Latest news with #HurricaneAgnes
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Earth Conservancy secures $6.7M grant for land reclamation and park development
May 28—HANOVER TWP. — A former strip mine once used for debris disposal from Hurricane Agnes in 1972 will be transformed into a vibrant community park, thanks to a $6.7 million grant from the PA Department of Environmental Protection, Terry Ostrowski, president/CEO at Earth Conservancy, announced Wednesday. Ostrowski said Earth Conservancy will use the grant to reclaim its 30-acre Hanover 7A site and transform it into a new community park serving the Lower South Valley. Funded through DEP's highly-competitive Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization (AMLER) Program, Ostrowski said the project highlights the power of partnerships in returning long-abandoned mine lands into valuable community assets — promoting both economic growth and environmental renewal. Located in Hanover Township directly off State Route 29, Ostrowski said the site's accessibility makes it especially well-positioned to serve as a regional hub for outdoor recreation and community engagement. "Earth Conservancy is incredibly grateful for the continued support from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, as well as from our local representatives," Ostrowski said. "The site's accessibility and size make it ideal for a variety of outdoor activities. We genuinely believe it will not only provide a wonderful resource for residents, but also attract regional athletic tournaments, boosting our economy and fostering community engagement." Project overview Ostrowski said the history of Hanover 7A (H7A) is like many mine-scarred properties in EC's portfolio. Once owned by the Glen Alden Coal Company, the land was heavily strip-mined and left unrestored, with large open pits dominating the landscape. Its condition worsened after the Agnes Flood in 1972, when Pennsylvania designated non-operating strip mine sites — including 38 acres of H7A — for disposal of storm debris. Following Glen Alden bankruptcy in the mid-1970s, Ostrowski said the land remained neglected until EC acquired it in 1994. At that time, he said no formal closure had occurred. EC worked with a range of agencies and community partners, including DEP, to evaluate and reclaim the 48-acre parcel. Basic reclamation, including capping and grading, was completed in 2006. The site sat idle until 2019, when 18 acres were sold to a local developer, which became the new home of the Pennsylvania State Police Troop P barracks and training facility. In January 2020, Ostrowski said EC convened a group of local stakeholders — including municipal leaders, elected officials, and representatives from area schools, colleges, and businesses — to discuss the site's potential. "The response was overwhelmingly positive, with attendees envisioning the land becoming a focal point for community recreation and engagement," Ostrowski said. In response, EC applied for and received a Community Conservation Partnership Program (C2P2) grant from the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) in 2021. Ostrowski said the funding supported site assessments, community outreach, and planning. Importantly, Ostrowski said the study confirmed that any reuse of the site — even for passive recreation — would require further reclamation. To continue progress, Ostrowski said EC applied to DEP for funding through the AMLER Program in 2023. In May 2025, Ostrowski said EC was awarded a $6.7 million AMLER grant to complete the next phase of the project. He said work will include bulk earthwork, grading, and subsurface stabilization; installation of basic utilities and parking areas; site revegetation; and construction of initial park amenities, including grass fields, a walking trail, and an inclusive playground. "Once complete, the H7A project will mark a significant milestone in EC's mission to foster environmental restoration, economic development, and improved quality of life in the region," Ostrowski said. "The transformation of this long-neglected site into a vibrant community space will expand green infrastructure, enhance outdoor recreational opportunities, and serve as a valuable resource for local schools and residents. Additionally, the project lays the groundwork for future phases of development, supporting a healthier, safer, and more connected Lower South Valley." Legislators offer comment Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township, said the project represents a terrific combination of conservation and recreation. "We are fortunate to have a local group like the Earth Conservancy with the vision and energy to assemble and carry out a plan that contributes to the physical and mental health of area residents," Sen. Baker said. "This opens opportunities for those of all ages to enjoy the outdoors." Rep. Alec Ryncavage, R-Hanover Township, said the project marks a transformative investment for Hanover Township and the entire region. "Reclaiming abandoned mine land and turning it into a vibrant public space will not only improve our environment, but also create new recreational opportunities for families and support ongoing economic development," Rep. Ryncavage said. "I was proud to support this project and look forward to seeing it come to life." Hanover Township Manager Sam Guesto said the township is grateful to the Earth Conservancy for securing these funds for a large recreation park. "This park will benefit the community and region — fostering health, unity, and vibrant connections that enrich lives," Guesto said. "The township looks forward to supporting this very important project." To learn more, visit Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.
