2009-06-25 00:53:00
STEPHANIE WEAVER
Celebrate Lancaster is back for its 11th year, returning to Binns Park on Friday with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra to kick off the Independence Day holiday week.The celebration, sponsored by the Mayor's Office of Special Events and Fulton Bank, begins at 11:30 a.m. with numerous fo......
2009-06-22 00:07:00
P.J. REILLY
Linda Ross of Marietta walked in the main entrance of the Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square Sunday afternoon and tried to match what she saw with her childhood memories of the former Watt & Shand department store."That was the candy place," she said, pointing toward the front......
2009-06-19 11:10:00
JACK BRUBAKER
The $178 million final bill for the Lancaster County Convention Center and Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square includes all costs since the project began a decade ago. That's all the architectural, legal, consulting, administrative and other fees that preceded construction, as well as constructio......
2009-06-19 10:52:00
BERNARD HARRIS
The first paying hotel guests are due to check in, the first diners will be served their meals and downtown workers will celebrate a Friday happy hour at the bar of the Marriott Lancaster at Penn Square hotel today. The hotel was opening at 3 today, following a ceremonial ribbon-cutting at the ......
2009-06-19 00:56:00
DAVE PIDGEON
The hotel/convention center on Penn Square opens for business today, a day after dignitaries and developers cut a large Marriott ribbon during an indoor ceremony."Well, we're here at last after a long journey," Mark Moosic, general manager of the $177.6 million complex, said ......
2009-06-18 11:40:00
JANE HOLAHAN
Art is all over the place at the Lancaster Arts Hotel and it's putting a new spin on the gallery scene in Lancaster. Yes, there is a traditional gallery space in the hotel, though the work that is shown there is not necessarily traditional. Carol Galligan's "Wing/Lotus Seri......
2009-06-18 09:29:00
STAFF
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2009-06-18 00:21:00
DAVE PIDGEON
For the Penn Square hotel/convention center, today is one part finish line, one part starting gate.Developers and backers of the $174 million hotel/convention center on Penn Square this morning will participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony, one day before the center is scheduled to open....
2009-06-15 00:01:00
DAVE PIDGEON
As Jimmy Buffett once wrote, "On the threshold of adventure, God, I do love this job so."I write this because not only will I be in attendance at the Buffett show Saturday in Camden, N.J., but because I find myself again on the threshold of adventure. This ship will be sailing on......
2009-06-13 00:06:00
JANET KELLEY
When Tim Carr and his friends bought a restaurant in downtown Lancaster, the dream of a new Lancaster County Convention Center was supposedly right around the corner.That was almost nine years ago.But next week, when the ceremonial ribbon is cut and the Lancaster County Convention C......
2009-06-11 00:59:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Developers of the $174 million hotel and convention center on Penn Square in downtown Lancaster promised Wednesday it will open June 19.A ribbon-cutting ceremony and possible open house for the public could come as early as June 18, officials said.Developers were forced to push back......
2009-06-07 00:06:00
DENNIS LARISON, Business Editor
The timbers supporting the upper deck of the outdoor dining pavilion at the Heritage Hotel converge like wheel spokes on a living tree growing through the project. The timbers extend past the handmade mortise and tenon joints that hold the structure together to point at the tree. At the other e......
2009-06-05 05:00:00
MARY BETH SCHWEIGERT
At the dawn of the American Revolution, there was one licensed tavern for every 90 men, women and children living in Lancaster City. Only one other trade was so well-represented: shoemaking. "The 18th century was a pretty bawdy era," says Robert K. Weber, director of library s......
2009-06-05 01:57:00
JEFF HAWKES
What's next for Lancaster?It's a question I'm asking now that the Marriott and convention center, 10 years in the making, are about to open.In yesterday's column, I asked a few community leaders if the city needs a new challenge along the lines of the convention cent......
2009-06-05 01:44:00
JENNIFER TODD
It's been a bumpy journey for city motorists the last few weeks, but smoother sailing is expected next week.Crews next week are scheduled to pave the first block of South Queen Street and the first blocks of East and West Vine streets as a months-long street reconstruction project near......
2009-06-04 11:28:00
BERNARD HARRIS
As the workers at the surrounding Lancaster County Convention Center prepare for an opening this month, the old buildings at the corner of South Queen and East Vine streets appear to be a long way from being ready for their close-up. Scaffolding — and behind that, boarded windows — ......
2009-06-03 17:34:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Correction — The annual meeting of the Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities is scheduled to be held in the new Lancaster County Convention Center and Lancaster Marriott Hotel June 24 through June 26. Between 300 and 400 people, i......
2009-05-29 01:39:00
TOM KNAPP
The new, brightly colored signs in the Duke Street parking garage are an unintentional flashback into Lancaster city's history.Provided as a service to garage patrons who might not be familiar with the area, the new signs point the way to Duke Street, Chestnut Street and the Brunswick ......
2009-05-23 01:02:00
P.J. REILLY
Another day. Another stamp of approval.A day after the integrated Lancaster County Convention Center and Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square hotel received a temporary occupancy permit from Lancaster city officials, Marriott officials on Friday completed a "life safety" inspection ......
2009-05-21 11:33:00
AD CRABLE
The county's 17-year-old waste-to-energy incinerator should undergo a $175 million expansion, paid for, in part, by burning another city or county's garbage, consultants recommend. The study for the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority also suggests that recycling be expand......
2009-05-21 12:07:00
BERNARD HARRIS
The downtown convention center and hotel project passed another milestone this morning, one of many on the long journey toward opening. The integrated Lancaster County Convention Center and Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square hotel today received a temporary certificate of occupancy from Lancaste......
2009-05-21 00:53:00
JENNIFER TODD
A referendum approved Tuesday to permit liquor sales in West Lampeter Township is not expected to lead to an onslaught of new establishments in the municipality, officials said Wednesday."Honestly, I see this as having very little effect on the township right now," township manag......
2009-05-21 00:01:00
You may not have noticed, but historic changes took place in Pennsylvania on Tuesday.At least two townships — West Lampeter in Lancaster County and Warrington in York County, overturned liquor sales bans in the primary election.According to a Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board ......
2009-05-20 03:44:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Tuesday turned into happy hour for those who wanted to overturn a prohibition on alcohol sales in West Lampeter Township.Because residents voting in a referendum chose to reverse the township's 74-year-old ban on alcohol sales, major changes are likely in store for Willow Valley Resort......
2009-05-19 01:01:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Rick Gray could stay inside his North Prince Street home. But he won't.Gray has no opponent today in the Democratic primary, but that doesn't mean the incumbent Lancaster city mayor won't be putting shoe leather to pavement."I'm just going to go around to the pr......
2009-05-17 00:19:00
PAULA WOLF
In Tuesday's primary, the voters of West Lampeter Township will make a momentous decision on whether to lift the municipality's 74-year ban on alcohol sales. But while it occupies the electoral spotlight, West Lampeter has plenty of company in prohibiting liquor licenses, here and state......
2009-05-17 00:16:00
GIL SMART, Associate Editor
Growth is on the ballot in Tuesday's primary election. Not explicitly, of course. But in this off-year election, the most controversial races have centered around the development of Lancaster County, and how that growth should be controlled — or thwarted. Growth is the major i......
