Down River

By John Lipez

Maybe Rethink This One?
You sense there’s something amiss when it comes to the City of Lock Haven and its policy towards eating establishments and outside dining requests?

The topic hit the front page recently when Nick Hawrylchak, owner of The Broken Axe at Bald Eagle and Liberty Streets, went before City Council and asked how another eating establishment, just a couple blocks away, was able to get half a city block barricaded off for summer weekends while he not too long ago met with something of a barricade from City Hall while trying to pursue some creative dining options outside his establishment.

Hawrylchak raised some valid concerns, presenting a detailed case for the city to reassess how outdoor dining/street blocking requests are handled. Hopefully that will flow from his recent appearance before council.

It says here it is fairly remarkable that the city has allowed the closure of half a city block for one downtown restaurant this during summer weekends. No one should begrudge The Old Corner Grill and Bottle Shop owner Shaun Dale from asking, but it’s somewhat surprising the city has given its okay to such a large scale request.

Think of other cities and how they have handled outdoor dining. A couple come to mind, New York City and State College Borough. We’ve seen temporary strip dining areas set up along the sidewalks or in the parking lane adjacent to the sidewalk in both. That option creates a nice warm-weather outdoor dining option and does not disrupt or stop the flow of vehicular traffic.

City Hall should relook how these decisions are made, what parameters might be imposed on applicants. There appears to be something of a double standard at work. The Old Corner gets a green light for its street concerts (an unmitigated success; no question about that and again, more power to entrepreneur Dale). The previous Old Corner owner tells Down River it took him nearly two decades just to get city permission to put a couple tables on the sidewalk outside the same business. Now, based on recent council approval, the business already has 2024 permission to shut down the street on weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

And on a related subject, it would be good if City Hall can work even more closely with the Downtown Lock Haven Inc. program and the city’s own summer concert series committee to better coordinate the dates and times for concerts in the downtown; that effort should be done in conjunction and coordination with participating downtown eating establishments desiring to offer outdoor music.

Lock Haven has developed a nicely earned reputation as a great spot for free outdoor music in its downtown in the summer months, a great draw to attract out-of-towners and lots of fun for the locals. But better coordination is needed and there has to be fairness towards all applicants.

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Flaming Foliage Expose II:
Last week Down River broke/regurgitated the news about esteemed Renovo area school board representative James “Butch” Knauff and his exploits when he was crowned the very first Miss America male beauty pageant winner at the Flaming Foliage Festival back in 1980.

Well, here’s another one, not quite as sordid as Mr. Knauff’s escapades, this one from several decades ago.

This time it’s the equally esteemed Mike Flanagan, President/CEO of the Clinton County Economic Partnership.
Tipped off about Flan’s participation, we asked him for his recollections: “My memory is vague, but I think I did win it 30 years ago, edging out Dr. Dave Stratton.” He went on to note that he took part at the request of the late Phyllis Hanobic, the wonderful Renovo lady who had been such a driving force in the success of the Flaming Foliage Festival for many years.

There you have it. Two revered county treasures in positions of authority, nurtured through participation in the Miss America Pageant staged as part of the Flaming Foliage Festival. It’s a small sample size, but the pageant has seemingly emerged as something of a drag counterpoint to the Leadership Clinton County program which has taken a more traditional route in producing future county leaders.