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Prison Expansion
03 Election Results
Inauguration Day
Recipes
People Above Politics
Taking
Action, Getting Results.
2501 Cumberland St., Lebanon PA 17042
274-1175
If you demand open government, drop me a note to receive email
alerts informing you of meeting highlights that let you know how commissioners
vote on issues. Litz@mbcomp.com
Team Litz:
Honorary Chair: Lt.
Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll
Chair: Jeff Werner
Treasurer: Richelle Whitman
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PRESS ROOM
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Redevelopment plan dealt death blow
BY AL WINN /
Of Our Lebanon County Bureau, 11/15/07
LEBANON l A plan to build 20 townhouses on a
former industrial site is dead, according to
the head of the Lebanon Housing Authority.
The Lebanon County Commissioners said
Thursday that they would not lend the
housing authority $500,000 for the project
at Seventh and Mifflin streets.
Bryan Hoffman, the housing authority’s
executive director, said his agency had
found $3 million in other financing for the
site, but needed the loan from the county to
build the homes.
The commissioners voted 2-1 against
providing the loan Thursday.
“Basically it’s dead,” Hoffman said of
the project.
Hoffman asked commissioners to lend the
$500,000 at 2 percent interest for 15 years.
“That just seems like an inordinate
amount of money,” county Commissioner Larry
Stohler said.
“We could put this money to better use,”
Commissioner Bill Carpenter said.
Hoffman said he knew the project was
expensive. The lot has some environmental
problems that need to be cleaned up.
Lebanon Mayor Bob Anspach, who arranged
purchase of the lot in 2004, said he was
disappointed by the vote.
“This was a project that would have had a
significant effect on the whole
neighborhood,” he said.
“If the project falls apart, county
commissioners would need to accept
responsibility,” he said.
Commissioner Jo
Ellen Litz, who supported the loan, called
it “a missed opportunity.”
She said the county
can save farmland by taking advantage of
chances to build in the city.
The project was to be built at the former
site of Textile Printing, which closed in
1972.
For the next three decades, the building
slowly crumbled into piles of rubble and
broken walls.
In 2004 the city bought the land for
$60,000 and spent $168,000 more, most of it
federal money, to clear the site.
AL WINN: 832-2090
or awinn@patriot-news.com
Tuesday, February 27, 2007,
BY AL WINN,
Of Our Lebanon County Bureau
JONESTOWN - It's not quite an
ultimatum, but state officials are pushing
hard to persuade the Swatara Twp.
supervisors to surrender control of 21/2
miles of Old State Road in Swatara State
Park.
The state wants to close the road to
vehicle traffic and convert it to a trail
for hikers and cyclists. It is seen as a
key to implementing a 4-year-old master
plan for the park, said Chris Novak,
spokeswoman for the Department of
Conservation and Natural Resources.
The supervisors have opposed giving up
the road, saying residents have told them
they would like it to remain open.
The state is using both the carrot and
the stick when it comes to persuading the
supervisors to part with the road.
As a compromise, the state has offered
to open the road to vehicular traffic a
few days a month.
If the township doesn't accept the
compromise, the road might be taken
through condemnation proceedings. Or state
officials might walk away from their
development plans and "leave the park the
way it is," Novak said.
The supervisors said they will hold a
hearing on a request to give up the road
March 8. Supervisor Reginald Daubert said
he didn't know if the supervisors would
vote on the request at that meeting.
It will be at least the fifth meeting
the township has held since December 2005
on the state's request.
The state completed its master plan for
the park in 2003 and has about $4 million
to begin work on a first phase, Novak
said.
Phase 1 includes trails, including the
multi-use trail, rest rooms and water at
trail heads, and two foot bridges across
Swatara Creek to connect what is now Old
State Road to an existing rail trail on
the other side of the stream. The plan
also calls for picnic areas and a
maintenance building.
Resident Karen Light lives on Old State
Road near the portion of the road the
state would close. She and other area
residents have been arguing since
December 2005 that closing the road to
vehicles in order to make way for
bicycles, in-line skaters, and hikers
would make it off-limits to older and
disabled residents.
