Lancaster Promotions Office Hiring Special Events Manager

Lancaster City is hiring a special-events manager for the Lancaster Office of Promotion.

LOOP, successor to the Mayor’s Office of Special Events, is creating the new position because of the office’s expanded role. The arts and entertainment events organization now promotes the city as a destination for the arts, shopping, cultural attractions, dining and special events.

The special-events manager will handle event and activity permitting and coordinate with community organizations, sponsors and city departments, according to the job description.

You can see the job description here: (We’ll cut to the chase: It pays between about $39,300 and $45,200.)

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/lancaster-promotions-office-hiring-special-events-manager/article_0966030e-b07f-11e4-b179-579eb78f2bf6.html

A Tale Of Two Improvement Zones

ALLENTOWN, PA — In the center of this city’s downtown is a Civil War monument complete with a sailor, artilleryman, infantryman and a cavalry soldier.

It is very similar to the one in Lancaster’s Penn Square, but larger.

That’s fitting for a city with twice the population and twice the land area as Lancaster.

And for a city that has experienced proportionally larger swings of fortune.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/a-tale-of-two-improvement-zones/article_f8de6fa0-f277-11e3-8f19-0017a43b2370.html

Fulton Bank Starting Temporary Fill-In Of East King Expansion Site

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

Fulton Bank is facing another delay to its East King Street expansion project and temporary fill-in of the site.

This time, Mother Nature is the culprit.

“We’re behind due to the extreme weather” this winter, said bank spokesman Laura Wakeley on Tuesday.

In its previous timetable, Fulton planned to start filling in the 23 E. King St. site in January.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/business/local_business/fulton-bank-starting-temporary-fill-in-of-east-king-expansion/article_ca61c3f4-b9db-11e3-80de-0017a43b2370.html

Video – Happy Lancaster, PA

Happy Lancaster – Inspired by Pharrell Williams “Happy.”

Lancaster is Happy! Special thanks to featured dancers – Franklin & Marshall Dance Department, Heads Up kids, Mayor Rick Gray, Cylo and Lancaster Barnstormers, the Infantree, Iron Hill Brewery and Lancaster Central Market for putting up with our shenanigans and helping celebrate our extraordinary community!

Lancaster County Community Foundation – http://www.lancfound.org

State Agency OKs Millions More In Loans For Projects In Downtown Reading

English: Downtown Reading, Pennsylvania; with Berks County courthouse on left; July 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A state agency has approved an extra $5 million in low-cost loans for new projects in downtown Reading, as well as an extra $1 million for the planned Doubletree Hotel on Penn Street.

The loans, sought months ago and already part of the hotel’s financing package, were formally approved today by the Commonwealth Financing Authority.

Both packages will go through the Greater Berks Development Fund.

The $5 million will be available for as-yet-undetermined downtown projects, said Edward J. Swoyer, Greater Berks executive director.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=511616

Reading Eligible For Revitalization Funds; May Miss Application Deadline

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

The state has given Reading the eligibility it wants to compete for a highly prized City Revitalization and Improvement Zone that, similar to Allentown, would use state and local tax revenue to attract jobs and millions of dollars in private investment.

But it’s still uncertain whether Reading will be one of the two pilot cities the state chooses in the first round this year, or even whether the city will apply in time.

Lancaster already has submitted its own proposal, and Bethlehem is expected to shortly.  The second round for two more cities doesn’t begin until 2016.

Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer could not be reached for comment.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=494416

Lancaster Summer Arts Festival Still Going Strong After 50 Years

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

Fifty years ago, Lancaster was a very different place than it is today.

There was no Long’s Park amphitheater, no Gallery Row and the Fulton had barely survived being turned into a parking lot.

If you loved concerts, art shows, dance recitals or children’s shows, your options were few and far between.

But the Lancaster Summer Arts Festival, which officially got started 50 years ago this summer, began to change all that.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/853425_Lancaster-Summer-Arts-Festival-still-going-strong-after-50-years.html#ixzz2UVEwz5pM

Lancaster Convention Center Sews Up Quilt Show For 3 More Years

Quilting is a tradition in Lancaster County and organizers of the annual downtown Lancaster quilt show hope to sew up that link between quilting and Lancaster.

The Paducah, Ky.-based American Quilters Society on Wednesday announced it would continue the show at the Lancaster County Convention Center for another three years.

The deal was inked a month ago when some 16,500 quilters attended AQS QuiltWeek in Lancaster.

The national organization called the fourth annual show and convention a success.  That attendance figure represents an 11 percent increase over 2012.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/837065_Convention-Center-sews-up-quilt-show-for-3-more-years.html#ixzz2QH8D8T4b

LancasterHistory.Org Is Set To Move Its Expanded Lancaster County Collection Into Its New $8.6 Million Building

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

“Lancaster County‘s attic” has a new home.

That includes the ostrich egg from the Colonial-era Juliana library, the Oscar statuette awarded to RCA for making the first color picture tube, leather buckets from Lancaster’s Union Fire Company No. 1 and donated pewter, handmade cradles and racks of paintings.

