radical plans to keep them solvent.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/842996_Why-the-School-District-of-Lancaster-is-financially-thriving-when-similar-districts-in-Pennsylvania-are-failing.html#ixzz2RoBpQLeT

Tourism Officials Hope Casting A Wider Nets Brings More Tourists To Lancaster County

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The county’s tourism promotion board will soon launch a multifaceted campaign it hopes will catch the eye of as many as 100 million people.

It hopes many of of them will come here and spend money.

The Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau plans to diversify the $1.6 million it will spend on advertising this year.

In addition to a television commercial that will soon be aired in the Philadelphia and New York markets, the visitors bureau also will buy digital and static billboards to reinforce the same message.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/842667_Tourism-officials-hope-casting-a-wider-nets-brings-more-tourists-to-county.html#ixzz2Rc8YwZ9q

Lancaster City Redevelopment Authority Votes To Become Equity Investor In $4.8 Million Apartment Project

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Until recently, when real estate developers wanted an extra financial push to make a city redevelopment project viable, they turned to state officials.

But grant funding through the state’s Department of Community and Economic Development has all but dried up, and competition for the remaining funds is fierce.

On Tuesday, the Lancaster City Redevelopment Authority agreed to step into the gap to make a project happen.

Authority board members voted to become equity investors in a $4.8 million apartment construction project.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/839507_City-redevelopment-authority-votes-to-become-equity-investor-in–4-8-million-apartment-project.html#ixzz2QqlkDQLs

Lancaster General’s $50 Million Project At Former Lancaster Family YMCA Site Moves Forward

After receiving approvals more than a year ago to build a new office building and a parking garage on the former Lancaster Family YMCA site, Lancaster General Health put the brakes on the project.

Now it’s full speed ahead.

Andrew Baldo, vice president of project developer Arcadia Properties, on Wednesday sought and received from the city Planning Commission a waiver of preliminary plan approval requirements.

The waiver allows the $50 million project to skip a step and moves it closer to having all approvals in place by late June.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/839506_Lancaster-General-s–50-million-project-at-former-Lancaster-Family-YMCA-site-moves-forward.html#ixzz2QqkIejI3

Another Power Outage Hits Downtown Lancaster

Another power outage affected much of downtown Lancaster city and parts of southern Manheim Township Monday morning.

More than 10,000 residents and businesses lost power for a short time starting at 8:49 a.m., PPL spokesman John Levitski said.

“The Prince Street substation went out again,” said Levitski.  ”We are trying to determine what the issues are down there.

“We’re going to try to dig into this a little deeper to discover what’s going on,” he said.  ”Then we can determine if (the outages) are linked or not.”

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/838220_Another-power-outage-hits-downtown-Lancaster.html#ixzz2QYRqttCj

Amtrak Reports Increase In Ridership On Keystone Line, Says Lancaster Is Third-Busiest Station In State

Ridership on Amtrak’s Keystone line through Lancaster County grew by 5.2 percent in the last six months, the nation’s passenger railroad corporation announced Tuesday.

Amtrak has 13 trains each weekday stopping at the Lancaster, Mount Joy and Elizabethtown stations on the Keystone line and nine weekend trains.  The Keystone line carries passengers between Harrisburg and Philadelphia.

The Keystone carried 723,461 passengers in the first half of the fiscal year, compared to 687,860 during the same period last year.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/836140_Amtrak-reports-increase-in-ridership-on-Keystone-line–says-Lancaster-is-third-busiest-station-in-state.html#ixzz2QAEZu4bn

Manheim Township Schools Ban Parents From Eating Lunch With Their Children

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  What a sad reality.

The Manheim Township School District has notified parents that they will no longer be allowed to visit schools to have lunch with their children, a move it says is designed to “ensure a safe learning environment.”

The new policy was approved by the school board on March 21 and is effective May 1.

The policy was described in a letter to parents dated March 22 and signed by the district’s elementary-, intermediate-, middle- and high-school principals.

The letter stated that an exception can be made by each school’s principal if they choose to participate in a celebration such as National Lunch Week.  The new policy would not allow parents to bring “restaurant food from outside sources” during such celebrations, however.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/831066_Manheim-Township-schools-ban-parents-from-eating-lunch-with-their-children.html#ixzz2OqRwcTCx

Coffee-Roasting Site Planned On East Marion Street In Lancaster

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Kyle Sollenberger often walks along East Marion Street with his children from his East Orange Street home to Musser Park.

He would pass the vacant, dilapidated building that was the former home of Gam Manufacturing.

An entrepreneur, Sollenberger began thinking about ways to better the neighborhood by reusing the building at 315 E. Marion St..

On Monday, Sollenberger and his architect laid out plans to members of Lancaster city’s Historical Commission.

A city cafe, which he declined to name, is interested in using the building to roast coffee. Previously, before the city’s Zoning Hearing Board, he said the cafe operators also would have a bakery in the building to prepare items for sale in the cafe.  Employee training also would occur there.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/828453_Coffee-roasting-site-planned-on-East-Marion-Street-in-Lancaster.html#ixzz2ONOqY3PT

Latrobe Air Traffic Control Tower To Close

250 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The air traffic control tower at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe will close, along with 148 others at small airports nationwide, as the Federal Aviation Administration cuts $637 million from its budget by November.