2009-05-17 00:14:00
PAULA WOLF
As U.S. Forest Service chief under President Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot is much better known as a conservationist than a staunch opponent of alcohol. But it was Pinchot's prohibitionist bent that led him to push through, as governor of the commonwealth in the 1930s, the state sto......
2009-05-12 00:24:00
PATRICK BURNS
Construction delays that have pushed back the opening of the Lancaster County Convention Center and Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square have forced the county chamber of commerce to postpone its annual dinner. Lancaster Chamber of Commerce & Industry said Monday its 137th annual din......
2009-05-08 00:01:00
Overseeing the construction of the $174 million Lancaster County Convention Center project is a difficult job. It's made even harder when developers miss their own targets for opening, then dodge questions about when the facility will open.That's what happened Wednesday. Lancaster ......
2009-05-07 01:36:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Lancaster County Convention Center Authority met Wednesday, but anyone expecting to learn just when the hotel/convention center in Penn Square at last will open left disappointed.However, based on comments by developers at the Southern Market Center meeting, an early to mid-June opening se......
2009-05-01 11:08:00
BERNARD HARRIS
They wanted answers Thursday. Why is there another delay in the opening of the $174 million downtown meeting center and Marriott hotel? Why didn't project managers see it coming? And why can't or won't they say when they now expect the facility to open? But there are ......
2009-05-01 01:13:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Developers of the $174 million hotel/convention center in Penn Square are losing revenue each time they postpone its opening, but how much revenue remains uncertain.More than a dozen planners for events scheduled for the convention center either found alternative sites or postponed when de......
2009-04-30 00:11:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Slow construction progress has again forced developers to delay the opening of the $174 million hotel/convention center on Penn Square.Unlike previous delays, though, developers this time would not set a new date for when they expected to begin lodging guests and hosting events at what has......
2009-04-29 15:23:00
DAVE PIDGEON
The opening of the $170 million hotel/convention center on Penn Square has been delayed by slow construction progress, again.Developers announced in a news release Wednesday afternoon that construction of the 300-room Marriott Hotel and 220,000-square-foot convention center in downtown Lan......
2009-04-26 00:13:00
CHIP SMEDLEY
A U.S. District Court has ordered a default judgment against the owners of the hotel at 521 Greenfield Road, once a Holiday Inn franchise and now The Inn at Lancaster. The action against Portfolio-Lancaster LLC, a subsidiary of Kronos Hotels and Resorts, is one of three pending foreclosures ord......
2009-04-26 00:12:00
PAULA WOLF
At a public meeting this week, three representatives from the state Liquor Control Board, and others, will answer queries on the alcohol ballot question West Lampeter Township residents will soon vote on. In the May 19 primary, voters will decide whether to lift the township's 74-year ban on al......
2009-04-23 00:01:00
If you want to gauge the pulse of the local economy, here's a tip: Check the box scores of the Lancaster Barnstormers' games beginning tonight. This has less to do with runs and hits — at least at the outset of the season — and more to do with the category designated as "......
2009-04-21 10:37:00
RYAN ROBINSON
We might as well change the name of East Lampeter Township to Hotel Township. One new hotel is set to open, another is close to being built and four others are in various stages of the planning approval process. Final township inspection of a hotel at the site of the former Eagle Falls Thr......
2009-04-21 00:57:00
JENNIFER TODD
Boarded up and broken down, the Swan Hotel sits humbly in the shadow of the massive, multimillion-dollar convention center that has risen across the street.Empty since a restaurant at the site closed in 1995, its parking lot has been home for the past two years to construction trailers and......
2009-04-19 00:21:00
GIL SMART, Associate Editor
It's the rumor that won't go away: Didja hear they're going to put slot machines in the new convention center and hotel downtown? For seven years at least it's been whispered, asserted and published. A letter to the editor in both of Lancaster's daily newspapers last......
2009-04-18 01:39:00
LORI VAN INGEN
Even before the first LAUNCH Music Conference closes Sunday, organizers are planning for the event to become a permanent fixture in Lancaster."We're taking registrations for LAUNCH 2010 already," organizer Jeremy Weiss said. "We've also been working with Downtown Inv......
2009-04-10 20:27:00
KATI TAFELSKI, 16, Freestyle
REVIEW: DVDMany of us have heard of the horrible genocides happening in Darfur and other countries of the world. We even may have seen news footage of the tragedies. It hurts, and we feel sorrow then continue to go about our daily lives....
2009-04-09 11:03:00
ALEJANDRO RIOS
Central Pennsylvania's diverse music scene will be on full display next week when the LAUNCH Music Conference presents four days of instructional seminars and live entertainment in downtown Lancaster. Several national acts will share stages with local favorites at venues like the Chamele......
2009-04-07 09:45:00
BERNARD HARRIS
There is a lot that can be done in an open, 46,000-square-foot space. As an open area, the exhibition hall of the Lancaster County Convention Center can be used as it is named. Its floor can be filled with exhibitor booths as it hosts conventions and large meetings. But the large doors of ......
2009-03-31 00:43:00
DAVE PIDGEON
One is still in. Another is out.Two organizations announced Monday how they intend to deal with the delayed opening of the Penn Square hotel/convention center, which has forced organizers of about a dozen events to scramble to find new venues.Domestic Violence Services of Lancaster ......
2009-03-29 00:06:00
DENNIS LARISON, Business Editor
Tucked in the back of the maze of old brick buildings that makes up the Urban Place complex along New Holland Avenue is a former Civil War-era stable destined to become the hub of a new hotel. Until recently, Barry J. Baldwin, the developer of Urban Place, and his daughter Jill Fanning, the com......
2009-03-26 12:40:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Imagine your daughter's wedding is six weeks away at the new hotel and convention center going up in downtown Lancaster. Invitations have been sent for the wedding and reception, including a cocktail hour and sit-down dinner for 175 guests. Some of your guests are expecting to stay at the h......
2009-03-26 01:16:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Operators of the hotel/convention center on Penn Square announced Wednesday they are moving the "anticipated" opening date back three weeks from April 21 to the week of May 11.Building and outfitting the $170 million Marriott Hotel and 220,000-square-foot convention center is tak......
2009-03-23 00:06:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Rick Fisher first met a ghost when he was 7 years old, seeing what he believes was the spirit of his great-grandfather. He's been hunting spirits and collecting eerie stories ever since.Sunday, about 100 people — a mixed bag of believers and the merely curious — gathered at......
2009-03-18 10:18:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Workers pulling down the 40-year-old concrete structure in Lancaster Square made a discovery recently — but what they found is less than they were expecting. The three-level concrete facade does not contain the amount of reinforcing steel rods called for in the design plans for the struct......
2009-03-16 11:29:00
RYAN ROBINSON
East Lampeter Township tonight will consider plans for a 71-room hotel across a Route 30 exit ramp from the East Towne Mall. Developer Mukesh Patel wants to build the hotel on a 2.6-acre site at 2060 Lincoln Highway East. The hotel does not yet have a proposed name, he said today. &qu......
