Allentown School Taxes Could Rise Nearly 5%

English: View of Allentown, Pa from Keck Park (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Allentown School Board on Thursday approved a proposed $235 million spending plan for 2012-13 that includes a nearly 5 percent tax hike.

The board’s 8-1 vote means a property owner’s tax bill would rise about $86, to $1,890, on a home assessed at the district’s $37,500 average. The millage rate would go up 2.3 mills to about 50.4.

Superintendent Russ Mayo faulted Gov. Tom Corbett for shifting a greater financial burden on school districts.

He said the governor’s proposed state budget for 2012-13 has about $100 million less for kindergarten, tutoring and class-size programs. That’s on top of the $900 million in school funding he cut statewide in 2011-12.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-allentown-school-budget-0524-20120525,0,4061905.story

Underground Centralia Fire Still Burning After 50 Years

Higher resolution photograph of the Route 61 crack, in Centralia PA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

CENTRALIA, Pa.  – Fifty years ago on Sunday, a fire at the town dump ignited an exposed coal seam, setting off a chain of events that eventually led to the demolition of nearly every building in Centralia – a whole community of 1,400 simply gone.

All these decades later, the Centralia fire still burns in Columbia County. It also maintains its grip on the popular imagination, drawing visitors from around the world who gawk at twisted, buckled Route 61, at the sulfurous steam rising intermittently from ground that’s warm to the touch, at the empty, lonely streets where nature has reclaimed what coal-industry money once built.

It’s a macabre story that has long provided fodder for books, movies and plays – the latest one debuting in March at a theater in New York.

Yet to the handful of residents who still occupy Centralia, who keep their houses tidy and their lawns mowed, this borough in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania is no sideshow attraction. It’s home, and they’d like to keep it that way.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=389185

Caltagirone Seeks Funds For Reading’s War On Crime

Shaking a few trees could bear fruit for crime-fighting efforts in the city, state Rep. Thomas R. Caltagirone said Friday.

“I’m on the board of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency,” the Reading Democrat said. “I’m going to make a special appeal to see if there’s any money or different programs available.”

Police Chief William M. Heim said the department would welcome the money.

“We could use it for additional training for our officers, such as investigative and operational seminars, as well as providing supervisory and management training for new sergeants and lieutenants,” he said. “We could also use help to upgrade and replace the laptop computers in our patrol cars to accommodate updated technology.”

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=389138