Down River – Dec. 3, 2015
Tom and Francois:
Yep, there’s something in common between conservative Mill Hall Mayor Tom Bossert and France’s Socialist President Francois Hollande.
While world leaders were gathering in Paris for climate talks, hoping to find some worldwide agreement to stem global warming, whoever would have guessed that Mill Hall borough council about the same time gathered in the borough building to try and do its part? And while the jury is out on the success of the Paris efforts, Mill Hall residents can look forward to no more smoke drifting over their yards, no more burned paper ashes falling on their newly laundered clothes put out to dry.
It took more than a few years but the current Mill Hall council has moved courageously forward where previous councils had feared to tread: no more burn barrels in the borough!
Mark it down; it was the meeting of Nov. 24, 2015 when council by a near unanimous vote agreed to outlaw outdoor burning of trash. Burn barrels are to be no more. Come the first of the new year they are to be shut down and by Jan. 14 removed from the yards of Mill Hall residents.
The borough has used the term “retired” to talk about the future of the barrels. I am not sure what exactly that means, maybe borough workers loading them on the back of a truck and taking them up the back road to Beech Creek and dumping them along the railroad right-of-way with all the other debris accumulated there over the years.
No matter, it’s a step forward for Mill Hall residents, a small step forward for the environment. There is no claim here to be an expert on burn barrels but the belief is Lock Haven has long outlawed the barrels. And didn’t we recently read that Flemington officials are rolling around to try and find a consensus on the same issue in the land of the Red Eyes?
The Record corporate headquarters in Farwell were contacted to see how outdoor burning is handled in the western end of the county. The initial report is Renovo allows use of a small recreational fire pit or fire place, no big blazes, only wood to be burned, no garbage or paper. Burn barrels are still allowed in South Renovo, but you can only burn on certain days at certain times.
Speaking of the Renovo Area:
Fledgling steps are reported underway on a possible regional police force in the Renovo area. Boroughs and townships surrounding Renovo are said to be in receipt of a “letter of intent,” the first step in the process to determine the feasibility of a regional force for the western end of the county.
While we’re hearing there may be some early grumbling about the prospective costs for the participating municipalities, let’s all be open minded and see what the study shows.
What we do know is that the greater Renovo area does not have adequate police protection. One or two officers at the Bucktail school complex during the school day is not the long-term answer. And it’s understood that Renovo, which is leading the effort to get the regionalization study done, is back to one officer on duty in town, things reported not working out as well as the borough would have hoped with a second recent hire; efforts underway to find a replacement.
And who knows? Maybe if the greater Renovo area can pull this off, it will encourage the Bald Eagle Townships and the Flemingtons of the greater Lock Haven area to join in a study for a regional force in the Lock Haven area.
Lock Haven meanwhile continues to maintain a fairly sizeable department which is needed in a college town. With a new hire earlier this week the force stands at 13. City manager Rich Marcinkevage, who has been involved in the hire of a lot of policemen over his multiple decades as city manager, indicated it is getting more difficult to find those who want to pursue a career in law enforcement. National headlines sadly tell us why almost every day; it can be a tough time to be a cop. And if you’re interested, starting pay for a patrolman on the Lock Haven force is somewhere in the $45,000 range or so.
Odds and Ends:
Still haven’t been able to track down any GOP names who might want to challenge state Rep. Mike Hanna when he goes for a fourteenth term next year…
Speaking of Rep. Hanna, he said there will be a state budget settlement by the middle of this month, one which he said would leave no one happy. He called the likely final document a word similar in its meaning to “poopy” and rhymes with “kitty” and starts with an “sh”…
Mark this down: if Donald Trump wins the Republican Party nomination for President, Democrat Hillary Clinton will win in a romp…
And mark this down: Pennsylvania’s embattled Democratic attorney general Kathleen Kane will not win re-election in 2018 if she’s even still in office at that point…
Good luck to the county commissioners as they map plans for improvement projects in 2016. Here’s hoping the county courthouse makes the list. Come across Veterans Bridge from Lockport at night; the lights on the building’s Water Street side are all but completely out and the courthouse looks as London likely did when the lights were turned off during the German Blitzkreig in World War II. This county should do better for this building. It should be noted the commissioners at their meeting this week said they are looking at grants to assist in a future courthouse upgrade.