2009-03-15 00:08:00
DENNIS LARISON, Business Editor
It's an engagement that will wed the talents of some of the best local bridal specialists with the public unveiling next month of the Lancaster County Convention Center. And it has wedding planner Jonnaysa Kirkham, of Planned Perfection, nearly as busy as the hundreds of workers laboring to......
2009-03-12 11:36:00
JACK ROBERTS and ALEJANDRO RIOS
OK, here's what's happening on the local music scene. —In a little over a month, downtown Lancaster will be teeming with bands from all over the U.S. — and overseas. From April 16-19, the Chameleon, the Village and at least 10 other local venues will feature several ban......
2009-03-11 01:04:00
MICHAEL YODER
The line at Liberty Place on Tuesday morning stretched out the door and around the corner, hundreds of people filing by in a single row, all seeking an opportunity to get a job.Once inside, they waited — some for hours — on comfortable leather sofas and uncomfortable folding ch......
2009-03-11 00:49:00
DAVE PIDGEON
The push to overturn a 74-year-old prohibition on alcohol sales in West Lampeter Township cleared its first hurdle Tuesday.The West Lampeter Future Fund Political Action Committee, established by Willow Valley Associates, turned in more than enough signatures to put a referendum on the pro......
2009-03-09 00:06:00
Alejandro Rios
Hotel Brunswick will be the hub of central Pennsylvania's music scene beginning April 16 when LAUNCH Music Conference kicks off four days of instructional seminars and live entertainment at several downtown venues.Organizers Jeremy Weiss and Rick Gadd said LAUNCH (Logical Advice & ......
2009-03-03 00:42:00
LORI VAN INGEN
East Lampeter Township supervisors on Monday night looked at an early sketch plan for an estimated $7 million project that would create 122 hotel rooms at 2331 Lincoln Highway East.Mark A. Magrecki, director of land development with Steckbeck Engineering & Surveying Inc., told supervis......
2009-02-24 00:38:00
PATRICK BURNS
At least eight major hotel projects are moving forward in Lancaster County, bucking the recent slowdown in construction and the economy as a whole.The struggling economy has dragged down many businesses in Lancaster County, but it hasn't stopped the hospitality industry from ramping up......
2009-02-21 01:36:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Mayor Rick Gray is pleased at the progress made in tearing down the unsightly Lancaster Square. But the site awaits a developer.•••In the 1960s, it was called "urban renewal." In more recent years, it was called a "concre......
2009-02-19 00:44:00
PATRICK BURNS
Willow Valley Resort & Conference Center's gamble on an $8 million upgrade hinges on its neighbors' willingness to bless the sale of alcohol.Willow Valley wants to separate the resort into a new $7 million DoubleTree Hotel and spend $1 million to renovate the existing structure......
2009-02-10 01:33:00
JEFF HAWKES
They donned hard hats, dodged drywall installers and tramped across the concrete floors of the unfinished Marriott hotel and convention center.And at the end of an hourlong tour, an elegant lunch at Carr's Restaurant and presentations by Mayor Rick Gray and others, the band of 15 visit......
2009-02-06 00:51:00
JEFF HAWKES
In early January, Mark Moosic made a promise to which he's going to be held.Moosic, general manager of soon-to-open Marriott at Penn Square, told 1,300 job seekers who flocked to hiring orientations that anyone earning a work-readiness certificate from PA CareerLink will get a job inte......
2009-01-28 15:30:00
TIM MEKEEL
The Willow Valley Resort & Conference Center always has operated on its own, rather than as part of a chain. While other major motels here became a Best Western or Sheraton or some other franchise, Willow Valley refrained. And that thinking made it prosperous. From its start in 19......
2009-01-15 12:30:00
By JANE HOLAHAN
The Lancaster Arts Hotel is a little off the beaten path from downtown Lancaster and when First Friday arrives each month, it can get lost in the heavy traffic. So the hotel, which now features two art galleries, decided to shift lanes a little. Their artist's receptions will now be on......
2009-01-15 12:30:00
By JANE HOLAHAN
Octavia, who will be performing at the Mid-Winter Blues Fest at the Lancaster Arts Hotel Friday night with her group, the Earthblood Blues Band, comes from quite the musical family. Two aunts sang for the Czar a......
2009-01-10 00:01:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
The sweetest place on earth is strutting its flavorful history.The Hershey Story: The Museum On Chocolate Avenue, which opened its doors Friday, tells the story of chocolate magnate Milton S. Hershey. It begins with his early days in Lancaster to the building of his famous chocolate factor......
2009-01-09 11:20:00
HENRY ESHELMAN / Special to the New Era
At 9:30 on a chilly night, we showed up at the employee entrance of the Guggenheim Museum. The legendary New York City landmark invited people to sleep over in its eight-story rotunda during "theanyspacewhatever" show, which ran Oct. 24 through Wednesday. The door locked securely......
2009-01-08 00:42:00
JEFF HAWKES
Ta' Shanda Hollman, 24, wants a job at the soon-to-open Marriott Hotel and convention center. Any job. "I'll cook. I'll clean. Wash dishes," she told me. "It don't even matter … as long as I get some money. I need some money."Hollman's not alo......
2009-01-06 00:52:00
MICHAEL YODER
Tim Hood has been looking for work since April, going through temp agencies in a fruitless attempt to find full-time employment.Jerry Walls has been unemployed since October, when his company went bankrupt.Both local residents were among more than 600 people who turned out for two i......
2009-01-04 00:16:00
CHIP SMEDLEY
City officials continue to dangle the east side of Lancaster Square to potential developers, but as of yet none has taken the bait. Even demolishing the bulk of the concrete albatross that has loomed over North Queen Street for more than 30 years has piqued little interest, said Randy Patterson......
2009-01-04 00:06:00
STAFF
Pennsylvania CareerLink of Lancaster County is planning a series of information sessions this week for people interested in jobs at the Lancaster County Convention Center, which is scheduled to open in April. Mark Moosic, general manager of the center and adjacent Marriott Lancaster at Penn Squ......
2009-01-03 00:48:00
STAFF REPORT
The 100 block of North Queen Street will be closed this weekend and next so workers can demolish the pedestrian bridge spanning the street in Lancaster Square.North Queen will be closed between Orange and Chestnut streets today and Sunday and Jan. 10 and 11.Signs will direct motoris......
2009-01-02 00:01:00
LORI VAN INGEN
Families got an early start ringing in the New Year during Countdown Lancaster 2009 on Wednesday evening.Kid Time, which began at 5:15 p.m. with events such as a magic show, an interactive variety music show and a puppet and ventriloquist act, was a hit with families from as far away as Fl......
2009-01-02 21:19:00
TOM KNAPP
Correction — United Way of Lancaster County saw a 30 percent increase in the number of volunteers and a 23 percent increase in the number of people donating items for holiday programs. A story posted on LancasterOnline Thursday didn't no......
2008-12-31 00:38:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Lancaster city put its taxpayers on the line when officials agreed to several financial agreements that helped create the $170 million hotel/convention center on Penn Square.Now city residents have a chance to move up in line for jobs at the 220,000-square-foot center and 300-room Marriott......