The state would open the road to
vehicle traffic the second Friday and
Saturday each month and the fourth
Friday and Saturday in March and
October. The road could also be opened
to vehicles during special occasions,
according to an e-mail message from
Bureau of State Parks Director John
Norbeck to Lebanon County Commissioner
Jo Ellen Litz in December.
The offer still stands, with one
caveat: The state would not plow the
road in the winter, Novak said. The
state is willing to put the compromise
in writing if township supervisors agree
to turn over the road, she said.
Light said she wasn't satisfied with
the offer.
"Bottom line, we want the road to
stay open," she said.
Litz would like to see the township
accept the compromise. The development
of the park is at stake, she said.
"We have waited too long and invested
too much time and effort to let this
slip through our fingers. I have worked
for decades to see this park become a
reality," she wrote Friday in an e-mail
message.
The state has owned the 3,500-acre
state park since 1969. The park is
undeveloped except for a rail trail that
runs the length of the park across the
creek from Old State Road.
AL WINN: 832-2090 or
awinn@patriot-news.com
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Swatara Twp. supervisors are
holding a hearing on a state request to
turn over 21/2 miles of Old State Road
in Swatara State Park. WHEN: 6:30 p.m.,
March 8. WHERE: Swatara Twp. building,
Old Route 22 and Supervisors Drive.
Historic Bordner Cabin Spared
Author: DAVID MEKEEL Staff Writer Lebanon Daily News
Date: August 4, 2006
Publication: Daily News, The
(Lebanon, PA)
It's official: A historic, hand-built cabin in Swatara State
Park has been saved.
The Swatara Creek Watershed Association received a signed
lease last week for the Armar Bordner
Cabin, a nearly 70-year-old
log-and-stone structure built by a
former teacher, from the state
Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources, which oversees the Bureau of
State Parks. The agreement gives control
of the cabin to the watershed
association for 10 years at a cost of $1
per year.
The cabin is located off Old State Road about 3 miles
northeast of the Inwood Bridge.
“We have the final lease in our hands,” said Jo Ellen Litz, a
county commissioner who is also
president of the watershed association.
“We’re extremely excited to get this
project started.”
The project that Litz referred to is turning the dilapidated
cabin into a structure stable enough to
be opened to the public. The cabin had
been used by the Boy Scouts, who took
over after Bordner vacated it in the
1970s (the last holdout when the state
took the surrounding land to create the
part), but has sat empty for several
years. Vandals and Mother Nature have
not been kind to the building, leaving
it with smashed windows and doors—which
have since been removed, a hole in the
roof and graffiti spray-painted on many
of its interior and exterior walls.
Because of its poor condition, DCNR had planned to raze the
cabin. But an upswell of interest from
local residents and groups interested in
preserving it forced a change of plans.
Litz said that the most urgent concern is the roof, which
needs to be repaired right away. Plans
are already under way for the project,
Litz said, but the watershed association
is in need of financial help to finish
the job. Although the Elk Corporation
in Jackson Township has donated
shingles, and the Lowe’s in Lebanon has
promised $100 worth of supplies, she
said, another $5,000 is still needed.
We hope that people will be able to dig deep and give us a
few dollars,” Litz pleaded.
Several wood posts on the cabin’s porch also need to be
replaced immediately, Litz said, and
signs need to be put in the area.
Securing insurance for the property is
also a priority, she added.
Along with financial help, the watershed association is also
looking for anyone who would like to
donate their time volunteering for
various projects at the site.
“Beyond repairing the roof, I see projects that would make a
great Eagle Scout project or (high
school) senior project,” Litz said.
The Bordner cabin will also be part of an adoption program,
where local groups can sign up to care
for the property for a month at a time.
Litz said the watershed association is
working to create a 5-year adoption
schedule.
“It’s community ownership,” she said.
Anyone interested in volunteering or donating to the project
can contact the Swatara Creek Watershed
Association at 2501 Cumberland St.,
Lebanon PA., 17042 or by email at:
swatara@mbcomp.com .
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The Swatara Creek Watershed
Association is moving closer
to saving a dilapidated,
historic log cabin in Swatara
State Park.
