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Sentinel Morning Update: Carlisle council abandons move to community center
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Carlisle Borough Council Monday shifted a municipal office project to neutral so it could put a “road diet” plan into high gear.
Borough Manager Stephen Hietsch said council no longer plans to move offices from the old borough hall at 53 W. South St. to the Stuart Community Center, 415 Franklin St.
A majority of council decided instead to keep the offices at borough hall and allocate up to $700,000 towards repairs and short-term improvements.
They also agreed to budget $700,000 to fund parts of phase one and phase two of a “road diet” project that would reduce Hanover and High streets to one lane in each direction.
Councilmen Perry Heath and Frank Rankin were absent from a budget hearing Monday when the rest of council agreed to advertise the proposed 2009 fiscal plan.
The budget calls for a 10 percent increase in both the property tax and water rates for homeowners. It could come up for a final vote at the Dec. 11 regular meeting.
Under the budget, the tax would increase by .27 mills from the current 2.81 mills to 3.08 mills. Hietsch said the proposed water rate hike would cost about $30 more a year for the average homeowner.
Borough staff had initially allocated $2.4 million in the budget to remodel space at the community center which already houses the parks and recreation department.
That project would have included replacing the fully enclosed, open-air courtyard with a two-story addition with council chambers and a meeting room on the first floor and office and storage space on the second floor.
There were also plans to upgrade the electrical and plumbing systems, install centralized heating and cooling and convert classrooms throughout the former elementary school building into office space.
As an alternative Monday, Director of Public Works Michael Keiser provided council with a preliminary estimate of $433,000 in repairs and upgrades to the old borough hall.
Along with the rest of this story from Sentinel reporter Joseph Cress, here's what else to look for in today’s print and on-line editions:
Drivers remember fatal 2006 crash
It has been more than two years since the Lower Allen Township crash that killed Samuel Maravich, but other drivers who were headed east on Route 581 about 5:15 p.m. on July 12, 2006, still remember it.
“It was stop-and-go traffic that day,” said Maurice Titus, a tractor-trailer driver from Harrisburg who didn’t have a trailer that day.
Traffic near the Interstate 83 split had reached a standstill, Titus said, and when he glanced into his rearview mirrors while stopping, he saw a tractor-trailer driven by Michael Dean Lash, 42, of Harrisburg.
“I could see that he’s going way too fast,” Titus said. “I kept looking back, looking back, waiting for the impact.”
He didn’t see it, he said, but he heard a crunch at the first impact, and then more noises as the tractor-trailer hit other vehicles. Titus went back to check on Lash and the drivers of three vehicles were hit, he said, and they told him they were okay, but that the crash had pushed a red car over the concrete wall of the overpass and down onto Hummel Avenue.
Maravich, 58, of Steelton, was not wearing a seat belt, according to Cumberland County Coroner Mike Norris, and he died on the scene of multiple traumatic injuries sustained in the crash.
Reports that Lash was driving too fast and the fact that five of the tractor and trailer’s 10 brakes were found to be not functional or not connected led prosecutors to the charges of homicide by vehicle and involuntary manslaughter, said Cumberland County Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Sibert.
“This case is a prime example of why there are rules of the road,”
Sibert said, noting that there are special rules for tractor-trailer drivers “to keep other drivers safe.”
Regulations require truckers to check their rigs before and after each trip, Sibert said: “Either the defendant ignored them, or he didn’t do a very good job of checking them.”
Both options speak to the essential question of the case, Sibert told the jury, explaining that the charges in question do not require a finding that an action was planned – just that there was reckless or grossly negligent conduct.
Election records for county to be open to public Wednesday
Cumberland County records from the 2008 General Election are expected to go on public display Wednesday and could be certified Monday.
The election board will meet today to accept the numbers and will keep the results available for five days to anyone that wishes to check them, according to Bethany Salzarulo, elections specialist with the county Bureau of Elections.
“Once it’s on display, as far as we know, we’re done,” she said.
The election board, which is made up of the county commissioners, would then certify the records at Monday’s scheduled meeting.
Remaining ballots cast by military personnel serving overseas, estimated to be about 30, will be counted Wednesday and added to the final tally, Salzarulo explained.
This year’s election produced a 75 percent voter turnout in Cumberland County — compared to about 74 percent in 2004.
An increase in voter registration — most notably at local colleges and universities — is largely credited for the county’s ballot bump.
In the last presidential election, there were about 138,000 registered voters. This time around, a record 152,349 people were registered to vote on Election Day in Cumberland County. That translated to 114,258 votes cast, up from 106,687 four years ago.
Tuesday’s election made history as the nation elected its first African-American president in Democrat Barack Obama.
New recycling center to open in Southampton
A recycling facility should be open in January in Southampton Township, Cumberland County, giving Shippensburg-area residents easier access to recycling.
The center is a cooperative venture between township supervisors and the Cumberland County Recycling and Waste Authority.
Tom Imphong, director of the authority, says the county will provide three containers, haul the recyclable material and contract with a buyer. The township will provide space for the facility.
Currently, the Borough of Shippensburg is the only municipality in the area that provides recycling service, collecting materials at curbside weekly.
Recycling in Southampton Township will be voluntary. Users must deliver material to the site, which will be located to the rear of the township office at Airport and Hershey roads.
The three 7-foot-tall containers, measuring 8-by-22 feet, will be a fenced location secured by a gate, Supervisor Tom Ginnick says.
Hours of operation will be set later, Ginnick says, but the center will be open during regular weekday hours, at a minimum.
The containers will have slots in the side at a height of about 4 feet, and materials do not have to be sorted before depositing.
Imphong says the “single stream” system (once known as commingling) accepts paper, cardboard, glass, plastic and metal.
The center will be open to residents throughout Cumberland County and to Shippensburg residents who live in Franklin County.
“The idea is to remove recyclable material from the waste stream, so we encourage anyone to use it,” Imphong says.
Instructions for use of the containers and the preparation of recyclable material will be posted on the containers and on signs at the center, according to Imphong.
Morning Update
The Sentinel Morning Update runs every weekday by 8 a.m. to take a look at what we have planned for our newspaper and Web site. Feel free to offer any suggestions, questions or feedback to jpratt@cumberlink.com
