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Later this year, Colerain will have a contractor widen two of the township's narrower roads.
A century and a half ago, workers began building one of the most iconic bridges in the United States.
It took them 14 years to finish the 5,989 feet of the Brooklyn Bridge at a cost of $15 million. Colerain Township's bridge project gets underway this week, and it rivals the mile-long, 150-year-old Brooklyn span only in the length of time it has taken to complete. Two incumbents lost their bids for reelection in the Tuesday, May 21, primary election, according to unofficial results posted by the county board of elections.
Eden Supervisor Randon J. Kylar lost his bid for the Republican nomination to challenger Lawrence M. Stoltzfus. Stoltzfus received 119 votes to Klar's 58. A proposed change to Colerain Township's zoning ordinance would prohibit the construction of tiny houses in campgrounds.
"Campgrounds are not intended for permanent residences," said Walter Todd Jr., chairman of the township's board of supervisors. "A tiny house is a permanent structure." The issue came up because there is a tiny house in a campground in Colerain, Todd said. When supervisors checked, they determined the zoning ordinance does not address the issue. Some people have been planning summer activities since the first week in January. Others are waiting until spring is closer.
Those with firm schedules have been reserving space in five Southern End municipal parks, local officials said recently.  by Hannah Pollock
Chronicle intern The Girl Scout troops at Chestnut Level are entering their 40th year and Linda Martin has been there for all of them. “She’s been there since the beginning. She actually started it back when it was time for me to start [Girl Scouts],” said Amy Martin-Rineer, a troop leader at Chestnut Level. Martin-Rineer is continuing the tradition started by her mother.  Sometimes, snowplows have to be out in some pretty miserable weather.
The rest of the year, they should be stored indoors. That's why Colerain Township is having a new storage building erected at its Kirkwood Pike building. The township has hired A&K Pole Buildings of Harrisburg to put up a three-sided shed to get the plows under roof. The building, which will be 20 feet deep and 100 feet long, will also protect other township equipment that has been stored outdoors, including the tractor-mounted mower. That has been stored outside since the township bought a backhoe more than a year ago. Heat heals.
Dick Humphreys believes it helped him recover from two bouts of Lyme disease without debilitating and potentially deadly kidney complications. Humphreys, who has been coping with diabetes for decades, is a frequent user of the sauna on his Colerain Township property. Following a year of controversy, Colerain's supervisors amended the township's zoning ordinance regarding how many animals may be kept on properties.
The revision, passed January 5, sets limits by lot size and animal category. The ordinance defines one animal unit as an animal of 1,000 pounds live weight. It also defines each animal - a horse regardless of the animal's weight, is one animal unit, while a dairy cow is 1.5 animal units. He's not retiring because the work has become more complex.
Nor is he getting out to have more Wednesday nights free. Rather, at 70, Doug Eaby has decided he cannot commit to another term on Colerain Township's zoning hearing board. Quarryville Borough is asking four neighboring townships to help pay for the local fire company's workman's compensation insurance.
"We've been talking about this for several years," borough manager Ken Work said last week. "We want the surrounding townships to pay their share." The borough has been paying the entire cost of the insurance, just over $21,000 for the coming year. Members of the Amish community are working on an alternative to proposed changes in Colerain Township's zoning ordinance.
Township officials are considering an amendment that would not allow horses to be kept on properties of less than two acres. It also spells out how many small animals would be permitted. The amendment, if adopted, would make Colerain's zoning the most restrictive of any township in the Southern End. One Southern End township is working to allow Amish residents to keep a horse on a one-acre lot while a neighboring township will mandate at least two acres for one horse.
The changes come as an increasing number of Amish residents move into homes on one-acre lots, township officials said last week. Most townships allow one or two horses, known as travel horses, to be kept on a one-acre lot if the horses are the family's only means of transportation. A snowy winter and rainy spring have delayed roadwork throughout the Southern End.
"We're getting farther behind by the day," Bart Township roadmaster Ned Trout said last Friday. The township's crew is now doing work it would normally have completed a month ago, he said.  While Richard Humphreys is planning a new home to replace the house that burned in February, friends and neighbors are pitching in to restore the trails through Gnome Countryside in Colerain Township.
The post-and-beam home will go up later this summer and will use timber from the property along Bridal Path Rd. as well as logs from his great-grandfather's farm upstate. "I've been getting a lot of community support," Humphreys said last week. One friend started a web page to support Gnome Countryside. Others have been turning up every month to work on the trails through his property. The first work party included about 25 Amish neighbors who helped clear debris from the fire that destroyed the 220-year-old log house. Other work parties have been clearing Gnome Countryside's trails. Zack Dona has been coming to the property for months, getting the property ready for visitors. "This winter was really terrible for the trails. The storms dropped a lot of trees and really messed them up," he said. Saturday's weather was nearly perfect.
Sunny skies and warm temperatures prompted many homeowners to tackle the brush and tree limbs felled by this past winter's snow and ice. Some people decided to burn the debris, something that's legal in all nine municipalities in the Southern End. A few of the fires spread, leading to several brush fire calls for local volunteer firefighters. Colerain Township's supervisors want to limit the size of properties eligible for farm-related businesses.
That's one of two zoning changes planned for later this year, said Walter Todd Jr., chairman of Colerain's board of supervisors. As the thermometer reached new record low temperatures last week, some Southern End residents were planning picnics, reunions, and ball tournaments.
Three townships and Quarryville Borough have been taking reservations for their municipal parks since January 1. The Solanco Little League can use its fields, buildings, and other Kirkwood Pike facilities year-round, Colerain Township's zoning hearing board ruled January 8. The league can also allow other teams to use their fields, the board decided.
Solanco Little League will have to wait until next month to find out if it can use its Kirkwood Pike complex year-around and can allow teams from other leagues to play on the fields.
Colerain Township's zoning hearing board will give its decision on the fields' use in January. At the same time, the board will also rule on a league request to be able to use a public address system on a third field. The league already has permission to use public address systems on two of its eight fields. It will take Colerain Township just over two months to replace the tiny bridge that carries Liberty Ln. over Gable's Run.
It will take about three times that long to have the bridge designed and to get the necessary state permits for the work. That's if everything goes well. Colerain Township's zoning hearing board granted Solanco Little League's request to postpone a hearing scheduled for Wednesday, October 9. The league was scheduled to appear before the board on that date.
The league asked that hearing be put off until November 13 and the hearing board approved that request Wednesday night.  The Chronicle
It's a skill Cynthia and Chris Gartman wanted to learn. So they spent about an hour Saturday morning, June 8, learning how to save some of the flavor of fresh strawberries for the coming winter. The Gartmans, who live in Colerain Township, were learning how to make freezer jam. The process isn't as complicated as making regular preserves, said teacher Cindy Rohrer. |
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