mmaroney@sungazette.com
City Council voted for an amended lease agreement Thursday with Cutting Edge Baseball (the Williamsport Crosscutters,) the city and Major League Baseball.
Mayor Derek Slaughter presented the amended lease agreement, which indicates the Crosscutters season begins a bit earlier this year on May 24 and sets the Major League Baseball commitment for the MLB Little League Classic to run through 2023 at Bowman Field.
The Classic is held during the Little League World Series, allowing the Little League World Series participants and their families to view a season-counting game with two Major League Baseball teams playing. Before the game players interact.
mmaroney@sungazette.com
Despite COVID-19’s role as the culprit for dropping ridership by half at River Valley Transit bus service, the city has not had to dip into a $7.2 million Federal Transit Administration relief package yet, city officials said.
“Fortunately, we have not had to use any of the FTA money yet,” Mayor Derek Slaughter said this week when asked about the use and planned use of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security or CARES Act, signed by President Donald Trump on March 27.
The money, officially awarded to the transit agency in June, if needed, will be used to keep the buses running during the length of the pandemic, said Adam Winder, general manager of River Valley Transit.
It was not one gift but two that was delivered to our area on Christmas Eve.
The first gift came with the news that Shop Vac on Reach Road had been purchased and the new owner GreatStar Tools USA hoped to rehire former employees who lost their jobs in mid-September after a failed sale of the company by its private owners.
That closure left about 430 people suddenly out of work from a manufacturing facility that had been “a leading employer in our area for generations,” in the words of County Commissioner Scott Metzger.
We agree with Metzger’s assessment that the announcement “is a major boost to our spirits and economy during these difficult times.”
Who, in their right mind, saw it coming?
After a relatively quiet, rather “normal” first quarter, we all learned of a “new normal” that would reshape just about every aspect of daily life for those lucky enough survive the global pandemic known as COVID-19.
But first a little happiness arrived before the sorrow.
Following the New Year’s celebrations and promise to commit to resolutions, the first baby of the year was born at UPMC Susquehanna.
The baby arrived shortly before 5 a.m. Jan. 2. The story, aptly written by veteran newspaper man Philip A. Holmes, the lead police and fire reporter for the Sun-Gazette, described how Dusty Harkey was 37 weeks pregnant when she walked into the Williamsport Regional Medical Center’s Birthplace.
mmaroney@sungazette.com
City Council is expected to tackle next year’s proposed $29 million budget in a remote meeting tonight. It remains unclear if council will adopt the proposed budget, but Council President Randall J. Allison said there is a consensus to get it done before the end of the year because if no budget is passed no money can be spent.
Mayor Derek Slaughter’s proposed budget carries a proposed 1-mill tax hike, and he and council members said that could be reduced further with discussions tonight.
One mill of real estate tax generates $860,000. A 1-mill tax increase would be $100 more for a house assessed at $100,000.