Mark you calendars

I wanted to mention a couple of community events coming up that are worth your attention.

7:45 a.m. Nov. 5: Family Issues Roundtable meeting will feature York County Truancy Coordinator Leigh Dalton talking about "Truancy in York County: Issues, Players and Solutions." The meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn Conference Center, 2000 Loucks Road, near the West Manchester Mall. Cost is $15, and pre-registration is due by Nov. 1. For details, contact Alan Vandersloot, United Way of York County, at 771-3806 or vandersloota@unitedway-york.org.

11 a.m. Nov. 7: Gifts That Give Hope, a holiday gift fair, will offer a Web site and a live event to help raise money for more than 20 York County nonprofit organizations. The gift fair, sponsored and organized by the Women’s Giving Circle of the York County Community Foundation, will allow holiday shoppers the chance to buy gifts to support the community-building work of nonprofits, including YorkCounts. People who cannot attend the fair in person can shop online through the end of the year at www.giftsthatgivehope.org/york. For more information, call Mary Lou Alsentzer at 683-3929.

6 p.m. Nov. 9: The York County delegation of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives will host a free energy fair to help consumers deal with expiring caps on electricity rates and to offer information how to make homes and businesses more energy efficient. Speakers scheduled to appear include John Hanger, secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection; Sonny Popowsky, Consumer Advocate of Pennsylvania; and Marcus Sheffer, energy consultant. For details on the fair, contact the office of Rep. Eugene DePasquale at 848-9595.


7 p.m. Nov. 17: Building One Pennsylvania is hosting a screening of "The New Metropolis," a two-part documentary that explores the challenges faced by older suburban communities and points toward solutions for their revitalization. The film will be accompanied by small-group discussions and a panel discussion. Building One PA is an emerging coalition of community leaders from across the state working to stabilize and revitalize their communities through the direct engagement and mobilization of their fellow citizens. Register in advance by sending an e-mail to events@yorkcounts.org. For details, call YorkCounts at 650-1460.

- Dan Fink

Last call for film - and a reminder about Building One PA

The screening for "The New Metropolis" is 7 p.m. tomorrow (June 22) at HACC's York Campus. It's free, and there should be plenty of seats in the Glatfelter Community Room. And don't forget to register for Building One Pennsylvania, the statewide summit on economic opportunity happening July 16 at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster.

Here's a blog post by Bill Dodge at citiwire.net that gets to the heart of several issues that will be examined in the film and at the summit. Dodge writes about the regional future of local governments, making a couple of key points along the way.

First, he says now is the time for innovation, as local governments face the most challenging fiscal environment in decades.

"Local governments have hit financial ceilings, limiting their responses to any tough challenge. They have reached the limit of their capacity to sustain their services, maintain their facilities, and finance employee health care and retirement. Even if individual local governments want to continue to be independent of their neighbors, they can no longer deny the need to work cooperatively to address their toughest challenges."

Then he points out that local governments have started working together in a variety of ways, but it all remains "piecemeal."

"Local governments have been reluctant to invest in creating sufficient ongoing capacity to take advantage of crosscutting opportunities and brunt common threats. Witness, for example, the response to the American Recovery and Revitalization Act. Some regions had already invested in cooperative plans and programs for transportation, emergency preparedness, weatherization, or broadband communications, and were prepared to take advantage of the largest infusion of federal funds in this and probably many decades to come. Yet many others had to play catch up and will probably not be as successful in securing adequate funds to address common challenges."

His advice: Orient local government around regional charters.

"... regional charter councils (would need) adequate staff and resources to address the tough challenges. (They) would also have access to predictable funding streams for implementing critical actions, including the ability to submit funding options to the public in regional referenda. They would engage regional stakeholders, from all sectors and the general public, but be controlled, or heavily influenced, by local governments. Most importantly, they would be held accountable by the public, such as through annual reports on their activities and periodic citizen reviews of their charters."

How does that approach sound? Anybody see any problems with it? Could there be a more effective and efficient way to operate local government in York County?

- Dan Fink