Fred Pickard Hershey, Pa

In our current economic situation, it's not just houses that are falling into foreclosure. I have written before about shopping centers and other commercial locations that are being foreclosed but this is a first for me.

The Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Country Club, located in a very historic area, is being sold at sheriff's sale on January 9, 2009. The club has been unable to attract enough new membership to pay off a $2.9 million loan for renovations completed two years ago and actually closed it's doors in May 2008.

The story from the Carlisle Sentinel:

"The 60-year-old Gettysburg Country Club is slated to be sold at a sheriff's sale next month after a rescue of the troubled organization failed.
Susquehanna Banks, which foreclosed on the property, is seeking a minimum of $2.9 million when the property goes up for bid on Jan. 9 at the Adams County sheriff's office.
The club has been unable to pay off the debt from a major renovation in 2006, including a conference room, ballroom, pub and tennis courts.
It officially closed on May 30 this year after the club couldn't attract the membership it needed to pay down the debt.
The 120-acre property is inside the boundaries of the Gettysburg National Military Park."

While the property is located within the Gettysburg National Military Park, so are hundreds of other privately owned properties, including homes, businesses and privately owned visitor attractions. These were built prior to the designation of the area as a National Park. It is not part of the government land which is the national historic park.

Here is a link to more information that was published on May 31 right after the club closed:

http://civilwarlibrarian.blogspot.com/2008/05/news-gettysburg-country-club-site-of.html

That's right. Joe Paterno, who has been the head football coach at Penn State since like forever, has agreed to stay 3 more years in that capacity.

Joe has been head coach since 1966 and had been an assistant from the early 1950's when he joined his college coach from Brown University, Rip Engle. In the past two years he has had to deal with a broken leg (after a player rolled over him on the sidelines) and hip replacement surgery which occured last month after the last regular season game.

Joe plans to be on the sideline coaching at the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2009 in Pasadena.

I, for one, hope Joe stays another ten years. His activities on behalf of the university as a whole are legendary. He and his wife Sue spearheaded a drive to expand the main library and they were so effective, the building is called the Paterno Library. He has personally donated millions to the academic parts of the university.

Way to go Joe

A new museum dedicated to the Hershey chocolate story will be opening in January right here on West Chocolate Avenue.

The museum is dedicated to honoring and preserving the life of Milton Hershey, the founder of Hershey and innovator of all the sweet treats we enjoy today. Incidently, this is the first large building on Chocolate Avenue, Hershey's main street, in 75 years.

When opened, the museum will include a chocolate laboratory, a museum shop, Cafe Zooka (featuring chocolate desserts and a chocolate tasing area.

In preparation for the opening, the former Hershey Museum closed arounf Thanksgiving so that permanent exhibits could be moved to the new facility. The old museum, located in the middle of the Chocolate World, Hershey Park and HersheyPark Arena area was difficult to get into during the summer season because of the lack of nearby parking.

This is the new Hershey Story building:

In a decision today by Lebanon County President Judge Eby, the Lebanon County Commissioners have been ordered to reassess all properties in the county by the end of 2012.

This is due to a property tax assessment appeal by a local couple in 2006 in which they stated "the county's failure to conduct a countywide assessment for 36 years "has caused a discriminiatory effect of taxation" that harmed them and others."

In effect, if you live in a home built before 1972, your tax assessment is based on the 1972 value. If you live in a home built in 2005 (as we do) our assessment is based on 2005 values.

I don't expect that my taxes will go down, but I expect that people living in older neighborhoods in the county will be paying a more proportionate share of the cost of government.

This afternoon at Hershey Park Stadium, the Steelton Highspire football team beat the team from Clairton 35 to 16 to win the PIAA Class A Football Championship.

Steel High which encompasses the broughs of Steelton and Highspire (both Harrisburg suburbs) finished with a record of 16-0 and only trailed for a total of 13 seconds in this game. This is the second consecutive championship for Steel-High. And Steel-High record setting tailback Jeremiah Young eclipsed 9000 yards for his career.

Way to go guys!