It hasn’t been an ideal summer for sunbathers, swimmers and other creatures who prefer hot, dry weather. But at least it’s been easy on the ears.
Ears of corn, that is.
While farmers have struggled to plant and harvest crops and dry out their hay for baling, the wet weather has been favorable for corn.
“Our sweet corn crop is very good this year,” said Scott Simmons, co-owner of Simmons Farm in McMurray. “A kind of year like this I’ll take anytime for corn.
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Cumberland County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
More than a dozen people walked past the parked police cars Friday morning up to the door of the Magical Incense Shop that was guarded by police officers with a simple question:
“When’s the shop open?”
One of the men even tried to reach past Mechanicsburg Police Chief David Spotts to get to the door, Spotts said.
The downtown Mechanicsburg shop didn’t open Friday. And Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed wants to keep the shop — which he alleges has been selling synthetic designer drugs for years — closed permanently. Freed closed the store under a temporary injunction signed by Cumberland County Judge Albert Masland. A hearing on the injunction will be held Tuesday, Freed said.
NEW YORK — AOL Inc. is laying off up to half the workforce at its Patch local news sites and shuttering or consolidating roughly 150 of the 900 sites while looking for partners for others.
Up to 500 of Patch’s 1,000 employees will go in the layoffs, which started on Friday with 350 people getting pink slips. In all, the layoffs amount to about 9 percent of AOL’s total workforce of 5,500.
AOL Inc. CEO Tim Armstrong co-founded Patch, an ambitious experiment in local news meant to compete with newspapers, in 2007. AOL bought it in 2009 after Tim Armstrong had taken over the helm of the New York-based Internet company.
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/business/759140/AOLs-local-news-sites-to-lay-off-up-to-500
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
WILKES-BARRE, PA — More than halfway through the fiscal year the city is in better financial shape compared to the same period in 2012, officials said Friday.
Revenues are up by more than $7 million, largely because of a 25-mill property tax increase and the payment of 2012 wage taxes that had been delayed by problems at CENTAX, the former collection company. As a result, there are no plans to furlough workers to make up for a revenue shortfall.
“There is no manufactured financial crisis by a collection mishap by a third-party vendor,” said Drew McLaughlin, the city’s municipal affairs manager. “Revenue projections are holding steady so far, so we are very, very cautiously optimistic in terms of our financial position this year.”
Still, he cautioned things could change should the weather bring on an unpredictable expense caused by flooding from a tropical storm or snow in the winter. “We’re at the mercy of Mother Nature there and we proceed cautiously,” he said.
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lehigh County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Lower Macungie commissioners have approved an agreement to apply for and sponsor $2.75 million worth of state grants that would help fund a planned Costco-anchored shopping center.
The board on Thursday night unanimously approved an agreement with the developers of the planned $140 million Hamilton Crossings shopping center to serve as the public applicant for grants from the state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.
The money will be used for remediation and/or development of the property at the Route 222 bypass and Krocks Road if the project ultimately moves forward. The developer plans to bring a Whole Foods and Target to the shopping center.
The developers — the Goldenberg Group of Montgomery County and Tim Harrison of Staten Island, N.Y. — hit a snag earlier this year when Lehigh County commissioners rejected a plan that would have allowed the project to benefit from tax increment financing, an arrangement under which tax revenues from the shopping center would be used to finance the project.
Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/eastpenn/mc-lower-macungie-hamilton-crossings-grant-approve-20130815,0,808817.story#ixzz2cEyfeEUl
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Location of Lower Providence Township in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Editor’s note: And yet the Keim Street bridge, which had more daily traffic (approx. 9400 vehicles per day), has been closed for three years creating traffic headaches for Pottstown area residents. Guess if it was near a pharmaceutical company it would get fixed faster.
LOWER PROVIDENCE — The news drivers on the Arcola Road Bridge have all been dreading was delivered Friday afternoon when state inspectors immediately closed the busy bridge following an inspection “due to concerns for the safety of users.”
According to an informational release from Montgomery County, the “closure took effect immediately, and traffic will be diverted from the bridge via a signed detour. While the bridge is closed, Montgomery County and PennDOT will continue to aggressively pursue the engineering, design and other necessary steps to replace the bridge.”
The proposed 5.5-mile road detour around the bridge will take Arcola Road drivers eastbound to a right turn onto southbound Eagleville Road, a right turn onto southbound Park Avenue, a right turn onto westbound Egypt Road and a right turn onto northbound Cider Mill Road.
The two-lane bridge currently handles an average of 8,250 vehicles each day, according to a 2013 traffic count.
Location of Pottstown in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
POTTSTOWN — You can add new data system wiring to the things not included in the $14 million price tag for renovation and expansion of three elementary schools in the borough.
Thursday night, school board Vice President Robert Hartman Jr., who is also the chairman of the board’s facilities committee, reported that his committee is recommending the additional spending of as much as $375,000 “for data wiring devices installation at Franklin, Lincoln and Rupert elementary schools” according to the agenda of Thursday’s meeting.
There was no discussion among the full board, or questions asked by any of the board members, so it was not immediately clear why this was not included in the budget for the broader expansion/renovation project.
Work began this summer on the renovations and expansion at the three schools, while work is now being completed at Barth Elementary School, where work began a year earlier.
Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A Reinholds man was killed Friday when his SUV collided with a tractor-trailer on Route 422 just east of Monacacy Hill Road, Amity Township.
Officials said Royce A. Ochs, 65, was driving east shortly before 5:20 a.m. and was rounding a left curve when the rig driver pulled onto the highway from a business on the left side of the road. Ochs’ SUV hit the rear of the trailer.
Ochs was pronounced dead at the scene by Deputy Coroner Matthew Mears at 6:37 a.m. Ochs died of severe head injuries, and the death has been declared accidental, said Chief Deputy Coroner Jonn Hollenbach.
The rig was operated by Kevin Coulson, 42, of Wyomissing. He was not injured.
Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States Public School Districts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A Conrad Weiser High School athletics coach was charged by state police late Friday night with having sex with a 16-year-old girl he coached.
Troopers said they arrested Benjamin J. Stopper at his South Heidelberg Township home at about 9:15 p.m. He was awaiting arraignment in Reading Central Court late Friday night.
Stopper, 31, of the 200 block of Longview Drive had a three-month-long sexual relationship with the girl, troopers said. He would meet her at his house and her home, give her rides home from practice and even took her along on a business trip to Philadelphia.
Troopers said they contacted school officials late Friday night to let them know about the charges.
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