Those items, 2,750 in all from the Heritage Center collection, have formally joined the 15,000 artifacts from LancasterHistory.org in a newly renovated and expanded facility.

The $8.6 million “Campus of History,” at Marietta and President avenues in Lancaster Township, will open to the public Feb. 1.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/797224_LancasterHistory-org-is-set-to-move-its-expanded-Lancaster-County-collection-into-its-new–8-6-million-building.html#ixzz2GMWo3rqN

Fulton Bank’s Expansion Grows By 75 Percent

Plans for Fulton Bank‘s expansion near Lancaster‘s Penn Square may have been delayed by two years, but those plans have also increased in size by 75 percent.

The county’s largest bank now plans an eight-story office building, with a two-level underground parking garage at 23 E. King St.

Project planners on Tuesday provided no cost estimate for the 159.000-square-foot building which will replace the former Sovereign Bank building now on the site.

The building was originally slated for completion in 2013.  In May, Fulton announced it would be begin construction next spring of a 91,000-square-foot, six story building that was due to be completed in spring 2015.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/728196_Fulton-Bank-s-expansion-grows-by-75-percent.html#ixzz25t5BQYml

Penn Square Consultants Get An Earful

Editor’s note:  Taking care of the root problem needs happen…crime and blight need to be addressed before cosmetics can lure people downtown.  Cleaning up the downtown is necessary but business owners and shoppers need to feel safe above all else.  Without the root problem being addressed, it’s another case of putting lipstick on a pig.

The consultants designing Downtown 20/20 – what Penn Square should look like to attract more out-of-towners – say they’ve gotten an earful of criticism and suggestions at three recent public hearings, and have tweaked the plans to accommodate some comments.

But they also got an earful this week from City Council members, who said that although they liked the ideas, nothing will happen until the city begins resolving Penn Square’s larger issues.

“Nobody wants to go downtown with all the drunks sitting around,” Councilwoman Donna Reed said at a work session with the 20/20 steering committee and the consultants. “It’s just an uncomfortable, disgusting place to walk.”

She said the Downtown Improvement District said its biggest challenge is dealing with public drunkenness, and the city needs to start enforcing its loitering laws and getting rid of the reeking trash containers on North Fourth Street.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/Article.aspx?id=410399

Reading’s Penn Square Beautifiers Looking For A Few Rooters

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

The Penn Street Posse’s Plan A to pretty up the planters on Penn Square didn’t work out.

So Plan B commences Saturday, thanks to a lot of volunteers.

Among them is Diane Salks, owner of Riverview Tree & Landscaping on Pricetown Road in Alsace Township.

She and a crew – most of her 27 employees wanted to volunteer, but she ordered some to stay behind and work – will be planting 95 liriopes with a bluish hue and 45 knockout rose bushes in hot pink and red.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=404689

Streets Closing In Preparation For Celebrate Lancaster

The 14th annual Celebrate Lancaster kicks off this morning with the opening of about two dozen food stands and the closure of North Prince Street from Penn Square to Lancaster Square.

Thousands of people are expected to pack the streets throughout the day to sample the local fare and dance to the sounds of bluegrass, Latino music, R&B and rock ‘n’ roll.

The event will culminate with a large fireworks display that begins at 10 p.m.

Admission is free.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/674460_Streets-closing-in-preparation-for–Celebrate-Lancaster.html#ixzz1yXDvEhq3

Poetry Paths Mural Outside Lancaster’s El Centro Hispano Reflects Fabric Of Community

What had been a large, blank wall outside the Spanish American Civic Association’s El Centro Hispano has become a reflection of the community.

Pictured on a new mural, the installation of which was completed last week, are depictions of 28 people.  Some of them work inside the center that serves Lancaster city’s Hispanic community.  Some of them helped establish SACA, and some helped establish the city’s Hispanic community six decades ago.

“It’s a record,” Carlos Graupera, SACA executive director, said of the 30-foot tall mural. “It’s a way to respect what happened in this community.”

Graupera, whose image is at the far end of the painted fabric mural, said the depictions include people who came to Lancaster from Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.  It also includes many who were born in Lancaster of immigrant parents.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/666429_SACA-remembrance.html#ixzz1xV3mSNld

Bank Of America Closes Lancaster City Branch

Bank of America closed its Penn Square branch last Friday, ending eight years of operation there.

Bank of America had acquired the Griest Building branch through its 2004 purchase of FleetBoston Financial.

Griest Building owner Rob Ecklin said two other banks have expressed interest in opening in the 4,100-square-foot location.

“I’m hopeful of getting another bank in there, but I just don’t know. It’s too early to tell,” Ecklin said.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/641057_Bank-of-America-closes-Lancaster-city-branch.html#ixzz1uKScUYck

Lancaster County Baby & Toddler Expo – October 29th & 30th

Check out this awesome event at the Lancaster County Convention Center!  The website has all the information on this fun-filled two-day extravaganza. 

The new convention center in Lancaster is getting great reviews from groups using the venue.  It is located just off historic Penn Square in Lancaster City. 

Information on the Expo:

http://www.lancasterbabyexpo.com/

Information on the convention center:

http://www.lancasterconventionhotel.com/