From the Curwinsville, Clearfield County Progress.
Can you imagine any responsible school district waiting for 30 or 40 years before doing repairs? Not only that, they're taking their time to think about a plan, seek state reimbursement, and, even exploring a geo-thermal energy system.
Where's the safe, sober, and responsible stop the school people here to whip up some civic frenzy and needlessly split the town? They're doing it wrong in Curwinsville.
Let's take donations for a road trip so the Emperor, Angry Al, and the rest of the stop the school professionals can take their act on the road and show Curwinsville how to destroy a town and its school system.
Price tag for Curwensville school fixes more than $20 million
Thursday, August 07, 2008
By Dianne Byers Staff Writer
CURWENSVILLE - The age and condition of the components of school buildings was the focus of Curwensville Area School Board as members met for a buildings and grounds committee meeting last night.
Curwensville Area High School and Penn Grampian Elementary School were constructed in 1955, the lower level of Curwensville Area Elementary School was built in 1962 and the upper level in 1972. All the buildings are showing their maturity, especially the high school and Penn-Grampian. In January, the board authorized contracting with Robert T. Scheeren A.I.A., Indiana, to assess the school complex and Penn-Grampian related to an overhaul of the structures and the possibility of additions to the Curwensville buildings to allow them to be brought up to state codes.
Last night, the board had an opportunity to review details of the report, which contains three options for renovations. Norman Hatten, superintendent of schools, said the report analyzed the needs of the school district and provided information to "allow the board to determine what direction to go, if any."
He stressed that the information presented last night is "extremely preliminary." "We are very early in this process and we are trying to make sense of all this," he noted.
He told the board, "There are a considerable amount of things that need to be done. The roofs, windows, doors, steam pipes, plumbing, electricity need to be replaced to allow the building to function properly for the next 20 years. ... This is a conservative project - mainly infrastructure. These things need to be done to keep the building from failing and keep the school operating," he explained.
Mentioned several times last night was the age and state of the roof on the high school building. In January a representative from the architectural firm, during his proposal, presented a section of the steam pipe heating system that was marked with numerous rusted holes.
If the board were to do everything listed in the initial proposal of work to modernize the three buildings and bring them into compliance with state codes it would be spending approximately $21 million to $23 million. The board tentatively examined the possibility of making some cuts to the project and whittling down the price but noted most of what the project contains is necessary to the safe and functional operation of the building.
One of the options noted in the report is to close the Penn-Grampian Elementary School and build additions to the Curwensville Area Elementary School.
Paul Carr, business manager, presented a number of financial details to the board including the repayment of its current bond issues, millage options under Act 1 and possible reimbursement from the state for the building project.
The board made no decisions last night. Members said they would be looking at the report to determine whether they have additional questions for the architect and would revisit the matter at a future meeting, possibly the Aug. 14 work session.
Several members asked about a timeline for the project. Mr. Hatten said the first step is to determine the extent of the project to be done then the details, including a schedule and financing, could be determined.
Other board members said they would like information on a geo-thermal system to be presented as a possible addition to the project, saying they believe it would be a cost effective method for heating and cooling the buildings.
Ken Veihdeffer, board president, said members would need to make a decision soon on what they want to do. "The longer we wait (the more expensive the project will be). Prices are not going to go down," he said.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Solving Pennsylvania's problems
From the Pottstown Mercury
Solving Pennsylvania's problems
Rob Wonderling has the answers. Really, he does. It's all right there in his book.
"Talking Pennsylvania: 21 Conversations for the 21st Century" offers practical solutions to most of the major problems facing the Keystone State.
From health care to education to open space preservation to economic opportunity, the goal of the book and its companion Web site is to "help the people of Pennsylvania build a better 21st Century."
That may sound like a tall order, but it can be done, Wonderling argues.
Instead of telling people how government can solve all their problems, Wonderling took a different approach.
The two-term state senator went to the people of Pennsylvania and asked them to offer solutions. Real Pennsylvanians — 21 in all — who have the daily challenge of running their homes, farms and businesses.
If you want to address about farmland preservation, sit at the kitchen table with a farm couple trying to save the family dairy farm for their children.
How to keep young people from leaving Pennsylvania after they graduate from college? Talk to a recent graduate who says she will probably need at least a decade to pay off her student loans.
Welfare reform? Talk to a 21-year-old single mother of two who is trying to move off welfare by earning an associate's degree from a community college.
How to improve public education in Pennsylvania? Talk to the principal of a charter school about why the educational establishment is still trying to undermine Pennsylvania's charter school movement despite a decade of success.
