A former supervisor of Penn Township's sewage treatment plant is accused of falsifying data and altering wastewater samples submitted to state environmental officials.J. Scott Shank, former superintendent of Northwestern Lancaster County Water and Sewer Authority, was arraigned Thursda......

A problem familiar to Lancaster County — how to find the sewer capacity for new homes — could soon be back at the forefront in the Elizabethtown area. West Donegal Township officials, considering plans for a 470-home development and with no less than 1,100 homes either proposed or a......

The improper discharge of wastewater into Chiques Creek triggered a fine of $22,135 against Penn Township and an ongoing criminal probe, township officials have confirmed.The uncontested fine imposed by the state Department of Environmental Protection resulted from problems in 2007 with op......

After more than a decade of waiting, about 100 Marietta residents got a peek at plans Wednesday to construct a two-mile, $3 million to $6 million levee system that would protect their town from Susquehanna River flooding.Now, the decision about whether to construct the levee rests in the h......

If you pay a sewage bill, Pennsylvania's new budget may spell relief from big rates hikes that have been anticipated. Many customers served by 17 regional sewage plants in Lancaster County have been told to expect steep increases in their bills because of state and federal clean-water manda......

West Earl Township supervisors on Monday gave the go-ahead for an important engineering study concerning a medical facility that has been proposed for the area.Lancaster General Hospital and Ephrata Community Hospital are working toward construction of a facility at Routes 322 and 222 on a......

The first issue is a big one to the two older neighorhoods' 200 homeowners — people who say they won't be able to pay to hook up to public sewers, as they might have to. The second is one of the longer-running disputes ever in Manor Township, over plans to build a Wal-Mart superce......

A debate over how much one public entity can charge another to use existing infrastructure played out Tuesday in Warwick School District.Lititz Borough is looking to charge Warwick School District a tap-in fee of $140,000 for the water and sewer infrastructure for the proposed middle schoo......

This time, there were plenty of seats to go around. And the discussion was all civil ... even light-hearted. Two-plus weeks after a mini-army of Manor Township homeowners stormed a township supervisors' meeting to angrily complain about expensive, state-mandated sewer upgrades, the ......

For many older residents of northeastern Lancaster County, having an inpatient medical center in their area would be a relief. With one available, they wouldn't have to trek to other county hospitals, which may be running short on beds. But would such a medical facility, if built, attract u......

A new sewer project in Manor Township is causing a major stink. Residents of the Letort Manor and Perth Hills neighborhoods are up in arms over what they'll have to pay for the Lancaster Area Sewer Authority expansion: a bill estimated at almost $16,000 per household. State law require......

Supervisors in West Earl Township are proceeding with caution.At a township meeting Monday, residents Bruce and Joyce Heckman said there was a sizable sinkhole on their property at 62 Millstone Drive, Brownstown. The breach, estimated to spread over an area of 48 square feet, threatens a t......

Sewer infrastructure failed and polluted the public water supply, officials say.•••Lititz Borough residents will pay at least a portion of what it costs to fix a problem with a leak from a mouthwash-bottling facility. The leak polluted ......

A portion of Eden Road in Manheim Township will remain closed at least into today as work continues on a large sinkhole that appeared Monday afternoon.Workers were hoping to have the road reopened Tuesday, but the sinkhole is requiring more repair work than first anticipated.Accordi......

Lawmakers in Harrisburg will try to figure out this week how to keep municipalities from being bankrupted by the cost of cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.Under a federal mandate, municipalities in the bay's watershed, which includes the Susquehanna River and its tributaries, have just tw......

A broken sewer line and a sinkhole closed one block of Eden Road in Manheim Township Monday afternoon.The hole, about 7 feet deep, 7 feet long and 5 feet wide, was reported about 2:15 p.m. Monday.The road was closed between Oak and Linden avenues, and heavy equipment was brought in ......