CBS News
12-04-2025
- Automotive
- CBS News
At a little known Rolls-Royce museum in Pennsylvania farm country, volunteers dote over iconic cars
Mike Fowler had been faintly aware that a museum of Rolls-Royce and Bentley vehicles existed near his boyhood home in the suburbs of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but the car enthusiast didn't expect the experience he got when he started volunteering there. Fowler had oil on his hands within a half-hour of his first volunteer session at the Rolls-Royce and Bentley Museum. More than a year later, he keeps a list on his phone with notes about cars in the collection to help him get them started properly or disconnect their batteries. Fowler is part of a group of about 50 volunteers who gather twice a month at the museum to help out, including cleaning, maintaining and driving the fleet of customized iconic vehicles, many designed to be driven by a chauffeur. For many volunteers, it's an opportunity to experience a life few people can afford. "You take it out on the road and you are transported to a different time, a different mentality," said Fowler, a 28-year-old Camp Hill resident. Newcomers are paired with a more experienced volunteer for about a year and must pass the museum's driving school. They start with the most modern vehicles, which have automatic transmissions. "We're very protective of the collection. We're its caretakers, and we take it very seriously. So you can't just come in off the street and start driving," said Sarah Holibaugh, the museum's head librarian and archivist. "But it should be that way." The 29 antique and collectible Rolls-Royce and Bentley automobiles that date as far back as the late 1920s are the central attraction of the largely overlooked and seldom visited museum, which is easy to miss among the surrounding miles of farm fields and stretches of nondescript industrial buildings just outside Mechanicsburg. The museum, owned by the Rolls-Royce Foundation, includes a showroom, a maintenance area and a third room being converted into a library and reading room. "I often wonder if the homes around here know the foundation exists," Fowler said. "Or if they always just wonder, 'Why do we see these vintage Rolls-Royce and Bentleys roaming around from time to time?'" The museum has its roots in nearby Harrisburg, where Rolls-Royce put an owners' club in the 1960s, located between large dealerships in New York and Washington. After Hurricane Agnes devastated that location in 1972, a businessman donated the Mechanicsburg property for a new facility. The 6,000-person owners' club, with members in 26 countries and a headquarters in the same complex, is a separate entity but works closely with the museum. Though admission is just $5, the museum, launched in 2004, gets only about 1,000 visitors a year. It typically draws members of car clubs, groups of seniors and students on school field trips, with visits that have to be scheduled in advance. It also has rented out its cars for films and similar uses. The museum's 1961 Rolls-Royce Phantom V was in last year's Timothée Chalamet biopic about Bob Dylan, "A Complete Unknown," and a 1959 Silver Cloud I from the collection appeared in Season 4 of the series "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." Volunteers also help preserve and digitize the museum's archive of ownership and service records for North America, from 1907 until 2004, shortly after Rolls-Royce and Bentley were acquired by BMW and Volkswagen, respectively. Records for cars made for the European market are available through the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts' Club in the United Kingdom. The North American records, which are available for a fee and produce the foundation's biggest revenue stream, have helped prove cars outside of their collection were once owned by famed director Alfred Hitchcock, actor Zsa Zsa Gabor and hockey great Wayne Gretzky. Foundation records have also debunked claims about purported prior ownership, including a Rolls-Royce vehicle thought to have been owned by country singer Hank Williams Jr. "We were able to absolutely prove that it was not owned by him," recalled volunteer Randy Churchill, a Boiling Springs man now retired from a marketing career. "They just thought they had a million-dollar gold mine on their hands." Vehicles in the museum's collection range in value from about $30,000 to about $120,000. A whiskey delivery truck appraised at $320,000 has been donated and will soon be on display. Many of the cars Rolls-Royce has built are still on the road and used models can be surprisingly cheap. But maintaining an older Rolls, with its customized features and expensive parts, can be pricey, noted volunteer Ron Deguffroy, a retired psychologist from Chambersburg. "The most expensive Rolls-Royce you will buy," he said, "is a cheap one."