Jo Ellen Litz, a Lebanon
County commissioner who is
president of the watershed
association, said the
environmental group has looked
over a preliminary lease
agreement for the Armar
Bordner cabin provided by the
state Department of
Conservation and Natural
Resources, which currently
owns the structure, and feels
that a deal can be struck.
Bordner built the cabin in
1939, hewing the massive logs
by hand, and lived there until
the 1970s. He was the last
holdout when the state took
the surrounding land by
eminent domain to create the
state park. The cabin was most
recently used by Boy Scout
troops but has fallen into
disrepair since the Scouts’
lease ran out several years
ago. The building needs, among
other things, a new roof and
new doors and windows. It has
also been damaged by vandals,
who painted graffiti on its
log walls.
As part of the master plan to
develop the park, the DCNR
planned to tear down the
cabin. But, the watershed
association has fought to
preserve it, saying that it’s
a hand-built treasure that
warrants saving.
At a meeting yesterday
morning, Litz said, the
association decided to move
forward with the lease
agreement — which would give
the cabin to the watershed
association for 10 years at no
cost — by contacting DCNR and
requesting that a formal
document be drawn.
“We’ve discussed it and see no
reason why we shouldn’t ask
DCNR to move ahead,” Litz
explained.
Litz credited the DCNR with
listening to other opinions
before sealing the fate of the
cabin.
“I commend DCNR. They have
just been terrific,” she said.
“They listened impartially and
open-mindedly. We are grateful
for the opportunity to save
the cabin.”
Although the cabin may have
received a reprieve from
bulldozing, plans for a major
restoration effort are not
likely in the near future,
Litz said.
Some concerns must be
addressed immediately to
ensure the building is safe,
including putting new support
beams under the porch, but
other repairs will likely
wait, Litz explained. The
building has no windows or
doors, and the watershed
association will not replace
them, opting instead to use
the structure as an open-air
facility.
“It will essentially be a
pavilion or pagoda or gazebo,”
she said. “Right now, the use
will just be a destination on
the (park’s) heritage trail.”
Litz said the cabin would be
open from dawn to dusk, just
like the park.
But, she cautioned, more work
needs to be done before
anything happens with the
cabin. First, because the
lease would not go into effect
until Jan. 1, the watershed
association plans to ask the
DCNR for permission to start
working on the building in
advance. The group must also
start raising funds to pay for
repairs, upkeep and liability
insurance.
Litz said the watershed
association would like to do
more with the cabin, perhaps
turning it into an
environmental center, but that
would probably cost hundreds
of thousands of dollars and be
years away from happening.
DaveMekeel@LDNews.com
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LEBANON
Watershed group to lease log structure from state
Friday, June 02, 2006
BY BARBARA MILLER
Of Our Palmyra Bureau
The compromise has been struck to
preserve the Armar Bordner cabin in
Swatara State Park, as the Swatara
Creek Watershed Association voted
Wednesday to lease the 67-year-old
log structure from the state.
The association plans to sign a
10-year lease with the state
Department of Conservation and
Natural Resources, said Lebanon
County Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz.
No rent would be charged, but the
watershed association will need to
increase its liability insurance and
raise money for repairs, she said.
"It has been such a long trip. It is
very rewarding to see them come
around the way they have," Litz said
of the state agency.
The state had been planning to
disassemble the cabin and recycle
the logs in a Schuylkill County park
when Litz and others asked for it to
remain.
Volunteers and organizations will be
sought to "adopt" the cabin for a
month out of the year to help
prevent vandalism and pick up
litter. The cabin would be open from
dawn to dusk, just as the park is,
Litz said.
The association would also like the
cabin listed on the Heritage Trail
in the park to let visitors know its
significance.
Since the cabin, without windows,
falls under the category of an
open-air pavilion, it does not have
to be made handicapped-accessible,
Litz said. This could change as more
work is done on the cabin if money
become available.
The cabin is along Old State Road,
which also became involved in
controversy as the state proposed to
close a four-mile stretch to traffic
in Swatara and Bethel townships and
turn it into a trail for hiking,
bicycling and horseback riding.
