If you demand open government, appreciate
written highlights within hours after a meeting, like the 24/7 access to YouTube
videos of meetings..., drop me a note to receive email
alerts that let you know how commissioners
vote on issues. Litz@mbcomp.com
Thank you for your help and support
during this campaign. Your unwavering commitment is
the wind beneath my wings.
On election day, every vote matters. You
matter! And I can't win this race without you.
These
past four years, it has been an honor and a privilege to represent
all of the people of Lebanon County as your commissioner.
Please consider volunteering today
Jo Ellen Litz
Thank
you for your support of my campaign, and for all that you do.
Sincerely, Jo Ellen
Honorary Chair: Lt.
Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll --a woman who broke the glass ceiling and
contributed greatly to PA politics; born
in 1930, died
November 12, 2008.
The three-term commissioner will be president of the
County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania -
assuming she is re-elected
By JOHN LATIMER, Staff Writer
Lebanon County Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz has been
elected president of the County Commissioners
Association of Pennsylvania for 2012.
Litz, who had been first vice president of CCAP,
was elected to the top position last week at the
organization's 125th annual conference, held in
Somerset County.
While serving on Lebanon County's board for the
past eight years, Litz has been heavily involved in
CCAP, which advocates for policies that support the
state's 67 county boards of commissioners.
Litz's roles include being CCAP's representative
on the Pennsylvania Agricultural Conservation
Easement Board. She also serves on the
organization's Energy, Environment and Land Use
Committee, and she is chairwoman of the Personnel
Committee in charge of reviewing the performance of
CCAP's executive director, Doug Hill.
All of the state's county boards of commissioners
are up for election this year, so Litz's
appointment, like others on the organization's
executive board are dependent on their re-elections.
Litz, who lives in West Lebanon Township, is
running for a fourth term in a four-way race in
which the top three vote-getters will sit on the
board. The other candidates are fellow Democrat
Kathy Pflueger and Republicans Bill Ames and Bob
Phillips.
Litz said she is excited about the opportunity to
lead CCAP. She said its demands will not interfere
with her county responsibilities.
"There is no finer organization anywhere," she
said. "It is a nonpartisan organization, and when we
elect our officers one year we have a Republican and
the next year we have a Democrat - so we rotate our
presidency."
That unwritten policy was put to the test this
year when Litz was challenged by Republican Dauphin
County Commissioner Jeff Haste. Litz said the final
vote tally was not announced, but she was told it
was close.
Being president of CCAP in 2012 will have its
benefits, Litz noted. In addition to the importance
of its being a presidential year, CCAP will also be
host to the National Association of Counties when it
holds a conference in Pittsburgh in July.
Litz's duties will include leading CCAP's three
annual meetings, including June's meeting, which
will be held in Lebanon County by virtue of her
holding the presidency.
"We will be able to showcase Lebanon County, and
I think that will elevate the status of Lebanon
County throughout the state," she said.
Litz's responsibilities will also include leading
CCAP's delegation when it lobbies in Harrisburg. She
said her role as first vice president has prepared
her for that duty, and she is ready for the
challenge of leading CCAP during a period of
government austerity and cutbacks.
"I think that because I do have 12 years of
service under my belt I've probably seen most
everything," she said. "As cuts come down and
government becomes more efficient, we also have to
make sure our legislators are aware of the undue
financial burdens that are placed on county if
resources do not follow state mandates."
Litz said she is also looking forward to working
with Hill in forwarding CCAP's agenda, which
includes expanding counties' taxation options to
include 1 percent levies on sales tax and personal
income tax as an alternative to real estate taxes.
The organization is also focusing on the state
and federal government's declining support for human
services, which counties are mandated to provide.
Hill said Litz has been a strong supporter of
CCAP and predicted she will do a good job as its
president.
"I'm very much pleased to have her coming up as
president of the association," he said. "County
commissioners must understand that the issues
affecting their constituents are also being decided
outside the county boundary line. You must have a
state and federal perspective, it is not enough to
be active in the courthouse. You need to be active
in Harrisburg and Washington, and Jo Ellen
understands that."
Hill noted that the position is an influential
one.
"Our president is the voice of the association
and represents us when we are in front of the
general assembly, meeting with the governor, cabinet
members or our congressional delegation and state's
senators.
Litz will serve a one-year term. She will replace
current president Tioga County Commissioner Mark
Hamilton.
Others elected for 2012 include Christian
Leinbach, Berks County, first vice president; Pam
Snyder, Greene County, second vice president; and
Joseph Kantz, Snyder County, treasurer. Their
one-year terms will begin in January.
Finding a job can be tough
for anybody, including the 6 percent unemployed in Lebanon County.
"It's hard...there are no jobs available. I've
been filling out applications," said job seeker Monica Vasquez.
But now there's hope - the "On-the-Job" training
program (OJT) is back. Pennsylvania Career Link in Lebanon County will
match qualified candidates with eligible employers.
The program offers employers up to $5,500 to train
workers whether they're current employees or new ones.
"Lebanon County needs good paying jobs,"
said County Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz. "Here's an opportunity to expand
the work force or train those who you have who you want to do higher
skilled work."
Litz says she's thrilled the program is back.
Several years ago she says funds dried up during the recession. Now, she
believes OJT will jumpstart the job market and boost morale for people
struggling to find work.
"I'm happy! Because, I need a job," Vasquez said.
Employers can be public or private sector and are
reimbursed up to 50-percent for wages or training expenses. Depending on
the job, the employee's training period is 3 to 6 months.
Some may not know about the OJT program just yet,
but Litz hopes both employers and job seekers will take full advantage
while it's around.
"I think it's exciting and it's available and it's
affordable," Litz said. "It makes everything work both for the employer
and the employees."
CareerLink officials say the OJT program has no
time limit. That means it'll continue as long as there is funding.
Seven Republicans and three Democrats vie for commissioner nod, including
incumbents Stohler and Litz
By JOHN LATIMER
Staff Writer
Updated: 04/29/2011 05:31:30 PM EDT
This year's race for Lebanon County commissioner is a notable one for
the mere fact that, for the first time in 40 years, Bill Carpenter's name
will not appear on a Republican ballot.
Carpenter, 65, served as a Cornwall councilman for 16 years before
being elected county commissioner in 1987. His decision not to run for a
seventh term has created the first vacancy on the board since 2003, when
Republican Rosemarie Swanger and Democrat Ed Arnold stepped down.
As in that election, the open seat has attracted a large field of
candidates.
Seven Republicans, including incumbent Larry Stohler, are running in
the May 17 primary. On the Democratic side, two candidates will join
incumbent Jo Ellen Litz on the ballot.
The top two vote-getters in each party will move forward to November's
general election, when three commissioners will be elected. They will
serve four-year terms that next year will pay $59,696.
Many challenges await the winners, including the task of finishing the
countywide reassessment. But the primary responsibility, as it has been
for many years, will be balancing the county's budget to provide essential
services in the face of dwindling state and federal support.
Beginning today, with incumbents Stohler and Litz, and continuing
through the week, pairs of candidates will be profiled using responses
each gave to a Lebanon Daily News questionnaire.
In addition to biographical information, the questionnaire asked
candidates to explain why
they are running and why each is a better choice than
the opponents. They were also asked how they would
specifically address the county's fiscal challenges.
Incumbents were asked which of their
accomplishments made them most proud. Their
challengers were given an opportunity to comment on
the current board's actions.
While there is no clear, hot-button issue
attracting voters' attention this election, farmland
preservation and funding the Lebanon County
Conservation District has been an issue dividing the
current board, so candidates were asked whether they
support the programs.
And, because of the strong emotions the tea party
movement evokes in many of its supporters and
detractors, each candidate was asked if he or she
identifies with the movement.
A grass-roots initiative that began in 2009 without
a central leadership but has become increasingly
identified with the Republican Party, the tea party
movement's supporters generally adhere to a
conservative-libertarian philosophy that includes
limited government, strict controls on spending and
taxation, and an originalist interpretation of the
U.S. Constitution favoring states' rights over federal
power.
Jo Ellen Litz
A commercial real-estate business owner and
president of the Swatara Creek Watershed Association,
Litz has been an active participant in Lebanon County
politics for more than a decade.
Staying in a position where she can help others is
why Litz is running for a fourth term as county
commissioner.
"Helping people satisfies me," she said. "That's
why I'm a commissioner. I can use my business
experience to make good decisions.