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - Get rid of FEMA? That would be a disaster
The Federal Emergency Management Agency appears to be on life support. According to recent news reports, Trump administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and acting administrator Cameron Hamilton, are poised to act on President Trump's desire to drastically reduce the federal government's role in responding to disasters and to downsize or eliminate FEMA altogether. This comes on the heels of the administration attempting to freeze over $100 billion in payments FEMA had promised to states for rebuilding and increasing disaster resiliency after Hurricane Helene, and for responding to the California wildfires and other disasters last year. Eradicating or gutting FEMA would be a disaster. The fact that the conversation is happening at all underscores that we are in a far different era of the politics of disaster than the one that FEMA emerged from during the 1960s and 1970s. FEMA itself has become shorthand for the larger policy shift of that era, where states, localities and nongovernmental agencies such as the American Red Cross were shuddering under the burden of increasingly costly disasters such as the Alaska Earthquake (1964), Hurricane Betsy (1965), Hurricane Camille (1969) and Hurricane Agnes (1972) — the latter in the same year as devastating floods in Noem's home state of South Dakota. These disasters struck landscapes where post-World War II economic growth had brought billions of dollars of homes, businesses and public infrastructure into risky areas, such as coastlines, floodplains and places vulnerable to tornadoes or earthquakes. The traditional deference to states, localities, the Red Cross and private insurance was simply inadequate in places like coastal Mississippi after Hurricane Camille. Residents of those places, from avowed conservatives to civil rights activists, called for a substantial, and ongoing, federal commitment to construct a disaster safety net under them, and by extension, all American citizens. As one victim of Camille in Louisiana who decried the spread of public welfare generally, but argued disasters were different, wrote in a letter to his congressman: 'I believe that this is an area in which it is proper for our government to extend direct financial aid to those people who suffer losses over which they had very little, if any, control.' Congress responded first by massive one-off relief bills for these big disasters, generally with near-unanimous support across party and regional lines. By the time FEMA was created in 1978, the federal government had assumed a much more substantial role in disaster relief than it had in earlier decades. The trends that brought about the expanded federal disaster role in the 1960s and 1970s have only been exacerbated in the intervening years. Development in risky areas, such as the Florida coastlines, has continued more or less unabated. Katrina, as is now clear, heralded the beginning of two decades of increasingly catastrophic natural disasters. All of this has put increasing pressure on a federal disaster system that is chronically understaffed and relies on year-to-year funding from Congress that has become partisan on these issues in a way that was simply not the case in the 1970s. Undoubtedly, there are ways to make FEMA more efficient. Indeed, the bipartisan proposal introduced recently to again make FEMA an independent agency merits consideration. But the fact that the conversation has moved from 'FEMA has problems' to 'eviscerate the federal role in disaster relief' belies the reality that many states — which would be forced to underwrite a much larger share of the bill — are woefully under equipped to deal with the logistics and costs of responding to more frequent large-scale disasters. It's difficult to imagine, for instance, Mississippi rebuilding its coastline after it was once again destroyed by Katrina in 2005 without the massive infusion of federal resources that Congress and the Bush and Obama administrations provided for years after the disaster. Most states aren't eager to go back to pre-1960s arrangements, and neither, it seems, are Senate Republicans from disaster-prone states. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said there's 'no way Republicans and Democrats are supporting' eliminating FEMA. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said that the federal government is still going to be 'distributing disaster money. I mean, just as a practical matter, it has to be done.' The congressional architects of modern disaster policy were proud of what they had achieved for their constituents. It is incumbent for their successors to remind the administration why we have a FEMA in the first place. Andrew Morris is a professor of history at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., and author of 'When Natural Disasters Became National Disasters: Hurricane Camille and the New Politics of Disaster Relief' (University of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming 2026). Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