2008-12-26 07:00:00
JOSEPH MALDONADO
For some art lovers, there is a calling to go beyond the admiration of static sculpture or the extra-sensory pleasures of kinetic multimedia displays. There is an urge to become the art — a flowing, breathing object of desire. For those people, Ricky Calderon has an answer: dancing t......
2008-12-18 11:29:00
LAURA KNOWLES
Not far from site of the famous Mountain Springs Hotel in Ephrata, a Civil War-era actor will stage an evening of poetry and readings tonight. Although his name has been obscured by time, actor James Murdoch was once one of the most popular actors of Civil War times. He traveled the United S......
2008-12-18 00:52:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Rick Gray wants four more years.Gray, 64, ended weeks of speculation Wednesday afternoon by announcing in front of his North Prince Street home he will ask Lancaster city voters for another four-year term as mayor.If he is re-elected, City Hall would begin focusing on improving the ......
2008-12-14 00:06:00
DENNIS LARISON, Business Editor
From the perspective of people regularly passing Penn Square, work on the Lancaster County Convention Center would appear to have slowed considerably since the building's shell was enclosed and the picturesque crane taken away in October. Inside the building, however, mostly hidden from the......
2008-12-07 00:04:00
CHIP SMEDLEY
The U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania issued an order Nov. 24 to appoint a receiver to take possession of the former Holiday Inn at 521 Greenfield Road. The facility is one of three Pennsylvania hotels for which CW Capital Asset Management LLC, acting as a servicer for Wells Fargo, o......
2008-11-30 00:04:00
CHIP SMEDLEY
Eight days before workers covered up Holiday Inn signs at the Greenfield Road hotel, its former owners sued the general manager who blew the whistle on their attempts to cover up problems plaguing the facility. Tom Showalter, of Lancaster, was named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed in Cobb Cou......
2008-11-24 20:41:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Correction — The marketing team for the Lancaster County Convention Center and Marriott Hotel in downtown Lancaster has eight consumer shows booked for 2009. The story below, posted on LancasterOnline Friday, misidentified the type of event.......
2008-11-13 14:33:00
KATHLEEN DAMINGER
For two decades people have been turning to David Ranalli for laughs. But that seems kind of funny. By day, Ranalli is a pharmacist at Costco — not a profession known for its gut-busting capacities. But by night, that all changes. Take Saturday night, for instance. ......
2008-11-09 00:06:00
DENNIS LARISON, Business Editor
Some of Don Denlinger's business brainstorms are reminiscent of the 1989 movie "Field of Dreams," in which an Iowa farmer hears a voice telling him, "If you build it, he will come." For farmer Ray Kinsella, played by actor Kevin Costner, the dream was to build a baseball......
2008-11-03 00:59:00
TOM KNAPP
He provided the bowls. She found a way to fill them.Empty Bowls, a first-time event in Lancaster but an ongoing tradition in other cities, is a creative way to raise money to fight hunger.Kevin Lehman, a potter with a workshop and studio at 560 S. Prince St., organized a First Frida......
2008-11-02 00:15:00
CHIP SMEDLEY
The checks were in the mail. More importantly, they cleared. Employees at the former Holiday Inn on Greenfield Road said they received three weeks' worth of pay Friday from Prism Hotels, the new firm employed to manage operations at the hotel after the former owners, Kronos Hotels of Atlan......
2008-10-31 00:57:00
P.J. REILLY
State Sen. Gibson E. Armstrong has pledged $3 million in state funds to help finish construction of the downtown Lancaster convention center.At a Lancaster County Convention Center Authority meeting Thursday night, it was reported that Armstrong recently told authority chairman Arthur Morr......
2008-10-25 01:12:00
LORI VAN INGEN
Employees of the former Holiday Inn on Greenfield Road have had enough.About 15 employees and their children, the latter ranging in age from 3 to 12, began picketing the hotel Friday afternoon with signs that read, "It's our money and we want it now," "We have hungry kid......
2008-10-19 00:15:00
CHIP SMEDLEY
Time has finally run out on Kronos. Thursday, lenders foreclosed on 16 facilities owned by the beleaguered, Atlanta-based firm of Kronos Hotels and Resorts. One of those hotels is the former Holiday Inn at 521 Greenfield Road. It is the facility which, in the past month, has had its Holida......
2008-10-17 02:34:00
PATRICK BURNS
Abraham Lincoln's ghost is said to haunt the White House, his home in Springfield, Ill., Ford's Theater and other places far away from Lancaster.But that didn't deter a film crew from conjuring Lincoln in Woodward Hill Cemetery on Thursday.The crew, from New York City-ba......
2008-10-14 11:28:00
BERNARD HARRIS
The urban entertainment complex called for in a consultant's study of Lancaster Square was supposed to open in 2005. Today, as it has for years, Lancaster Square, in the 100 block of the city's North Queen Street, stands largely deserted. The crumbling concrete stairway on the south ......
2008-10-12 00:21:00
CHIP SMEDLEY
"I'm shocked." That's what Barry Wickes, president of the Pennsylvania Tourism & Lodging Association, said when he learned of developments at the former Holiday Inn at 521 Greenfield Road. "I've been here since 1990, and I'm not aware of any situation lik......
2008-10-06 00:04:00
TOM KNAPP
For more than 14 months, it has dominated the Lancaster city skyline.But on Sunday, the 260-foot-tall tower crane looming over the city's new hotel and convention center complex in Penn Square was disassembled, loaded on flatbeds and trucked home to Baltimore."It will take ......
2008-10-05 00:21:00
CHIP SMEDLEY
When John Miller showed up at the Holiday Inn on Greenfield Road Wednesday afternoon to collect a past-due invoice, he knew something was amiss. "The whole place was dark," the president of On-Site Containers, said. "The front-desk staff was sitting around in the lobby and people......
2008-10-05 00:02:00
DENNIS LARISON, Business Editor
Mark Moosic knows what it's like to succeed against the odds. Twenty-eight years ago, Moosic was a dishwasher at the Marriott Hotel in Harrisburg. These days, he can look out the window of his office in the Griest Building to monitor construction of the Marriott Lancaster at Penn Squar......
2008-10-02 00:04:00
MICHAEL YODER
Gazing eyes in Penn Square turned upward Wednesday afternoon as a single steel beam — painted white — was hoisted into place atop the former Watt & Shand building.In a topping-off ceremony that drew close to 200 business leaders, politicians and project supporters, the last......
2008-10-01 11:16:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Lancaster City's largest economic development project reached an important — if ceremonial — milestone this morning with the "topping off" of the convention center and attached Marriott hotel. About 150 city and county officials, representatives of the local tourism in......
2008-09-28 00:18:00
CHIP SMEDLEY
Inspectors from the state Department of Agriculture were surprised Tuesday to find a local hotel using a guest room as a walk-in refrigerator. According to the inspection report, room 102 of the Holiday Inn, 521 Greenfield Road, contained macaroni salad, meat loaf, mashed potatoes, vegetables, ......
2008-09-25 12:30:00
DIANE BITTING
When comedian Bernie Mac died in August of complications from pneumonia, fans around the world mourned his passing. Those fans included two Lancaster brothers who have put on comedy shows themselves. At the time of Mac's death, Marty and Eric "Big Reds" Wayman, the driving......
