Lake Harmony, PA

Lake Harmony Resuce Squad held its first Annual Family Fun Day and Clam Bake on Saturday 7/19/08 from noon to 10 PM. The event was staged at Nick's Lake House, organized by Joyce Bradley and Maureen Kemmedy and sponsored by the Penn-Kidder Council of the Carbon County Chamber of Commerce. In addition to a CoinToss for passing motorists, the event featured a bake sale with many tasty treats donated by the accomplished bakers in the area, Hot Dogs and drinks, make your own ice cream sundaes, various booths and displays by area vendors and residents, a Rock Climbing Wall and was ended with a Clam Bake with music and dancing.

The booths sold everything from books, tee shirts and sweat shirts, ice cream sundaes, hot dogs, popsicles, candy pops, temprary tatoos, face painting, basket auctions, a basket of cheer raffle, a fifty-fifty raffle, a gourmet Charmglow gas grill raffle, psychis readings, children's craft activities, to Tupperware! Carbon County Commissioner Wayne Nothstein came and seemed to enjoy the activities, especially the Rock Climbing Wall.

The event had something for everyone from the young and fit on the rack wall --

To those older and perhaps less fit seeking relief from the sun ==

the day was hot and humid for the Pocono Mountains but the event was well attended, raised a significant amount of money for the rescue squad and will be held again next year. Maybe we will see you there then!

The new indoor water park at The Resort at Split Rock continues to move toward completion which is set for Fall 2008. Seems that the name will be H₂O..oooh. The new entrance has been connected to the existing Galleria building as seen here below and the building enclosed.

The slide tower is enclosed now and the internal equipment is starting to makes its way indoors as well

The opening should be a gala event for the Resort and the area. I am still trying to be the first one down a slide but know full well that this is an impossible request, I sure plan to be there on opening day and be one of the first day's sliders for sure.

The first Annual Banquet to honor local area Volunteer Firefighters as well as the Rescue Squad & Ambulance Corps was held at the Galleria at Split Rock last Saturday evening. It was well attended by residents and the attendees included Pa State Representative Keith McCall. After a cocktail hour dinner, awards presentations and dancing followed. The event was well supported by local businesses via door prize donations, an ad book, and reduced rates for the venue and food. A good time was had by all and it was an inspiring evening to boot.

The evening was set up as a chance for residents and the community to thank the brave men and women who volunteer their time to do a dangerous job which the Township would be hard-pressed to provide via tax revenues. This is a very serious issue in small rural areas of the state. Volunteering is not as popular as it once was and as the communities grow older in average age, it gets very hard to find new volumteers. Costs for new equipment are astronomical and fundraising becomes a way of life. The Lake Harmony Fire Co is currently lookiing to purchase a new ladder truck to replace the old one they have. It is the only ladder truck in the Township (which has three volunteer fire companies - who support each other as best as possible). This truck is ecpected to cost between $800,000 and $1,000,000!! Think about that - a million dollar expenditure for a single piece of equipment in a community with only about 1000 full-time residents but thousands of vacation and rental properties.

Seems as if at least one new casino may be coming to the Pocono Mountain area. The next round of license hearings were held in May. There are only three applicants for the two Resort or Class 3 licenses available. The three are Fernwood Resort in Monroe County, The Resort at Split Rock in Carbon County and the Valley Forge Convention Center. The license would allow the successful applicants to have a facility with up to 500 slot machines (as opposed to the up to 5,000 permitted in the other two types of licenses).

At the May hearing held at the Kidder Township Building on the Split Rock application, the gist of the Resort's presentation was to show who and what they are, how they already comply with the stated requirements for such a license and the added revenue it would bring to the area. They also emphasized that the Valley Forge application is a stretch since they do not seem to meet the intent of the legislation (to assist resorts in the state to attract additional overnight stays and promote tourism) since they are not a destination resort like Split Rock or Fernwood. If that is the correct interpretation, it would seem to be a "no-brainer" and the two resorts would get their approvals. However, we all know that obvious interpretation of complicated laws seldom results in the same decision as reached by a court or other legal entity/agency. Even so, the two area resorts have a 2 out of 3 chance to get at least one license awarded here.

Public comment at the hearing was all favorable at the Split Rock hearing although it was not attended by anywhere near the number of people attending and commenting at the Fernwood hearing (which also essentially all favorable) held the day before. Of course, additional comments can still be made and received for the record via an online forum at the State Gaming Commission website.

Get ready for the impacts if the applications go through. This could well mean additional home rental business in the area plus a positive impact on local area stores, restaurants and other businesses. Naturally there could also be some downsides such as added traffic, additional people with the opportunity for additional crime etc. I hope that we are prepared for both of these possibilities and that the added revenues offset the added local government costs to deal with them. Anyone have any thoughts to share here or with the Gaming Commission?