"Thomas Jefferson once said, 'Do what is right as
long as you can; delegate as much as you can; and be
as wise as you know how.' By putting 'People Above
Politics,' researching and voting on facts, I give my
all to the people of Lebanon County. I can only pray
that this effort is appreciated as a gift."
Litz said she has proven experience navigating the
county budget through financial high seas, including
in 2009, when the county was forced to spend more than
$2 million to continue financing state-funded programs
during the state budget impasse.
"The state and federal governments mandate services
that commissioners must provide," she said. "William
Penn charged counties with taking care of the
indigent. In return partial funding (for programs) is
provided through (government) grants.
"During the (2009) state budget impasse,
commissioners did the right thing and took care of our
parents and grandparents at Cedar Haven, funded foster
care, etc. We did our duty, and the needs of our most
vulnerable citizens were met. Eventually, we were
reimbursed for services."
Helping to create and retain jobs in the county -
especially ones related to agriculture - is an
accomplishment Litz mentioned with pride.
"Creating and retaining jobs - 147 jobs saved at
Boscov's; 3,000 jobs at business parks; and through
farm preservation, we saved 136 farms and farmers on
16,148 acres of farmland so that food is grown here in
Lebanon County" she said. "Farming is an economic
engine in our community. Lebanon County has
$69,326,500 in land assessed as agricultural.
Annually, this land brings the county $1,386,530 in
real estate taxes.
"Annually, cropland contributes over $220 million
to the local economy," she added. "Ag production of
livestock and poultry adds $24.5 million annually to
our economy."
A representative of the Pennsylvania Farmland
Preservation Board from 2008-10, Litz was the only
commissioner to support funding the Lebanon County
Conservation District in 2011 beyond the $81,000 the
agency was given to continue administering the
farmland-preservation program. She supports continued
farmland preservation but noted the county is just one
contributor to the program.
"Farmland preservation is funded through numerous
programs: donations where the land is used as a tax
write-off, the (county) general fund, bond issues,
state cigarette tax, landfill closure fees, federal
farm and ranchland protection fees, Growing Greener,
Real Estate Transfer Tax, Transfer of Development
Rights, donations by municipalities, a fee for each
acre taken out of farmland development Green roll
back/taxes/penalties," she said.
Litz doesn't identify herself as a tea party
supporter but agrees with its tenets of fiscal
responsibility and government transparency.
"I'm a Democrat my entire life, I am fiscally
conservative, and put 'People Above Politics,'" she
said. "Some conservative fiscal actions included
voting against my raise this year and returning raises
the previous two years. I do not have a county car, or
cell phone, and pay my way to community events. I am
blessed not to need medical insurance. I got the first
Honeywell (energy) audit on track, and the county
earned over $100,000 on improvements.
"I made county government transparent with the
first Web site to provide meeting highlights 24/7 and
added YouTube videos for people to hear and see
commissioners in action," she added.
Jo Ellen Litz points to the 2009 state budget crisis as a major
motivating factor for her decision to challenge Republican incumbent Mike
Folmer for the 48th Senate District seat.
As a Democratic Lebanon County commissioner, Litz saw firsthand the
impact on local government caused by the state's inability to pass a budget
by its constitutional deadline of June 30. Many county agencies rely heavily
on state funding to operate, she explained, and without a budget they were
not receiving money, putting the county in the position of financing them or
stopping services.
"The county was going through a lot of trouble," Litz recalled. "We had
to make some very tough decisions. Do we stop and not provide the mandated
services that William Penn said we must provide? Or do we take out a $2
million loan and continue operating? So we floated the state a loan and had
to pay interest on that money. And that was not a part of our budget. ...
All the counties across the state were getting the short end of the stick.
It just didn't seem right."
A three-term county commissioner, Litz said she feels that Folmer has
become part of a do-nothing Legislature, failing to deliver on the reforms
he promised. She tells voters they can count on her to serve them and make
the changes they want in the 48th District, which represents all of Lebanon
County, portions of Berks, Dauphin and Lancaster counties, and the borough
of Elverson in Chester County. The seat has a four-year term and pays
$78,315.
Litz said she specifically found fault with Folmer's continuing to take
his salary during the budget impasse. In her view, it was unconstitutional
and hypocritical of the man who often refers to the state Constitution and
carries a pocket version wherever he goes.
"Mike's personal decision was to take his salary," she said. "He refers
to the Constitution like he's an author, or an authority on it at least. So
that part of it, I thought, yes, I disagree with Mike Folmer."
This is not the only point on which the candidates disagree. Even when
they support the same reforms, like 12-year term limits or abolishing
property taxes, they have different approaches.
Litz is not in favor of a citizens' constitutional convention that Folmer
is advocating. While changes need to be made, she said, convening a
convention is too expensive.
"It would be very hard for me to do a constitutional convention," she
said. "If it was on a very limited scale, perhaps. But the big question is,
how are we going to pay for it?"
Litz envisions the Legislature coming together to create a list of
constitutional amendments, but she realizes it will take tremendous
political will to accomplish it.
"We have top ten lists on David Letterman," she said. "We could do a top
ten list for the Constitution with everyone getting in and agreeing on that
and pushing it through as amendments. I think we can probably accomplish the
same thing at a fraction of the cost. But we all have to have the right
mindset to do that."
One of the amendments Litz supports would be to create a graduated income
tax to replace property tax as a mechanism for funding education. She would,
however, consider alternatives including the flat tax or expanded sales tax,
favored by Folmer.
"I don't think anything is cut and dried," she said. "There is wiggle
room, as long as they accomplish repealing the school property tax."
Because of the reliance on property taxes to fund it, Litz said, she is
reluctant to increase education spending.
"We are at the saturation point with school taxes," she said. "People
can't afford more. ... We have to balance the budget one way or another."
Litz supports putting more money into libraries, which are part of the
Department of Education and have had their budgets cut drastically in the
past couple of years.
"A lot of people who are unemployed can't afford the Internet," she said.
"How are they going to find a job? Probably on the Internet. They are going
to use CareerLink and those kinds of things. The library provides that as a
free service. ... I really feel libraries should not have been cut."
Litz is also critical of the Legislature's failure to confront the
pension crisis. The House recently passed a bill, but it does not appear the
Senate will act before the legislative session ends Wednesday.
Its handling has been purely political, she said.
"They have had all the time in the world to take care of this," she said.
"They chose to wait this long to address it. And shame on them. They don't
want to pass it now because they will have to go face the wrath of the
voters. They would rather wait until they come back to the session in
January or whatever, so the voters have four years to forget it."
Environmental issues are often on the front burner for Litz, president of
the Swatara Watershed Association. She is a strong advocate of farmland
preservation and supports the promotion of alternative sources of energy.
She has put her money where her mouth is by investing in solar panels at her
home in West Lebanon Township, she said.
The environment is also a key concern when it comes to Marcellus Shale
drilling, Litz said. She favors taxing the value of the gas extracted by
drillers at a rate between 3 and 5 percent and using some of the money to
watch the industry.
"At this point I don't think it can be stopped. And I think we have to do
the best we can to protect the water supply on the front end rather than
dealing with it on the back end," she said. "That's why I think DEP (the
state Department of Environmental Protection) has to be refunded and the
Conservation District, they are the local feet on the ground. They have them
out in the field inspecting and making sure it is done right."
Litz also favors using Marcellus Shale tax profits to help make repairs
to the state's transportation infrastructure.
"It's a very legitimate use of that money to repair the infrastructure,"
she said. "It is not the only thing, but it is a good start."
In a large district that leans Republican and in which Folmer has had
four years to become known, Litz understands she has an uphill battle
getting elected. She has been working hard campaigning, including going
door-to-door along the Route 422 corridor from Palmyra to Wyomissing. When
people cast their votes, she hopes they will remember her promise of
"putting people before politics."
"The biggest thing always comes down to, I am a Democrat," she said. "The
one thing I always tell people is that every day my phone rings, and people
ask me for help. ... I have never once asked what party are you when my
phone rings. I always say, 'How can I help you?' If they are calling me
because they feel I am accessible and approachable, that is the same thing
that is going to happen when I'm your senator. I think they should look at
me as a person and the service I have provided to this community and not
look at me with a label of one party or another."
Occupation: Lebanon County commissioner
Age: 59
Home: West Lebanon
Family: Married, two children
Education: BA in leadership/management, Kennedy Western Reserve, 2002; AA
at Lebanon Valley college, 1988
Mike
Folmer wants to hang onto the 48th state Senate district for another term.
Jo Ellen Litz wants to take it from him.