Wonderling collected the conversations he had with everyday Pennsylvanians into a slim, 147-page book available free of charge through his offices or online at the companion Web site, www.talkingpa.com
Before you start complaining about how your tax dollars are being spent, the project was paid for by Friends of Rob Wonderling, which funded the senator's successful 2002 and 2006 election campaigns.
Wonderling spent a year traveling to all parts of Pennsylvania. He listened to people. He took notes. He recounts what he learned in 21 short (5-7 pages long) chapters in the book.
The best hope of building a brighter future for Pennsylvania lies not politicians but with the people of Pennsylvania, Wonderling says.
"While they are not politicians in any sense of the word, their lives are intersect with matters of public concern in Harrisburg," Wonderling writes. "In a very real sense, their stories can serve as a road map for our collective future as citizens of this Commonwealth."
What did Wonderling learn during his journey? The solutions to many of the state's most pressing problems are here already.
The problem is that state government doesn't listen. It's a one-way street with "ideas" coming from Harrisburg instead of the other way around. In the end, politicians need to talk less and listen more. And most importantly, they have to stop talking down to the rest of us. What are the chances of that happening?
Visit the TalkingPA Web site for more information.
Solving Pennsylvania's problems
Rob Wonderling has the answers. Really, he does. It's all right there in his book.
"Talking Pennsylvania: 21 Conversations for the 21st Century" offers practical solutions to most of the major problems facing the Keystone State.
From health care to education to open space preservation to economic opportunity, the goal of the book and its companion Web site is to "help the people of Pennsylvania build a better 21st Century."
That may sound like a tall order, but it can be done, Wonderling argues.
Instead of telling people how government can solve all their problems, Wonderling took a different approach.
The two-term state senator went to the people of Pennsylvania and asked them to offer solutions. Real Pennsylvanians — 21 in all — who have the daily challenge of running their homes, farms and businesses.
If you want to address about farmland preservation, sit at the kitchen table with a farm couple trying to save the family dairy farm for their children.
How to keep young people from leaving Pennsylvania after they graduate from college? Talk to a recent graduate who says she will probably need at least a decade to pay off her student loans.
Welfare reform? Talk to a 21-year-old single mother of two who is trying to move off welfare by earning an associate's degree from a community college.
How to improve public education in Pennsylvania? Talk to the principal of a charter school about why the educational establishment is still trying to undermine Pennsylvania's charter school movement despite a decade of success.
Wonderling collected the conversations he had with everyday Pennsylvanians into a slim, 147-page book available free of charge through his offices or online at the companion Web site, www.talkingpa.com
Before you start complaining about how your tax dollars are being spent, the project was paid for by Friends of Rob Wonderling, which funded the senator's successful 2002 and 2006 election campaigns.
Wonderling spent a year traveling to all parts of Pennsylvania. He listened to people. He took notes. He recounts what he learned in 21 short (5-7 pages long) chapters in the book.
The best hope of building a brighter future for Pennsylvania lies not politicians but with the people of Pennsylvania, Wonderling says.
"While they are not politicians in any sense of the word, their lives are intersect with matters of public concern in Harrisburg," Wonderling writes. "In a very real sense, their stories can serve as a road map for our collective future as citizens of this Commonwealth."
What did Wonderling learn during his journey? The solutions to many of the state's most pressing problems are here already.
The problem is that state government doesn't listen. It's a one-way street with "ideas" coming from Harrisburg instead of the other way around. In the end, politicians need to talk less and listen more. And most importantly, they have to stop talking down to the rest of us. What are the chances of that happening?
Visit the TalkingPA Web site for more information.
Meet the Czar
From the Inquirer.
This is the place where requests for state records will be handled. I wonder if local records requests will be arbitrated through here as well.
Chief begins work on Pa.'s new open records office
Posted on Fri, Aug. 8, 2008 By Matthew Spolar
Inquirer Staff Writer
HARRISBURG - Inside a temporary cubicle in a state office building, Terry Mutchler is for the moment less concerned with prying open long-sealed government documents than she is with opening for business.
The state's new open public records czar is picking out chair colors and analyzing floor blueprints. She is combing resumes and conducting interviews.
"I feel like I'm getting married to something," she said, "but I'm not sure what."
For Mutchler, life these days is about building a state agency from scratch.
Since Gov. Rendell approved a new law in February to increase public access to government documents, Mutchler, 42, has been tasked with bringing the effort to fruition by Jan. 1 with the launch of the state's first Office of Open Records.
The office will act as the middleman between government and the people, mediating in disputes over which documents are public domain. And Mutchler, a reporter-turned-lawyer who will run the office for the next six years, will have to do so in a state that used to have one of the worst open-records laws in the nation.
