Print edition highlights July 31, 2025
Members of Northern York County Fire Rescue flush out their new engine at Northern High School after a training exercise earlier that morning on Sunday July 20.
Staff Reports
The Northern York County Fire Rescue's newest piece of equipment, a 2025 Pierce Enforcer custom pumper, arrived in Dillsburg on June 17. The new engine has a 1,000-gallon tank, larger than the other engine, and can pump 1,500 gallons per minute.
The department is training with the fire truck and expects to have it placed in service by October 2025.
For the rest of the story see the July 31, 2025 edition.
Staff Reports
The Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association presented its annual Excellence in Craft Awards at a spring conference banquet held May 18 in Erie, Pa.
Karen Wolf, outdoor writer and photographer for the Dillsburg Banner and other publications in Pennsylvania, took first place for “Sapsickle Squirrel” in the Best Published Newspaper Award category. The photo was published on February 24, 2024 in the Endeavor News, Austin.
For the rest of the story see the July 31, 2025 edition.
By Carolyn Hoffman
What's going to happen to the Peiffer Road bridge, half in Washington Township and half in Warrington Township? Right now, we don't know.
What we do know is that right now Warrington wants to eventually close it and Washington doesn't.
At the July 21 Washington Township supervisors' meeting, a letter from Warrington was read explaining why they want to eventually abandon the bridge. A September 2024 PennDOT bridge inspection report apparently found the bridge is deteriorating. Currently it has a 13-ton weight limit that is soon in danger of being further reduced. After that happens, another reduction would apparently require the bridge to be closed.
For the rest of the story see the July 31, 2025 edition.
By Nicholas Moyer
Spokeswoman-turned-author Tracy Pawelski has made a debut into children’s literature with her new book, Life on Stony Run–the imaginative 1920s tale of a curious little girl who befriends animals in the Pennsylvania woodland. If the book’s title seems familiar, it’s because the story is set along the banks of Stony Run, right here in Dillsburg.
Pawelski’s choice to set the book in Dillsburg was no accident. As a native of the area and chairwoman of Monaghan Township’s board of supervisors, Pawelski has many experiences in Dillsburg that served as inspirations for the book. Reflecting on these inspirations, Pawelski remembered her grandmother, “who taught at a one-room schoolhouse near Pinchot Lake.” It is from her grandmother’s stories that one of the book’s characters would derive his influence: “she would tell me about a black horse named Jet that she’d see while sitting on the porch swing. He’d leave in the morning and come back in the evening to get her.” Pawelski often draws from her experiences in different places for inspiration, with her first two books being centered around her trips to El Camino de Santiago and the Himalayas, respectively. However, whether the book is set in Nepal or York County, Pawelski makes it clear that her stories “are not niche,” but express the beauty found in those places in a way that all people can appreciate.
Another motivating factor in Pawelski’s decision to write a children’s book was learning of the national decline in elementary-aged literacy. A press release from one of her latest book signings cites that reading levels among young children have reached “near historic lows,” stating that “only 60% of US 4th graders read at basic or better levels.”
For the rest of the story see the July 31, 2025 edition.
