today’s news and information gleanings from here and there! Today’s Weather!   Today in History!

Quote for today… “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” – Abraham Lincoln

• REMINDER: LEGAL NOTICE – Special Council Meeting – tomorrow night. (Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era) 
• Columbia Borough School District business manager Laura Coburn was interviewed in a Lancaster Sunday News article concerning the increased number of property owners seeking appeals on their property assessment. “Laura Cowburn, business manager for the Columbia Borough School District, said the district has long monitored assessment appeals and now collaborates with Columbia Borough “to look for instances where an appeal may not be valid or may have circumstances where information from the school district or the borough might be valuable for the hearing officer’s consideration,” she said in an email. The school district’s tax base has dropped from $357.8 million in 2009 to $355.3 million this year, Cowburn said. Over the past three years the district had seen a $267,866 decrease in tax revenue due to assessment changes — $84,870 less in 2008, $89,787 less in 2009 and $93,209 less this year. But, Cowburn noted this figure includes more than just successful appeals, as properties damaged by fire or storm will also be assessed lower. But while the amount of revenue lost each year has increased, so has the district’s millage rate — meaning that “overall the total assessment adjustments have not significantly increased — just a little over 1 percent of our total assessed value.”
• The York Sunday News and York Daily Record published this report this week: “Teacher salary numbers fuel the debate: Overpaid or underpaid? – Some observers frown upon salary hikes amid economic turmoil. Others say teachers deserve more. The numbers are online to help you decide.” The article points their readers to the online database where you can find a listing of all the salaries for all the professional staffs of all the public school systems in the state. We think this is a really good example of “transparency in government.” [EDITOR’S NOTE: Great job, York Daily Record and York Sunday News!]

• The Restaurants and dining facilities inspections this week: Here is the report from York County. In Lancaster, here are the reports (the newspaper split the listing into two pages) from Lancaster County lanc. co restaurant inspections 01 and lanc. co restaurant inspections page two  listed in today’s Sunday News; a fuller database of inspections appears at the LancasterOnline Website. All facilities in Lancaster and York counties, except those in Columbia, are listed at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Website. And … there were no inspections conducted by Columbia’s enforcement officer during the month of July.
• Concert, New Holland Band, Mountville Church of the Brethren, 60 Clay St., Mountville, 6 p.m.; free. Call 285-5122. (Lancaster Sunday News)
• “Footage will be reviewed only when a crime has occurred and only by a police official, he (the mayor) said. Lutz said that using citizens groups to review the tapes could lead to unnecessary gossip.” [NOTE: This picture is reposted with the artist’s permission – http://columbiapa17512.blogspot.com/2011/08/blog-post.html]