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Seeing what’s right in front of you

Have you ever had the chance to see your community through a visitor’s perspective? I recently had such an opportunity, and the experience was quite eye opening. I was assisting on tours showing prospective transplants what our area had to offer.At the end of each tour, I asked the group to tell me what they saw as the pros and cons of our area.I am pleased to report that there were zero cons!Now on to the pros. The No. 1 comment I heard from multiple individuals was that the people here are so friendly.I think that is something we take for granted.As we walk down the street it is ...

GOP-led economic recovery agenda gives boost in state business survey

In January of 2021, we stood in Pennsylvania’s Capitol to announce the formation of an Economic Recovery Task Force that would inform the Commonwealth’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. While the Pennsylvania of nearly 20 months ago was very different — we were all masked, socially distant, and yet to have access to today’s vaccines and treatments — we knew that we would need a serious effort to correct our economic trajectory and meet the challenges ahead of us. We knew then we needed to start the work of marshalling Pennsylvania’s legislative resources to ...

Books to talk about, online or in person

Mifflin County Library has a book discussion group that meets on one Wednesday per month in the afternoon. Our group has a good time discussing the details of the books they read. In July, they discussed Blue Jeans and Coffee Beans by Joann Demaio and in August, the book to be discussed is The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall. If you are interested in joining, please give us a call. If Wednesday afternoons aren’t convenient for you, there are lots of book discussion groups online. Facebook and Goodreads have several but did you know that our own Digital Library has a book discussion ...

Debunking stereotypes of library patrons, workers

Recently, two library stereotypes have been brought up a lot here. I’ve been hearing mentions of things related to the library that may have been true at one time but are not anymore. It’s easy to perpetuate stereotypes. We repeat them enough that they can seem to be true. The library has changed a lot in the last 10 years. Here are two library stereotypes and how they stand up to the conditions of a modern library. Libraries are quiet — I still encounter patrons who, at checkout, whisper to their kids or shoosh them. I’m not sure they do the same thing at Dollar General. I ...

False information on bill addressed

Over the past few weeks, my Senate colleagues have had to continually correct false and misleading statements regarding the recently passed Senate Bill 106. Sadly, the misrepresentations have continued, and it has become increasingly necessary for me as a sponsor of one of the bill’s amendments to join them in their efforts. Senate Bill 106 consists of five different amendments to the Pennsylvania constitution with the subjects being the election of the Lieutenant Governor, legislative disapproval of regulations, voter ID, auditing of elections by the Auditor General and taxpayer ...

The types of readers

I’ve talked about Goodreads often. Goodreads is a social media site where the only drama is book drama. You post the title of the book you are currently reading, what page you’re on, and your friends “like” or comment accordingly. Your friends can recommend books to you and you can even join online book groups. I love Goodreads because I love to see what my friends are reading and it suddenly hit me that there are so many different types of readers in the world. Doing a little research, I’ve identified six and here they are: • Elitist — These readers only read ...