2008-09-23 01:16:00
PATRICK BURNS
A group of local investors plans to break ground next year on construction of a Sheraton hotel along the busy Route 30 corridor, with completion slated for the spring of 2010. A 125-room, six-story Four Points by Sheraton hotel will replace the Passport Inn, formerly the Congress Inn, whi......
2008-09-19 11:16:00
RYAN ROBINSON and DAVID O’CONNOR
The Lancaster County Planning Commission on Monday will consider a Target store for Warwick Township and a 78-room hotel for East Lampeter Township. Developer Warwick Devco wants to expand the Shoppes at Kissel Village shopping center northward to include a 133,500-square-foot Target store and ......
2008-09-07 00:06:00
DENNIS LARISON
August — with its falling gas prices, fine weather and last-minute vacations — did much to relieve the anxieties the local tourism industry had at the beginning of summer. "In talking to the hoteliers, nearly everyone is saying the summer season came out roughly even with what ......
2008-09-06 01:12:00
SUSAN E. LINDT
Fulton Theatre opened its 156th season with interesting news Thursday night.Managing Director Aaron Young announced before an opening night crowd that the theater was officially designated by the National Park Service as a site of significance to the Underground Railroad.Before a th......
2008-08-07 00:01:00
PATRICK BURNS
Community First Fund has been named one of four semifinalists eligible to receive $2.5 million from Wachovia Next Award for Opportunity Financing.So, just what is opportunity finance?People have differing views of what Community First Fund does, according to Daniel Betancourt, presi......
2008-08-01 11:15:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Pedestrians in downtown Lancaster's Penn Square haven't been looking at where they are walking in recent weeks. Their eyes have been turned skyward, watching as the Penn Square Marriott Hotel tower pushes toward the clouds. Construction workers are almost done raising the tower. Th......
2008-07-29 01:03:00
LORI VAN INGEN
Lancaster Family YMCA will break ground at 9 a.m. today for its new $13 million facility on Harrisburg Avenue — its first major building project in 30 years."This is an exciting time in the life of the YMCA and for the city of Lancaster," Jeffrey Kenderdine, chief executive......
2008-07-20 00:20:00
GIL SMART
It's been a fairly bleak summer for Rodney Gleiberman. The owner of the Continental Inn on Lincoln Highway East in East Lampeter Township says business is down, though not catastrophically. Things could pick up this fall. But May and June, as gas prices peaked, were a "struggle."...
2008-07-15 00:01:00
P.J. REILLY
About three-quarters of the fans who attend Lancaster Barnstormers games on weeknights live within 15 miles of Clipper Magazine Stadium.Making round trips of up to 30 miles in a vehicle that gets average gas mileage, those people burn about one gallon of gas going to and from a game, Barns......
2008-07-04 00:01:00
JENNIFER TODD
Business owners in the 100 block of East King Street are counting down the days until July 18.That's when a large crane, used in the construction of a $14-million parking garage, is scheduled to be removed and the block re-opened to vehicle traffic.It's the day they hope to ......
2008-06-29 00:21:00
GIL SMART
Siobhan Keane watched the giant crane hovering over Penn Square and began to wonder if she was in Lancaster because it was. Keane and her husband, John, along with other investors, opened Annie Bailey's Irish Pub & Restaurant just up East King Street in 2006. They'd briefly consider......
2008-06-23 00:11:00
STEPHANIE WEAVER
It was a beautiful day in the FivePoints neighborhood Sunday as a record turnout walked through the Old Town House and Garden Tour.Featuring 15 stops, with six private homes open, the tour, sponsored by FivePoints Neighborhood Association, gave guests a different look at city life.T......
2008-06-20 10:51:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A 121-room hotel planned across a Route 30 exit ramp from the East Towne Mall has been put on hold. One of the owners of the 2.6-acre 2060 Lincoln Highway East site said developer New York City-based MCR Development declined to set aside $20,000 for lawyer fees involved with the project. S......
2008-06-20 02:16:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
What if, in Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog," Robert Plant didn't sing "Hey hey, mama, said the way you move, Gon' make you sweat, gon' make you groove," but rather, "I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them Sam-I-am"?And what if, instead......
2008-06-17 09:05:00
CHAD UMBLE
While plans for the former Shawnee hotel site in Manheim Township are still up in the air, the old buildings have started coming down. Crews began working last Monday to level the remaining structures on the 28-acre site between Routes 222 and 272, just north of Oregon Dairy. Vacant since ......
2008-06-09 12:04:00
RYAN ROBINSON
The real-life Monopoly game continues along the Route 30 strip in East Lampeter, as yet another large hotel is planned. The Lancaster County Planning Commission was set to consider plans for a 121-room, four-story Value Place Hotel at its regular meeting this afternoon. The 2.6-acre sit......
2008-06-07 02:13:00
MICHAEL YODER
Pieces of Lancaster history are now incorporated into the new edifice rising downtown — all part of a complex officials hope can shape the future of the city for the next century.Friday afternoon saw the first official tour of the Lancaster County Convention Center and Marriott Lanca......
2008-06-07 02:08:00
MADELYN PENNINO
A worker was injured early Friday when he fell about 25 feet off a steel beam at the Lancaster County Convention Center construction site, according to the Lancaster city Bureau of Fire.Capt. Ken Barton said the man lost his balance as he tried to talk with a nearby fellow employee about 3......
2008-06-05 02:14:00
KIM O’BRIEN
Dozens of Latino business owners, agencies and residents will gather at tonight's First Thursday Latino event."This is a gathering of professionals — both Latino and non-Latino — that would like to learn about Latino events and issues going on in the city and in the co......
2008-06-04 11:10:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Leacock Township supervisors gave a $45 million tourist draw proposed for Intercourse three key approvals Tuesday night. The proposal by Merle and Phyllis Good, owners of Good Enterprises Ltd., includes two hotels, a large family restaurant, a market building, a food court, a welcome center ......
2008-05-29 07:06:00
MELINDA NEWMAN
(AP)Move over Jonas Brothers, the Kaulitz twins are moving in. The 18-year-old Kaulitz brothers comprise half of Tokio Hotel, a German glam-pop quartet that is creating Beatles-like hysteria among the teen set in their native land. They've sold close to 3 million CDs and DVDs in their nativ......
2008-05-24 00:40:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Kevin R. Molloy was just three years out of college when he got his first job running an events facility.He oversaw the transformation of a Maine hay field into a small arena for hockey and skating. Then, as general manager, he added artificial turf that allowed Sukee Arena & Events Ce......
2008-05-23 18:01:00
CARLA DI FONZO
The people behind the first annual Great Pennsylvania FlavorFest know that good times are usually high in calories."Well, if you want to bring people together, the most important component is food, right?" said Chris Darrett, CEO and president of the PA Dutch Convention & Vis......
2008-05-19 11:55:00
JOHN M. HOOBER III
Burglars struck two homes and a church in the same area of Manheim Township this past weekend, and one family is missing a 2004 Lexus that was driven out of their garage. "Their loss alone is in the tens of thousands of dollars," said township police Sgt. Thomas E. Rudzinski. The three bre......
