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Sentinel Morning Update: North Middleton looks for help from state police
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North Middleton Township supervisors asked police Chief Jeff Rudolph to look into requesting help from the state police in future traffic, and particularly speed, monitoring during Monday’s meeting.
Although supervisors Dennis Hurley and Bob Reisinger were not at the meeting, the board has expressed interest in the troopers’ patrol system for several months.
The township’s work on next year’s budget sparked the invitation to Lt. James Scott of the Pennsylvania State Police’s Carlisle station to talk about the troopers’ area of coverage.
“We don’t have any problem coming in and working with any agency,” he said. However, the troopers will not initiate that partnership if the area has its own police.
For a township like North Middleton that has its own full-time police, state police only stop law breakers as the troopers pass through on their way to somewhere else, Scott said.
It only falls to the state police to respond to calls if an area does not have its own police force, and that led to concerns from the supervisors during the creation of the 2009 tentative budget.
“We’ve been wanting to talk about this issue for quite some time,” said board Chairman Richard Bucher. “It’s been weighing on us.”
Although board members stressed that they appreciated the work of the North Middleton Township Police Department, they added that the officers are stretched thin and could use a hand.
The supervisors also wanted to make sure they were getting what state police assistance they could to augment local officers.
Township residents pay as much in state taxes as anyone else in Pennsylvania, said board Vice Chairman Robert Shearer. It’s only fair that they get the same amount of service in return.
North Middleton’s financial resources are limited, he said, and if the township can get by without hiring more officers it would be best.
“We’re like the little boy sticking his finger in the dike,” Shearer said. “We only have so many police officers.”
Along with the rest of this story from Sentinel reporter Kelly Wilson, here's what else to look for in today’s print and on-line editions:
Local data backup business joins national company
Four years ago, three former tech employees came together from two different technology-centered backgrounds to form one of Carlisle’s more successful startup companies.
With information technology experience from Ian Berry and Lindsay Snider, and Guy Suter’s tech-based marketing skills, the little data backup business caught on fast.
“There are a lot of reasons for data loss,” Suter said, including theft, machines breaking and, as the hurricanes of the past few years have shown, natural disasters.
BitLeap set up shop in the Murata Business Center at the end of Lincoln Street and quickly became a prominent figure, even offering advice to its smaller neighbors in the building.
They started upstairs in the main part of the building, but when they started struggling to get several adjacent suites, the whole company renovated the basement and moved in.
Most recently, BitLeap became part of Barracuda Networks, a California-based company that calls itself “The worldwide leader in e-mail and Web security.”
“They are quite a bit larger than us,” Berry said. For the little company, it’s a great opportunity to grow the product and reach more customers.
BitLeap got its start with funding from Ben Franklin Technology Partners, a state-wide company devoted to helping technological businesses get started.
“What we think of in terms of technology is something you can protect,” said Elizabeth Wilson, BFPArtners director of marketing at the main office in Erie.
BitLeap has since paid that money back with interest, but the founders said Ben Franklin gave them more than just cash through its mentoring and answering the new company’s questions about starting in the business.
Life skills classes give thanks to school staff
Thanksgiving is about family and traditions for most people.
But for a group of special education students at Eagle View Middle School, it’s also about learning real-life skills.
Last week, a pair of life skills support classes — 18 students in grades sixth through eighth — planned, prepared and served an entire Thanksgiving meal for select school staff and district administrators.
“It’s a really good learning experience for the kids,” said Mary Jane Gnatt, a life-skills teacher and lead organizer of the project, which has been an annual tradition at the Cumberland Valley middle school for five years.
The goal is to teach students about decision making, following recipes, learning shopping skills, planning a budget and the social aspects of hosting an event between table setting and holiday decorating.
It’s also about building social skills, including interaction with adults, Gnatt explained. “And it’s fun,” she added.
The festive week for the students started on Tuesday, she noted, with the planning of the Thanksgiving menu and shopping for the ingredients.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the students made homemade applesauce and pies with scratch-made crusts, a favorite of 13-year-old Alexis Johnson, who enjoyed making, and later eating, the chocolate pie.
Friday was the big day, as the students made the bulk of the meal — three turkeys, 20 pounds of mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes and green bean casserole.
Teachers and classroom aides assisted in the process, but the students made all of the food.
“They have their hands in everything,” Gnatt said.
When the students were asked about their favorite part of making the meal, answers varied.
Eighth-grader Heather Barry, 14, said she liked preparing the turkey.
Elizabeth Brown, 11, a sixth-grader at the school, said she enjoyed doing the mashed potatoes and said making the pie crust was “easy,” despite it being her first time.
Mechanicsburg student donates over 100 toys
For a real early holiday shopping experience, try starting on Dec. 26.
That’s what Mechanicsburg’s Candice Funk, 17, did this year as part of her Toys for Tots donation effort. Her family has always donated to the program, but this year Candice took it to a whole new level.
“She said she was on a mission,” said George Funk, a retired Marine. “I was proud of her.”
The final count for the new toys is 102, the culmination of almost a year of gathering a few at a time whenever a store had a toy sale.
She did all the work on the project, she said, funded in winter and spring by her savings from jobs like the one she held at the Yankee Candle Company, then by her job at the pool in the summer and a 15-hour-a-week job at Weis supermarket.
“Every payday I take a little out of my paycheck and say, ‘Let’s go to Toys ‘R Us,’” Candice said.
The idea came near Christmas last year when Candice got to thinking about the sales she saw just after the holidays. She thought about Toys for Tots and she decided to make her move.
“All these toys are on sale,” she said, “why wouldn’t you get them now?”
The first toys she bought came from the Disney Store, which had extra reductions in prices because it was closing.
The added bonus there was that the toys were big, name-brand items but they were still affordable enough for Candice to get several in one trip.
In the end, almost no two toys were the same and Candice made sure their target audiences stretched across ages, interests and sexes.
Some children are going to be very happy this Christmas, she said.
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