The state is working on a compromise
to open the road a few times a year,
in response to urging by neighbors
who said it should stay open so
elderly and people with handicaps
can get into the center of the park.
Litz previously said the cabin's
possible uses include being a
shelter for through-hikers on the
Appalachian Trail, a chapel,
educational center or simply a rest
spot to gaze upon the creek's
waterfalls.
BARBARA MILLER: 832-2090 or
barbmiller@patriot-news.com
Kudos for
Litz... (Daily News Editorial)
It
must have been hard for Lebanon
County Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz to
stifle the "I- told-you-so."
It
was over Litz's objections that her
fellow-commissioners...last month
voted to order touch-screen voting
machines from a company called
AccuPoll. Whether acting more
on intuition or insight--all she
said was that she had concerns about
the company's financial status--Litz
supplied the dissenting vote in a
mid-December split decision in favor
of AccuPoll
It
turned out to be a bad decision.
This week, the commissioners learned
that AccuPoll had decided to back
out of the deal.
AccuPoll was a little wafty about
the whole affair, and Lord knows
when the commissioners would have
found out about the problem but for
Litz, who heard somewhere about a
county in Texas that had been left
hanging by AccuPoll. That was
earlier this month, and it prompted
county officials to begin asking
questions. The answers were
not good.
On
Thursday, the commissioners voted to
give the contract to a different
vendor, Nebraska-based Electronic
Systems & Software. The vote
was unanimous....
Kudos to Litz, gracious in victory.
September 13, 2005
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By RICHARD FELLINGER,
Staff Writer, Lebanon
Daily News
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HARRISBURG —...Litz
testified before the House
Tourism and Recreational
Development Committee on a
bill from Rep. Ron Marsico,
R-Dauphin....
Lebanon County and East
Hanover Township could get
slots proceeds under the
2004 law — a combined total
of several hundred thousand
dollars a year — but it’s
not certain because the law
is vague.
About 22.5 acres of the
land owned by Penn National
Gaming Inc. is in East
Hanover Township, Lebanon
County, but the racetrack
and another 600 acres
belonging to Penn National
are in Dauphin County’s
neighboring East Hanover
Township.
The
law gives money to counties
and municipalities with part
of “the licensed facility,”
but the definition of what
constitutes the licensed
facility has yet to be
settled.
Litz testified with Doug
Hill of the County
Commissioners Association of
Pennsylvania, who said he
has not heard an official
explanation of how the law
treats counties such as
Lebanon.
“That was overlooked when
the bill was put together,”
said committee Chairman
Robert Godshall,
R-Montgomery.
Litz said Lebanon County
will be affected by slots
because of sewer runoff from
Penn National into the
Swatara watershed and
increased traffic on roads
such as I-81. The added
traffic will mean more
accidents and 911 calls, she
said.
Lebanon County will also
face added costs for its
court system, drug and
alcohol treatment and other
human services, she said.
“So you can see how this
really builds,” Litz said.
Marsico said Lebanon
County deserves a small
share of slots proceeds, but
he said the real issue is
ensuring that townships get
their fair share when
hosting a slots parlor.
Current law caps the
amount a township gets at
half of its annual budget,
and his bill would remove
the cap.
Marsico’s bill is not
expected to move as a
stand-alone bill, but he
hopes to include his plan in
an omnibus slots bill if
legislative leaders assemble
one. The omnibus bill would
address several slots issues
and reduce the chances that
anti-slots lawmakers can
repeal or weaken the slots
law.
Lebanon County Rep. Pete
Zug said he’ll push for
language in the omnibus bill
to ensure Lebanon County
gets its share of slots
proceeds. He believes the
definition of “licensed
facility” should include all
contiguous land owned by the
gaming company. |
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Society welcomes Commissioner Litz |
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Date: August 15, 2005
Publication: Daily News, The
(Lebanon, PA)
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By KAREN SHUEY Staff Writer
BUNKER HILL With their
distinctive red hats and bright
purple outfits, members of the
Strawberry Red Hatters gathered
yesterday to initiate County
Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz as an
honorary member.