2008-05-04 00:21:00
CHIP SMEDLEY
Future explorers traipsing through the brickyards off Harrisburg Pike might believe they've discovered the ruins of an ancient temple. They will encounter massive columns jutting out of the ground. Delicately carved stone capitals that topped those columns, freed by soil erosion, peek ......
2008-04-30 11:15:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Drivers: Idle your engines. Two week's worth of tricky driving will be arriving in Lancaster Friday, as construction projects close or restrict lanes on streets in five locations. "It's a temporary inconvenience, but in the long run it will be a positive," Lancaster Ma......
2008-04-27 00:19:00
GIL SMART
Here we go again. Maybe. The convention center and hotel being built on Penn Square have been the subject of several lawsuits since 1999. Now it appears another one could be in the works — if county commissioners dare to hike the hotel tax that helps pay for the project. In a Ma......
2008-04-27 00:18:00
CHIP SMEDLEY
Whether or not Thaddeus Stevens' property on South Queen Street served as a safe house for runaway slaves on the underground railroad is, for some, open to debate. What is not debatable, said Gail Tomlinson, director of the Stevens -Smith Historic Site (a project operated under the auspices......
2008-04-25 10:03:00
BERNARD HARRIS
While the convention center and hotel are taking form and rising into the downtown Lancaster skyline, another sign of the project's progress will come when part of it starts to come down. The Erector Set-looking steel that supports the facade of the former Watt & Shand department store ......
2008-04-25 02:10:00
BRIAN WALLACE
Three months ago, organizers of the American Spirit Parade weren't sure there would be a parade this year.Now they're not sure there will ever be a parade as good as this year's edition."We are just so excited about it — we're just hopping around on cloud ......
2008-04-23 02:25:00
P.J. REILLY
West Lampeter Township supervisor Lloyd Smucker on Tuesday easily won the hotly contested primary race for the Republican nomination for the state Senate seat in the 13th District.And while he celebrated that victory over Steve McDonald, Paul Thibault and Bill Neff — which featured a......
2008-04-15 12:22:00
JACK BRUBAKER
"Get ready for a sea change," says Rick Gray. Lancaster's enthusiastic mayor is talking about how the downtown will look next spring, when the first visitors arrive at the Lancaster County Convention Center and Marriott Hotel on Penn Square. If all goes as planned, the dif......
2008-04-10 11:19:00
BERNARD HARRIS
When the ribbon is cut on the new Lancaster County Convention Center and Marriott hotel in less than a year, those facilities won't be the only things new in the city. Conventioneers and hotel guests will stroll out onto new sidewalks, below new street trees and sit on new benches under a $......
2008-04-06 00:19:00
ERIC G. STARK
One motel chain encourages visitors by reminding them, "We'll leave the light on." Lancaster County urges visitors to stay two nights because, "We'll pay your way home." Fear that escalating gasoline prices will slow tourism this summer has spurred the Pen......
2008-04-05 01:16:00
CARLA DI FONZO
Peter Seibert ain't afraid of no ghosts."I'm open to the idea of ghosts, it's just I've never actually seen one," the president of the Heritage Center of Lancaster County said Friday.But these days he sees dead people at work — at least, alleged pictu......
2008-04-03 11:40:00
TIM MEKEEL
A new shopping center about the size of Rockvale Outlets is being proposed at routes 30 and 10, just east of Lancaster County. Three miles past the county line, the 28-store Chester County project would feature two anchor stores and a supermarket, plus a hotel. The total cost of the ven......
2008-03-30 00:04:00
JON RUTTER
Back in the 1960s, Holly Noll's family had lots of extra rooms in its stone farmhouse outside Mount Joy. So they started taking in guests. Multiply the story of Rocky Acre Farm Bed and Breakfast dozens of times and you get a booming local industry. An industry that has become the secon......
2008-03-20 12:16:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Plans for what could be a 10-story or more office, retail, museum, residential and parking garage building in downtown Lancaster received initial approval Wednesday night. The plans for the proposed building, on the former Empire TV parking lot at North Queen and East Chestnut streets, would......
2008-03-03 11:31:00
BERNARD HARRIS
It's been years since anyone has lifted a finger to help the Swan Hotel. While a new convention center is being built across the street, incorporating historic buildings which will become a museum, the Swan has sat neglected. The doors of the historic tavern at South Queen and Vine ......
2008-02-29 01:17:00
DAVE PIDGEON
The seven-member Lancaster County Convention Center Authority on Thursday unanimously approved a $42.9 million spending plan for the 2008-09 fiscal year.The authority will pay out $42.2 million for construction of the 220,000-square-foot convention center going up on Penn Square in Lancast......
2008-02-27 01:41:00
JENNIFER TODD
City officials said Tuesday that plans to demolish portions of Lancaster Square are being finalized and pieces of the concrete eyesore could start coming down this summer.The proposed work would occur on the east side of the square — between the Hotel Brunswick and the Bulova buildin......
2008-02-25 00:08:00
TOM KNAPP
If brevity is the soul of wit, then Sunday evening's Rumschpringe Film Festival was absolutely hilarious.Sure, most of the movies entered in the competition were not, in fact, comedies, but each had the brevity part of the definition down pat.And whether the subject was a fire-s......
2008-02-22 11:10:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Years of marketing Lancaster County as a buggy-ride-shoofly-pie place have paid off. The county is well known for its Amish-themed attractions, said Christopher Barrett, president of the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau. Now, local tourism promoters are working to add......
2008-02-20 02:19:00
JENNIFER TODD
Historic Blue Star owner Allen Petropoulos said his attorneys are trying to reverse a recent decision by the state Liquor Control Board not to renew the hotel's license to serve alcohol after a series of violations over the past several years.•••...
2008-02-19 02:03:00
PATRICK BURNS
The owners of an Intercourse publishing company Monday unveiled a $45 million development plan designed to upgrade accommodations for the hundreds of thousands of people who visit the small village each year.Merle and Phyllis Good, owners of Good Enterprises Ltd., which includes a publishi......
2008-01-31 09:11:00
JANE HOLAHAN
One of the best things about Lancaster's ever growing art community and thriving gallery scene is that everyone, no matter what their taste in art, is guaranteed to find a show they love. First Friday will open doors to several dozen galleries, restaurants, shops and schools, filled to o......
2008-01-24 12:01:00
HOLLY SCOTT
The Leacock Township Board of Supervisors has decided against building a sidewalk along the Route 30 Bridge over Pequea Creek. The bridge, which is next to the Best Western Hotel/Revere Tavern, is maintained by the state. PennDOT plans to replace the bridge at some point, and is working on desi......
2008-01-24 00:58:00
P.J. REILLY
Pressed on how they would decide who will fill Tom LeCrone's seat on the Convention Center Authority board, the county commissioners said it depends on who applies for the position.•••When the former board of Lancaster County Commission......
2008-01-23 09:51:00
CHAD UMBLE
Sephora, a fragrance, cosmetics and facial skin care products retailer, will open a roughly 5,300-square-foot store in April at Park City Center. Sephora will take the place of home decor store Kirkland's, which recently closed. Also at the mall, Forever 21 is scheduled to open this summ......
