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A local preservation group is offering an opportunity for kids to try their skill in a stocked creek early next month.
Members of the Friends of Fishing Creek will host their fourth annual fishing derby from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, June 7. The derby is being held with the cooperation of the Valley Lea Riding Club, 1685 Furniss Rd., Drumore. The riding club opens its grounds for the annual derby.  Tristan Murry was looking for Prisoner B 3078 on Thursday morning, May 22, but there weren't any in stock at the Swift Middle School Book Fair.
The fair will be getting more copies on Friday, reading specialist Alison McPherson told him. "You can pay for the book now and we'll hold it for you," she told Murry. Murry was looking forward to the nonfiction work. "It's a true story about the Holocaust," he said. "He was one of the people who survived." The book's title refers to the number tattooed on the prisoner's arm, he added. He prefers an eReader because he can keep more books on it. "And it doesn't get heavy if it's a long book," he explained.  Members of one of Solanco High School's Odyssey of the Mind teams have traveled more than half way across the country this week to compete in OM's World Finals.
The team is competing in the Driver's Test. A student-designed and constructed vehicle must complete tasks while traveling through a course, going forward and in reverse. "The vehicle and driver have to complete three tasks as it runs through the course," teacher Caley Roark said. Two of the tasks come from a list provided by OM; the third is developed by the students. PennDOT is in no hurry to repair or replace eight of the 10 bridges whose weight limits were lowered last fall.
PennDOT reduced the weight limits on the bridges during a dispute between Governor Tom Corbett's administration and the state House of Representatives over transportation funding. At the time, PennDOT justified the new, lower weight limits as an effort to maintain the bridges since funding for their repair or replacement was in question. Quarryville held its first Memorial Day commemoration in 20 years.  A local couple is helping organize a fundraiser that will help pay for the fight against breast cancer.
Marianne and Rob Wimer of Quarryville are working to meet at $10,000 goal for the third annual Jeeps Jams 4 Jugs event scheduled for June 7. Byron and Collette Wagman started the event in 2012 to bring in funds for the PA Breast Cancer Coalition. "We have successfully accomplished this each year," Mrs. Wimer wrote. "With every subsequent year, our event has attracted Jeep owners, Jeep enthusiasts, their families and friends as well as members of the surrounding community." Members of the Quarryville Lions Club will host a Memorial Day commemoration on Monday, May 26.
This will be the community's first formal commemoration since a Memorial Day parade was cancelled nearly two decades ago. "We've been talking about this as something we should do since the memorial pillars were renovated," said Joanne Black, the club's past president. Early Saturday evening, May 24, the public will be able to see what a group of parents has been concocting for the past 14 months.
The parents, all of whom have children in Solanco High School's Class of 2014, volunteered to put together a post-prom party for members of the senior class and their guests. The public is invited to view the party setup from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The party is open to seniors and guests from 10:30 p.m. to 3 a.m. Saturday.  John Little is leaving half of his ideal career.
Little, who has been teaching middle school students for 35 years, will retire at the end of this school year. He will continue to coach Solanco High School's varsity wrestling team. "I have friends who have retired from teaching and who still coach and they enjoy it," he said. Retiring from teaching means giving up a job he's enjoyed for more than three decades. "I have had a dream job," he said. "I enjoy teaching science. I have the greenhouse, the outdoor site, and the [aquarium and terrarium] tanks. I have all it takes right here in this room." The Eden Township native went to Catholic school for two years, transferring to Solanco in the third grade. Shortly after that, he met the man who would inspire him.  Quarryville needs new lights for the two ball fields at Memorial Park.
But the borough doesn't have the money to buy them. The immediate issue is the safety of the 70-foot-tall poles that support the lights. Some of the poles have plates on them dating their installation to 1948. Others are more recent. Buying one new pole cost $8,000 several years ago. That's when the borough purchased a replacement for a pole that fell over. "We were able to piggyback the shipping with other poles," borough manager Ken Work said. "Otherwise, the shipping would have been at least that much again, because poles that size don't come from Pennsylvania." Now the borough will be hiring a firm to determine the condition of the poles on each field.  An overgrown flower garden will sprout vegetables this summer, thanks to the combined efforts of two local non-profits and a group of high school students.
The garden, on the grounds of the Quarryville Library, was created during one of the library's first Earth Day celebrations and was intended as a memorial. It was well-tended for a year or so, but then became overgrown. Now the library and Solanco Neighborhood Ministries will be using the space to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and peppers. The produce will be available to clients of the ministry's food bank. The idea was spawned by a grant competition the ministry entered.  The Solanco School District is selling kitchen, serving, and dining utensils at their first surplus sale this month. Then the district will sell weight-lifting equipment to help work off the pounds generated by items in the first sale.