Wastewater leaking from a pharmaceutical firm that manufactures mouthwash in Lititz caused the "minty" taste or odor in the borough's water during the week of Jan. 7, forcing the shutdown of four borough wells, a state official said Monday.Water samples identified the presenc......

Leaks have been found in two sewer lines serving a pharmaceutical firm that manufactures mouthwash in Lititz, where reports of a "minty" taste or odor in the borough's water surfaced Jan. 7, forcing the shutdown of four borough wells.The leaking sewer lines on company propert......

A mysterious appearance of rust-colored water in Lititz Run was investigated by state and industry officials late Friday afternoon.The discovery was made barely a week after Lititz Borough tap water was tested for an unexplained minty odor and taste and officials took four wells out of ser......

The "minty-fresh taste" in the Lititz water has gone away, but the state Department of Environmental Protection is continuing an investigation into the source of last week's flavor.A DEP inspection report issued Thursday calls the episode "reminiscent" of a 1997 leak from the Johnson &......

Lancaster-based National Novelty Brush Co. announced Friday it will close Hocker Manufacturing, a sister company in Lewes, Del., which it purchased last January.Richard Seavy, Novelty Brush president and CEO, said the company will merge operations from Lewes into its Lancaster plant....

West Earl Township's new budget for 2008 contains no tax hike — almost.Adopted at the West Earl supervisors meeting on Dec. 17, the new plan calls for total general fund expenditures of $1,757,533 against projected revenues of $1,759,183. There will be no increase in the township's r......

Like it or not, Lancaster County residents will be digging deeper into their pocketbooks to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, a body of water that doesn't even touch Pennsylvania. Some local municipalities are looking at rate hikes up to 40 percent to cover sewage-treatment upgrades over the nex......

The battle for the East Hempfield Township supervisor race came down to the wire, with the two Republican candidates on the ballot likely winning the contested seats, pending a final count of write-in votes.Incumbent Brett Miller easily won re-election to a six-year position, beating fello......

In Manheim Township, Tuesday's township commissioner race seems to be largely about money.Nelson Rohrer, 56, who sat on the township's board of commissioners from 1990 to 1998, is running as an independent against incumbents Carol S. Simpson and Larry Downing, both of whom are Repu......

A new budget and a new public library dominated conversation at Monday's meeting of the Manheim Township board of commissioners.Valerie Calhoun, the township's financial officer, introduced a "very preliminary" 2008 budget that totals $15.8 million in expenses; a $614,153 increase over 200......

The coming of the railroads, the heyday of the 19th century iron industry and the devastating damage Hurricane Agnes caused in June 1972 mark Marietta Borough's history. Determined not to let storm history repeat itself, the state is proposing to build a protective levee along the town's Susque......

Following more than three years of work, Paradise Township officials announced Tuesday that Phase 1 of the sewage system project in Kinzers has been connected."The sewage is flowing in Kinzers," Paradise Township supervisor Dennis Groff said."This is just such an important issue whe......

A Lititz Borough resident who practices water conservation questioned water and sewer rate increases at the borough council meeting Sept. 25.Larry Balmer, a retiree, said he and his wife use very little water and were surprised to find out their quarterly water and sewer rates increased by......

Immo Sulyok is known in local political circles as a guy who makes sure every "i" is dotted, every "t" crossed. Most recently, the chairman of the Lampeter-Strasburg Republican Committee successfully challenged the signatures of county Coroner G. Gary Kirchner's petition to run as an independen......

The state Department of Environmental Protection has completed preliminary designs for a 2-mile levee project along the Susquehanna River in Marietta Borough, giving residents some idea of what to expect when the project is completed sometime in the middle of the next decade.And once the p......

Bart Township supervisors at their Aug. 1 meeting said they are trying to set up a meeting of township solicitor Ken Shirk and local bank officials to discuss the township's microflush-toilet ordinance.A time and date for the meeting was not announced.When a parcel has high nitrate ......

