December, 2003

The East Manchester Township supervisors have unanimously approved a subdivision plan for Leg Up Farm, 4248 N. Sherman St. Extended.

Issue: Leg Up Farm will provide individually tailored therapy programs for children with special needs. Services offered will include horse, physical, occupational, music, aqua, art, speech and recreational therapies. Also, family support will be provided.

Reaction: “Hard work and perseverance pay off dividends in bundles,” Lou Castriota, Jr. chairman of Leg Up Farm, said Dec. 9. “In one night, I received (a federal grant of) $175,000 and subdivision approval.”

“I hope this gets the governor’s attention and helps him to make a decision quickly to release funds,” Castriota said.

Background: Gov. Ed Rendell’s signature is needed to release $4.56 million of Capital Redevelopment Assistance Funds for the project, Castriota said. The state grant requires matching funds.

The project recently received a $25,000 donation from Highmark Blue Shield, Castriota said. Also, money has been raised through fund-raisers. Altogether, about $700,000 has been committed to the project.

Among the money that can be counted toward the state grant are the cost of the land, business and personal contributions, and federal grants.

The total cost of the project is $9.2 million.

Castriota will present a final land development plan to the supervisors in January.

E. Manchester Twp., The York Daily Record

U.S. Senators Arlen Specter, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Rick Santorum, Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, today announced funding for projects in central Pennsylvania. This funding, part of the FY04 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, has been approved by the Appropriations Committees for both the House and Senate. Final approval of the Conference report is pending.

"I am pleased my colleagues in the House and Senate Appropriations committees have provided this important funding to communities in central Pennsylvania," said Senator Specter. "This funding is going to have a tremendous impact upon the daily lives of residents throughout the state, whether it be for educational programs, hospital construction and equipment or for stabilizing hospital staffs to ensure the highest quality of patient care."

"The funds that are included in the Conference report will help sustain compassionate communities and continue to grow the economy throughout central Pennsylvania," said Senator Santorum. "I believe these programs will continue to make Pennsylvania a great place to live, work and raise a family. I commend my colleagues in the House and Senate for recognizing the importance of these projects in the central region of the Commonwealth."

Projects expected to receive funding include:

$1,000,000 to the Geisinger Health System in Danville to construct the Center for Health Research.

$178,000 to the Divine Providence Hospital in Williamsport for stabilizing the workforce for patient care.

$4,000,000 to Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster for a new state of art life sciences building.

$500,000 to the Geisinger Health System in Danville for the catheterization lab at the Geisinger Wyoming Valley Heart Hospital.

$975,000 to the Penn State, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology for renovation and equipment.

$237,000 to the Hazleton General Hospital for stabilizing the workforce for patient care.

$200,000 to Intermediate Unit 17 Technology Improvement Project in Williamsport to support school districts and enhance their access to information technology.

$250,000 to the Lancaster General Women and Babies Hospital for equipment.

$175,000 to the Leg Up Farm in York to provide comprehensive therapy and rehabilitation for children.

$250,000 to the Pennsylvania Home Care Association in Lemoyne to investigate the impact of telehealth on the overall cost of patient healthcare.

$300,000 to the Shamokin Area Community Hospital in Coal Township.

$100,000 to the York College in Pennsylvania for technology upgrades in the Schmidt Library.

By WILLIAM REYNOLDS (Specter) and AMY HYBELS (Santorum), U.S. Senate Press Release

Lou Castriota, Jr. is convinced that success comes in bundles, especially when it comes to the project he’s worked on for the past six years, Leg Up Farm.

And if a few more bundles come his way, Castriota hopes to break ground next year on the comprehensive therapy child center in East Manchester Township,

“The momentum is moving forward in a big way right now. All of the hard work we put into this project is coming together,” he said.

Leg Up Farm will offer traditional therapies like occupational and physical therapy, as well as less traditional programs such as horseback riding. On Tuesday, the East Manchester Township Board of Supervisors approved a subdivision plan, and a land development plan is expected to be presented to the township planning commission later this month, Castriota said.

Earlier this week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill that includes $175,000 for Leg Up Farm. If it’s passed in the Senate, Castriota hopes the president will sign it into law before the new year.

