JuniataValleyLiving.com

This particular blog has been taken from the blog set up for The Elm Street Community which can be found at http://elmstreetneighborhood.blogspot.com/.  Thank you to all involved for letting us use their blogs on our site.

The Neighborhood banners that now adorn Montgomery Avenue Extended represent the work of a sub committee that was formed from the Image & Identity Committee of the Five Points/East End Neighborhood. This committee is working with Downtown Lewistown Incorporated and the “Elm Street” Project for the sole purpose of solidifying an identity for the neighborhood and its residents. This logo design was developed by identifying and highlighting specific characteristics and qualities of our community. This logo will be visible throughout the Five Points/East End Neighborhood and will be used on literature, publications, correspondence and other promotional pieces. The banners were designed by Media X Creative incorporating the ideas of the following neighborhood residents:

Rhonda Walters – Chair
Sam Price
Kris Bradley
Robert Jim Clark

The banners are a tangible result of the good work of these residents and is representative of the creativity and spirit of the Neighborhood.

The Great Chip Drop

New Year’s Eve is close.

The Great Chip Drop serves as a community celebration for the Juniata Valley as we welcome 2009.

Like the Riverfest, Kid Connection, Ice Festival, Embassy Festival, etc., it’s a great event to walk to from the East End Neighborhood.

Midnight fireworks may even be visible from some porches in Our Neighborhood.

More information:

www.chipdrop.com

Better, Cleaner, Safer, Greener

This particular blog has been taken from the blog set up for The Elm Street Community which can be found at http://elmstreetneighborhood.blogspot.com/.  Thank you to all involved for letting us use their blogs on our site.

A partnership effort of Downtown Lewistown, Inc. (DLI) and the Borough of Lewistown along with several community-minded individuals has resulted in organizations and businesses “adopting” public spaces in the Downtown and Five Points/East End Neighborhood.
Bolstered by the Annual United Way Day of Caring, four businesses have stepped forward in “adopting” key landscape areas. Caretaker LLC with offices in Downtown Lewistown along with Bushmen Landscaping and Metzler Forest Products have begun providing maintenance to the landscaped banks along Montgomery Avenue adjacent to Rec Park.
Concentrated maintenance work details provided by the Mifflin-Juniata United Way Day of Caring Program and participating employee volunteers from local businesses has been a positive force in the community. In 2007, Mifflin County GIS and Planning Departments along with employee volunteers from Mifflin County Children & Youth provided extensive maintenance at the Rec Park location with on-site expertise facilitated by Penn State Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Program. Once again, in 2008, the United Way Day of Caring with 28 employee volunteers from GE Inspection Technologies provided maintenance at the Rec Park Overlook and adjacent areas. Visit the United Way of Mifflin-Juniata website at www.mjunitedway.org for more information.
In addition to these concentrated work parties, Borough employees, interns, Neighborhood and Community residents assisted with periodic maintenance throughout the summer. Geoff Burke, Rhonda and Matt Walters, Ron Napikoski, and Jon Zimmerman of Downtown Lewistown, Inc.- Five Points/East End Neighborhood lent a hand to weed select areas and Kevin Morgan of Community Partnerships RC&D provided technical assistance in identifying a problem weed at the site. Our thanks to each of these individuals for helping to revitalize the Downtown and Neighborhood.
On the other side of town, the “diamond” at the corner of Juniata and West Market Streets and the intersection of the River Bridge is an important entry into the downtown. The evolution of this project began in 2000 when DLI and the Borough identified this key intersection as a target for improvement. Working through the Borough of Lewistown, DLI leveraged funding through PennDot to consolidate highway directional signing, add soil, provide plants, and finish with a river stone mulch. The planting, completed in Summer 2003 by Moon Brothers Landscaping, has become established and provides an attractive entry into the Downtown.
Since this early planting, several individuals and organizations have helped with the maintenance of this area including Bible Baptist Church and Downtown Lewistown, Inc. Earlier this Fall, Barger’s Landscaping has “adopted” this area pledging to maintain this site as a beautiful entry into the community.
We encourage others to “adopt” an area and help make this community better, safer, cleaner and greener. We look forward to your comments.
Posted by JZ

Blogs Needed

If you are into blogging, mediaX has a great blogging area on this local webportal @ www.juniatavalleyliving.com to post your blog. If you are interested in being added to our list of bloggers, and will  be able to add a blog every two weeks or so please email me at kbradley@mediaxcreative.com.