Members of Lititz Borough Council announced at Tuesday night's meeting they were ending an investigation into the construction of a hog-farm operation west of town in Penn Township and into allegations a borough employee made false statements about it.Council looked at several issues s......

Millersville Borough Council voted July 24 to refinance debt associated with its borough building and sewer projects.The move will make debt payments more "stable and consistent," business manager Ed Arnold said. Also, it may have an unexpected bonus for residents, at least in the short te......

For more than a hundred years, the borough of Lititz has been known for its abundance of water, with visitors coming to admire the springs bubbling in the middle of town.But Lititz also has struggled to maintain the safety of its water supply, which has high nitrate levels, and borough cou......

Several Manheim Township residents brought their grievances against a development plan to the township commissioners Monday night. Artz Development Co. is proposing a 33-home project on 16 acres of farmland off Fruitville Pike and Buch Avenue. The plan is under review by the township, and ......

Because of a number of failing on-lot septic systems, area officials want to extend sewer lines into Manor Township's Letort Manor and Perth Hills developments. But the officials want to make something else clear. Paving the way for expanded development in that part of Manor "is the furthest th......

After testing several Refton area sites, Strasburg Township may have found a tract suitable to serve Refton's future sewage needs. Consultant Tom Whitehill, during Monday's supervisors meeting, said soil on one of the sites has tested as being suitable for a community system. If......

Lititz borough residents may soon be facing a rate increase for sewer and water usage. Borough council discussed the increase Tuesday during a regular business meeting and estimated the increase for an average user at $27 per quarter, or 37 percent. "The average bill would go up a little o......

A malfunctioning valve sent thousands of gallons of untreated sewage flowing onto six homeowners' lawns Tuesday night along Route 999 in Manor Township. Sewage from a Lancaster Area Sewer Authority manhole escaped to the surface for about 4 ½ hours, LASA said. Escaping sewage f......

It’s enough to make you grin right back. Go ahead, because the sock monkeys have arrived at the Lancaster Museum of Art for a month-long visit during the museum’s annual Trees Galore! exhibit. “The reaction we seem to get from the sock monkeys is sheer delight,” says Cindi Morrison, museum dir......

The “delivery” was the recent completion of a new regional sewage facilities plan for several of Lancaster’s suburbs, which means a few changes in coming years for those with on-lot septic systems. Kyle, the Lancaster Area Sewer Authority’s executive director, calls the new plan “the result of fi......

My apologies to Arkansas. And Illinois.

When Indiana was nicknamed the "Hoosier State," it sent folks scrambling for dictionaries to see just what the heck a "Hoosier" was. Most recently, Indiana is known as "The State That Almost Killed Cary Grant With a Crop Duster Plane."

Iowa i...

That was certainly the case Wednesday in Marietta, where the too-close-for-comfort Susquehanna River is expected to crest this evening at 53.8 feet. The flood stage at Marietta is 49 feet.

That daunting fact, however, certainly didn't bother the crowd gathered Wednesday at Marietta Boat C...

“Hopefully, and I say ‘hopefully,’ in two weeks we’ll be moving off State Street,” said Stephen Bonner, engineering project manager. “We will have to come back to do some road repair which will take a few days, but weather permitting&tstr;and that’s a huge factor&tstr;we’re looking at two weeks.”...

Lancaster will receive a low-interest $1.5 million-plus loan from Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority to help fund excavation and infrastructure work on a 47-acre section of the former Armstrong World Industries complex in the northwest section of the city.

The project is a partn...

Lancaster city's street-cleaning signs specify no parking during a 31-w-hour time period on specific days, regardless of when the street sweeper actually arrives.

The city, however, has a longstanding but informal policy that residents are allowed to move their cars back onto the cleaned ...

The final minutes of 2005 tick away tonight, and as we prepare to ring in 2006, a few Lancastrians took some moments this week to recall some of their most memorable New Year’s eves. Some of those memories are happy, festive ones. Some are funny. Others are bittersweet. Barry Kornhauser, playw......

