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For the second time in 10 years, voters in East Drumore have turned down a request to allow the sale of alcoholic beverages in the township.
The vote in the May 19 primary election was 137 favoring the sale and 207 opposing the sale of alcoholic beverages. Editor's note: The following story was written a day before Solanco High School Senior Mikeaela Wagner died of injuries she sustained in an auto accident. The Flight Team described in the story was deployed to the high school on Thursday, May 21.
They don't have to grieve alone. When a classmate or a teacher dies, counselors from two counties help Solanco students deal with their sorrow. "We have a place where they can gather and talk about their loss," said Patti McTaggart, lead guidance counselor at Solanco High School. "We call it a safe room." Four members of Solanco High School's FFA Chapter spent several afternoons last week building a new snack bar for the SECA pool.
SECA director Nicole Luecker asked the students to build the snack bar. Teacher Carey Kalupson drew up the plans and Walter & Jackson's Quarryville location provided the materials. The snack bar replaces vending machines that had been in the pool entrance.  Customers of the Kirkwood Post Office now have more time to buy stamps, mail packages, and send registered letters.
The window hours had been from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m and 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Saturdays. The new hours are 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturdays. That adds a half hour to each weekday and an hour on Saturday. The changes are possible because the office now has more staff members, Postmaster Patricia Sauer said last week.  With the fall play a distant memory and the performances of the spring musical days away, classmates Gavin Fox and AJ Beyer weren't ready to abandon the stage.
"We wanted to do another play," Fox said last week. "I asked AJ what he wanted to do." They decided they wanted to produce 12 Angry Men, a play and then a film by Reginald Rose about jurors trying to decide the fate of a murder suspect. "We had a lot of people interested," Fox said. "It was an awesome idea," Beyer added. "The hardest part was making it happen."  As Quarryville's expanded and renovated sewage treatment plant neared completion last year, officials began looking for another employee to work at the facility.
"The new plant is more computerized, uses more technology, and it's larger," Borough Manager Ken Work said last week. "It's much larger. For those reasons, we decided we need an additional employee to operate it safely. … The hiring came later than we had originally planned." That employee was hired late last month. Quarryville resident Scott DeRaps, one of five dozen people to apply for the job, became the newest employee when he joined the combined borough-authority work force on Monday, May 11.
 When the owners of Realty Professional Group were looking for a community project, they didn't have to go far.
"We decided to do something for the Quarryville Elementary School PTO," said co-owner Devan Brooks. "We had been talking about something to help benefit the PTO's book fair, but it was too late in the year for that," she said. "So the money we raise will be used by the PTO in the next school year." To raise money, the company's owners decided to host a yard sale. "We're going to rent sale spaces for $10 each," she said. "We already have some people signed up and we hope to get between 30 and 40 table spaces rented."  By the time Don and Barbara Sample pulled into the parking lot at New Providence Mennonite Church Thursday afternoon, they had already finished part of their day's volunteer work.
The couple had placed flags on veterans' graves at Zion United Church of Christ cemetery and several small family cemeteries in neighboring Strasburg Township. Then they, their daughter, and their twin grandsons were putting flags on veterans' graves in New Providence. The Samples are among more than a dozen volunteers who work across the Southern End in the weeks before Memorial Day, making sure veterans' graves have new flags. If it weren't for the old wooden guardrail on the upstream side, one of Colerain Township's smallest bridges would go almost unnoticed.
The span, just 18 feet long, carries Liberty Ln. over Gable's Run, a short, narrow tributary to the West Branch of the Octoraro Creek. Although tiny, the bridge has created a big headache for township officials. They have been trying to replace the 18-foot-long span for nearly three years, only to be delayed by required environmental studies and pending state permission.  For the past dozen years, Jeffrey and Jennifer Hatch have had more projects than time.
That's what happens when you are living in an old house while restoring it. The Hatches bought their home, at 211 Cooks Landing Rd., as Mr. Hatch was leaving active military service and starting a new career at Aberdeen Proving Ground. "I grew up in Willow Street and we started looking for a home in the Southern End," he said. A search brought them to the partially-restored stone house just north of the state line. Then their work began. "You have to have patience," Mrs. Hatch said. "You can't get it all done at once, so you pick and choose your priorities. And you have to be willing to live with holes." The congregation of Little Britain Presbyterian Church survived without an organ for 200 years.
Now the members will have to do without again, at least for six months. The church's organ will be removed next month and taken to a repair shop for a complete overhaul. This will be the first time the organ, installed 82 years ago, has been refurbished, said trustee Dennis Blough. "They will redo the wind chests, springs, valve disks, everything," Blough said. The organ will be refurbished by the Columbia Organ Works. The firm will oversee the organ's removal and its re-installation.  Kendall Keeler, director of development for Black Rock Retreat, holds a replica of the Gap Town Clock, next to a cotton throw depicting the retreat's chapel and dining hall. The items will be sold at the retreat's 55th annual auction this week. Most of the money raised at the annual Black Rock Retreat auction help the Christian nonprofit operate its summer camps and year-round programs.
A few, including the traditional camper sponsorship cookies, bring in funds for targeted needs. This year, a cotton throw will also be sold to raise money for a special purpose. The throw, once a staple at the retreat's gift shop, is now being phased out. "We only have about five left," said Kendall Keeler, the retreat's director of development. In the center of the throw is a picture of Black Rock's chapel and dining hall, itself scheduled to be replaced. "We're going to sell the last throws as a commemorative for the chapel," he said.
 Assistant Superintendent Dr. Robert Dangler stands with boxed standardized tests. By the time students graduate from the Solanco School District in June, 2017, they will have taken 18 standardized tests.
Those exams range from the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT) given in second grade to the Keystone Exams that will determine if a student graduates. Most of the tests are required by the state, which uses them to meet federal standards set by the 2001 No Child Left Behind law. That law saw the growth of standardized testing, and the increased importance of test results, said Dr. Robert Dangler, assistant superintendent of the Solanco School District. |
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