We REALLY need bloggers.

My name is Jim Tunall, I am a 39 year resident in the borough of Lewistown.During those years I have been a member of many many boards of directors in the community including Lewistown Borough’s Planning Commission, Parking Authority and Revitilization Committees. I am a long timesupporter of the Lewistown Police department and supported the formation of the Mifflin County Regional Police Department. However, I havenever witnessed a board so totally out of touch with reality as the current Regional Police Board.

The total disregard for legal council following District Attorney Steve Snook’s resignation as Solicitor in November of 2007 shows the level of professionalism at work in the board. The character assassination of both Chief William Herkert and Lt. Steve Knudsen in the unbelievable manner in which they were demoted, degradedand in Chief Herkert’s case terminated, is deplorable. Only one current member of the board was involved whenHerkert was chosen from a field of over 50 applicants.

The county was facing an influx of street savvy minorities with drug connections, street gangs forming in nearbycommunities, drive-by shootings as close as Harrisburg and non-English speaking population growth. Chief Herkert brought experience to Regional Police that was not available within the rank and file to deal with these new challenges. He also brought a tough cop professionalism that was needed to deal with a growing force of 27 officers. The board today includes several members who are in their first year of elected office with no history of the Regional Police or understanding of municipal government. This band of rookies has led the board to thedecision reached to exclude Lt. Knudsen from leadership of the force and terminationof Chief Herkert.

I direct my questions and comments to Nelson Rieffannacht, representative of the Lewistown Borough Council on the Mifflin County Regional Police Board. Are you a “free agent” or a representative of the Lewistown Borough Council?When I was a boy growing up in the rural community of Kane, I learned a tough life lesson ….the kid who owned the game ball controlled the end of the game. It didn’t matter how far into the game, if he went home, the game was over. Let me point out to you, Nelson, by defying the mandate of the Borough Council concerning Chief Herkert’s termination, you have declared “game over”.

Don’t you realize the Lewistown Borough spends over a million dollars per year for regional Police service. Ad to that Derry Townships share and you will find that the two entities invest 83% of the funds necessary for the function of the Regional Police department. 17% comes from the combined support of the remaining fivemunicipalities: Armagh, Burnham, Brown, Union and Bratton. I strongly suggest that the obvious mission of the decisions made were to destroy the Regional Police System.

Further investigation of the members who voted for the termination shows many conflicts of interest. One member is a brother of a recently retired officer, another is a cousin of a current officer, another is from a municipality whose chairmen of the supervisors is a current officer and another is a cousin of a Regional Police administration employee.

In your case you voted in direct opposition to the Borough Council mandate. Do you have any idea of the legal implications of your actions? Is the Regional Police Board insured for the litigation you may well be facing? For what limit? You as a board appointed Sgt. Moyle as Acting Chief, passing over Lt. Knudsen. When questioned you replied that your reasons were personal and that you had been watching him for a year.

Nelson, there is no room for personal issues. I would like to know how you could be qualified to judge a 34 year veteran of the force and discredit his career by suggesting that the highest ranking officer on the force isn’t qualified to lead the force. Sgt. Moyle’s first official decision was to take three weeks vacation. Don’t you find that a total lack of responsibility on his part? Or in reality is someone else leading the department?

Last week you presented a news release to the press to validate the board’s action. At what cost to the regional Police was this boilerplate narrative prepared by the Philadelphia law firm? How much investment in their services has already been expended? Why not a local firm? I was recently lobbied by a prominent county elected official. His telling formal statement was a clear indication of one of the issues at play, “we don’t need an outsider running the force, we need to promote from within”.

Nelson, I feel you are being led by a desire to achieve one of three missions;1. Destroy the Regional Police Force or

2. Rid the force of “outside leadership” or3. Launch a personal political career by garnering free press or ALL OF THE THREE.

