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The JCPenney at York Galleria will close for business around April 4.
Sarah Holland, JCPenney spokeswoman, said via email that the York Galleria store is one of 39 locations nationwide that will close. Throughout Pennsylvania, JCPenney is also closing stores at the Chambersburg Mall in Chambersburg, Susquehanna Valley Mall in Hummels Wharf, Granite Run Mall in Media and Nittany Mall in State College.
Holland said the closures are part of ongoing efforts to meet goals for company growth.
“We continually evaluate our store portfolio to determine whether there’s a need to close or relocate underperforming stores,” Holland said. “While it’s never an easy decision to close stores, especially due to the impact on our valued associates and customers, we feel this is a necessary business decision.”
Read more: http://www.ydr.com/business/ci_27281077/jc-penney-stores-york-chambersburg-close-according-report
Editor’s note: Number 3 is a Pennsylvania university!
On his several-days-a-week walks to and from work in Ithaca, NY, Tom Knipe breathes in the scent of lavender plants during temperate months. Along his ¾-mile route between work and home, Knipe also spots creatures like otters, mink, turtles, ducks and heron. Or he stops to chat with friends and neighbors. During the winter, Knipe notices the “beautiful” changes in the ice patterns in Cascadilla Creek as the water freezes and thaws.
“I typically walk when the weather makes it uncomfortable or less practical to ride my bike. So, during the winter months when there is lots of snow on the ground, I tend to walk to work on average three out of five days a week,” said Knipe, the tourism coordinator for Tompkins County, NY.
In Ithaca, a college town with about 30,000 residents in upstate New York’s Finger Lakes region, Knipe is part of an army of walkers. Ithaca, the home of Cornell University and Ithaca College, ranks first among U.S. college towns for the percentage of workers who commute on foot, according to the U.S. Census Bureau analyzed by The SpareFoot Blog. It also leads the American Institute for Economic Research’s list of thetop college towns in the U.S.
Read more: http://blog.sparefoot.com/6684-top-college-towns-for-commuting-on-foot/
Counties constituting the Happy Valley Region of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
STATE COLLEGE, PA — Steven Maria caught a few rays of Wednesday afternoon sunshine while waiting for his ride.
Maria, a 19-year-old Penn State student, sat on a bench along Beaver Avenue in front of the Centre Area Transportation Authority office — the nerve center for one of the nation’s busiest transit systems.
“I use the bus all the time to get home,” he said.
He’s one of the thousands of riders each day who prove that just because State College is a small town, it doesn’t mean it can’t hold its own with a major metropolis.
Counties constituting the Happy Valley Region of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
STATE COLLEGE, PA — Sydney Britton didn’t know what she was looking at when she took a break from her morning run Saturday.
“What the heck is it?” she asked.
She then took a step back to get a better view.
“Oh, I get it,” she said. “That’s actually kind ofcool.”
A 2-D version of a 16-foot sculpture of a Vespa is a new attraction in downtown State College next to the S&T Bank at the intersection of Fraser Street and Beaver Avenue.
Counties constituting the Happy Valley Region of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
STATE COLLEGE, PA — In a unanimous vote, members of the Centre Region Council of Governments agreed to send the 2015 program plan to the municipalities for review and comment.
The 257-page plan is “intended to provide the General Forum with an explanation of each regional program’s history, services, current issues, midyear financial status, and proposed programmatic and financial changes for 2015.”
This is the 13th plan to be created since the program began in 2001.
“It’s a tool to give elected officials an early heads up about what we’re proposing for the new year,” said COG Executive Director Jim Steff. “So instead of giving them a budget in October and say ‘You guys need to vote on this in November,’ they get this information much earlier.
Counties constituting the Happy Valley Region of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
STATE COLLEGE, PA — Council unanimously voted Monday to approve the borough’s neighborhood plan, bringing almost two years of work and planning to a successful conclusion.
The plan was presented to the board by borough planner Meagan Tuttle. Tuttle had previously presented the plan to the board during the July 14 work session.
She explained that following board feedback, the planning staff looked into the borough’s role in realizing several of the goals presented. Some changes were made from the version presented on July 14 that moved the borough to a leadership position, and the council would see those changes on the final draft.
Counties constituting the Happy Valley Region of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
STATE COLLEGE, PA — The community garden on East College Avenue at University Drive has gone untouched this summer as the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy struggles to find a volunteer for its upkeep.
With only seven staff members and 132 gardens to monitor, the conservancy relies on volunteers to make the gardens possible.
“Our office is in Pittsburgh, and we have some gardens that are far away in Erie, North Huntingdon, Altoona, State College and even farther away in Harrisburg,” said Lynne McGuire-Olzack, the conservancy’s volunteer coordinator. “This is the first time we don’t have a volunteer in State College.”
Counties constituting the Happy Valley Region of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Editor’s note: Being proactive is always better than reactive. Especially in law enforcement. A certain borough in Western Montgomery County springs to mind for always taking a reactive approach to crime. Maybe a field trip to State College is in order. Apparently, they got the memo up there.
STATE COLLEGE, PA — The crime numbers over the weekend of the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts show a dip in some areas but an increase in others.
State College police Lt. Chris Fishel compared the activity to a football weekend as he unveiled the numbers to members of the media Monday.
“This is actually a good thing,” he said. Fishel said it could point to more proactive involvement of officers making self-initiated stops rather than constantly responding to dispatched calls.
The total number of police calls in 2014 came in at 235, up from 171 in 2013.
Counties constituting the Happy Valley Region of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Setup for large events like the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts and Philipsburg Heritage Days can create nail-biting situations.
Heritage Days Chairman Jim Pollock watched several years ago as a trailer traveled down Front Street facing the wrong direction. No damage was done, but it could have ended in disaster.
