Park City Center Reopens After Early Morning Carbon Monoxide Incident

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

All areas of Park City Center have been reopened after an early morning carbon monoxide incident delayed its opening.

Lancaster city fire battalion chief Jeff Oatman said contractors working on an electrical system had to shut down the power where they were working and started an emergency generator.

Oatman said an exhaust system is installed in the area where backup generators for the mall run, but failed to properly alleviate the exhaust from the large diesel generator.

A majority of the mall opened at 10:15, about 15 minutes later than normal.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/park-city-center-reopens-after-early-morning-carbon-monoxide-incident/article_3daf73a0-44b1-11e4-87ca-0017a43b2370.html

Two Arrested After Stabbing At Park City

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

A male shoplifting suspect took off running through the Boscov’s department store at Park City Center Friday afternoon after cutting a loss-prevention officer on the hand, Lancaster city police said.

His female accomplice bolted as well, city police Officer Marc Shaffer said.

Police have charged Noel H. Israel-Negron, 35, of the 600 block of Columbia Avenue, with retail theft, robbery, aggravated assault, terroristic threats and criminal conspiracy.

Kriste L. McManus, 40, of the 600 block of Market Street, Marietta, was charged with retail theft, robbery and criminal conspiracy.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/two-arrested-after-stabbing-at-park-city/article_1927c53c-c1a3-11e3-9783-001a4bcf6878.html

Urban Outfitters Eyes $105 Million Expansion In Gap

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

Urban Outfitters, with sales rising rapidly, figures it must add to its merchandise-distribution network to keep up.

And as part of its strategy to meet that need across North America, the firm wants another distribution center in this region.

Not just any old distribution center, though.

Urban Outfitters calculates that it has to be huge — a million square feet, or nearly the size of Park City Center — and state of the art.

What Urban Outfitters hasn’t yet determined is where to put the $105 million facility.

But among four sites under consideration is a farm across the street from an existing Urban Outfitters distribution center in Gap.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/861181_Urban-Outfitters-eyes–105M-expansion-in-Gap.html#ixzz2WCCoQp2H

Abundance Of Attractions Makes Lancaster County Marketable

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

Lancaster County, Kathleen Frankford contends, is no one-trick pony.

“It’s probably the most diverse destination in the country,” she said.

Sure, it is known for its Amish and the outlet shopping that attracts people by the busload.  But, there is also live entertainment, dining and lodging.

And, “within each of those categories, you have such a wide range of offerings,” Frankford said.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/807662_Abundance-of-attractions-makes-Lancaster-County-marketable.html#ixzz2JEbUTqMC

Crow Problem Resurfaces At Park City

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Crows once again are congregating atop Park City Center, and mall owners might again haul out the heavy cannons to shoo them away.

But with concerns about anything resembling gunshots emanating from a shopping mall in the wake of recent mass shootings, the cannons will be fired at dusk, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. only.  The cannons were shot from 3 to 7 p.m. last year.

General Growth Properties, the owning and managing company of Park City Center, said it is implementing a number of efforts to deter the crows.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/796214_Crow-problem-resurfaces-at-Park-City.html#ixzz2Fyz7KBB7

Park City Gunman Eludes Police After Robbing Arby’s

A gunman who robbed a Park City Center eatery eluded police Sunday evening despite a 3-hour manhunt by dozens of police officers and K-9 units.

“We’re as confident as we can be at this point … that he is no longer inside,” city police Sgt. Mark Radmore said outside the Kohl’s mall entrance at around 9:30 p.m.

Heavily armed police officers swept the mall’s many stores and storage areas several times after the robbery attempt at about 6:05 p.m. at Arby’s restaurant.

The mall was quickly evacuated after the incident, which happened around closing time for most stores.

According to a pair of eyewitnesses, a gunman — they said wearing a hoodie, although others reported seeing a mask — displayed a handgun to cashiers at Arby’s and demanded cash.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/771209_Park-City-gunman-eludes-police-after-robbing-Arby-s.html#ixzz2BMTJazGu

Power Outage Hits Thousands Of Homes, Park City Center

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

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

Park City Center Plagued With Migrating Crows

After several weeks of citizen complaints about late-night booms, Lancaster city officials Thursday restricted the hours that Park City Center can set off its propane cannons that ward off crows.

The wee-hours detonations, which reverberated across the suburbs up to several miles away, were blamed on problems with timing devices on new cannons.

Mall officials apologized and said they would comply with the 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. time frame for firing the rooftop cannons.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/559311_Lancaster-city-restricts-hours-Park-City-Center-can-shoot-off-cannons.html#ixzz1i2x1UH39

Is There Life After Borders? In Pennsylvania, YES!

By now most people know Borders is going, going, gone in the very near future.  The departure of Borders from many malls has book lovers everywhere scrambling for a new place to buy books.

Books-A-Million is looking to fill that void, at least in some Pennsylvania locations.  Recently Books-A-Million opened a new store in a former Borders Express at Coventry Mall, Pottstown.  I also noticed in my last trip to Park City Center, Lancaster that Books-A-Million had opened a store there too.

Now Books-A-Million, a Birmingham, Alabama based bookseller, is trying to acquire eight more locations in Pennsylvania (there are currently five PA stores).  One site under consideration is the soon to be vacant Viewmont Mall Borders store in Dickson City.  According to the Times Tribune, the Dickson City Borders is Lackawanna County‘s only general-interest bookstore.

You can imagine that the Viewmont Mall management and Lackawanna County book lovers are waiting with bated breath to see if this deal goes through.

To check out Books-A-Million’s complete list of locations from their website, click here: http://www.booksamillion.com/storefinder?id=5114383831772

With the demise of Borders, Books-A-Million will become the nation’s second largest book retailer.