In conclusion, I enjoin you to surrender your position on the Mifflin County Regional Police Board of Directors at once. You have failed to listen to the mandate of the Borough Council and are operating as an individual with apersonal agenda. Please do the right thing and resign now.

Growing up I remember my parents, family, and their friends talking about knowing where they were the day the first man walked on the moon, the day the Vietnam War ended, and the saddest day that they all recall the most, the day that President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.  I used to wonder if they were telling the truth, and really could remember so many details.  I even thought when I got a little bit older, that they said they remembered these events just for conversations sake.  That was until the Tuesday I left my Computer class while attending California University of Pa and got into my car to drive home. I was listening to Howard Stern on 105.9 the X.  There was a lot of noise and some chaos in Howard’s studio, which really didn’t surprise me.  Then Howard said “we are going to go to break.  It is crazy in here and when we get back we may have to make it short and end the show early.  It seems that the World Trade Center was hit by an airplane.  We will be back….”  At that moment I froze.  I looked up at the Biology Building and saw a professor come out and motion for the students outside smoking and chatting to come inside, and it was kind of a wave like you have to come in and see this.  I then thought to myself “oh Howard Stern is a fool and he is probably playing a trick on his listeners, so I hurried home to my apartment and woke up my girlfriend and turned on our TV.  

There it was.  In front of my eyes, not even knowing it, was the day so many wonderful human beings lost their lives, and the day our lives as Americans changed forever.  We don’t even realize how much that day has changed our lives yet.  My wife and I watched the footage in front of us in horror.  I can honestly say that I had a sick feeling in my stomach when they announced that the Pentagon had been hit.  All I could think is “what is going to happen next?  Is a nuclear bomb going to hit us next?”  I had never had a feeling like that before.  We always think we are so safe in this country. 

Then it happened…..something that nobody that was living in Central Pa at the time can relate too.  Because we lived in Pittsburgh, the local news in Pittsburgh was the first to find out and report the crash of Flight 93.  Actually the stations were not even sure if it was true, but as it came across the air I looked at my wife and took one of those deep swallows and said, “Loretta what is happening?”  That is not far from where we are sitting right now.  My next move can be debated as completely ridiculous, but under the circumstances I think most would have done it.  I walked outside on our back deck of our apartment, and my eyes went straight to the sky.  It was a sunny clear sky, and I was looking for airplanes.  I saw none.  Later on that day when they had all the aircraft in the country grounded it was so weird to look up in the sky and see no airplanes, no jet clouds, and no bright reflections.  Knowing now that the Flight 93 crash did indeed happen, and still not seeing them report it on CNN or any other major network that was by now covering the attack live was very strange.  Almost like we were on an island where only we knew that there was yet another major airline crash.  I was just waiting for them to come across and say a jet crashed in Los Angeles or Chicago. 

Today I just want to take a moment to reflect on the lives lost in this country that day and pray that their families, including those little babies that never got to know their mommies and daddies, are doing ok.  This country came together in the weeks and months after the attack and it was wonderful.  For many the true meaning of our life on this earth came to light after the attacks.  But since then not only has this country gone back to the way it was before the attacks, but I think has actually gotten worse.  There are so many people that are in such a hurry and that are so full of hate.  People that think they are big fish in a little pond and cannot take a moment to tell somebody thank you or open a door for you.  I can go on and on.  We need to remember what happened that sad September 11^th, 2001 day, not only on the day that it is remembered, but every day of our lives.  Remember what those people sacrificed that day, and even more importantly, remember what those service men and woman are sacrificing every day, from the day of the attacks until now.  I very rarely hear words of praise and appreciation of what our servicemen are doing everyday so that this awful event doesn’t happen again.  Being a former servicemen, and on a Navy ship during Operation Uphold Democracy that took place in Haiti back in 1994, I can say that is not an easy sacrifice for these men and woman.  Please remember that. 

To finish….. going back to what I started this blog with, I now truly believe and understand my parents, family, and their friends do indeed remember vividly where they were those sad and important days of their young lives, because I remember September 11^th  , 2008 like it was yesterday. 