10-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Get rid of FEMA? That would be a disaster
The Federal Emergency Management Agency appears to be on life support. According to recent news reports, Trump administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and acting administrator Cameron Hamilton, are poised to act on President Trump's desire to drastically reduce the federal government's role in responding to disasters and to downsize or eliminate FEMA altogether. This comes on the heels of the administration attempting to freeze over $100 billion in payments FEMA had promised to states for rebuilding and increasing disaster resiliency after Hurricane Helene, and for responding to the California wildfires and other disasters last year. Eradicating or gutting FEMA would be a disaster. The fact that the conversation is happening at all underscores that we are in a far different era of the politics of disaster than the one that FEMA emerged from during the 1960s and 1970s. FEMA itself has become shorthand for the larger policy shift of that era, where states, localities and nongovernmental agencies such as the American Red Cross were shuddering under the burden of increasingly costly disasters such as the Alaska Earthquake (1964), Hurricane Betsy (1965), Hurricane Camille (1969) and Hurricane Agnes (1972) — the latter in the same year as devastating floods in Noem's home state of South Dakota. These disasters struck landscapes where post-World War II economic growth had brought billions of dollars of homes, businesses and public infrastructure into risky areas, such as coastlines, floodplains and places vulnerable to tornadoes or earthquakes. The traditional deference to states, localities, the Red Cross and private insurance was simply inadequate in places like coastal Mississippi after Hurricane Camille. Residents of those places, from avowed conservatives to civil rights activists, called for a substantial, and ongoing, federal commitment to construct a disaster safety net under them, and by extension, all American citizens. As one victim of Camille in Louisiana who decried the spread of public welfare generally, but argued disasters were different, wrote in a letter to his congressman: 'I believe that this is an area in which it is proper for our government to extend direct financial aid to those people who suffer losses over which they had very little, if any, control.' Congress responded first by massive one-off relief bills for these big disasters, generally with near-unanimous support across party and regional lines. By the time FEMA was created in 1978, the federal government had assumed a much more substantial role in disaster relief than it had in earlier decades. The trends that brought about the expanded federal disaster role in the 1960s and 1970s have only been exacerbated in the intervening years. Development in risky areas, such as the Florida coastlines, has continued more or less unabated. Katrina, as is now clear, heralded the beginning of two decades of increasingly catastrophic natural disasters. All of this has put increasing pressure on a federal disaster system that is chronically understaffed and relies on year-to-year funding from Congress that has become partisan on these issues in a way that was simply not the case in the 1970s. Undoubtedly, there are ways to make FEMA more efficient. Indeed, the bipartisan proposal introduced recently to again make FEMA an independent agency merits consideration. But the fact that the conversation has moved from 'FEMA has problems' to 'eviscerate the federal role in disaster relief' belies the reality that many states — which would be forced to underwrite a much larger share of the bill — are woefully under equipped to deal with the logistics and costs of responding to more frequent large-scale disasters. It's difficult to imagine, for instance, Mississippi rebuilding its coastline after it was once again destroyed by Katrina in 2005 without the massive infusion of federal resources that Congress and the Bush and Obama administrations provided for years after the disaster. Most states aren't eager to go back to pre-1960s arrangements, and neither, it seems, are Senate Republicans from disaster-prone states. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said there's ' no way Republicans and Democrats are supporting ' eliminating FEMA. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said that the federal government is still going to be 'distributing disaster money. I mean, just as a practical matter, it has to be done.' The congressional architects of modern disaster policy were proud of what they had achieved for their constituents. It is incumbent for their successors to remind the administration why we have a FEMA in the first place. Andrew Morris is a professor of history at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., and author of 'When Natural Disasters Became National Disasters: Hurricane Camille and the New Politics of Disaster Relief' (University of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming 2026).