Folmer, the Republican incumbent, touts his record in Harrisburg over the
past four years. Litz, the Democratic challenger, counters with 11 years as a
Lebanon County commissioner.
The candidates, both of Lebanon, ran unopposed in their party primaries.
The 48th District covers Elizabethtown, Marietta and Mount Joy boroughs and
Conoy, East Donegal, Mount Joy and West Donegal townships.
The biggest challenge facing state lawmakers, Folmer said, is an estimated
$5 billion deficit coming in the new term.
"We're going to have to make some hard decisions," he said.
"It's been a cry of mine since I've been elected. We've got to get spending
under control — but not raise taxes, so Pennsylvania remains a
business-friendly state."
Harrisburg also must deal with a recent audit indicating "$1 billion in
waste and fraud in the Department of Public Welfare," Folmer said.
"Every majority chair of a committee must hold in-depth hearings on every
program under their watch," he said. "We need to look inwardly first before we
look for new revenue sources."
Litz, on the other hand, says there are immediate issues that need
addressing — such as pension reform and redistricting — but she's more worried
about making sure past mistakes aren't repeated.
"Last year, there was a 101-day budget impasse," she said. "The county
passed its budget by Dec. 31, as mandated by law. The Constitution mandates
the state pass its budget by June 30, but that didn't happen."
The long delay in Harrisburg blocked vital funds, Litz said, forcing local
and county governments to borrow funds just to cover expenses.
"The interest we paid on that loan was not part of our budget," she said.
"And we should have been drawing interest on those state funds, so it was a
double whammy."
Litz said she was angry to learn Folmer and other lawmakers were still
drawing salaries while counties and municipalities were forced into debt.
That 101-day delay "violated the Constitution," Litz said. "My opponent
pulls a copy of the Constitution out of his pocket and waves it in everybody's
face like he's the author. But he doesn't follow it to the nth degree.
"Someone had to challenge him. This just wasn't right. So I stepped up to
the plate," she said. "My father always said, 'Don't criticize unless you're
willing to do something about it.' So I am."
Folmer dismisses the notion that a county budget, which requires agreement
by one other person, is similar to a state budget, which needs consent from 26
senators, 102 house members and the governor to pass.
"I have nothing to be ashamed of," he said. "My goal has been to try and
reinstill the trust in people, to have faith again in their elected officials.
"I have worked across the aisle, I have tried to bend where I've needed to
bend without compromising my principles," he added. "Have I achieved
everything I wanted to do? Of course not. But I've attempted to move the ball
forward."
Folmer said he has helped change Harrisburg with a fiscally conservative
approach and a firm adherence to constitutional law.
"The Constitution is very important to me. I carry it with me everywhere I
go," he said. "It is our rule of law. We need to be following it."
Folmer has ushered four bills into law, strengthening child custody rights
for military personnel deployed overseas, establishing rights for foster
children and foster parents and revising the state's open records law.
"We need a true, open, accountable and transparent government, which I
think the taxpayers deserve," he said.
Litz, Folmer said, "has criticized me through this whole campaign, but
she's offered no answers as to what she would have done differently. She's
offered no real solutions."
Litz disagrees.
"I know the areas that need improved," she said. "I balanced a budget every
year (I was in office) on time, every time."
Litz, who used to operate an auto body shop and continues to rent out
commercial properties, said she reached across party lines to make those
budgets happen.
"I didn't like everything in them, but it's about compromise," she said.
"I'm not extreme on one side or the other, but I have a well-balanced
approach," Litz said. "I try to find common ground, and to move ahead on that
common ground.
Candidates for federal and state offices in the
Nov. 2 election answered questions Thursday on topics ranging from the
economy to government waste before more than 550 people at a Berks County
Patriots candidate night at the Leesport Farmers Market.
State Rep. Samuel E. Rohrer, a Robeson Township Republican who lost the
gubernatorial nomination to state Attorney General Tom Corbett, drafted
and asked the questions.
Three congressional candidates agreed that the federal government must
secure the nation's borders.
U.S. Rep. Joseph R. Pitts, a Chester County Republican who has represented
the 16th Congressional District since 1997, said there should be no
amnesty for people in the country illegally.
He said he co-sponsored legislation that would stop automatic citizenship
for children born to illegal immigrants.
"Anybody who's here illegally should not have a path to citizenship," he
said.
State Sen. David G. Argall, a Schuylkill County Republican running in the
17th Congressional District, said he agrees with Pitts, but would add that
English should be made the nation's primary language.
"I hope we can include that segment to make sure we don't make the same
mistake other countries have made, and try to be multilingual all the
time," he said. "That just doesn't work."
Jake Towne, a Northampton County chemical engineer with no party
affiliation running in the 15th Congressional District, said he agrees
with Pitts and Argall, and would remove all subsidies given to illegal
immigrants.
"The country shouldn't be paying any welfare benefits to people here
illegally," he said.
All three said they oppose bailouts for businesses and states.
State Sen. Mike Folmer, a Lebanon Republican seeking a second term, and
his Democratic opponent, Jo Ellen Litz, a Lebanon County commissioner,
agreed that the state needs to proceed cautiously with the extraction of
natural gas from the Marcellus shale formation because of the potential
environmental impact.
Litz said the state should enact a 5 percent tax to offset the costs,
which would be in the middle range of taxes imposed by other states.
Folmer again said caution is needed because those states don't have the
other high corporate taxes that Pennsylvania has.
Litz said she would use some of the gas tax and cut legislative spending
by 10 percent to help fill the state's $5 billion deficit.
Allowing school choice might fill in the gap alone, but expenses also must
be cut, Folmer said.
Republican candidates for the state House participating were state Rep.
Jerry P. Knowles of Schuylkill County, 124th District; Mike Tobash of
Pottsville, 125th District; Roger Voit of Muhlenberg Township, 126th
District; and Mark M. Gillen of Mohnton, 128th District.
Also participating was Schuylkill County Democrat Jeff Faust, who is
opposing Knowles.
All agreed school property taxes should be eliminated.
Knowles, Tobash and Gillen pledged not to approve any new taxes. Voit and
Faust said the only new tax they would support would be on gas extraction.
Candidates of all parties for state and federal offices were invited to
attend.
Some had conflicts, and others chose not to attend because their stances
are not aligned with the Tea Party and Patriot movement, officials said.
Contact Mary Young: 610-478-6292
begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 610-478-6292end_of_the_skype_highlighting
or myoung@readingeagle.com.
The Democratic candidate hoping to unseat a longtime
congressman laid out her plans for restoring the country's economy for
about 75 people attending a candidates night at Phoebe Berks near
Wernersville.
Lois Herr, 68, of Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, said she would
encourage more students to complete college, encourage development of
alternative energy to create jobs and improve passenger rail service.
Herr is challenging U.S. Rep. Joseph R. Pitts, 70, of East Marlborough
Township, Chester County, for a two-year term in the 16th Congressional
District representing parts of Berks and Chester counties and all of
Lancaster County. Pitts was invited, but did not attend.
"I'm not running because I need a job," she said. "I've had several
different careers already. I'm running so I can provide jobs and security
for other people.
"I come from the outside with experience solving real-life problems."
Also attending were the candidates in the 48th Senatorial District: State
Sen. Mike Folmer, 54, a Lebanon Republican seeking a second four-year
term; and Jo Ellen Litz, 58, a Democratic Lebanon County commissioner from
West Lebanon Township.
The district is made up of parts of Berks, Chester, Dauphin and Lancaster
counties and all of Lebanon County.
Folmer said he wants to continue with his plan for reforming state
government.
That includes changing the way government spends tax money and putting a
ceiling on how fast government spending can grow, he said.
"We have to be totally responsible on how we spend your money," Folmer
said. "You can't cut taxes until you get spending under control. Every
aspect of state government has to be looked at to squeeze every penny out
of every tax dollar."
Litz said she decided to run after the 101-day budget impasse in 2009
forced Lebanon County to borrow money to keep programs going for foster
children, senior citizens and people with mental retardation.
When she attended a town hall during the impasse, she asked Folmer if he
was collecting his salary. He responded that he didn't until everyone else
was paid.
"The counties did not get paid, so not everybody was paid," Litz said. "I
left there with lots of questions."
When asked their opinions on reducing the size of the state Legislature,
Litz said she would prefer a 10 percent across-the-board cut in costs for
the Legislature.
Folmer said his preference would be a part-time legislature, but he would
have a constitutional convention and allow the people to decide.
Pam Gockley, president of the League of Women Voters, moderated.