The city had originally sought a $91,000 fine for gumming up the city’s sewage treatment plant and costing taxpayers. However, Kemps, which ceased production at its Lancaster plant at 1901 Hempstead Road on July 21, showed the city records that the amount of waste was less than what the city had ......

Lancaster City officials say they are wrapping up an investigation that may result in charging the departing dairy company “tens of thousands” of dollars for dumping too much dairy waste into city sewers, clogging its sewage treatment plant. Paul Nightingale, a corporate attorney for Kemps’ paren......

I haven’t seen Buddy this spring. Has something happened to him? Mel Shell Ronks

Dear Mr. Shell: Buddy has gone to that great Nut House in the sky. Carol Petersen, the resident who fed peanuts to Buddy almost daily during his six years on Earth, says she tried to capture and reha......

I haven’t seen Buddy this spring. Has something happened to him? Mel Shell Ronks

Dear Mr. Shell: Buddy has gone to that great Nut House in the sky. Carol Petersen, the resident who fed peanuts to Buddy almost daily during his six years on Earth, says she tried to capture and reha......

Thanks to heavy rains and leaking storm sewers, a number of sinkholes have developed on Lancaster City streets over the past month. City maintenance workers have been scurrying around to plug them. On the surface, a sinkhole might only be a small hole in the macadam, a foot or less in diameter......

Arnold is a lieutenant with the Lancaster City Fire Bureau, so he knows what he's talking about when he says how important it is for firefighters to have quick, easy access to the city's several thousand hydrants.

Instead, too many are "locked,'' or hidden by all the snow and ice, Arnold ...

Rain, heavy at times, fell Wednesday, backing up at storm-sewer grates blocked by plowed snow and ice, which could cause localized flooding. The rain and melting snow also could make creeks and streams overflow their banks, causing problems for residents in low-lying areas.

"Our crews were....

Phil Colvin, deputy director of Lancaster County Emergency

Management Agency, said state officials wanted preliminary storm

impact data and costs Wednesday morning, "but that just wasn't

practical."



"We had municipalities still sending us information at 3 p.....

"LASA owns all the systems around us, and sewage is their business," Bledsoe said. "To me, there's no question LASA can run it more cost effectively than the township can."

Commissioner Dennis Reinaker cast the lone dissenting vote.

"It disappoints me that my colleagues are going.....

Now I’m going to bore you to tears by addressing something no self-respecting columnist would ever write about:

Sewers.

(See, I’ve lost respect for myself already.)

But this is a special case. This is about sewers in Manheim Township, a community where, as we have seen time and ...

An incoming Manheim Township commissioner is making a last-ditch appeal to delay the sale of the township's sewer system, arguing that an independent consultant should review the proposal first.

In a statement, Republican nominee Larry Downing is asking the current commissioners for a two-mon...

In interviews, Larry Downing and Carol Simpson say they support Commissioner Dennis Reinaker's pleas for independent analyses of the deal's impact on customers and for more time for residents to respond.

"The bosses -- the taxpayers -- haven't had a fair chance to have input on this,'' sa...

"We've met with (the commissioners), and we have an interest in buying their system," Michael Kyle, LASA's executive director, said.

Before a decision is made, however, both sides want to hear what the public thinks.

The commissioners will host an informational meeting in......

The rate hikes are expected to be widespread and will vary in size.

For example, more than 20,000 households served by the Lancaster Area Sewer Authority in Lancaster's western suburbs will pay an estimated $17.40, or 6.5 percent, more per year.

LASA serves residential customers i...

DENNIS FISHER By Sports Editor    I'm ready to put the Jeff Smoker dilemma behind me.
I've learned all I need to know about it.
I've seen Smoker's parents' statement that their son is being treated for substance abuse.
I've heard the chairman of Michigan State......