2008-01-23 00:49:00
P.J. REILLY
With construction crews moving steel and banging hammers behind him, Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray stood in front of the convention center site on Penn Square Tuesday morning and announced his two appointees to the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority board.Longtime board member and fo......
2008-01-04 01:44:00
P.J. REILLY
Jose Urdaneta has been a Lancaster city councilman for the past two years.During that time, he has been frustrated by the general lack of interest many city residents have in getting involved in their community.Thursday night was an exception, he said.The 50 people who turned......
2008-01-04 00:12:00
CARLA DI FONZO
Celebrated artist Constantine Kermes has some people he'd like you to meet.These nameless souls inhabit his latest collection of paintings, now showing at Lancaster Arts Hotel through Jan. 31. The exhibit, aptly named "People/Places: A Reflection of the Human Condition," repr......
2007-12-28 11:40:00
JENNA SPINELLE
Looking for a way to ring in 2008? A variety of family-oriented activities will be held throughout the county Monday night — offering plenty of ways to celebrate the new year. Following are some details on the events:
Lancaster
Countdown Lancast......
2007-12-27 09:35:00
KATHLEEN DAMINGER
For years, coordinators of Countdown Lancaster have gotten loads of positive feedback on their annual New Year's Eve celebration downtown. The abundance and variety of entertainment, the trolley service to different venues, the festive atmosphere and the culmination of a headlining band,......
2007-12-21 00:56:00
CARLA DI FONZO
Getting around during Lancaster's First Fridays in the winter season doesn't have to be a chilly affair, now that you can hop the trolley.On Thursday, LancasterARTS announced that a First Friday Trolley will be available starting Jan. 4. Passage on the trolley is free."......
2007-12-09 00:18:00
CHIP SMEDLEY
Ask Bobby Sanders to tell you the worst thing about his job and his answer comes quickly: "The climbing." That's because the 61-year-old begins his workday at 6:30 a.m. by scaling 260 feet of ladders to reach the cab of his tower crane on the convention center-hotel work site....
2007-12-09 00:17:00
PAUL FRANZ
"I got a room at the top of the world tonight. I can see everything tonight..." — Tom Petty
It's a view of Lancaster city and county that few have seen. Unless you've flown in a helicopter, only four people — a safety inspector, a crane operator, construction foreman......
2007-11-30 01:34:00
DAVE PIDGEON
The new face of the downtown hotel/convention center is a 47-year-old mustachioed man with thin-rimmed glasses who started his career as a dishwasher.Lancaster County Convention Center Authority hired Mark Moosic Tuesday to be the first general manager of the $170 million facility. At the ......
2007-11-29 01:33:00
DAVE PIDGEON
With costs rising and funds dwindling, developers of the downtown hotel/convention center are again turning to what has been a reliable source of money: state taxpayers.Private and public developers announced Wednesday they're seeking $6 million from the state to help pad a shrinking conti......
2007-11-27 01:15:00
PATRICK BURNS
County officials Monday approved a plan that would integrate Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre into an expansion of the neighboring Park Plaza Hotel.However, neither East Hempfield Township business Monday would discuss details of the merger.Denise Trupe, the general manager of the Dutch A......
2007-11-17 00:34:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
A walk through the newly opened museum of the Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley is a walk through the history of northeastern Lancaster County."We have all sorts of things from all over the Cocalico Valley," said James Tshudy, chairman of the society's museum committe......
2007-11-14 03:44:00
DAVE PIDGEON
The state's Commonwealth Court handed a legal victory Tuesday to developers of the $170 million hotel/convention center in downtown Lancaster. The seven-member court ruled against a legal challenge by the Lancaster County commissioners aimed at undermining the validity of a crucial piece of......
2007-11-02 13:51:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Suburban developments in recent years have the form of islands, with spaces for shops, restaurants and offices along with homes in the middle of corn fields. Barry J. Baldwin's island is different. It's in the city, but no less an island, he said. Baldwin sees his Urban Place as a ......
2007-10-31 11:53:00
ANYA LITVAK
Five candidates are seeking three county commissioner seats in Tuesday's election. They are Republicans Scott Martin and Dennis Stuckey, Democrats Molly Henderson and Craig Lehman and Independent Jere Swarr. The New Era is running a five-part series with the candidates' responses to ques......
2007-10-28 00:06:00
MICHAEL SCHWARTZ
Shiraz Sugawala needed cash and needed it fast. His business, Penn State Electrical Supply Co., was struggling to stay afloat amid the construction slump that followed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Forced to downsize his three-year-old concern and getting no traction at local banks, Suga......
2007-10-26 01:37:00
JENNIFER TODD
Possibly bringing one chapter in a yearlong legal battle to a close, Lancaster County Convention Center Authority voted Thursday to approve a settlement with county commissioners.In the agreement, put on the table last week by the county, the commissioners agreed to drop a legal appeal in ......
2007-10-25 02:03:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Discussions between two of the developers building a downtown hotel/convention center and the Lancaster County commissioners broke down recently before legal differences could be resolved, an attorney for the developers said Wednesday.A possible settlement with the third developer —!......
2007-10-25 00:01:00
LINDA ESPENSHADE
"Do you see the rhythm?" asked Pat Drennen, as she looked at her arrangement of fruits and vegetables.The bok choy pulls the eye to the right, lifting it over the large grapes, glancing off the Bartlett pear at the top and cascading through the champagne grapes to the top of the ......
2007-10-18 03:16:00
JEFF HAWKES
Latin music blasted from the nightclub's speakers, and dance instructor Oscar Restrepo, swiveling smoothly, called out a cadence.Four middle-aged couples on the dance floor stepped and turned to the up-tempo beat.Rick Calderon had opened his Rumbha nightclub, next to Hotel Bruns......
2007-10-17 02:38:00
DAVE PIDGEON
In a surprise move, the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority voted Tuesday to delay action on a proposal that would remove the last legal hurdle facing the $170 million hotel/convention center being built in downtown Lancaster.Just 24 hours earlier, the Lancaster County commissione......
2007-10-16 01:01:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Lancaster County Convention Center Authority will hold an emergency meeting this evening to discuss a proposal that would eliminate the final legal challenge to the $170 million hotel/convention center project.The seven-member board will meet at 5:30 p.m. in Southern Market Center, at Vine......
2007-10-13 03:40:00
LORI VAN INGEN
When four Franklin & Marshall College students were driving back to campus from an outing in Atlantic City on May 7, little did they know their lives would soon drastically change.All four were critically injured when their southbound SUV crossed over a grass median and struck the driv......
2007-09-28 00:54:00
TOM KNAPP
One thing Lancaster County Convention Center lacks is height.That's about to change, according to construction manager Tim Sullivan, who gave a progress report Thursday to Lancaster County Convention Center Authority."The good news is, we're almost done going down. We're going to tu......
2007-09-12 02:22:00
P.J. REILLY
Come January, Lancaster County will have two — possibly three — new commissioners in office.Only Commissioner Molly Henderson has the chance to be re-elected in November.Given that fact, Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray on Tuesday asked the commissioners at their weekly work se......