So far, it hasn't been easy.
"My colleagues in the government don't trust me because I've been with the press, and the people in the press don't trust me because I'm with the government," said Mutchler, whose salary is $120,000. "I'm in this unique, weird bubble."
In some ways, the Poconos native finds herself in a familiar quagmire. The post she left earlier this year to come to Pennsylvania was as Illinois' public access counselor.
But Mutchler's new office in Pennsylvania is more than a governmental appointment. It is mandated by a new law propelled by independent reform advocates buzzing around the Capitol. And now their eyes are trained on her.
"What she does with that law over the next six months will determine how it is respected and interpreted by public officials from the Capitol to township supervisors," said Tim Potts, founder of Democracy Rising PA, one of the reform groups.
"It's that old saying: You don't get a second chance at a first impression."
Mutchler is trying to plant the seeds for that impression by crisscrossing the state to meet with government officials and media outlets.
So far, she says, she has found she has a long way to go to ensure that local governments - which must name a right-to-know officer under the new law - are ready to embrace the new brand of openness she represents.
"If I make a mistake, it's going to be on the side of openness," Mutchler said.
The state's new open records law essentially flips the burden of proof onto governmental agencies: Where reporters and citizens once had to make a case for obtaining government documents, government agencies now have to prove why records should be shielded from public view.
An aggressive training program that teaches public officials and citizens what the law means will be critical in cultivating an open government culture, said Bill Chamberlin, former director of the University of Florida's Citizen Access Project.
Additionally, he said, if Mutchler doesn't establish her political weight and get strong judicial backing in cases in which decisions are appealed, the law will lose its firmness.
Her background, at least, puts her in a good position to walk that tightrope.
By the time she was 10, all within earshot knew that Mutchler wanted to be a lawyer. But that changed when she arrived at Penn State in 1983.
"I got bit by the journalism bug," she said. She joined the college newspaper, and within a month had switched from pre-law to journalism.
After college, her professional career became a whirlwind of locations and occupations. She worked for the Allentown Morning Call, and as a cub reporter, she once went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to defend her right to a leaked police report. She arrived at the Associated Press's Harrisburg bureau in 1989, moved to Atlantic City with the organization in 1992, and later wound up as the AP's state Capitol bureau chief in Springfield, Ill.
It was there that her life changed upon meeting state Sen. Penny Severns, who ran for Illinois lieutenant governor in 1994. Mutchler said she fell in love with Severns and, worried that her emotions were potentially creeping into her livelihood, relocated to Alaska and continued with the AP.
"We wanted to end that situation as soon as possible," she said.
In Alaska, she decided to realize her childhood dream of becoming a lawyer. She returned to Illinois in 1995 to attend law school, and both work for and continue her relationship with Severns. Severns died of breast cancer in 1998. Mutchler finished law school the next year.
After practicing law privately and publicly, Mutchler was tapped by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan in 2003 for the newly minted role of public access counselor.
Over time, Mutchler will leave her own mark in Pennsylvania, say those who know her.
Ann Spillane, chief of staff to the Illinois attorney general, said Mutchler's former office thrived on her stubborn forthrightness.
"There was a need for Terry and her staff to say, 'No, we're not going away,' " Spillane said.
Once Pennsylvania's office opens in January, Mutchler anticipates that the media will test the office with an initial wave of information requests. But after 18 months, she said she expects the vast majority of requests to be filed by citizens.
To help respond to those requests, she plans to assemble a staff of up to 10. She has already hired two.
"I want the best pool to do this, because I think we're going to be a very unpopular group," she said.
How the New Law Works
A resident requests a record from a government agency.
Within five days, although it may request a 30-day extension, the agency must respond with the record or an explanation as to why that record is not public.
If the agency denies the request, the citizen may contact the Office of Open Records, which then has 30 days to make a decision.
If the request is again denied, the citizen may appeal to a court within 30 days. The court will take into account the Office of Open Records' opinion.
If the court determines the document must be opened, the agency must comply or face a $500-per-day civil penalty until the records are opened.
If the court determines that the records were denied by the agency in bad faith, the court may fine the agency up to $1,500.
This is the place where requests for state records will be handled. I wonder if local records requests will be arbitrated through here as well.
Chief begins work on Pa.'s new open records office
Posted on Fri, Aug. 8, 2008 By Matthew Spolar
Inquirer Staff Writer
HARRISBURG - Inside a temporary cubicle in a state office building, Terry Mutchler is for the moment less concerned with prying open long-sealed government documents than she is with opening for business.
The state's new open public records czar is picking out chair colors and analyzing floor blueprints. She is combing resumes and conducting interviews.
