Lancaster County

LANCASTER, Pa. -- Old Order Amish families hold church services in their homes. They rarely invite outsiders to attend. But you can't drive more than a mile through Lancaster County's rolling farmland without thinking you've already entered one of the world's great sacred spaces, a landscape consecrated over the centuries to a peaceful way of life.If this view is no more than a day-tripper's idle projection, it is not alien to a place that was settled in the 17th century in William Penn's spirit of religious tolerance.

PARADISE, Pa. -- Amish farmers here in eastern Lancaster County, Pa., are facing a crisis this harvest season, and their horses just won't cut it. So this one time, their bishops are permitting Amish farmers to use heavy machinery to bring in their corn crops. "They have been told, `You need to harvest your corn for your cows to survive, so whatever you need to do -- do it,'" said David Hoover, who was helping to direct an effort at helping the Amish that has been dubbed Harvest Aid. The big wind that cut through Lancaster County in the wake of Hurricane Isabel Sept.

The issue is man's humanity to chicken vs. cheap egg production, and area Giant Food stores are offering customers a chance to vote with their wallets.For the past two months, consumers have been given a choice between eggs from chickens who spend their lives in crowded wire cages and those from uncaged hens from Amish farms in Lancaster County, Pa.As always, freedom has a price. Free-range eggs cost approximately $1.89 a dozen, roughly $1 more than those of their caged counterparts. So far, buyers are flocking to the cheaper eggs.

PRINCETON -- Municipal bond issuers announced yesterday the early redemption of three issues totaling more than $10.84 million.The issues being called are:* Peabody, Kan., Series 1987-A, Peabody Memorial Nursing Home revenue bonds maturing March 1, 1993 through March 1, 1998 and March 1, 2002. All outstanding bonds called at 103 on Sept 1, 1992.* Lancaster County Hospital Authority, Pa., Lancaster General Hospital Project revenue bonds maturing July 1, 1993 through July 1, 1998. All outstanding bonds called at par on Aug. 15, 1992.

Carroll residents who have an interest in preserving the county's farmland and open space through private endeavors are invited to attend a public information meeting of the Carroll County Land Trust at 7 p.m. Thursday in Room A of the Carroll County Extension Office, 700 Agricultural Center, Westminster.Alan Musselman, executive director of the Lancaster Farmland Trust, will make a presentation on how that organization has preserved thousands of acres in Lancaster County without using government money.

On Sunday, July 6, 2003, EDWARD HOWARD SCHULTZ, 61, of Lancaster, PA. He is survived by his wife Janet Ellen Walker Schultz of Lancaster, PA, two sons, Douglas Lake, husband of Marcia L. Staherski Schultz of Lancaster, PA, and William Reed, husband of Christine Wallace Schultz of Dover, DE, two sisters, Dorothea wife of Allen P. Uhlrich of Jarrettsville, MD, and Arlene wife of Thomas Fitch of FL, and two granddaughters. He was preceded in death by three brothers Raymond, Donald and Norman.

On February 16, 2004, MARY D. NOLTE, of Lancaster, PA; daughter of the late John Joseph and Pasqualina Todesco Farinetti; beloved mother of Elenora L. Gregory and Shirley M. Burkhardt; beloved grandmother of six and dear great-grandmother of seven; beloved sister of Anna Clasing and Louise Rinaudo and Rose Dandy. Viewing, Thursday, 10 to 11 A.M. at ANDREW T. SCHEID FUNERAL HOME, 320 Blue Rock Road (Rt 999), Millersville, PA. followed by Funeral Services at 11 A.M. Graveside Service, Thursday at 2:30 P.M. in Glen Haven Memorial Park, Glen Burnie, MD. Contributions may be made to Hospice of Lancaster County, 685 Good Drive, P.O. Box 4125, Lancaster, PA, 17604-4125.

Marjorie Elaine Narigan Funeral Services will be held from the First Presbyterian Church 140 E. Orange St. Lancaster, PA on Monday, September 29th at 12 noon. The family will visit with friends after the service and prior to the interment in Susquehanna Memorial Gardens, York. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hospice of Lancaster County, P. O. Box 4125, Lancaster, PA 17604-4125 or to the Alzheimer's Disease Association, 3544 N. Progress Avenue, Suite 205 Harrisburg, PA 17110-9638.

Carletha N. Westbrook, who was a crossing guard for nearly 39 years, shepherding generations of schoolchildren across Baltimore streets, died Oct. 13 of cancer at her Randallstown home. She was 70.Dressed in her regulation uniform of a dark serge skirt, white blouse, fluorescent orange vest, white gloves and white cap, she was a familiar figure for the past 17 years at Fremont Avenue and Winchester Street, helping children on their way to William Pinderhughes Elementary School in West Baltimore.

MOUNT JOY, Pa. -- Call it a pipe dream, but when farmer M. Jane Balmer imagines the future of agriculture in Lancaster County, Pa., it is filled with tall, sturdy fields of hemp.Burned by sagging tobacco sales and worried over sluggish prices for other crops, Balmer has joined a small but increasingly vocal group of farmers in Lancaster County and elsewhere who are looking to boost their fortunes by raising industrial hemp, the nonintoxicating cousin of marijuana.It would fit right in as a replacement for tobacco, says Balmer, 60, a widowed mother of two who raises corn, barley, wheat, alfalfa, soybeans and chickens on two 200-acre farms in this pastoral borough 10 miles from the Susquehanna River.