2007-08-31 02:29:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Lancaster County Convention Center Authority unanimously approved change orders costing about $180,000 Thursday night related to water-pressure equipment, saying the original construction design was flawed.And the issue may not yet be over. Authority members during their meeting Thursday n......
2007-08-30 11:16:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Contracts for the Lancaster County Convention Center's first events could be less than two weeks away, with the first convention coming in June 2009, a representative of Interstate Hotels said Tuesday. Interstate will be the manager of the Penn Square Marriott, the 297-room hotel now und......
2007-08-30 02:39:00
JEFF HAWKES
Maybe Mike Rowe would be up for the job.You might know him as the wisecracking host of "Dirty Jobs" on the Discovery Channel. One week he's picking up roadkill; the next he's feeling inside a cow for a fetus. Rowe shows us the people who do these jobs, and he rolls up his sleeves, holds hi......
2007-08-24 01:07:00
DAVE PIDGEON
In an eight-word ruling Thursday, the state Supreme Court upheld the legality of a funding program that benefits the hotel/convention center under construction in Lancaster city.The court — without explanation — upheld a lower court ruling from 2006 that said the state's Infras......
2007-08-15 02:06:00
CARLA DI FONZO
Holy fame and glory, Batman!Local artist Dominic Vivona could be the next big thing in the comic book industry — but he's still waiting to find out.Since May, writers and artists from 26 countries have been vying to become the winners of the 2007 Comic Book Challenge, hopi......
2007-08-10 01:12:00
CARLA DI FONZO
Local artist Claire Giblin said it's easy to have a revelation — once you stop trying to have one.When she began her most recent body of work, "In Search of Harmony: Journey of the Line," Giblin looked for inspiration in many different places — poetry, ancient phi......
2007-08-09 01:16:00
DAVE PIDGEON
For years, leaders on both sides of the debate over the hotel/convention center being built in downtown Lancaster have pointed to Sept. 15, 2007, as a pivotal date for the project.On that day, just five weeks away, control of the seven-member Lancaster County Convention Center Authority bo......
2007-07-31 01:28:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Many motorists traveling north on Queen Street this week will face a longer drive than usual.That's because, starting today, developers of the $170 million hotel/convention center at Penn Square will be closing the intersection of South Queen and Vine streets.The closure is schedule......
2007-07-27 01:43:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Dave Hixson, executive director of the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority since 2003, turned in his resignation Thursday to take a new job in the private sector.The authority's board of directors unanimously accepted Hixson's resignation at its monthly meeting in Southern......
2007-07-27 01:28:00
MICHAEL YODER
The northeast section of Lancaster city has served as a gateway to the city for decades, and plans are under way to rebuild the area to make it even more livable.The first phase of the Northeast Revitalization Initiative, known as Northeast Neighbors, was introduced to an audience of about......
2007-07-25 01:04:00
STAFF REPORT
A nearly 20-story crane was assembled in downtown Lancaster Tuesday at the site where public and private developers are building a $170 million hotel/convention center.The crane is capable of lifting nearly 6 tons.Project manager Tim Sullivan said Tuesday it will be in place for at ......
2007-07-22 00:13:00
GIL SMART
Get ready for some late-summer traffic snarls in downtown Lancaster. At the end of the month, South Queen Street between Vine and King streets will be closed for several three-day stretches through the end of September. The reason, said Charlotte Katzenmoyer, the city's director of pub......
2007-07-21 01:09:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Construction of the hotel/convention center in downtown Lancaster will cause periodic closings of South Queen Street between the end of July and October, developers said Thursday."It's going to be happening on an every-other-week basis," said construction manager Tim Sullivan......
2007-07-19 16:20:00
Staff Report
Interstate Hotels & Resorts announced the hiring of Joshua Nowak as director of sales and marketing for the Lancaster County Convention Center and Marriott Lancaster at Penn Square today. Nowak will be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day marketing as well as the group ......
2007-07-18 01:18:00
MICHAEL YODER
Buying fresh and local produce and meats is not just a one-day affair for Sean Cavanaugh — it's the philosophy upon which he based his career.Cavanaugh, executive chef at the John J. Jeffries Restaurant at the Lancaster Arts Hotel, has sought to build his menu around local produc......
2007-07-13 01:59:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Lancaster County Convention Center Authority board member Ted Darcus gave the organization a "C-plus" Thursday on its efforts to involve minority- and women-owned businesses in the $170 million hotel/convention center project.At the same time, however, Darcus noted, "We're measuring this o......
2007-07-04 00:01:00
LYNN SCHMIDT
This time of year, local farmers and gardening enthusiasts offer up a bounty of fresh fruit that's a feast for the eyes — plump blueberries, cherries and shiny raspberries, mulberries and blackberries.And although they are touted for their cancer-fighting properties, the best thi......
2007-07-01 00:15:00
GIL SMART
When Clipper Magazine Stadium opened to cheers, members of the Bring Back Baseball Committee were hailed for their efforts and their success. And it was a success. But it was one, said Jack Howell, that was 15 years in coming. Neither Rome nor minor league ballparks, nor any other community ame......
2007-06-29 12:23:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Last week, the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau launched its "Wake Up in Lancaster County" campaign. And the marketing efforts provided almost immediate results. "We think there is a lot of interest in the region," Christopher S. Barrett, the visitors bureau president an......
2007-06-29 03:03:00
DAVE PIDGEON
An uptick in revenue from a countywide tax on hotel rooms helped Lancaster County Convention Center Authority end the fiscal year with a $125,000 surplus.•••Lancaster County Convention Center Authority finished the 2006-07 fiscal year $......
2007-06-22 12:29:00
BERNARD HARRIS
The Clipper Magazine Stadium. The Lancaster Arts Hotel. The Champion Center. College Row. The northwest edge of Lancaster City has been the "white hot center" of Lancaster in recent years, and business owner Sam Lombardo is getting in on the action. Lombardo, the president and c......
2007-06-14 16:01:00
JACK BRUBAKER
After eight years of cobbling together construction funds and fighting determined opponents in court, developers of a convention center and hotel in downtown Lancaster finally are looking forward to doing what they set out to do. Operate a successful project. With construction of the $170 ......
2007-06-14 15:46:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Time is money — and the latest delays are adding up for the Lancaster County Convention Center and Marriott hotel project. Delays caused by extensive bedrock and excessive groundwater, and the additional care needed to work around the historical structures on the site, have pushed complet......
2007-06-14 01:29:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
A four-and-a-half month delay in opening the Marriott Hotel and Lancaster County Convention Center could cost its backers some more money.At a special meeting of the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority Wednesday at Southern Market Center, the board said moving the opening date for......
2007-06-11 00:47:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A 21-year-old Lancaster man was shot several times early Sunday when an argument at a city bar escalated to gunfire, police said.The victim exchanged words with at least one man inside the Blue Star Hotel, 602 W. King St., before shots were fired outside the bar about 1 a.m., police said....
2007-06-10 00:03:00
JUDY A. STRAUSBAUGH
As developers of the Marriott Lancaster at Penn Square and the adjoining Lancaster County Convention Center grapple with a delayed opening date this week, project opponents will be telling it to a panel of appellate court judges in Philadelphia. The convention center authority board plans to me......