“I’m thrilled with this dollar amount, because I think it opens up the future for us to get even more federal funding,” he said.

Castriota said in the past few weeks, a health insurance company donated $25,000 to Leg Up Farm, and the second annual Matthew Allen Potter Memorial Golf Tournament raised $42,000 for the project.

Hoping for large payment: Castriota said most of the federal grant would go to pay for building design.

“We really want to create an environment that’s easy for children with special needs to move through and enjoy all of the things we have to offer,” he said, and to do that, extra care needs to be taken when designing the building.

Castriota hopes that support from state politicians will lead Gov. Ed Rendell to release $4.56 million in capital developmental assistance funds. If Rendell releases the money, Leg Up Farm will have to match that amount, to reach the projected start-up goal of slightly more than $9 million, he said.

In 2001, Barbara Warren offered a portion of her 200-acre property at 4248 North Sherman Street Extended. Leg Up Farm will be built on 15 acres.

By TED CZECH, The York Dispatch/Sunday News

York County agencies and organizations stand to gain more than $1 million in funding if Congress passes its major spending package this week.

Most of the groups, which include the York City Sewer Authority, Schmidt Library at York College and Springettsbury Township, said they were notified about the money earmarked for them in the last two weeks.

A $100,000 grant for Springettsbury Township would be a big help to the municipality’s replacement work but came as no surprise, said Mark Hodgkinson, director of wastewater treatment.

“We pursued it, so we’re very aware of it being there,” said Hodgkinson said. The project is the largest under way for the township, he said.

Spending projects are a common way for legislators to curry favor at home, Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Rick Santorum, R-Pa, as well as Rep. Todd Platts, R-York County, each supported several items in the list of the area’s potential funds.

The spending package, which contains the seven unfinished appropriations bills for fiscal 2004, faces a number of hurdles next week in Congress. But if it passes with unanimous consent – as recent spending packages have – the funds would be assigned for the coming year.

The potential $100,000 grant at Schmidt Library would be a substantial help for technology upgrades, said Director Susan Campbell.

The 2004 funds, combined with a past grant of $350,000, would cover most of the technology expenses in the library’s $5.25 million renovation project, she said.

It would go toward the creation of a wireless Internet network, a media center and enhanced classrooms to allow students to work on group presentations, she said.

“There’s no place for them to put them together or practice or anything like that,” even though such projects often are required for classes, Campbell said.

The new resources also will help students learn proper research methods “so they’re not looking for needles in haystacks, which is what they’re typically doing when they’re Google-ing,” she said, referring to the name of a popular search engine, which is a device used to search for information on the Internet.

The Nurse-Family Partnership Program at York Health Corp. also is slated to receive $50,000 from the funding.

The program, which assigns one of its four full-time registered nurses to pregnant, at-risk women in the city, needs that funding, said Karen McCraw, director of social services at York Health Corp.

Its current funds, part of a diminishing grant, will soon run out, she said.

Julie Smith, supervisor of the Nurse-Family program, said the program serves women who lack resources, including money, transportation and child support, to take care of their families.

“The mothers in this program live incredibly complicated lives,” Smith said.

“The nurse’s job is to teach them how to access community services and to be self-sufficient.”

County’s Possible Funding

Earmarked funds for York County in the FY2004 omnibus:

York College of Pennsylvania, technology upgrades for the Schmidt Library, $100,000 (Specter, Santorum)

York County Transit Authority (YCTA), buses and bus facilities, $100,000 (Santorum, Platts)

Springettsbury Township, a Biosolids Treatment Facility Replacement project, $100,000 (Platts)

York City Sewer Authority, infiltration and inflow removal infrastructure improvements, $250,000 (Platts)

York County, a court records improvement program, $150,000 (Platts)

York County Human Life Services, Inc., abstinence education and related services, $50,000 (Specter, Santorum)

York Health Corp., expansion of services of the Nurse-Family Partnership program, $50,000 (Platts)

Leg Up Farm, York, provide comprehensive therapy and rehabilitation for children, $175,000 (Specter, Santorum, Platts)

Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center, $100,000 (Platts)

By BECKY BOWMAN, Medill News Service