"I wanted to make Jo Ellen an
honorary member because she has
always been a good and trustworthy
friend to me," said Bunny Yinger,
founder, or "Queen Mother," of the
local chapter of the national Red
Hat Society. |
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Water
trail grows with the flow |
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Date: June 20, 2005
Publication: Daily News, The
(Lebanon, PA)
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Staff Writer INWOOD -- Up the creek has
a whole new meaning for paddling
enthusiasts in the Lebanon Valley.
Eighteen miles have been added to the
upstream end of the Swatara Creek Water
Trail, and, with the cooperation of
several organizations, a project has
been completed to make the waterway more
user-friendly.
New public-access points were created
at seven locations along the creek and
marked with signs. The signs feature map
boxes for visitors and those planning to
use the waterway |
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'Our Town': It's 35
visions but a single focus |
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Date: April 24, 2005
Publication: Daily News, The (Lebanon, PA)
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Eighteen teams, with a total of 35 videographers, worked
separately to produce "Our Town: Annville," which will
air on WITF on Monday, June 6. Here is a complete list
of the participants and their subjects. Shawn Burke,
Gail Karabatsos and Mike Yanchuk Harrisburg Annville
Running Dementia, the town's pre-dawn marathon runners.
Donna Custer and Liz Lingle Annville's retirement
homes.
Doris Flory and Mark Seeger the town's fire
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Business effort made all
winners |
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Date: March 25, 2005
Publication: Daily News, The (Lebanon, PA)
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Editor: The Lebanon Valley Chamber of Commerce, Lebanon
Valley Mall and sponsors of the recent "Apprentice
Challenge" are to be commended for creating a fun, exciting
and practical learning experience that showcases our best
and brightest students in Lebanon County.
Unlike the television series, all of the participants
were winners, and each student received recognition for a
job well done. Thank you for touching so many young lives in
such a positive way. |
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May 20, 2005
Commissioner spurned in
bid to add planners
By JOHN LATIMER, Staff Writer
An effort by Lebanon County Commissioner Bill Carpenter to add three
men to the county's Comprehensive Plan Task Force was struck down
yesterday.
Carpenter nominated Lebanon Valley Farmers Bank President Andy
Marhevsky, public accountant Tom Siegel and attorney George Christianson
to join the 15-member panel. Siegel and Christianson both own a
significant amount of land in the county.
While Commissioners Larry Stohler and Jo Ellen Litz acknowledged that
the men are qualified, they voted against their appointment -- but for
different reasons.
The search to fill the task force began in October when Lebanon
County Planning Department Director Earl Meyer put a call out for
volunteers willing to be involved in the creation of the plan for the
next two years. About 25 people applied, and 15 members were appointed
in December. Many of those not selected were put on a replacement list.
At the time of their appointment, Meyer said, the group represented a
cross-section of public officials and community leaders with expertise
in a variety of areas that will be addressed in the plan. Since being
assembled, the task force has met three times at open public meetings.
Litz yesterday said it would be unfair to those who had not been
selected in December to appoint new members now. She pointed out that
several of those people who had not been selected have been regularly
attending the task-force meetings. She suggested increasing the size of
the task force and opening those slots to all who are interested. That
motion was also defeated.
"I think we need to have everybody's confidence in this process," she
said. "First, we need to expand the size of the committee. We had
established the size of the committee on Oct. 7, 2004. Then we should
open up the process and establish a new deadline to accept and consider
additional appointments for nomination from a pool of interested
people."
Carpenter disputed the need for having a formal motion to expand the
task force. He said he would consider adding more members to the task
force if they expressed interest to the board of commissioners
subsequent to the appointments of Marhevsky, Siegel and Christianson.
Stohler agreed with Carpenter that the size of the task force could
be adjusted at any time but, he said, the current makeup of the task
force is working well, and there is no need to add new members.
"These people all have the opportunity to go to the meetings when the
committee meets," he said. "They are given an opportunity to speak and
voice their opinion. I suggest we just hold off and keep these names, as
well as other names of some of the people that had applied originally
that weren't selected, for when they have a vacancy. ... From what I can
tell, the committee is functioning well and is doing its job."