Congress members are paid $174,000 annually.
State senators are paid $78,315 annually.
Contact Mary Young: 610-478-6292
begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 610-478-6292end_of_the_skype_highlighting
or myoung@readingeagle.co m.
Getting Pennsylvania's financial house in
order should be the priority, candidates competing for a four-year seat in
the state 48th Senatorial District said.
State Sen. Mike Folmer, 54, a Lebanon Republican seeking a second term, said
spending must be brought under control before discussions begin on tax
reform or making the business environment more friendly.
Jo Ellen Litz, 58, a Democrat from West Lebanon Township who is a Lebanon
County commissioner and rents out commercial property, said the crisis in
the state employee and teacher pension funds must be resolved first. Then
the budget should be balanced on time, every time.
Folmer and Litz went head to head Thursday in a League of Women Voters
candidate forum moderated by Pam Gockley on Berks Community Television.
Litz said she would replace the property tax with a graduated income tax.
Folmer said he would prefer a flat tax, such as a sales tax.
"I see people losing their homes," Litz said. "It's not fair, and there are
young people who are not able to come into homeownership because they can't
afford both the mortgage and the taxes."
"Before we eliminate property taxes, we need to get the spending under
control," Folmer countered. "I believe what we should be doing is looking at
a flat tax or some type of user tax. Everybody would be contributing to that
tax."
Folmer said the extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus shale formation
should be taxed, but the rate recently passed by the state House is too
high. The money should first go to the affected municipalities, he said.
Litz said the state is being laughed at for not taxing the natural gas. The
tax should be 5 percent, which would still be less than the 8 percent other
states are charging, she said. She agreed the money should go to the
affected municipalities first.
On education, Folmer said he supports school choice and vouchers because
that system would create competition and improve education.
Litz said school choice already exists because parents can send their
children to public vocational schools.
The 48th District is made up of parts of Berks, Chester, Dauphin and
Lancaster counties and all of Lebanon County.
Lebanon County Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz announces she is
running for the state s 48th District Senate seat in the
lobby of the Lebanon Municipal Building on Monday. Behind
her is her mother-in-law, Ruth Litz, and her daughter,
Laurie Andrews,
who is partially obscured. (LEBANON DAILY NEWS EARL
BRIGHTBILL )
Tax reform, not government reform, will be one of the
foundations of Jo Ellen Litz's platform as she campaigns for a
state Senate seat.
The three-term Lebanon County commissioner officially announced
Monday that she is seeking the Democratic nomination to the 48th
District Senate seat held by Republican Mike Folmer.
Speaking before a group of about 20 supporters in the lobby of
the Lebanon Municipal Building, the 58-year-old Litz said she
supports abolishing the school property-tax system and replacing
it with a "limited graduated state income tax based on people's
ability to pay." The current system is unfair, she said.
"Our archaic local property-tax system doesn't account for
reduced or frozen wages or job layoffs, which make it worse for
middle-class families and our seniors," she said.
A liaison to the state Land Preservation Board and president of
the Swatara Creek Watershed Association, Litz also pledged to work
hard to preserve farmland, develop renewable sources of energy and
bring new jobs to the district, which covers all of Lebanon and
parts of Dauphin, Lancaster, Berks and Chester counties. All of
these initiatives are intertwined, she said.
"An investment in green industry would certainly benefit
farmers, our local economy and the environment," she said.
Flanked by her campaign manager, Lebanon County Farm Bureau
director Jeff Werner, Litz extolled the importance of agriculture
to the 48th District's economy. She then invited those in
attendance to join her in a toast to farmers
with small glasses of milk and chocolate milk
that she provided.
Folmer, who was elected four years ago on a
campaign to bring political and fiscal reform
to state government, is currently backing a
bill that would create a constitutional
convention. Although the bill under
consideration calls for a large role for
citizen delegates, Litz said, she is not in
favor of placing the reins for constitutional
change in the hands of the current
Legislature, which ignored the state
Constitution last year when it did not pass a
budget by the June 30 deadline.
"How can we trust elected officials to hold
a constitutional convention if they aren't
following the Constitution we currently have
in place?" she said.
Litz also said she does not support cutting
the number of state legislators or creating a
part-time Legislature, as some political
reformers favor. She does, however, advocate
reducing the size of legislative staffs by one
employee per legislator to save money.
Litz acknowledged that campaigning in the
large district would require a lot of her time
but said it would not affect her role as a
commissioner or interfere with her attendance
at the board's weekly meetings.
Litz and her husband, Jon, a teacher at the
Lebanon County Career and Technology Center,
live in West Lebanon Township.
CHRISTINE
BAKER, The Patriot-NewsLebanon
County Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz tapes L. Philip Hall, a Penn
State Extension Educator as he talks about mosquitoes control
during a County Commissioners meeting. Litz started using her
video camera to record meetings and post them to YouTube about
a month ago.
Phil Hall, West Nile Virus program coordinator for Lebanon
County, used a mosquito puppet at Thursday's county
commissioners meeting to illustrate ways to fight the
disease-carrying insects by collecting and recycling old tires.
Few people attended the morning meeting, but anyone wanting
to see the puppet -- or anything else that was discussed -- can
check it out on YouTube,
thanks to
Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz.
A few weeks ago, Litz started bringing her camcorder to the
meetings and posting the footage on YouTube, the Web site that
lets anyone broadcast just about anything.
"I'm not an expert editor, there's a little blue space here
and there," she said, adding that posting the footage is easy
and free. "People want to know what their government is doing."
Some counties and larger municipalities broadcast meetings on
cable television's public access channel, but using YouTube,
where anyone can watch anytime, seems rare. A search on YouTube
showed only Lebanon County and the Northampton Township
supervisors in Pennsylvania doing it on a regular basis.
The Lebanon County segments on YouTube are short and arranged
by topic. A discussion about opening meetings with a prayer has
received the most hits so far, with more than 400.
Member Jo Ellen Litz videorecords
Thursday s meeting of the Board of Lebanon County
Commissioners. (John Latimer / Lebanon Daily News)
Lebanon County
Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz’s call for prayer is like a
voice crying out in the wilderness.
For the second time in three weeks
Thursday, her proposal to begin Board of Commissioners
meetings with a prayer or moment of silence failed to
elicit an “Amen!” from either of the other two
commissioners, Larry Stohler and Bill Carpenter.
After her proposal died for lack of a
second in January, Litz promised to bring the subject up
again. This time, she was prepared with additional
arguments to support the proposal and refute previous
criticism from Stohler that an opening prayer could
raise First Amendment issues about separation of church
and state.
Litz noted that the U.S. Congress has
opened sessions with prayer since its earliest days, as
do the state General Assembly, Lebanon City Council and
a half-dozen boards of county commissioners around the
state. As long as the prayer does not espouse one
religion it is permissible, she said.
“I think it was 1983 that the Supreme
Court made a ruling that they would not interfere with
opening with prayer because it is a tradition that has
been with us all of these years,” said Litz. “By
inviting pastors, rabbis — you can invite the Pope if
you want — but people of different faiths to come in and
offer prayer we would not be breaking the Constitution
or First Amendment.”
Litz’s plea was supported by the Rev. Tim
Anderman, pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in
Lickdale. Litz attends the church but said she did not
know Anderman planned to attend the meeting.
Anderman encouraged the commissioners to
adopt a prayer before each meeting.
“I think that would be a very advisable
thing for anyone who is a servant, or for all of us as
human beings,” he said. “At times we can get wrapped up
in our own agendas. We try to push past other people —
not notice things that are right in front of our face.
Reclaiming what is sacred and holy is vital if we are
going to be effective.”
Martin Barondick of Ebenezer disagreed.
He told the commissioners he is an atheist and does not
want to be subjected to others’ religious beliefs at a
public meeting. He added that having representatives of
different religions say the prayer would “open a can of
worms.”
“One week we could have a rabbi here from
Jews,” said Barondick. “We could have a Muslim; we could
have a Hindu; we could have a Buddhist. And of course,
as Richard Dawkins, the leading atheist on the planet
says, we could have a representative or a disciple of
the great juju who lives at the bottom of the sea, or
representing the flying spaghetti monster and on and on
and on.”
Stohler and Carpenter again let Litz’s
motion die without a second and without comment.
After the meeting, Stohler reiterated his
belief that a prayer before a public meeting could
violate the First Amendment and sends the wrong message.
