The Lycoming County commissioners have a $164,000 question: How well is the county run, generally and financially, and what could be changed to make it better in the future? We are guessing taxpayers want to hear those answers too. And those answers are coming very soon. The commissioners ...
The concrete is curing. The basketball hoops are coming back to Memorial Park. We are glad for that. We never thought they should have been removed five years ago over drug-related activities. The city needs all the positive recreation activity locations it can get for its youth. We ...
Some 17 shale gas producers took one on the chin recently from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The court ruled against them in a dispute centered on what counts as a "stripper well" or a well that is nearing the end of its life. Such wells are exempt from annual impact fees paid to areas ...
Gov. Tom Wolf’s agenda priorities don’t usually match up well with most of our local lawmakers. It appears the trend will continue in 2019. Lawmakers do share the governor’s determination to fight the opioid epidemic. State Sen. Gene Yaw, a Loyalsock Republican representing much of our ...
Distribution prospects for natural gas in the Mid-Atlantic states took a hit recently when Maryland officials rejected a proposed pipeline across the western part of the state that would have carried natural gas produced in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It was a win for environmentalists ...
The new president of the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce is already headed in the correct direction by simply understanding the overarching challenge for Lycoming County's future. Frankly, it is a math problem. And Jason C. Fink summed it up quite well in an interview in this past ...
There is general agreement among local public officials that the Lycoming County tax base - particularly in the city - would benefit greatly from increased commercial and public development. And there also is a consensus that Lycoming County is overdue for a property tax reassessment to make ...
Williamsport’s central business district is getting bigger. At least on paper. City Council last week approved elongating the central business district from Hepburn Street along West Third and Second streets, west to Center Street. The zoning map amendment will help a builder, Herman ...
For the 11th year in a row, motorists' tolls on the 359-mile Pennsylvania Turnpike are going up. So that's more than a decade of annual increases to drive the turnpike. The tolls went up 6 percent starting Sunday, meaning for passenger vehicles traveling the length of the Turnpike the ...
Gov. Tom Wolf has some big-ticket items on his shopping list of potential goals in his second term. They include an increase in the minimum wage, expansion of background checks on firearms purchases, overhaul of how public schools are funded and imposition of a tax on Marcellus Shale ...
Newly adorned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may find her greatest challenge is not working with Republicans but rather getting her fellow Democrats to unite around common sense initiatives that improve the country and the party's election scenario two years from now. The applause from her ...
The penalty for chronic offenders of Pennsylvania’s driving under the influence laws just got stiffer. And well it should. Under a long-overdue revision passed by the Legislature in October and signed by Gov. Tom Wolf, the legal consequences for some repeat offenders of DUI laws add up to ...
The Department of Justice, under fire often in the past two years, clearly needs a new leader who can command respect from all sides. It needs a leader who can act with the full power of the office behind him but do it in such a way that restores integrity to the department. President ...
The former YMCA building in downtown Williamsport may eventually be home to high-end apartments, after all. The former Children's Discovery Workshop portion of the building at West Fourth and Elmira Streets has been in limbo since a demolition accident rendered it unsafe a few years ago and ...
The problem does not get any more starkly defined than this. Newman, Calif., police officer Ronil Singh, a legal immigrant, was shot and killed by an illegal immigrant the day after Christmas during a traffic stop for alleged drunken driving. The suspect, Gustavo Perez Arriaga, had a track ...
Stream cleaning may not be a top priority for lawmakers and residents in many parts of Pennsylvania. But in our region, where hunting, fishing, biking and hiking are integral parts of the quality of life and flooding is a persistent threat, stream cleaning is important. And there’s not ...
Our world in 2019 is dominated by cell phones, social media and a pace of life that seems more complicated and faster than ever. Technological advances allow us to communicate more than ever before. But sometimes it looks like we communicate less than ever before. Our social media ...
We’ve spent the past week looking back and reflecting on the year 2018. We’ve recalled some of the bigger stories of the year, and in so doing remembered the challenges we faced. It was a year in which county government had a change of heart with respect to staffing that it had pledged ...
As our nation's year ends, there is an understandable amount of trepidation for its future. We seem divided at every turn, whether it be the worthiness of a Supreme Court nominee, how and whether to protect our borders or determining the length and depth of our military commitments on foreign ...
In the ever-evolving quest to increase the city of Williamsport’s meager general fund reserve, Mayor Gabriel J. Campana is looking to sell off some of the city’s assets. The former Almond Street fire station and Reighard Avenue civil defense building are being appraised for possible ...