“He was a new vendor, and when he first pulled in, he would have been serving toward the sidewalk instead of the street,” Pollock said. “We tried to tell him how to pull out and come back, but he came down wrong and could have taken out several trailers.”
That was a challenge, Pollock said, “so we have to be clear in our direction, especially for new vendors each year when everyone wants to hook up at the same time with over 100 trailers. You have to keep your composure.”
Counties constituting the Happy Valley Region of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
STATE COLLEGE, PA — Taxpayers in the State College Area School District will see a 1.95 percent tax increase after the district school board adopted its final general fund budget Monday.
Board members unanimously approved, with no discussion, a real estate tax increase from 38.75 mills to 39.5056 mills, with each mill representing $3.95 per $100 of assessed value.
Under the budget of $126,791,664 for the fiscal year starting July 1 and ending June 30, 2015, the median district homeowner will pay an additional $54, according to the district.
The district projects that the tax increase will add $1.56 million in revenue, while assessed value growth will provide another $1.2 million.
Counties constituting the Happy Valley Region of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Local, state and federal law enforcement are raiding a number of Asian restaurants Thursday in State College, and at least 13 people have been detained in what one federal official says is an investigation of undocumented workers.
Investigators at one scene said the activity is part of a targeted federal investigation, but declined further comment.
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security truck is at the State College police department and officials there referred questions to immigration and customs enforcement investigators.
State Attorney General’s office investigators are also reported to be involved.
Counties constituting the Happy Valley Region of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
STATE COLLEGE, PA — The area behind the Food Bank of State College on South Atherton Street looked more like a miniature farm Friday than a parking lot.
It was full of broccoli, cabbage, eggplant, lettuce, tomato, squash and herb plants for food bank clients to plant in their own gardens.
Members of Penn State Master Gardeners, Centre County Office of Adult Services and Nutrition Links teamed up with the food bank for the annual Home Grown Project.
For the past five years, the event has helped a few hundred local families better understand the food they consume, master gardener Norman Knaub said.
Counties constituting the Happy Valley Region of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
STATE COLLEGE, PA — Police have identified the 33-year-old man who plunged to his death Thursday afternoon from a seventh-floor balcony on South Allen Street.
Beau Rodgers Griffis died in the fall, State College police said in a brief statement Friday morning.
Police released no other new details in the statement, and said an investigation continues.
Griffis lived in a seventh-floor unit in the building at 310 S. Allen St.
Counties constituting the Happy Valley Region of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It’s approaching two years since Penn State, in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, took down the Joe Paterno statue and carted the likeness of the legendary football coach off into nearby Beaver Stadium.
The university has been tight-lipped since then about what became of the statue, and hasn’t said much more than that publicly about how it plans to treat Paterno’s legacy moving forward.
Tired of waiting, several State College residents say they are moving forward with plans to bring their own statue of the man to downtown State College.
“This is something we can do on our own schedule,” said Ted Sebastianelli, a candidate for the Penn State board of trustees and one of the locals behind an effort to create a new Paterno statue. “We don’t have to wait.”
Counties constituting the Happy Valley Region of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
COLLEGE TOWNSHIP, PA — To his knowledge, John Sanchez is the only American Indian faculty member at Penn State and when his kids were in the elementary and high school system, they were the only American Indian students.
Though he loves his job, Sanchez uses the annual traditional American Indian powwow as a way to recharge his batteries and interact with other Indians.
After this year, he will have to have to find another way to do that.
The 11th annual event took place at Mount Nittany Middle School on Saturday and Sunday, but Sanchez, the event coordinator, said it will be the last. Moving closer to retirement, Sanchez said the event planning takes too much time on top of his job teaching media ethics in the College of Communications and his distinguished professorship with the Schreyer Honors College.
Counties constituting the Happy Valley Region of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A Patton Township woman was arrested Friday on heroin distribution charges.
Tiffany Ingram, 33, of Fredericksburg Court, was charged by the Office of Attorney General’s Bureau of Narcotics Investigation, according to a news release.
Ingram was charged along with Landare Hines, 37, after a search of his Harrisburg home, according to the news release. The bust was part of an ongoing investigation into the distribution of heroin in central Pennsylvania.
At the residence, agents seized 71 bags of heroin packaged for delivery and 11 grams of heroin not yet packaged for delivery, with a total street value of $12,420, according to the AG. They also seized approximately $1,600 in cash.
Counties constituting the Happy Valley Region of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Police arrested 10 people for drug possession and distribution offenses, marking the second phase in the dismantling of a heroin ring operating in Centre and Lycoming counties, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced Thursday.
Evidence and testimony regarding the alleged drug network was presented to a statewide investigating grand jury, which recommended the criminal charges.
The grand jury found a New York heroin and cocaine source was living in Pleasant Gap and using residents to make drug deliveries in the State College and Williamsport areas, according to prosecutors. Investigators said agents used court-ordered wiretaps to determine area users and dealers were also getting heroin from contacts in Philadelphia and Williamsport.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/Alleged_heroin_ring_bust_nets_10.html#oA5Wd1EHG1HqFzOj.99
Counties constituting the Happy Valley Region of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The new Penn State football coach is coming home, in a sense.
James Franklin, who grew up in the Philly suburbs, will be leading the Nittany Lions when they open their 2014 season in Ireland’s Croke Park.
A news release on Penn State’s athletics website indicates that Franklin, who has led a stunning building project at Vanderbilt, will be announced today as the Lions’ 16th head coach in program history. (Technically, he is the fifth since November of 2011 when counting interim leaders).
Franklin, who turns 42 next month, also is the first permanent African-American head football ever at Penn State.
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