“As a commissioner, we have a
responsibility to do our best to represent all the
citizens, regardless of their religious beliefs;
regardless of their circumstances in life,” Stohler
said. “And the only way to do that is not to be in a
position where you could be accused, or the belief could
be that you are supporting one religious belief at the
expense of another.”
Carpenter said the county has more
pressing issues to deal with than Litz’s recent
proposals, which have included holding night meetings
and broadcasting meetings on the Internet.
“I’d like to get down to the basics with
county government,” he said. “Things were running very
smoothly until the last three months or so, when it
seems like these nitpicky things started coming up. I’m
always on the wrong side of these issues, I know. But
should it be an issue, is the other question. There are
money problems here. I’m spending my time looking at the
money problems.”
Commissioners back Boscov’s loan
By JOHN LATIMER
Lebanon Daily News 1/9/09
The Lebanon County commissioners shrugged off
passionate pleas from two residents and signed off
on a $35 million state-backed federal loan yesterday
to help the struggling Boscov’s department-store
chain.
The deal is necessary to save thousands of jobs
statewide and hundreds locally at Boscov’s, which
owns and anchors the Lebanon Valley Mall, said the
commissioners.
By allowing the Boy Scouts and other groups to
use the mall, the company has been a community
partner since opening here in 1972, and the
community does not want it to close, said
Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz.
“When I look at the Lebanon Valley Mall, I look
at the fabric of our community. They are a de facto
town hall,” she said. “How many other businesses
give back to our community to the degree that
Boscov’s has done?”
Lebanon joins five other counties that have
authorized loan guarantees of $5.8 million in future
community-development funds as collateral for
Boscov’s 20-year loan from the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development, which will help it
recover from its recent bankruptcy. The arrangement
did not require any cash outlay by the counties.
The money will be added to $11 million in HUD
funding from a handful of other Pennsylvania
municipalities, nearly $60 million put up by the
Boscov family and a small group of partners, and an
operating line of credit of $205 million.
All of the financing was needed to return
ownership of the stores to Albert Boscov and his
brother-in-law Edwin Lakin after its previous
owners, headed by Lakin’s son, Kenneth, drove it
into bankruptcy last summer.
In return for the HUD money, Boscov’s has
promised to create and/or retain 1,029 jobs,
including at least 147 in Lebanon County. The
company owns 39 stores and employs more than 9,000
people, including 5,000 in Pennsylvania, according
to information Boscov’s supplied to the state.
Nearly 200 people work for Boscov’s at the Lebanon
Valley Mall, said mall manager Ken Phelps.
The deal was structured by the state Department
of Community and Economic Development at the urging
of Gov. Ed Rendell.
A seventh county, Snyder, had been asked to give
its support and pledge $5 million. Its commissioners
voted not to do so for fear that they would be left
with the debt should the new Boscov’s fall into
bankruptcy again.
That is the same fear expressed by county
residents Carl Jarboe of Lebanon and Martin
Barondick of North Lebanon Township, who urged the
commissioners not to guarantee the loan.
Barondick called the arrangement a “bailout” and
compared it to the hundreds of billions of dollars
Congress has appropriated for the financial and car
industries.
“Right now, you can’t jump into something. You’ve
really got to step back and look at it (and ask),
‘What could be my liabilities here?’” he said. “This
here — you say, ‘Well, this is just a local bailout
for Boscov’s.’ No! No! No! This is a microcosm of
the whole country today. Believe me, it is. And it’s
going down the tubes.”
Ray Bender, director of the Lebanon County
Redevelopment Authority, who handled the
loan-guarantee application, told the commissioners
there is only a remote possibility that Lebanon or
any of the other participating counties would be
held responsible for the loan, should Boscov’s
default. Protecting them are liens against the value
of Boscov’s real-estate equity, which is estimated
at $106 million, and merchandise inventory, with an
estimated value of $83 million, that would go toward
paying the DCED loan, he explained.
If that would not cover it, DCED’s
Acting-Secretary John P. Blake has pledged in
writing that the state will cover the debt, said
Bender.
“If all that fails, including the commonwealth
not following through on a guarantee, ultimately the
community development money is the bottom line,”
Bender said. Would that happen? ... I don’t see how
it could. The state has guaranteed to six of its
counties in writing, it is guaranteeing these loans.
It would have to be the mother of all lawsuits if it
happened.”
The Lebanon County commissioners will continue to
be morning persons, holding their weekly meetings at
9:30 a.m. on Thursdays.
During yesterday’s reorganization meeting,
Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz suggested the board
conduct one evening meeting each month.
“There are people who do work days that would
like to come to a meeting,” she said. “Maybe we
should try having one once in a while in the evening
that they can attend.”
The idea was met unenthusiastically by
commissioners Larry Stohler and Bill Carpenter, who
voted it down. Both noted that the public can
arrange private meetings to discuss problems with
individual commissioners.
“I think we should just keep it the way it is,”
Stohler said. “My experience is, anyone having a
reason to come finds a way to come.”
Litz said that a few constituents have asked her
to hold evening meetings.
Carpenter and Stohler said no one has recently
approached them with the idea. The only one who is
discussing it is, they said, is WLBR radio talk-show
host Laura LeBeau.
“I’m not going to do it just because Laura LeBeau
thinks we should,” Carpenter said. “If there would
be an outcry, we would certainly consider it. I
wouldn’t mind holding a night meeting.”
Night meetings were once a regular practice of
the board, Carpenter said. Thirteen night meetings
were held from 1988 to 1996, he said. Each was held
in a different municipality and department heads
were expected to attend.
The public’s response was lackluster, Carpenter
recalled.
“We did it on the road in the early ’90s and late
’80s,” he said. “We’d do it once a quarter, and we
didn’t get much of a response at all.”
In recent years, the only exception to the
board’s meeting schedule has been moving a meeting
from the municipal building to the Lebanon Valley
Expo Center during the week of the Lebanon Area Fair
in the summer. In 2004, a meeting was held at the
environmental center at Clarence Schock Memorial
Park at Governor Dick when it opened.
The reorganization of the board went as expected
yesterday.
Republicans Stohler and Carpenter have been
alternating the chairmanship for the past six years.
This year, it is Stohler’s turn to be chairman, and
Carpenter took the seat of vice-chair.
Litz, the only Democrat on the board, remains as
secretary.
The Lebanon County commissioners shrugged off
passionate pleas from two residents and signed off
on a $35 million state-backed federal loan yesterday
to help the struggling Boscov’s department-store
chain.
The deal is necessary to save thousands of jobs
statewide and hundreds locally at Boscov’s, which
owns and anchors the Lebanon Valley Mall, said the
commissioners.
By allowing the Boy Scouts and other groups to
use the mall, the company has been a community
partner since opening here in 1972, and the
community does not want it to close, said
Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz.
“When I look at the Lebanon Valley Mall, I look
at the fabric of our community. They are a de facto
town hall,” she said. “How many other businesses
give back to our community to the degree that
Boscov’s has done?”
Lebanon joins five other counties that have
authorized loan guarantees of $5.8 million in future
community-development funds as collateral for
Boscov’s 20-year loan from the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development, which will help it
recover from its recent bankruptcy. The arrangement
did not require any cash outlay by the counties.
The money will be added to $11 million in HUD
funding from a handful of other Pennsylvania
municipalities, nearly $60 million put up by the
Boscov family and a small group of partners, and an
operating line of credit of $205 million.
All of the financing was needed to return
ownership of the stores to Albert Boscov and his
brother-in-law Edwin Lakin after its previous
owners, headed by Lakin’s son, Kenneth, drove it
into bankruptcy last summer.
In return for the HUD money, Boscov’s has
promised to create and/or retain 1,029 jobs,
including at least 147 in Lebanon County. The
company owns 39 stores and employs more than 9,000
people, including 5,000 in Pennsylvania, according
to information Boscov’s supplied to the state.
Nearly 200 people work for Boscov’s at the Lebanon
Valley Mall, said mall manager Ken Phelps.
The deal was structured by the state Department
of Community and Economic Development at the urging
of Gov. Ed Rendell.
A seventh county, Snyder, had been asked to give
its support and pledge $5 million. Its commissioners
voted not to do so for fear that they would be left
with the debt should the new Boscov’s fall into
bankruptcy again.
That is the same fear expressed by county
residents Carl Jarboe of Lebanon and Martin
Barondick of North Lebanon Township, who urged the
commissioners not to guarantee the loan.
Barondick called the arrangement a “bailout” and
compared it to the hundreds of billions of dollars
Congress has appropriated for the financial and car
industries.