The closures will not force airports to shut down, but pilots will now coordinate takeoffs and landings by radio without ground controllers’ help.

“We will work with the airports and the operators to ensure the procedures are in place to maintain the high level of safety at non-towered airports,” FAA administrator Michael Huerta said in a news release.

Spirit Airlines — which flies out of Latrobe to Dallas, Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Fla. — plans to operate a normal schedule, airline spokeswoman Misty Pinson said.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/westmoreland/latrobe-air-traffic-control-tower-to-close-680511/#ixzz2ONMqa1Kx

Lancaster City Restaurant Week Kicks Off

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Within a few blocks in downtown Lancaster, the epicurious can sample flavors from Himalayan curry to fish and chips to sushi to pulled pork and homemade ice cream.

“Lancaster’s dining scene is just so diverse,” said Christopher Trendler, restaurant manager of the Penn Square Grill and Rendezvous Lounge in the Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square hotel.

Trendler, joined by other restaurateurs across Lancaster, wants people to sample the diversity of city fare.

Beginning Monday, some 40 restaurants are participating in Lancaster’s first citywide restaurant week.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/821658_Lancaster-City-Restaurant-Week-kicks-off.html#ixzz2Mbgg7SG0

Here is a list of participating restaurants:  http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/821899_Which-restaurants-are-participating-in-Lancaster-City-Restaurant-Week-.html

More Talk Of Snow Than Snow On The Ground

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In less than two weeks, March will roar in.

And, if the forecast and history are indicators of what lies ahead, this winter is likely to go down as one of the meekest of the past decade, in terms of snow.

For the winter of 2012-13, Millersville University‘s Weather Information Center had recorded just 7 inches of snow falling on Lancaster County through noon Thursday.  Another 1.5 inches had fallen by Sunday evening, the result of several small storms.

Now consider this:

A warming trend is on the way, according to Accuweather.com, with high temperatures approaching 50 degrees expected by the time February turns to March.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/816311_More-talk-of-snow-than-snow-on-the-ground.html#ixzz2LDYMYHWX

Lancaster County Convention Center Gets Deadline Extension On Debt

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Lancaster County Convention Center is living on borrowed time.

With less than three weeks to go before the center’s $64 million in construction debt was due to be restructured — pushing interest rates higher — officials on Friday extended the financing for three more months.

The move buys time for negotiation with lender Wells Fargo to come to terms the center can live with.

A consultant sounded the alarm a year ago that the nearly 4-year-old center could be forced to close if revenues were not significantly increased or financing fees cut.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/813342_Convention-center-gets-deadline-extension-on-debt.html#ixzz2KX1XXIeh

Sensor Gear Helps Lancaster City Rate Streets

Researchers spent about 10 days last summer cruising Lancaster city’s streets looking for the good, the bad and the ugly.

And, they did so looking straight down.

The specially equipped van carried laser-guided sensors that recorded details of every inch of the 110 miles of city streets, 10 miles of city-owned alleyways and the 20 miles of state roads that cut through the city.

The result of the collected data is the city’s first pavement management plan.

The plan lists the city streets and ranks them by which ones most need repair and repaving.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/811319_Sensor-gear-helps-Lancaster-city-rate-streets.html#ixzz2K3prMFwe

Man Charged With Assaulting, Torturing Elderly Sisters Waives Hearing

A 22-year-old man will be tried for binding, beating and torturing three elderly Mennonite sisters last year in what police called a case of “ethnic intimidation.”

Dereck Taylor Holt and his attorney, Alan Goldberg, waived a preliminary hearing Tuesday morning on numerous offenses, including felony aggravated assault, robbery, unlawful restraint and reckless endangerment.

In turn, District Judge Tony Russell ordered Holt to be tried on 23 charges related to the Dec. 14 incident in Clay Township.

Holt, locked up on $1 million bail since his arrest Dec. 16, appeared in the Ephrata courtroom only to sign paperwork.  He said nothing.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/811494_Man-charged-with-assaulting–torturing-elderly-sisters-waives-hearing.html#ixzz2K3oNvcKr

Comcast Plans To Hike Rates, Start Charging For Adapters

Comcast Building new (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the spring of 2010, Comcast Cable required Lancaster and Elizabethtown subscribers of the “expanded basic package” (channels 25-78) to get digital TV adapters, and the first two adapters were free.

The cable provider, however, never said the adapters were free forever and, effective March 1, Comcast will charge Lancaster-area subscribers $1.99 per digital television adapter or digital transport adapter.

The price remains unchanged for “limited basic” (channels; 2-7, 9-13, 20-24 and 96) customers, who can get up to three adapters at no additional cost. The DTA price is unchanged.

The company previously charged subscribers $1.99 a month for each adapter beyond two.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/809857_Comcast-plans-to-hike-rates–start-charging-for-adapters.html#ixzz2Jf6eUFDP