Whole Foods Market Coming To Lancaster

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Whole Foods Market is on its way to Lancaster County.

But shoppers who have been waiting a long time to read a sentence like that could have to wait three more years before they actually walk through the doors of the natural and organic food grocer.

Whole Foods Market announced Thursday that it has signed a lease for a 40,000-square-foot store in the Shoppes at Belmont, a mixed-use development planned at the corner of Fruitville Pike and Route 30.

“The people in and around Lancaster have been asking for a Whole Foods Market for some time now — and we’re excited to make it a reality,” Scott Allshouse, Whole Foods Market Mid-Atlantic regional president, said in a press release.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/whole-foods-market-coming-to-lancaster/article_ecfe3a06-65c4-11e4-b17e-0017a43b2370.html

Man Killed In Saturday Morning Shooting In Manheim Township

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A man was killed in a shooting Saturday morning in Manheim Township.

According to emergency dispatches, the man was transported to a hospital about 3:50 a.m. for a gunshot wound.

The incident reportedly happened in the area of the 800 block of New Holland Avenue, just outside the city.

Officials confirmed Saturday at 10:30 a.m. that the man has died.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/update-man-killed-in-saturday-morning-shooting-in-manheim-township/article_dcf7f144-f92f-11e3-8c74-0017a43b2370.html

Police: Man Arrested After Stealing From Same Store 3 Times In 5 Days

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A 20-year-old county man was arrested after stealing from the same Manheim Township store three times in five days, police said.

Skyler J. Daugherty, who has addresses on East Main Street in Lititz and in the 700 block of Pearl Avenue in Manheim, also now faces additional charges from other police departments in the county.

On May 16, Daugherty took a watch and speakers valued at $242 from the Walmart at 2030 Fruitville Pike, Manheim Township police Sgt. Tom Rudzinski reported.

On Monday, he took $209 worth of gaming items from the same store.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/police-man-arrested-after-stealing-from-same-store-times-in/article_62ad8c2c-e1d4-11e3-b5d2-001a4bcf6878.html

Planner: Despite $90 Million Cost, Route 222 Widening Not A Return To Big PennDOT Projects

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Friday evening, just as it is most evenings, traffic was backed up as drivers coming from U.S. 30 waited to merge onto Route 222 in Manheim Township.

Friday morning, just as it is most weekday mornings, the Route 222 traffic backed up merging onto U.S. 30.

The situation is nothing new to PennDOT.

With additional money coming from the new state transportation law, state Transportation Department officials will soon begin looking for ways to address the problem.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/conestogavalley/news/planner-despite-million-cost-route-widening-not-a-return-to/article_de7c88b6-bc32-11e3-a1a1-001a4bcf6878.html

Construction Of Apartments Underway In Live/Work Worthington neighborhood

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It’s taken a little time, but Keystone Custom Homes’ Worthington at Township Square neighborhood is quickly taking shape, with its residential and commercial/retail areas complementing each other.

There’s a lot going on in the community, including a new model home and work on the apartment phase of the subdivision, said Janette Hawkins, vice president of marketing and information technology at Keystone.

The Manheim Township smart-growth development will feature 259 houses — 196 singles, 33 duplexes and 30 townhomes — along with rentals above the commercial space.

The model house is a 3,197-square-foot Manchester with traditional elevation, including a wraparound front porch, a stone front and three reverse gables with pent roofs.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/937185_Construction-of-apartments-underway-in-live-work-Worthington-neighborhood.html#ixzz2oqzkUxdL

Ady Cakes Opens Second Location In Manheim Township

The owner of Ady Cakes in West Reading is perhaps best known for having won “Cupcake Wars,” a Food Network baking-competition show in May 2012.

Even though she made a name for her business on television, owner Ady Abreu, 35, West Reading, is now branching out in a first step toward creating an easily-recognizable brand.

After seven years in business on Penn Avenue, Abreu has decided to open a second location in a new shopping center in Manheim Township, Lancaster County.

“I do a lot of wedding cakes for customers in Lancaster County, and I have always had interest in my cakes from that area,” Abreu said. “So naturally the idea came out to open a store here.”

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article/20131224/MONEY/312249965#.UrmxhvRDsxI

Golden Triangle Triage: 5 PennDOT Options For Easing Traffic And Improving Safety At Manheim Township Intersection

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Think the intersection at Golden Triangle is a mess?

If so, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation agrees.

PennDOT hired an engineering firm to figure out how to improve the intersection at Lititz and Oregon pikes, Fordney Road and the Golden Triangle shopping center.

The state is prepared to spend between $300,000 and $1 million on construction, signals, signs and restriping of lanes to make traffic flow more smoothly and safely through the intersection.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/911475_Golden-Triangle-triage–5-PennDOT-options-for-easing-traffic-and-improving-safety-at-Manheim-Township-intersection.html#ixzz2j8sqjmCv

Lancaster County ZIP 17606 Has Highest Median Age In Nation

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You might think it would be some sunny spot in Florida, where so many people go to spend their autumn years.

But no.  According to a recent issue of AARP Magazine, the spot in the United States with the highest median age — 87 years young — is right here in Lancaster County.

Specifically, it’s the 17606 ZIP code, which spans a small area between Lancaster and Lititz.

You know, Neffsville.

More to the point, Brethren Village.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/864105_Lancaster-County-ZIP-17606-has-highest-median-age-in-nation.html#ixzz2WxaZdh7H

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

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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!