“Right now, you can’t jump into something. You’ve
really got to step back and look at it (and ask),
‘What could be my liabilities here?’” he said. “This
here — you say, ‘Well, this is just a local bailout
for Boscov’s.’ No! No! No! This is a microcosm of
the whole country today. Believe me, it is. And it’s
going down the tubes.”
Ray Bender, director of the Lebanon County
Redevelopment Authority, who handled the
loan-guarantee application, told the commissioners
there is only a remote possibility that Lebanon or
any of the other participating counties would be
held responsible for the loan, should Boscov’s
default. Protecting them are liens against the value
of Boscov’s real-estate equity, which is estimated
at $106 million, and merchandise inventory, with an
estimated value of $83 million, that would go toward
paying the DCED loan, he explained.
If that would not cover it, DCED’s
Acting-Secretary John P. Blake has pledged in
writing that the state will cover the debt, said
Bender.
“If all that fails, including the commonwealth
not following through on a guarantee, ultimately the
community development money is the bottom line,”
Bender said. Would that happen? ... I don’t see how
it could. The state has guaranteed to six of its
counties in writing, it is guaranteeing these loans.
It would have to be the mother of all lawsuits if it
happened.”
The Lebanon County commissioners will continue to
be morning persons, holding their weekly meetings at
9:30 a.m. on Thursdays.
During yesterday’s reorganization meeting,
Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz suggested the board
conduct one evening meeting each month.
“There are people who do work days that would
like to come to a meeting,” she said. “Maybe we
should try having one once in a while in the evening
that they can attend.”
The idea was met unenthusiastically by
commissioners Larry Stohler and Bill Carpenter, who
voted it down. Both noted that the public can
arrange private meetings to discuss problems with
individual commissioners.
“I think we should just keep it the way it is,”
Stohler said. “My experience is, anyone having a
reason to come finds a way to come.”
Litz said that a few constituents have asked her
to hold evening meetings.
Carpenter and Stohler said no one has recently
approached them with the idea. The only one who is
discussing it is, they said, is WLBR radio talk-show
host Laura LeBeau.
“I’m not going to do it just because Laura LeBeau
thinks we should,” Carpenter said. “If there would
be an outcry, we would certainly consider it. I
wouldn’t mind holding a night meeting.”
Night meetings were once a regular practice of
the board, Carpenter said. Thirteen night meetings
were held from 1988 to 1996, he said. Each was held
in a different municipality and department heads
were expected to attend.
The public’s response was lackluster, Carpenter
recalled.
“We did it on the road in the early ’90s and late
’80s,” he said. “We’d do it once a quarter, and we
didn’t get much of a response at all.”
In recent years, the only exception to the
board’s meeting schedule has been moving a meeting
from the municipal building to the Lebanon Valley
Expo Center during the week of the Lebanon Area Fair
in the summer. In 2004, a meeting was held at the
environmental center at Clarence Schock Memorial
Park at Governor Dick when it opened.
The reorganization of the board went as expected
yesterday.
Republicans Stohler and Carpenter have been
alternating the chairmanship for the past six years.
This year, it is Stohler’s turn to be chairman, and
Carpenter took the seat of vice-chair.
Litz, the only Democrat on the board, remains as
secretary.
I never thought I’d be admiring
anything done by Jo Ellen Litz, but I guess the
times, “They are a changin’.”
Is there anyone who really believes that Bill
Carpenter would have given up his entire
commissioner’s salary if Litz had done the same?
It’s a shame she couldn’t call his bluff!
As for Larry Stohler, he finds the raise
reasonable during an emerging economic uncertainty
of epic proportions.
How dare she make Carpenter and Stohler look so
bad?
After all, we pay these double-dippers big money
to raise our taxes instead of being creative,
visionary leaders. If more of our elected officials
showed the courage of Litz, instead of the spineless
greed of Carpenter and Stohler, the economic debacle
would soon be in our wake.
Lebanon County commissioners Thursday
unanimously agreed to help back part of a $35
million loan for the Boscov's department store
chain.
The county is one of seven with Boscov stores
within their borders that were asked by the
state to guarantee loans from their federal
Community Development Block Grant allocations.
Originally the counties were asked to
guarantee $5 million, but after Snyder County's
commissioners turned down the request, the state
asked the remaining six counties to guarantee an
additional $800,000.
The risk to Lebanon County is "very remote,"
because the loan is guaranteed first by Boscov's
real estate and inventory worth more than $188
million, and then by the state, said Raymond
Bender, executive director of Lebanon County
Redevelopment Authority, which administers the
block grant program in the county.
If Boscov's would close in Lebanon, the
Lebanon Valley Mall would not survive, which
would affect hundreds of other jobs, said Ken
Phelps, mall manager.
The Lebanon Valley Mall and Boscov's are part
of the "fabric of our community," Commissioner
Jo Ellen Litz said.
"They are a de facto town hall," she said of
the mall, which hosts fundraising events for
nonprofit organizations. "How many other
businesses have given back to our community to
the degree Boscov's has done?"
Two residents voiced opposition to the loan.
"They should not use tax dollars to bail out
these private businesses. I don't want to see my
tax dollars doing that," said Carl Jarboe of
Lebanon. "Let them sink."
In addition to the $35 million guarantees
from Cambria, Blair, Butler, Lackawanna, Lebanon
and Schuylkill counties, Wilkes-Barre and
Scranton are providing $3 million each;
Vineland, N.J., $2.7 million, and Atlantic
County, N.J., $3 million.
As part of the agreement, Boscov's is to
create 1,029 jobs and its 39 stores will remain
open. The company has about 5,000 employees in
Pennsylvania.
BARBARA MILLER: 832-2090 or barbmiller@patriot-news.com
OTHER COUNTIES
Schuylkill County commissioners are
scheduled to vote today on the loan guarantee.
Blair County commissioners are to vote
Tuesday.
Lackawanna County commissioners are to vote
Wednesday.
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.
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.
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 .
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.
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.
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
By RICHARD FELLINGER,
Staff Writer, Lebanon
Daily News
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.
Date: August 15, 2005 Publication: Daily News, The
(Lebanon, PA)
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.
Date: June 20, 2005 Publication: Daily News, The
(Lebanon, PA)
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
Date: April 24, 2005 Publication: Daily News, The (Lebanon, PA)
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.
Date: March 25, 2005 Publication: Daily News, The (Lebanon, PA)
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.
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.
...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.
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.
Lebanon County taxpayers
should be encouraged by the proposal outlined in your February
15 article, Commissioners ask for tax-law change.
Counties are mandated to provide a rapidly increasing list of
important services without guarantee that state and federal
dollars will cover the costs. The only revenue source to which
counties can turn is the property owner. Relying on the
antiquated property tax system is unfair to seniors on fixed
incomes and young families struggling to make ends meet.
Across Pennsylvania,
commissioners support a tax fairness proposal that provides a
menu of tax options for counties, which will allow citizens to
choose what works best for their specific local economic and
demographic conditions. For the first time ever, counties would
have alternatives to the property tax to raise revenue.
Reducing the county
property tax and replacing it with a sales or personal income
tax creates a system based more on a taxpayer’s ability to pay.
The current system is
unfair, but our county leaders can’t change it. Only the state
can. For Lebanon County taxpayers, this common sense proposal
can finally make tax fairness a reality.
Local addicts of heroin and other opiates will soon be
able to receive methadone treatment in Lebanon County rather
than travel an hour or more each way for their daily dose.
Despite strong opposition and charges of unethical
behavior from Commissioner Bill Carpenter, commissioners
Larry Stohler and Jo Ellen Litz voted yesterday to approve a
deal with CRC Health Group to build a methadone clinic on
county-owned land in North Cornwall Township, near the City
of Lebanon Authority water treatment facility. The
next-nearest clinics are in Harrisburg and Coatesville.
Based in California, CRC is one of the largest treatment
companies in the country. It already operates New
Perspectives-White Deer Run, a drug- and alcohol-abuse
counseling center next-door to which the methadone clinic
will be built.
The plan calls for CRC to build and pay for a
4,350-square-foot treatment center, about one-third of which
will be used for outpatient substance-abuse counseling.
Company officials estimated it will cost $522,000. After it
is paid off in about eight years, the county will own the
building and CRC will begin paying nearly $5,500 a month to
rent it.
No money for the project will come from the county's
general fund, but a grant of $96,000 from the Capital Area
Behavioral Health Collaborative, of which Lebanon County is
a member, will be used to help pay for the project.
Debby Schmidt, the company's vice president of business
development, described the arrangement with the county as
"unique."