Kris Bradley

I have a confession to make.  I think I may suffer from a somewhat mild case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Nothing too major, just enough to amuse my family and friends. If I bang one elbow on a doorway, I have to bang the other one so they feel even.  If I rub one eye, I need to rub the other roughly the same amount.  Strange, but mostly harmless.This odd behavior carries on to my compact disc collection, which is quite extensive, numbering in the thousands.  If I pull out one John Mellencamp disc, I have to pull all of my John Mellencamp discs, so they remain together.  If, God forbid, I awake in the middle of the  night realizing that I haven’t seen my Jellyfish (one minor hit, “Baby’s Comin’ Back”) CD in a while, I need to get up and find it – right then.Here’s my latest problem.  My in-laws gave us a giant rack that would hold pretty much all of my CD’s.  This gave me the perfect opportunity to re-sort the discs, putting them back in some semblance of order.  Great idea — or so I thought.

It started out just fine.  I grouped all my 3 Doors Down discs together, followed by all my Men At Work CD’s and so on.  It was going pretty smoothly.  Then disaster struck.All of a sudden, after all of my favorites were grouped together, I started to line them up by association. Phil Collins would be slotted right next to Genesis, Sting next to The Police, Gwen Stefani next to No Doubt.  Simple enough.I started to group the rest by genre, mostly artists or bands that I just had a single CD from.  Hair bands — check.  Country — check.  R&B – check. All of a sudden, I ran into some that could fall into several genres.  I started to panic.  I could feel the beads of sweat forming on my brow.  I began to twitch nervously. I may have even blacked out momentarily.

I decided to walk away and think this through.  Days later, a friend suggested I line them up alphabetically.  Good idea, but then Don Henley wouldn’t be in his rightful place alongside the Eagles. This simply won’t work.  Plus, my boy Rick Springfield would be near the bottom of the stacks, not at the top where he so rightfully deserves to be. 

My friend then suggested two stacks. Sort my favorites one way and all the rest alphabetically.  I already have my favorite favorites upstairs.  Rick Springfield, Bruce Springsteen, Collective Soul, Gin Blossoms, etc…, but the idea was to get them all organized together.

Now my mind was spinning. This should not be this hard but, sadly, it is. Back when I was deejaying on the side, my music was organized and life was good.  Three, four years ago when we stopped doing dances, the organization of the discs fell to pieces.  It really wasn’t a problem until I got that stupid rack.  Once I get an idea in my head, I can’t rest until it’s done.

I still have no idea how I’ll resolve this issue. I think I’ll hold off on sorting my books and DVD’s.

This weekend Clinton County Raceway is racing Friday night. The racing has been amazing. Each week the winner comes from deep within the field. Last week saw Daryl Stimeling picking up his first win of the season. Come out this Friday night and see if Daryl can make it two in a row.

SD News will also make its long awaited launch later this week.

The Cockpit

            This is the first installment of “The Cockpit.” The Cockpit will be a weekly racing blog written by Ron Aurand from Media X Creative. I will cover pretty much any topic involved with racing in the Central Pennsylvania Region. For those of you who are new to sprint car racing or may not really know too much about it there is a great website to find the basic information at. Please visit World Sprint car Guide. This week there will be a pretty big show at the Port Royal Speedway. PRS will host the second annual Dream Race Extreme this Saturday August 2^nd with a preliminary night of racing on Thursday night July 31^st. Last seasons inaugural Dream Race saw Sean Michaels making a late race pass on Gregg Hodnett to pick up the win. In my opinion, this couldn’t have been written any better. I think all of us fans were extremely happy to see Jim Nace pick up such a big win as a car owner and I personally think it’s great for Sean to be able to just jump in a car and win like he did last season after being away from racing for so long. Let’s hope that the magic of last seasons dream race will continue again this season.

Since this is so new I would like to hear any feedback possible. Please feel free to email me any questions or comments you may have. Feel free to contact me about a weekly blog topic you would like to see discussed. All emails can be sent to ron@mediaxcreative.com

With the game commission changing the doe season during this upcoming rifle season, do you think that it will help with the current number of deer that we’re seeing in the woods?