From the Reading Eagle (5/18/12):
The Issue: Officials drop the idea of charging for photo shoots involving large groups in Berks County parks.
Our Opinion: The idea was ill-conceived, but something good may come out of its initial failure.
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From the Reading Eagle (5/16/12):
Free parking privileges will end in the fall for all elected and appointed officials using the Berks County Services Center garage.
Two county commissioners agreed Tuesday to start charging $43 monthly per space when the garage reopens in the fall following a $2.3 million repair project.
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From the Reading Eagle (5/12/12):
The Berks County commissioners were just as surprised as photographers when word began spreading last week that the county was charging professionals and amateurs to use county parks.
Somehow a photographic fee schedule got posted to the county website, even though Commissioners Kevin Barnhardt, Christian Leinbach and Mark Scott had never approved it.
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From the Reading Eagle (5/9/12);
No fees will be charged to professional or amateur photographers using Berks County parks as a setting now or in the future.
County commissioners Kevin S. Barnhardt and Mark C. Scott made that clear Tuesday after hearing from Frank Lorah Jr., president of the Berks Photographic Society.
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From the Reading Eagle (5/4/12):
The start of the ideal season for taking outdoor photographs arrived with a surprise this year: a price tag.
Amateurs and professionals discovered that they would be expected to pay to have Berks County-owned parks as a backdrop for prom and wedding photographs, family portraits and other group shots, large or small.
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From the Reading Eagle (5/5/12):
The Issue: Berks County Prison becomes the only facility on the East Coast using a special composting process.
Our Opinion: Long a green institution, it has combined mechanical power and people power.
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From the Reading Eagle (4/24/12):
State Secretary of Aging Brian M. Duke termed public and private partnerships an innovative way to provide services to seniors at a dedication Monday of the county's third Senior Center Without Walls.
The center's opening at Jamestown Village Community Building, 300 Lackawanna St., attracted about 25 local residents and officials, including Duke, state Sen. Judy Schwank and Berks County Commissioner Kevin S. Barnhardt.
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From the Reading Eagle (4/24/12):
At 27 years old, Katie Daley of Muhlenberg Township believes she will get a monthly Social Security check when she retires.
"Friends my age aren't sitting around stressing out about it," she said. "And that's because many of them have other worries about getting a job or paying back loans or simply saving as much as they can."
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From the Reading Eagle (4/21/12):
As more kitchen waste from Berks County Prison was being organically converted to compost over the years, officials at the jail were faced with a dilemma because the growing piles occupied greater chunks of space.
So they brainstormed on how to remain good environmental and economic stewards without diverging from the main purpose of the facility on County Welfare Road in Bern Township.
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From the Reading Eagle (4/3/12):
Members of the Berks County Grange asked questions on topics ranging from drug crimes to the voter ID law during the group's annual Legislative Banquet.
Public officials, including state Sen. Judy Schwank and Berks County Commissioner Kevin S. Barnhardt, took questions from about 110 people in the Fleetwood Grange Hall.
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From the Reading Eagle (4/4/12):
The Berks County Youth Center will close in about 60 days because of rising costs and trends in juvenile detention that have led to declines in the center's population, the county commissioners confirmed Tuesday.
Commissioner Kevin S. Barnhardt said youths placed at the center by juvenile court order will be transferred to Abraxas Academy in New Morgan by June 8.
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From the Reading Eagle (3/27/12):
Reading Area Community College students who maintain a certain grade-point average will be guaranteed admission to Kutztown University to pursue a bachelor's degree, the schools announced Monday.
"Now, when you're a RACC student, you're a Kutztown student, too," Dr. F. Javier Cevallos, Kutztown University president, declared at a signing ceremony in the McFarland Student Union building at KU.
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From the Reading Eagle (3/30/12):
Gail Savage needs only to glance around her Bethel Township property in spring to remember why she chose to live halfway up a mountain.
The music of songbirds fills the woods. Eagles and hawks glide though the sky above. The real wonder comes when large flocks of migratory birds, like snow geese, are on the move.
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From the Reading Eagle (3/30/12):
The Berks County commissioners adopted an ordinance Thursday that allows the county to collect an impact fee on any natural gas wells eventually dug here.
Though the gas-rich Marcellus shale does not extend into Berks, the Utica shale reaches into the northern end of the county and could be a site for future drilling, the commissioners said.
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From the Reading Eagle (3/28/12):
Crime Alert Berks County President Barry E. Rohrbach arrived at the county commissioners meeting Tuesday with a report on the nonprofit group's activities and left with a $15,000 check provided by District Attorney John T. Adams.
Rohrbach said 490 arrests have been made as a result of anonymous tips provided to the agency in the past 13 years.
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From the Reading Eagle (3/28/12):
Today, Vietnam veterans feel accepted and appreciated, but that wasn't always the case, one of those veterans told the Berks County commissioners Tuesday.
Bernie Bingham of Earl Township, president of the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter No. 131, Berks County, said the veterans returning from the unpopular war were greeted with criticism and hostility.
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From the Reading Eagle (3/11/12):
The Hampstead Bypass brought mixed feelings when it opened a year and a half ago.
The plan was to put an end to traffic nightmares by diverting through traffic on Maryland Route 30 - a busy commuter road connecting Baltimore to northwestern bedroom communities - away from Hampstead's historic, small-town Main Street.
The state project had been talked about since the 1970s, and nearly everyone was happy to see it finished, Hampstead Mayor Christopher M. Nevin said.
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From the Reading Eagle (2/28/12):
BARTA plans to suspend a program that provides state-sponsored medical transportation for about 6,000 welfare recipients in Berks County until it gets more funding or the state allows it to make changes that would cut costs.
The move came after BARTA Executive Director Dennis D. Louwerse told the board Monday that continuing the program would put BARTA on the hook for $2.2 million a year.
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From the Reading Eagle (2/25/12):
You see the results of having video cameras in police cars all the time on the news.
Suppose the police officers called as backup could watch that video while they're on their way? They could figure out an action plan before they arrive.
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From the Reading Eagle (2/24/12):
A $2.3 million project to repair the parking garage beneath the Berks County Services Center is expected to begin next month.
Repairs outlined in construction contracts approved Thursday by the county commissioners include waterproofing, concrete replacement, surface coating, and plumbing and electrical work.
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Live Tuesdays at 10:30 AM.