After a land-development plan is approved by North
Cornwall Township this spring, the company will solicit bids
for construction and related work. The clinic should be
operating in about a year, Schmidt said. Eventually it will
provide care for 300 opiate users at a cost of $70 per week.
Company officials first pitched the concept of a
methadone clinic to the commissioners in September. At that
time, they were given permission to develop a formal
proposal by the same 2-1 vote as yesterday, with Carpenter
opposing.
The original plan was for a 3,000-square-foot facility.
It did not have room for outpatient counseling that could
also be used for abusers of other substances. CRC officials
said they decided to add more outpatient counseling area
because there is a waiting list at New Perspectives, which
only has room for 50 outpatients.
Carpenter accused Stohler and Litz of conducting secret
meetings with CRC officials that resulted in a deal whereby
CRC will begin paying rent on the facility earlier which
would earn the county $150,000 in exchange for permission to
add the extra outpatient-treatment area. Those discussions
should have taken place before the full board, Carpenter
said.
Since the commission has only three members, it is a
violation of the state's Sunshine Law for two of them to
discuss county business outside a public meeting.
"The fact that the clinic grew from 3,000 square feet to
4,300 square feet without any formal action of this board is
a great concern of mine," he said. "As you heard, CRC is now
willing to give Lebanon County $150,000 as a result of their
meeting with Commissioner Litz. Maybe if she had held out a
little longer, she could have gotten $250,000 or $350,000.
Who knows? All I can say is, Commissioner Litz, please don't
sell your vote. In my opinion, the tactics being used by CRC
to get this contract approved are at best shady and at worse
borderline criminal."
Litz and Stohler denied Carpenter's accusation, saying
they had met individually with CRC officials to have
questions about the project clarified. Each argued that the
county is in desperate need of a methadone clinic.
"We need a methadone clinic in Lebanon County, because we
have a heroin problem in Lebanon County," Litz said. "The
heroin problem is much larger than most of the general
public perceive. And it is viewed as epidemic in some drug
law-enforcement circles. With regard to crime, Lebanon
County's heroin problem has a ripple effect."
Sue Klarsch, director of the Lebanon County Commission on
Drug and Alcohol Abuse, has estimated that there are 865
heroin addicts in the county. Of those, about 170 are
receiving some form of treatment, but only 41 are receiving
methadone therapy which involves daily dosage administration
and counseling.
But Carpenter disputed the need for a methadone clinic,
citing data from New Perspectives showing that in the past
couple of years, most of its inpatients are from outside the
county. He predicted that the methadone clinic would be used
largely by patients from Lancaster County, and said he does
not want to see Lebanon County become a "methadone mecca."
"When you look at all the facts, this is a sugar daddy of
a deal for CRC," Carpenter said. "CRC will make millions of
dollars on this project with little or no risk. If ever an
issue should be voted down, this is the issue."
Carpenter said his opposition to a methadone clinic has
nothing to do with his full-time position as a vice
president of Good Samaritan Hospital. He said the hospital
is not considering opening its own methadone clinic. That
assertion was supported by Bob Phillips, chairman of the
hospital's board of trustees, who also attended the meeting.
About two dozen people showed up for yesterday's meeting.
A few voiced concerns about the methadone clinic and the
possibility it might draw a criminal element to the county.
Citing experience with other clinics, CRC representatives
discounted those concerns.
Several people spoke in favor of the clinic, including
former county Commissioner Ed Arnold. Of those supporting
it, many spoke in personal terms about the tribulations of
having a loved one addicted to heroin. Among them was former
Elco School District Superintendent Frank Bergman of
Myerstown.
"I would rather see Lebanon County become a methadone
mecca than a heroin mecca," he said. "We already have heroin
in Lebanon County. ... Methadone isn't the kind of drug
crooks go after. It is the kind of drug that people go to to
get off of opiates."
By RICHARD FELLINGER,
Staff Writer Lebanon Daily News
HARRISBURG -- Dozens of county commissioners from across the
state rallied in the Capitol yesterday for a plan that would give
them more options to raise money -- a plan they say would provide
relief for rising property taxes.
State Rep. Carole Rubley, a Republican from Chester County,
drafted the plan that would allow county commissioners to ask voters
for permission to levy sales or income taxes in exchange for cuts in
property taxes.
The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania is pushing
the plan, saying current law ties commissioners' hands by allowing
them to levy only property taxes or small "nuisance" taxes. CCAP
dubs the bill "tax fairness" legislation.
Lebanon County's Jo Ellen Litz was one of about 40 commissioners
who appeared with Rubley when she unveiled her plan at a Capitol
news conference.
"We have people coming to county commissioner meetings begging us
to do something on tax reform," Litz said, adding that the
commissioners are powerless to change the system without state
legislation.
Lebanon County's property taxes will increase this year by 24
percent, or 3 mills.
Backers of Rubley's plan hope to convince lawmakers that it's
time to enact tax-law changes for counties as new changes for
municipalities go into effect. Last year, the Legislature gave
municipalities the power to levy a per-capita job tax called the
Emergency and Municipal Services Tax up to $52 per year on each
person who works in the municipality.
Backers of the tax shift for counties have their work cut out for
them, because similar plans have died in past sessions.
Rubley's plan would allows county boards of commissioners to seek
voter approval for a sales tax of up to 1 percent or an income tax
of up to 0.5 percent.
If voters were to approve one of the alternative taxes, the
commissioners would be obligated to offset it dollar-for-dollar by a
reduction in the real-estate tax.
"So voters are very much involved in this process," Rubley said.
Rubley said counties should be able to choose from a menu of
taxes, because "in Pennsylvania, one size does not fit all."
Rubley said her bill urges the commissioners to form a task force
to study the county's tax needs before a referendum is held, but it
does not require the formation of a task force.
Rubley said she is seeking co-sponsors for her bill and plans to
formally introduce it soon.
Author:
DAVID G. PIDGEON Staff Writer Date: May 4, 2002 Publication: Daily News, The (Lebanon, PA)
Its proponents say
the Swatara Creek was a sick body of water 14 years ago, rife
with pollution and devoid of fish.
Now, thanks to the Swatara Creek Watershed Association, the
creek that has been lovingly dubbed the Swattie is relatively
wholesome, said the organization's president, Jo Ellen Litz.
When Litz first started working with the association 14 years
ago, she said there were no fish in the northern regions of the
Swattie.
Author:
ERIC LADLEY Staff Writer Date: April 29, 2002 Publication: Daily News, The (Lebanon, PA)
Jo Ellen Litz hopes
participants in this weekend's canoe trip down the Swatara Creek
have fun but also develop a sense of ownership in the local
waterway.
This year's "Canoe the Swattie Sojourn," which begins
Saturday morning at Union Canal Canoe Rentals in East Hanover
Township and ends Sunday in Middletown, combines recreation and
work. In its 14-year history, Litz said, the trip has been
successful in both its aims.
Author: DAVE
PIDGEON Date: June 9, 2003 Publication: Daily News, The (Lebanon, PA)
Staff Writer
A recommendation by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a
dam in Swatara State Park to provide drinking water for some Lebanon
County residents has received mixed reviews.
While it suits Jo Ellen Litz, president of the Swatara Creek
Watershed Association, it doesn't sit well with Paul Zeth of the
Audubon Society's state office.
The dam would create a reservoir in the 3,315-acre park, and in
times of serious drought, provide water for customers of the
Author: ERIC
LADLEY Staff Writer Date: May 22, 2002 Publication: Daily News, The (Lebanon, PA)
An adult-entertainment
club that opened last fall just outside Lickdale suffered another
setback at the hands of local residents last night after Union
Township voted overwhelmingly to prohibit it from allowing alcohol
on its premises.
Patrons of the Gold Rush Cabaret on Route 72 will no longer be
able to bring liquor when the law takes effect in 30 days. The Gold
Rush, which has no liquor license but allows its patrons to bring
their own beverages, is the only business in the township that
Author: JOHN
LATIMER Staff Writer Date: December 3, 2001 Publication: Daily News, The (Lebanon, PA)
Lebanon and surrounding
counties may be in a drought watch, but the Swatara Creek Watershed
Association always has its eye on water conservation.
Using funds from the state's Growing Greener Grant program, the
SCWA is hoping to raise community awareness about water conservation
through a contest in which winners will receive a water conservation
kit.