"I feel like I'm getting married to something," she said, "but I'm not sure what."
For Mutchler, life these days is about building a state agency from scratch.
Since Gov. Rendell approved a new law in February to increase public access to government documents, Mutchler, 42, has been tasked with bringing the effort to fruition by Jan. 1 with the launch of the state's first Office of Open Records.
The office will act as the middleman between government and the people, mediating in disputes over which documents are public domain. And Mutchler, a reporter-turned-lawyer who will run the office for the next six years, will have to do so in a state that used to have one of the worst open-records laws in the nation.
So far, it hasn't been easy.
"My colleagues in the government don't trust me because I've been with the press, and the people in the press don't trust me because I'm with the government," said Mutchler, whose salary is $120,000. "I'm in this unique, weird bubble."
In some ways, the Poconos native finds herself in a familiar quagmire. The post she left earlier this year to come to Pennsylvania was as Illinois' public access counselor.
But Mutchler's new office in Pennsylvania is more than a governmental appointment. It is mandated by a new law propelled by independent reform advocates buzzing around the Capitol. And now their eyes are trained on her.
"What she does with that law over the next six months will determine how it is respected and interpreted by public officials from the Capitol to township supervisors," said Tim Potts, founder of Democracy Rising PA, one of the reform groups.
"It's that old saying: You don't get a second chance at a first impression."
Mutchler is trying to plant the seeds for that impression by crisscrossing the state to meet with government officials and media outlets.
So far, she says, she has found she has a long way to go to ensure that local governments - which must name a right-to-know officer under the new law - are ready to embrace the new brand of openness she represents.
"If I make a mistake, it's going to be on the side of openness," Mutchler said.
The state's new open records law essentially flips the burden of proof onto governmental agencies: Where reporters and citizens once had to make a case for obtaining government documents, government agencies now have to prove why records should be shielded from public view.
An aggressive training program that teaches public officials and citizens what the law means will be critical in cultivating an open government culture, said Bill Chamberlin, former director of the University of Florida's Citizen Access Project.
Additionally, he said, if Mutchler doesn't establish her political weight and get strong judicial backing in cases in which decisions are appealed, the law will lose its firmness.
Her background, at least, puts her in a good position to walk that tightrope.
By the time she was 10, all within earshot knew that Mutchler wanted to be a lawyer. But that changed when she arrived at Penn State in 1983.
"I got bit by the journalism bug," she said. She joined the college newspaper, and within a month had switched from pre-law to journalism.
After college, her professional career became a whirlwind of locations and occupations. She worked for the Allentown Morning Call, and as a cub reporter, she once went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to defend her right to a leaked police report. She arrived at the Associated Press's Harrisburg bureau in 1989, moved to Atlantic City with the organization in 1992, and later wound up as the AP's state Capitol bureau chief in Springfield, Ill.
It was there that her life changed upon meeting state Sen. Penny Severns, who ran for Illinois lieutenant governor in 1994. Mutchler said she fell in love with Severns and, worried that her emotions were potentially creeping into her livelihood, relocated to Alaska and continued with the AP.
"We wanted to end that situation as soon as possible," she said.
In Alaska, she decided to realize her childhood dream of becoming a lawyer. She returned to Illinois in 1995 to attend law school, and both work for and continue her relationship with Severns. Severns died of breast cancer in 1998. Mutchler finished law school the next year.
After practicing law privately and publicly, Mutchler was tapped by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan in 2003 for the newly minted role of public access counselor.
Over time, Mutchler will leave her own mark in Pennsylvania, say those who know her.
Ann Spillane, chief of staff to the Illinois attorney general, said Mutchler's former office thrived on her stubborn forthrightness.
"There was a need for Terry and her staff to say, 'No, we're not going away,' " Spillane said.
Once Pennsylvania's office opens in January, Mutchler anticipates that the media will test the office with an initial wave of information requests. But after 18 months, she said she expects the vast majority of requests to be filed by citizens.
To help respond to those requests, she plans to assemble a staff of up to 10. She has already hired two.
"I want the best pool to do this, because I think we're going to be a very unpopular group," she said.
How the New Law Works
A resident requests a record from a government agency.
Within five days, although it may request a 30-day extension, the agency must respond with the record or an explanation as to why that record is not public.
If the agency denies the request, the citizen may contact the Office of Open Records, which then has 30 days to make a decision.
If the request is again denied, the citizen may appeal to a court within 30 days. The court will take into account the Office of Open Records' opinion.
If the court determines the document must be opened, the agency must comply or face a $500-per-day civil penalty until the records are opened.
If the court determines that the records were denied by the agency in bad faith, the court may fine the agency up to $1,500.
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