COLUMBIA SPY

GO HERE: https://lancaster.crimewatchpa.com/columbiapd/10552/post/2015-police-department-statistics

THE LINK IS  HERE .

The Manheim Township school board, which vowed earlier this year to be more transparent in dealing with the public, is planning to stop publishing advance notice of its board meetings and agendas in LNP. MORE: http://goo.gl/GOMFZq http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/manheim-township-school-board-member-wants-to-pull-public-meeting/article_7de5990a-e860-11e5-ae2f-ef120de0ac3f.html#comments

The Columbia Crossing River Trails Center is scheduled to open this coming Wednesday, March 16th, at 10 a.m. Hours of operation are shown above. The building will now be under the management of Susquehanna Heritage.

By Brian J. Hunhoff Contributing Editor Yankton County (S.D.) Observer “I think heroic deeds were all conceived in the open air.” The quote atop this editorial is from Walt Whitman’s Song of the Open Road — a cheerful 1856 tribute to freedom and the great outdoors. Hopefully, Mr. Whitman would have approved use of his prose to promote open, well-aired government. It’s unlikely the great poet favored government secrecy and closed-door meetings. He also wrote, “Out of the dark confinement, out from behind the screen!” For today’s purposes, Whitman’s “screen” represents the executive session — a self-important term for a classic oxymoron: closed public meeting. Too many elected boards seek every opportunity to meet out of sight of the public they serve. Some schedule executive sessions as a regular agenda item. Some hold up to three executive sessions in a single meeting. Some have executive sessions that last longer than the open portion of their meeting. In most cases,...

From SCCA: Please join us on March 25, 5-9 pm for the opening of Penn's Woods Printmakers show at the Susquehanna Center for the Creative Arts. Penn's Woods Printmakers (PWP) is a group of 13 printmakers based in Chambersburg, PA.  United by a love of the artistic medium of printmaking, the group's members create hand-pulled prints, original works of art that are created by the artist with an original plate run through a small press, one at a time, on high quality art paper.  Penn's Woods' exhibition at the Susquehanna Center for Creative Arts (SCCA) will be a diverse show of many printmaking processes and techniques, with subject matter ranging from landscape and still life, to figures and abstractions. Mixed media drawings and preparatory studies will also be displayed. Penn's Woods Printmakers has been the focus of exhibitions in Chambersburg, Waynesboro and Shippensburg, PA and Hagerstown, MD, and its members have earned awards and juried exhibit...

In observance of Sunshine Week - March 13-19, 2016 - Columbia Spy will be posting news articles, opinion columns, and other materials related to the occasion. Sunshine Week is a national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public’s right to know. According to Wikipedia: Sunshine Week is a national initiative spearheaded by the American Society of News Editors to educate the public about the importance of open government and the dangers of excessive and unnecessary secrecy . It was established in March 2005 with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation . [1] Sunshine Week occurs each year in mid-March, coinciding with James Madison 's birthday and National Freedom of Information Day on the 16th.