PSoTD

I've always felt that graduation ceremonies are for graduates, their families and friends. That's it. It's their accomplishment that is being celebrated, their success at completing a program of higher education.

Why don't colleges survey their graduates to determine who they wish to have as speakers at commencement? Sure, pre-Internet, that couldn't be done, but now it can. Why should graduates have to suffer through the rantings of someone they don't appreciate on their big day?

Why should colleges treat this as being all about them? It's really about marking the point of separation from them by graduates - so why let colleges make the choice for commencement speaker alone?

Perhaps St. Vincent College will pick up on this thrust, and won't allow St. Vincent President Jim Towey to make such choices without graduating student approval in the future. That is, unless they want Cheney to speak there next year.

Good news for Pennsylvania...

Pennsylvania is second only to New York in projected production potential for wind energy east of the Mississippi, according to the wind energy association. Wind turbines installed in Pennsylvania are projected to produce 179 megawatts of electricity annually, with another 80 megawatts proposed or under construction. A megawatt is roughly enough energy to power 1 million homes.

Shouldn't it be a required skill for elected officials?

PITTSTON TWP. — Faced with an electricity bill emergency, firefighters turned up the heat on the township supervisors Thursday.

Members of the Pittston Township Volunteer Fire Department met with the township supervisors in the afternoon to request the township pay the company’s overdue bills to avoid a power shutoff next week.

After a two-hour meeting filled with arguing, shouting and podium pounding, Supervisors John Paglianite, Joseph Adams and Anthony Attardo agreed to pay the latest electricity and phone bills and study other ways to help.

PPL threatened to shut off the power to the Bryden Street firehouse on March 27 unless an overdue bill of about $203 was paid. Another bill is coming March 28 for about $109. The fire company also owes about $212 in wireless and regular phone bills.

The company had sent the electricity and phone bills to the supervisors for the township to pay because the fire company is receiving about $5,000 less from the township this year. That’s because the supervisors eliminated the 14-mill real estate tax on residential properties last year.

The fire company previously received about 1 mill worth of tax revenue, equal to about $14,000, each year, but with the tax now just imposed on commercial properties, the company only received $8,800 last year.

The supervisors claimed they did not know what impact the tax cut would have.

Brilliant!

This seems kinda cool...

Benezette Township in Elk County will soon be home to the largest elk-watching and education center in the eastern United States, state officials announced.

With $7.6 million already committed to the project, the proposed center would add another element to the Pennsylvania Wilds region, which has attracted thousands of visitors and helped spur the local economy.

The 7,000-square-foot facility - featuring interpretive exhibits, wildlife trails and viewing blinds, along with year-round restrooms and parking for vehicles and buses - will come to fruition thanks to a 30-year agreement between the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

"This new center will give us additional opportunities to reach out to new visitors, give them a wonderful outdoor experience and share the story of the conservation efforts that have restored the elk herd, and many other natural and wild areas in Pennsylvania," Gov. Ed Rendell said in announcing the development of the center.

All told, the state's wild elk herd, the largest in the Northeast, draws more than 75,000 visitors to the area each fall, officials said. Benezette Township is located in the heart of the Wilds region, which covers Elk, Cameron, McKean, Potter, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Forest, Jefferson, Lycoming, Tioga and Warren counties.

All, of course, leads to my "elk story".

My brother and his family from Southern California came to visit us one time and we took them up to Lake Tobias, which our daughter really liked at the time (I think she was about 4). They have all the animals, including elk, wandering around their property, and they take you out in a bus that has had its top cut off so you can go for a "safari" ride. Kids love it.

They warned us that the male elk out in the area was in rutting season, and because of that, very aggressive. We sat down on the bus and started riding, and our nephew, who was about 6 or 7 at the time, sat at the "window" seat.

Sure enough, an elk spotted us as we were moving and came up chasing us. His antlers practically reached into the bus, and our nephew wasn't really liking this huge wild animal running right along side of him, keeping up with the bus and staying just about eyeball to eyeball with our nephew, 10 feet away.

And then the elk screamed. That surprised all of us, and our nephew ended up burying his head into his Dad's shoulder. It's really surprising how loud - and how high - an elk screams.

Pennsylvania style.