It doesn't take a mathematician to understand how precious a
resource water is, but to obtain one of the kits some math skills
are
Author: DARYL
DRIVER Staff Writer Date: October 11, 2001 Publication: Daily News, The (Lebanon, PA)
The sessions are
relatively brief, but the results could last a lifetime. That's the
belief of Jo Ellen Litz, director of the FamilyLife Marriage Seminar
which will take place tomorrow and Saturday at the Fredericksburg
United Methodist Church.
"Strengthening marriages is really, certainly wonderful," Litz
says. "If a husband better understands his wife, or a wife better
understands her husband, I think that's a great goal."
Shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City and
Washington, D.C., the Quota club of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., moved quickly
to fund relief efforts at the toppled World Trade Center.
During the September meeting, the club donated U.S.$500 to the Salvation Army
to use at Ground Zero. The commanding officer of the Lebanon S.A. unit, Captain
Chris Smith, volunteered on site, serving food and drink to rescue workers and
providing grief counseling to anyone in need.
Jo Ellen Litz, 2001-2002 President of the Lebanon Quota club, along with club
members Dorothy Ditzler (left) and Daisy Groy, presented a check for U.S.$500 to
Salvation Army Captain Cynthia Smith during the September club meeting. Captain
Smith's husband, Chris Smith, served at Ground Zero while she kept programs in
Lebanon running. Photo by Lebanon Quota club member Carol Ruffner.
The Swatara Creek Wateshed Association received the 2001
Watershed Protection Award. Jo Ellen
Litz, second from the right, accepted the award on behalf of the Association.
Karl Brown of the SCC, right, presented the award.
Commissioner: Voting
Machine Company Can't Deliver
POSTED: 11:47 am EST March 24, 2006
UPDATED: 4:49 pm EST March 24, 2006
LEBANON COUNTY, Pa. -- A Lebanon County commissioner said a manufacturer of
electronic voting machines is backing down on its deal with Lebanon County.
Commissioner Jo-Ellen Litz said the county signed a more than
$800,000 deal earlier this month with Election Systems and Software to supply
267 voting machines. Litz said the company now said it can only supply half the
machines by the May primary.
Copyright 2006 by
WGAL.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed
Vendor reneges on promise to fill
voting-machine order
By JOHN LATIMER
Staff Writer
Lebanon Daily News
A
company hired to supply 267 electronic voting machines to the county by
May’s primary election now says it will deliver less than half that
amount.
This is the second time in two months a voting-machine company has not
been able to deliver what the Lebanon County commissioners thought it had
promised.
In January, the commissioners approved the purchase of 267 iVotronic
touch-screen voting machines at a cost of $2,700 each from Nebraska-based
Election Systems and Software.
The county was among the first in Pennsylvania to place an order with ES&S
and were told the machines would be delivered on a first-come,
first-served basis.
That promise was crucial to the commissioners’ decision to go with ES&S,
Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz said yesterday, because the electronic machines
must be in place by the primary to comply with the federal Help America
Vote Act of 2002. The act, passed in the wake of Florida’s hanging-chad
debacle of 2000, mandates that all punch-card and lever-voting machines —
like those the county has used for the past 50 years — be replaced with
electronic machines.
The commissioners were anxious to strike a deal with ES&S because they had
already been burned by AccuPoll, the company they had contracted with in
December that unexpectedly backed out of the deal.
The county and ES&S reached an agreement Jan. 26, and a dozen iVotronic
machines were scheduled to arrive at the end of March so poll workers
could begin training on them. The rest were to be delivered in April,
according to county officials.
But that all changed this week, Litz said, when the county received a
letter from ES&S explaining it wanted to cut the number of machines in
order to supply machines to its other Pennsylvania customers, making them
HAVA compliant.
Litz said the letter gave the county an ultimatum: “Either accept 50
percent of your order by 5 p.m. (Wednesday) or get nothing.”
Actually, the company plans to send less than 50 percent of the original
order, said Elaine Ludwig, the county’s chief of elections. It offered to
provide two machines to each of the county’s 56 precincts — a total of 112
machines, or 42 percent of the original order. The rest would presumably
come in time for November’s election.
“At our bigger precincts, that’s just not going to be enough,” Ludwig
said. “At Cornwall Borough and Jackson West, that will never work.
There’ll be lines and such carrying on. It will be a mess.”
Litz said she believed the county had a written contract with ES&S. But a
company spokesman disagreed.
“It is my understanding that we don’t have a signed agreement with the
county to purchase the machines,” Ken Fields said.
Those counties that do have a contract are getting their full shipment, he
said, and ES&S is trying to give the others enough to make them HAVA
compliant. Meeting the demand has been tough, but he said he hopes to work
out a compromise with Lebanon and other counties that have opted for the
iVotronic system.
“We understand the difficult situation the counties are in as well,” he
said. “We are recommending a solution to help all the voters across the
state and in each of the counties that want to purchase from us.”
Because both commissioners’ Chairman Bill Carpenter and solicitor Adrienne
Snelling were out of town this week, Litz said. She and county
administrator Jamie Wolgemuth were able to get ES&S to extend its deadline
on the deal to Monday.
One possibility, for the primary only, is to supplement the touch-screen
machines with optical scanners that would tabulate votes recorded by hand,
Ludwig said. The optical scanners are HAVA compliant, she said, and there
is no law prohibiting the use of two types of voting machines.
Litz said she believes the county has a signed contract and holds out hope
the company will “do the right thing” and supply the county with all of
the machines it ordered. Lebanon County was about the fifth contract the
company signed in Pennsylvania, she said, and now it has signed up 35
counties. The company also has sold machines in other states.
“The bottom line is, knowing their inventory, rather than saying ‘No’ to
new counties when they had no machines, they oversold the machines. That
is unethical. Shame on them,” she said. “Now they are trying to make us
feel guilty and asking us to be good neighbors by accepting only half of
the machines. ... They should do the right thing, and those who they sold
to first should be delivered to first. And those at the end of the line
will just have to go elsewhere for their machines.”
Workers Map Quarries To Prepare For Emergencies
POSTED: 5:59 pm EDT May 19, 2005
UPDATED: 6:03 pm EDT May 19, 2005
WEST LEBANON TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Three people
have died in Pennsylvania quarries this year.
That is already ahead of last year's total of two
deaths.
Officials in Lebanon County are hoping to increase
their chances of saving lives when it comes to quarry rescues.
Two years ago, a 13-year-old died in waters the men
revisited Thursday. This time, they came to be proactive.
"Our biggest problem would be getting a boat down, or
a raft," said Chief Matt Clements, of the Lebanon County hazmat team.
The hazmat team is starting what could be a long
process of mapping every Lebanon County quarry.
"Three o'clock in the morning, as we always say,"
Clements said. "That's not the time to figure out how to get into these
places."
So now they're scouting access points ahead of time.
The information they gather will be logged and entered into computer
mapping software. It will save time, and could help turn more recoveries
into rescues.
But rescuers still say there's still no excuse to go
swimming in a quarry.
There are all sorts of hidden dangers in quarries.
The biggest of which might be the water temperature. It may seem fine on
the surface, but just 4 or 5 feet down, the temperature may drop 15 or 20
degrees.
"Cold and cramps that you get in your legs can
literally drown you," Lebanon County Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz said.
Litz, an avid diver, is helping the quarry-mapping
effort.
Officials are finding quarries they didn't even know
existed.
"We found 16 already. I'm waiting for people to tell
me, 'Hey, there's one in my back yard,'" Litz said.
You can e-mail quarry location in Lebanon County to
litz@mbcomp.com.
Click
here for more information from the state Department of Environmental
Protection.
Date: June 6, 2004 Publication: Daily News, The (Lebanon, PA)
By JOHN LATIMER
Staff Writer
At the end of their
meeting Thursday, county Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz caught flak from
board Chairman Bill Carpenter for proposing to hire another computer
technician.
Litz, who has made
a practice of dropping a bombshell proposal at the end of meetings
lately, said she had discussed hiring a technician to monitor the
county Emergency Management Agency's new communications system and
JNET, a computer network that links the district attorney's
Date: May 2, 2004 Publication: Daily News, The (Lebanon, PA)
Gathering trash as
they paddled, 66 people floated 14 miles yesterday in the first of a
two-day cleanup of the Swatara Creek, sponsored by the Swatara Creek
Watershed Association.
"You would not
believe the junk," said Jo Ellen Litz, association president and a
county commissioner. "With the water so high, I did not expect to
get so much."
Known as the annual
Swattie Sojourn, participants gathered into their canoes and kayaks
any litter they found during their trip
On election day, every vote matters. You
matter! And I can't win this race without you.