The task force's next meeting is scheduled for 3-5 p.m. June 21 in
Room 3 of the Lebanon Valley Agricultural Center, 2120 Cornwall Road,
North Cornwall Township. |
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Wednesday, May 18, 2005
DEP warns of dangers at
abandoned quarries
By DAVID MEKEEL, Staff Writer
...Because of large number of unregulated mines -- many located on private
property and not properly identified -- the state has had a history of tragedy.
According to statistics compiled by the DEP and the U.S. Mine Safety and Health
Administration, there have been 38 fatalities at mines and quarries in
Pennsylvania since 1989.
County Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz, who volunteers with her husband as a
rescue diver and who has helped on numerous searches in water-filled quarries,
said she knew of at least three people who had died in the quarry near the mall
since 1978.
Litz told the crowd about how difficult search-and-rescue operations are in
quarries, explaining that drowning victims can usually only be saved within the
first hour after being submerged. She stressed the importance of marking places
where people can enter these dangerous sites. The closer a rescuer can enter to
where a victim did, she said, the better the chance they have for a recovery.
"If you see someone go in, please mark that entrance," she said....
May 6, 2005
Complicated land
deal could hold water for Rexmont Dams
By JOHN LATIMER, Staff Writer
If there were still dams in Rexmont, a lot of water would have passed
over them since a movement to rebuild them hit a logjam about a year
ago.
However, an answer may finally be in sight for resolving the sticking
point in the project finding land that the county can trade with the
state Game Commission in exchange for the dams' site. Ironically, two of
the three county commissioners just last month saw little value in the
land they now have their eyes on a parcel near Mt. Gretna that is also
coveted by the Lebanon County Conservancy because of endangered plant
species growing on it.
It has been so long since the dams, located off Rexmont Road in South
Lebanon Township, have been in the news that many may have forgotten
what the fuss is all about.
The story began in 2000, when the state Game Commission condemned the
upper and lower dams, which were built in the late 1800s as reservoirs
for the city of Lebanon. The lower dam was breached in 2001, and the
upper dam was drained a year later, much to the chagrin of outdoors
types who enjoyed the lakes.
A group calling itself the Friends of the Rexmont Dam quickly mounted
an effort to preserve the dams as water-recreation areas. They were
supported by local government officials, including state Senate Majority
Leader David J. Brightbill, who lobbied for state funding.
In 2003, the county received $400,000 from the Department of
Conservation and Natural Resources and $500,000 from the Department of
Community Development to rehabilitate the dams. The friends group
pledged to raise as much as $75,000, and South Lebanon Township and
Cornwall Borough also promised money for the project.
Separate plans for reconstructing both dams that included building
park facilities were drawn up by engineer Jeff Steckbeck. The estimate
for repairing the lower dam and adding a park was about $1 million. The
work on the upper dam would cost about $500,000. The county approached
them as separate projects and prioritized work on the lower dam.
The final hurdle to beginning the work was finding property adjacent
to state game lands that could be used for a land swap. A total of 50
acres is needed, according to Commissioner Bill Carpenter: 30 for the
lower dam and 20 for the upper.
Some of the money from the state can be used for the purchase, but,
Carpenter said, negotiations with several residents who have property
adjacent to state game lands have been unsuccessful.
Now, the commissioners have hit on the idea of purchasing a
wooded, 100-acre tract in Cornwall between YMCA Camp Shand and state
game lands. They learned last month that the land, which belongs to
Dennis Klinger, was for sale when Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz requested
that the board sign a letter of support for the Lebanon Valley
Conservancy, which was attempting to secure an $87,000 DCNR grant to
purchase it. The asking price for the tract is $135,000.
Initially, Carpenter and Stohler balked at writing such a letter
because about a third of the acreage has been clear-cut for power lines.
They thought the conservancy should set its sights on better land more
threatened by development.
The conservancy, with the help of Chuck Wertz, who is a member of its
board and is also the manager of the Lebanon County Conservation
District, convinced the reluctant commissioners that the land was worth
preserving because several endangered plant species can be found on it.