"Our goal is to have one lot [sold] now and have the other come up right at the end of school," said Dr. Timothy Shrom, the district's business manager. The first sale includes a commercial-size Hobart mixer, a vegetable chopper, cooking pans, condiment dispensers, mixing bowls, double broilers, and cafeteria tables. Bids on items in the current sale must be submitted to the business office, 121 S. Hess St., Quarryville, by 4 p.m. on May 28.  Among the items to go up for sale at the annual Black Rock Retreat auction are several collectible model trains.
"We have never had trains before," said John Shertzer, the retreat's executive director. The HO-scale models include a number of diesel and steam locomotives and two passenger cars. Most of the engines and the two passenger cars are still in sealed boxes. The steam engines are lettered for the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, known to rail enthusiasts as the Ma & Pa. Produced by Bachman Industries, the engines replicate those used on the line in its early years. Two of the diesels are models of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad switch engines.  Jeff Hanna fights cancer on three fronts.
First came his personal battle with the disease, diagnosed four years ago. That led him to working with the Solanco Relay for Life, raising money to help other patients and find a cure for the disease. He's also become an advocate for patients who have cancer. Hanna has made progress in all three battles. His cancer has been in remission for nearly four years. "If it goes five years, I can officially say I have been cured," he said last week. He is still fighting on the second front. He and his family will field a fundraising team at the local 2014 Relay for Life next month. This will be the fourth year they have entered the DeGreen Team, named after Hanna's oncologist, Dr. Hyatt "Tracy" DeGreen IV.  The Friends of the Quarryville Library have been trying different ways to sell donated books.
They've offered them at their lobby bookstore, on the internet, by silent auctions in the library's showcases, and, most recently, in a one-day sale. But twice a year they return to their original fundraiser, a four-day sale. Those sales bring in about half of the group's annual budget. "We're committed to giving $28,000 a year to the library," group member Donna Trimble said. "$18,000 of that goes toward operating expenses and $10,000 to purchase more items for the library's collection.  In 1984, teachers at the two-year-old Noah's Ark Nursery School were looking for an entertaining way to get the kids outside on a nice spring day.
"A parent who had moved into the area suggested we have a Big Wheel day," founding director Patti Chase said. The event has grown since then and now includes nearly 100 children. "Especially after a winter like this one, it's a good chance for the kids to get out and have fun with their friends," said Cathy Peifer, the school's director. Those who attend on Mondays were out on April 28 enjoying the sunny weather. Tuesday's storms postponed the second day of the event.  Before young artists can draw and paint, they have to learn how to see the world around them.
That's one of the premises of a series of summer art classes to be held in Quarryville. After a hiatus of two years, summer art classes are returning to the Southern End Community Association. Noted local artists Kim and Barry Root will lead the classes, which run in week-long sessions from June 30 through July 24. A fifth week may be scheduled if there is enough interest. Solanco students, teachers, and community members will perform during the school's variety show this Friday.
The show will benefit the school's Renaissance program. The program is used nationally to improve the school's atmosphere. It provides incentives for students who do well academically as well as for those who improve their attendance and behavior in school.  The aging electric motor is still connected to the main drive shaft. The belts from that shaft to a set of roller mills could still turn wheat into flour.
That hasn't happened since the early 1980s, mill owner Reggie Rohrer said last week. The family's business still grinds feed at its Quarryville location, but the mill on Camargo Rd. has not been used for more than three decades. The three-story brick mill was once powered by a wheel turned by the waters of the Little Beaver Creek. Built in 1825 by the Brenneman family, the mill was purchased by Ross H. Rohrer in 1905.  Teresa Dolan is about to give people an easy way to share their garden bounty.
Beginning in early June, Dolan and others at Solanco Neighborhood Ministries, which operates the food bank, will be handing out produce twice a week. A free produce market will be offered to food bank clients. What is available will depend on the generosity of others. "We get calls a lot," said Dolan, who explained that people with gardens want to share what they've grown. "People have been offering. Lately, we've received a ton of calls (with offers of donations). It's really exciting," said Dolan. Quarryville residents may have to contend with dirty water next week as members of the borough crew flush water lines.
"It won't be as bad as it was last Thanksgiving," borough manager Ken Work said last week. That's when the pump at the borough's well failed. The well went out of service Wednesday evening, November 26, the day before Thanksgiving and was not restored until Friday morning. |
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