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

Lancaster Inter-Municipal Committee Down, Not Out

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

Editor’s note:  We are always saddened when parties leave the table, especially with something as an important as this.  Cooperation between the city and the suburbs leads to smart growth, regional planning, inter-municipal cooperation and the list goes on and on.  Manheim Township is the largest suburb of Lancaster so one would assume their dues had something to do with their size.  In any case, $22,000 is a blip on their budget so not seeing where this will be a huge help to taxpayers.

Lancaster city and three of its suburban townships cross paths in Bridgeport, the busy little crossroads just east of town.

Two major state roads — Route 340 and Route 462 — meet there, and there is plenty of housing and other growth putting more pressure on roads and water in that area, East Lampeter Township Supervisor John Blowers said.

So he’s glad his township is part of the Lancaster Inter-Municipal Committee, Blowers said Wednesday.

In coming years, whenever the city and East and West Lampeter and Lancaster townships sit down to talk about solutions in Bridgeport, “we’re going to have a history of having talked and having worked together” as fellow members of the LIMC, Blowers said.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/815068_Lancaster-Inter-Municipal-Committee-down–not-out.html#ixzz2KuMk2T3v

Manheim Township School Board Makes Gene Freeman Highest-Paid Superintendent In Lancaster County

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Manheim Township school board Thursday agreed to limit any tax increase in next year’s budget to 1.7 percent and approved a five-year contract with superintendent Gene Freeman.

The employment agreement, which runs through June 2018, will pay Freeman in excess of $1 million in salary and compensation over five years, making him the highest-paid superintendent in Lancaster County.

The vote on Freeman’s contract was unanimous, as was the vote to keep a possible tax rate increase for 2013-14 at or below the school district’s Act 1 index of 1.7 percent.

That vote marks a return to form for the district, which had stayed within its state-mandated index every year since 2006 until 2011-12, when it boosted taxes by 3.96 percent in the face of a revenue shortfall of about $4.7 million.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/795324_Manheim-Township-school-board-makes-Gene-Freeman-highest-paid-superintendent-in-Lancaster-County.html#ixzz2FhGrLeUd

Power Outage Hits Thousands Of Homes, Park City Center

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A malfunction at a PPL substation in East Petersburg knocked out power to thousands and created traffic backups on area roads Thursday afternoon.

PPL spokesman Kurt Blumenau said a tripped transformer sparked the 4:30 p.m. outage that affected about 5,200 homes and businesses in Manheim and East Hempfield townships as well as a portion of the western part of Lancaster city.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/669443_Power-outage-hits-thousands-of-homes–Park-City-Center.html#ixzz1xsA37GOl

Manheim Township School Board Will Raise Taxes

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In a near-unanimous vote, Manheim Township school board agreed to use the district’s full taxing power next year and raise property taxes by as much as 4.1 percent.

The decision followed a lengthy discussion focusing on the rising cost of pensions, special-education services and other mandated programs and the extensive cuts in educational programs and staffing the district has made to try to balance next year’s budget.

The cuts have helped narrow a projected $4.7 million revenue gap, but board members said any additional reductions would cause too much harm to students.

Township teachers last week agreed to a two-year salary freeze that is expected to save the district $2 million next year, and 25 teachers have accepted an early retirement incentive that could save another $1.8 million.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/630554_Manheim-Township-will-raise-taxes.html#ixzz1sbPwvfyd

Manheim Township School Board Eyes Max Tax Hike

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The tax rate in next year’s Manheim Township School District budget has yet to be set, but the school board appears to be leaning toward boosting taxes to the maximum.

At the board’s Thursday work session, members discussed a recommendation by superintendent Gene Freeman to take full advantage of Act 1 exceptions granted by the state.

The district could increase property taxes by as much as 4.1 percent in 2012-13, more than twice its base Act 1 index of 1.7 percent, because of exceptions to cover increasing special-education and pension expenses.

Board members won’t vote on the recommendation until next week, but few of them voiced objections to a 4.1 percent hike, which would boost the tax bill for a $150,000 home by $107 next year. A 1.7 percent hike would result in a $44 increase.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/625964_Manheim-Township-board-eyes-max-tax-hike.html#ixzz1rynJwYKt

 

Another Look At Manheim Township’s $3.2 Million Deficit

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Many Manheim Township residents are “concerned” about the size of the community’s deficit, new township Commissioner Dave Heck said.

And the commissioners, the township’s decision-making board, need “to start immediately” to look for ways to chop that $3.2 million deficit way down, Heck said.

The other commissioners agreed, voting this week to take the unusual step of reopening their township’s already approved 2012 budget.

Hoping to find ways to reduce that deficit, the five-member board voted Monday to take a new look at the 2012 spending plan.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/576571_Another-look-at-Manheim-Township-s-deficit.html#ixzz1kij91pd9

Lady Gaga House Shopping In Suburban Lancaster

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Lady Gaga‘s new boyfriend, Taylor Kinney is a Lancaster County native who was raised in Neffsville, PA.  Taylor recently had a recurring role on the CW‘s hit series The Vampire Diaries and played Mason Lockwood (who was a werewolf before being killed off by one of the series stars).  Taylor also appears in Gaga’s You and I video.  You may have heard the Pennsylvania version of You and I, which gets considerable airplay.

It seems Gaga is looking at a home in Bent Creek, a gated community in Manheim Township off of Fruitville Pike.  The house is on the market for $1.7 million.  Gaga has been seen in the Lititz Giant and various places around Lancaster County for the last several months.  Here are some pictures of the home she is looking at http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2011/12/lady-gaga-pennsylvania-mansion-photos

The Bent Creek development is near Taylor’s parents house.  Location, location, location!