At yesterday's county commissioners' meeting, Carpenter said county
administrator Jamie Wolgemuth is working with Wertz to enlist the
conservancy's support for the idea of the county obtaining all or part
of Klinger's land.
Because it is in such a preliminary stage, Wolgemuth said, exactly
how it all would work is unclear. The county could purchase the Klinger
land outright, or the conservancy, if it gets a grant, could purchase it
and swap the land on behalf of the county.
Wertz said he took the basic idea back to the conservancy's land and
resources committee when it met on Tuesday. No official action was
taken, but the committee felt the idea has merit, he said.
Neither the game commission nor DCNR has been approached about the
idea, said Wolgemuth, but he is hopeful they would support the county
using the Klinger land for a swap.
"I don't want to get too far ahead here, but DCNR supported the
Rexmont Dam project," he said. |
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District justice won by 7 votes
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
BY TOM BOWMAN, Of Our Lebanon County Bureau
LEBANON - Seven is Catherine Coyle's lucky number.
In 1969, Coyle became the first woman elected district justice in the
county, winning victory by just sevenvotes.
"She framed a big No. 7 and had it hanging in her office the entire
time she was in office," Jo Ellen Litz said in a 14-page history of
women elected to county offices.
Litz, a two-term county commissioner and member of the Lebanon County
Women's Commission, wrote the history as part of Women's History Month,
which is March.
"We wanted to know more about the women in the history of Lebanon
County," Litz said.
"A natural to me would be women who served in public office in the
county. I started just writing down what I knew. Then I went to my
League of Women Voters guide. I have a pretty complete set back to 1983.
I got a lot of information from there, little biographies and names."
Litz's list of women elected to office continued growing. She talked
to people who knew women who had died, then searched through the
Pennsylvania Manuals in the law library and county salary board minutes
dating to the beginning of the county.
"One thing led to another, and I was digging a little deeper," Litz
said. "Then I decided, 'OK, oh gosh, I don't want to hurt someone's
feelings and miss someone.' So I developed a spreadsheet and started
putting in terms of office, and then I e-mailed it to all the school
boards and the townships and boroughs and said, 'Did I miss anyone? Can
you give me any more details?' It just kept going like that."
Months later, Litz saved her research and made several copies on CDs.
In the end, she had detailed the lives of about 100 women.
"It just seems like a service that was worth doing," Litz said. "I
don't want this to sound wrong, but it seems like mostly men write
history books. So they write more about men. So if history books are
going to be written about women, then women are going to have to do the
research."
From her research, Litz learned that, in 1936, Sally McKinney Hartman
became the first woman elected to a county office. Hartman served as
recorder of deeds, retiring in 1967.
Litz said what's interesting about Hartman is that she won the office
just 16 years after women gained the right to vote.
"She was phenomenal," Litz said. "I wish I would have known her. Just
hearing everyone talk about her, what a grand lady she was and how she
truly cared about people. She would ask about your family or your job --
whatever. It wasn't just politics with her. She was a real people
person. It was neat."
What about Coyle and lucky No. 7?
In 1969, in heavily Republican Lebanon County, a committeeperson
asked Democrat Coyle to run for city district justice. After collecting
the needed signatures, she talked with Democratic Party Chairman John
Anspach.
"Lady, you might as well go home. You'll never get elected; you're
just a housewife," she said Anspach told her.
"I said to him, 'Well I'm going to prove to you I'm going to be
elected.' It made me angry," Coyle said. "I went to the next few
meetings, and he wasn't cordial at all. Then he realized that he was
going to have to put up with me. We more or less got along after that."
Election night after the polls closed, Coyle's children gathered
results posted at the polls and found Coyle had won by seven votes.
The next day, the Lebanon Daily News reported that Coyle had lost to
her male Republican opponent by five votes.
Because Anspach refused to call for a recount, Coyle's husband, John,
now deceased, asked the county commissioners to hold a recount. They
agreed, and Coyle won.
The GOP, not ready to give in, asked for another recount. Again,
Coyle won by seven votes.
She served until 1990.
"I do want you to know that after that, I got along with John Anspach,"
Coyle said.
TOM BOWMAN: 272-3759 or tbowman@patriot-news.com
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