Pottstown Regional Public Library Funding Rescue May Lie With School Parents

POTTSTOWN PA – Can residents in the Lower Pottsgrove portion of the Pottsgrove School District do what they proved capable of five years ago this month: rescue the Pottstown Regional Public Library by encouraging the township Board of Commissioners to restore proposed funding cuts? The school board’s leader is hoping for it.

The library may literally be banking on it.

A majority of commissioners announced last Monday (Jan. 6, 2014), during their reorganization meeting, that they intended to conduct a Feb. 3 (Monday) hearing in part to consider cutting $10,000 in library funding from the township’s already approved 2014 budget. The library had been allocated to receive a $5,000 increase in Lower Pottsgrove’s contribution, from $60,000 annually in each of the past five years, to $65,000 this year.

The majority last week instead suggested it wants to now lower the donation to $55,000, eliminating the increase and another $5,000 as well. Those commissioners – board President Bruce Foltz, Vice President Stephen Klotz, and new member Shawn Watson – have indicated they would prefer to put more money into the police department and other priorities.

Read more: http://sanatogapost.com/2014/01/13/library-funding-rescue-may-lie-school-parents/

Known For Its Beer, Yuengling Brings Back Its … Ice Cream

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

People have been screaming for the ice cream, and Yuengling‘s Ice Cream listened.

On Thursday, the ice cream with the same name as the Pottsville-based brewery began its first run of batches after a 29-year hiatus. The company, based in Orwigsburg, Schuylkill County, originally intended to start production in March, but it moved up the date in response to strong demand from retailers that wanted to get it on shelves sooner.

“I think we have one of the most popular nonexistent products on the market,” said David Yuengling, 51, president of the company and second cousin of brewery owner Dick Yuengling.

The 1-quart containers of Yuengling’s Ice Cream are being produced at Leiby’s Dairy Inc. in Tamaqua, Schuylkill County, and they are expected to be on shelves by mid-Feburary at Weis Markets, Acme Markets and select independent grocery stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, West Virginia and Virginia.

Read more: http://www.ydr.com/business/ci_24933307/known-its-beer-yuengling-brings-back-its-ice

Plans For Sherman Hills Remain Secret

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

WILKES-BARRE, PA — Park Management Inc.’s detailed plans for the Sherman Hills Apartments will remain secret for a little longer.

The Brooklyn, N.Y.-based company submitted a remediation plan for the troubled complex Dec. 2 after a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development inspection in September found “possible life-threatening security issues” due to management’s neglect of the 344-unit facility.

The Citizens’ Voice, along with congressional leaders and Wilkes-Barre officials, have filed a Freedom of Information Act request for that plan.

In a letter released Friday, Shirley Bryant, Freedom of Information Act liason for HUD, says the agency is giving Park Management until Jan. 31 to object to the plan’s release based on the department’s FOIA regulations exempting “trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person [that is] privileged or confidential.”

Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/plans-for-sherman-hills-remain-secret-1.1618522

16 Arrested On Drug Charges After Raid On Reading House, Undercover Operation

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sixteen people were arrested on drug-related charges Wednesday after a search warrant was executed and, in another operation, undercover officers posed as drug dealers.

According to authorities:

City officers obtained the warrant for a house in the 800 block of Muhlenberg Street after receiving complaints about drug sales.

Officers searched the house about 1 p.m. and recovered drug paraphernalia, an electronic surveillance system, money, a personnel schedule and a drug ledger.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article/20140117/NEWS/301179933#.UtlvdfQo6c8

Spencer, City Council To Discuss Reading Water System Options

A 1947 topographic map of the Reading, Pennsylvania area. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer and City Council will explore a more-lucrative lease or the possible sale of the water system to help Reading avoid its looming fiscal cliff.

Those two options are among several that could help close a $15 million budget gap that will open each year beginning in 2015.

In a three-page memo given to council at an executive session Monday, Spencer requested both sides jointly begin what he called a comprehensive and objective assessment of all the city’s options.

“These are things we can’t do without the support of council; they have to be part of it,” Spencer said later.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article/20140117/NEWS/301179948/1052#.UtltFfQo6c8

Details Of Ashley Lynn Kline’s Murder Pain Family

Ashley Lynn Kline walked past the fish tank, the TV and the family pictures and was talking to somebody on her cellphone when she went out the front door the night before New Year’s Eve, so her father really did not have a chance to say much to her.

What Michael Kline told his 23-year-old daughter was, “Be good.”

It was the last time Michael Kline saw Ashley alive.

On Thursday afternoon, 17 days after Ashley left the modest three-story brick home in Robesonia where she had grown up, her father sat in the kitchen and reflected on the fact that two young men had been charged with killing Ashley by stabbing and burning her.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article/20140117/NEWS/301179949/1052#.Utlqb_Qo6c8