today’s news and information gleanings from here and there!

Quote for today … “In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.” – Mark Twain

• Trusted employee accused of stealing from grocery store employer – FOX43

• $500 parking area for rent at 138 Locust Street – craigslist

• Job Fair at the Market House on March 19 – “The Performance Group is hiring for positions in York: Positions include sanitation lead, sanitation specialist, quality assurance, forklift operator, maintenance parts clerk, machine operators, line operators, and entry level packers & finishers. These positions are long term positions with immediate openings. If you are interested please bring a resume and see us at; The Historic Columbia Market House, 15 South 3rd Street, Columbia, PA – 3:00pm-6:30pm, Thursday March 19th. – craigslist

• “Readability is a website that pulls the content from any page and shows it to you in a nice, readable format, removing all the ads, navigation, etc.  Since it uses it’s own servers to render the page content, it’s not actually your browser that is requesting the content.”

• BUT … packernet.com offers “Tips for Avoiding paywalls.”

• York County inspections – York Daily Record/York Sunday News
  

• Lancaster County inspections – Lancaster OnLine – Even the country club gets dinged. The good thing about independent inspections using a checklist, every violation seen get noticed. It’s an ideal opportunity for the food-serving establishment to improve. 

• “Filthy restrooms, mouse droppings (in a York County School cafeteria): Check out how your restaurant fares in inspections” – Harrisburg’s Patriot-News website’s listings are dated, but shows restaurant inspections from five central PA counties.

• A complete listing of all inspections at food serving facilities in Lancaster, York counties and the entire state, except those in Columbia – Columbia persists in having its own inspection system with its own forms and inspection items – rather than the one used statewide, is available at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Website.

• At last Monday’s council meeting, there was more than just a bit of discussion about why Columbia doesn’t follow the state law on posting restaurant inspections. Seems some councillors and borough staff claimed not to know there is a state requirement for the posting. Here from the Department of Agriculture Website is the verbiage that outlines the process:

“All local and county health departments will be required by The Retail Food Facility Safety Act to submit their inspections to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to be posted on a searchable online database at www.EatSafePA.com.

“Currently, inspections performed by state food sanitarians are on the website, as well as inspections from two county health departments and approximately 60 of the 140 local health departments, who currently use the state electronic inspection system when performing their inspections.  The Department is engaged with other counties and locals through ongoing pilot studies to determining the most efficient, least burdensome, and fiscally responsible mechanism to collect and post the inspection results of these other jurisdictions.

“Posting inspection reports on www.EatSafePA.com will provide greater transparency of food inspections to consumers so they may make informed decisions when dining out or purchasing food from one of the state’s retail food facilities. Additionally, reporting will allow the Department to have oversight of the inspections completed by local and county health departments. If inspections are not being completed, the department may assume the responsibility for inspecting these facilities.”