This was not an official publication, only a demonstration to interested parties.
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South Central Newsletter
Knowing is half the battle
February 2025 Edition
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In the Past
- $ Thursday, January 30th: Upper Allen Township Board of Commissioners meeting
- $ Saturday, February 8: Cumberland County Democrats Re-Engaged Locally
- $ Saturday, February 22: Tri-County Federation of Democratic Women meeting
- $ Saturday, February 22: South Central Young Democrats Strategic Meeting
- $ Monday, February 24: Upper Allen Township Planning Commission meeting
- $
Satuday, February 25: Silver Spring Township Recreation Advisory Council- ! Wednesday, February 26: Petition Signing Event With Upper Allen Mechanicsburg Democratic Club
- ! We are looking for a correspondent to follow Upper Allen Mech Dems Club events
- $ Wednesday, February 26: EAST PENN DEMS FEB. MEETING “Community Feedback: We Want to Hear from YOU!”
- $ Wednesday, February 26: Silver Spring Township Board of Supervisors meeting
South Central Young Dems…
… did not have their regularly scheduled meeting on February 20th at Shear Crossings, and instead opted to have a longer strategic meeting on the 22nd at Temple University Harrisburg. In this meeting, the group discussed their priorities for the upcoming year and how we may best represent young Democrats in their region of influence.
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- The creation of a newsletter to facilitate the dissemination of information among membership
The SCYD Executive Board will discuss these ideas internally, and develop them with the membership online through their Discord server. Be on the lookout for the March 20th Meeting Agenda, which will detail which of these ideas are to be put to a vote and made official.
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Coming Up…
- ! Tuesday, March 4th @ 3pm-6pm: 50501 Harrisburg Demonstration on the Capitol Steps
- ! We are looking for a correspondent to report on this event
- $ Thursday, March 6th @ 6pm: Silver Spring Township Planning Commission Meeting in the Township Building
- $ Notes will be provided by Adrian Garcia
- ! Saturday, March 15th @ 9am-noon: 50501 Harrisburg Demonstration on the Capitol Steps
- ! We are looking for a correspondent to report on this event
- Some Date @ Some Time: ??? talks about ???
- & Meeting notes will be made available online by the group
Letter From The Editor
Do you attend school board, local government, or volunteer organization meetings? Can you read and write? Congratulations! You are qualified to write for The South Central Democrat. All you need to do is find the Newsletter thread in the SCYD Discord server and let us know. Even if you have no interest in taking notes during meetings, you can still help us populate our index with information about organizations and people who are active in our area.
On a personal note
Spring has sprung, and random plants in my yard and garden have started sending up shoots. Should the weather hold, maybe SCYD can put a cookout together and spend the day complaining about the Democratic Party outside instead of in.
Organizations
Cumberland County Democrats
2025-02-08 Cumberland County Democrats Re-engage Locally
2025-02-11 Walden Democrats Meeting2025-02-08 Cumberland County Democrats Re-engage Locally
Submitted by Adrian Garcia The Cumberland County Democrats hosted a meeting in which they went over their strategy for the upcoming year. This primarily focused around electing more Democrats to local office and inspiring citizens to become more involved in the electoral process. Matt Roan, the Chair of the club, went over the need for Precinct Committee Persons. A role which involves being the coordinator for your voting district. This person is the point of contact for the Democrats in their area to answer any questions, help local candidates, and coordinate with the county level party. This is distinct from Democratic clubs in that PCPs are elected to represent constituents, with the next election coming up in 2026. Usually the election is a formality in our area, as only one person runs, and the PCP has already had discussion with local clubs and the county party. PCPs are almost always members of their local club(s), and are often in leadership positions.
Roan also emphasized that the county party is willing to provide seed funds to anyone wishing to start a municipal club. To that end, John Flood announced that he is helping to re-start the Walden Democrats, which may soon morph into the Silver Spring Democrats. They are conducting a meeting this coming Tuesday the 11th at Walden Hall.
It was also mentioned that the Cumberland County Democrats issue a quarterly newsletter, and are always looking to write about any group doing good deeds locally.
A few members of the audience spoke, and the consensus seemed to be:
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- Do more social events.
- Stop trying to appeal to centrists/republicans, it doesn’t work.
- But also accept those who are willing to admin they were wrong about Trump.
- The messaging to the left should be: If you don’t like the Democrats, join up and change them.
2025-02-11 Walden Democrats Meeting
Submitted by Adrian Garcia A group of Walden neighbors met to discuss reforming the Walden Democrats group, which stopped meeting during the 2020 pandemic. The meeting mostly centered around commiseration and the sharing of stories, with some members speaking up about the racism they or their family have experienced. Many voiced their concerns about the Democratic Party becoming more extreme and failing to capture centrist voters, while others voiced the opposite concern: that the party has shifted further right, and has lost the support of more liberal voters. One thing that everyone could agree on is that the Democratic Party’s messaging does not appeal to the everyday working class American, and that the party needs to focus on messaging surrounding expansion of unions, education, and social safety nets. Another meeting is planned for March, though no firm date was decided upon.
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South Central Young Democrats
2025-02-22 South Central Young Democrats Strategic Planning
2025-02-22 South Central Young Democrats Strategic Planning
Submitted by Adrian Garcia The South Central Young Democrats, or SCYD for short, underwent a strategic planing meeting at Temple University Harrisburg where the groundwork for the upcoming year was laid and a review of our first year of operation was had. Opening remarks by President Evan Ashby highlighted that we have grown from 7, to 146 members in one year, with most being from Cumberland and Dauphin Counties.
Sierra Brennan and Antonio Megna facilitated an open discussion with members (included as a supplement) about our opinions on the state and county parties, what we do well, what we do poorly, and what we want to do in the year to come. Some of the key issues we face are a lack of organization between left leaning orgs and that members tend to sign up, but not show up, to campaign activities like door knocking. That’s not to say that there aren’t positives. Many members voiced their opinions on what the party does well from inclusivity, rapid response time in an emergency, to a general sense of empathy for our fellow countrymen.
This was followed by John Werner, encouraging members to share information about the political and non-political organizations they belong to, and how these relationships may have benefits to both SCYD and the organization in question.
Closing remarks by President Evan Ashby asked members to be an unofficial liaison in your other volunteer groups, and to keep both sides of the relationship informed about activities that may benefit the other. During these remarks, Adrian Garcia (the author of this piece) volunteered to run a newsletter that will publish this information.
The Takeaway
After a nearly two and a half hour long meeting where a broad range of topics were discussed, some direction was established. Over the next 10 months, SCYD will consolidate around a few of our agreed upon goals:
- Hosting more events
- Becoming more involved in campaigns
- Being better at organizing and mobilizing our membership
- Collaborate with more organizations
- A renewed Social Media Committee under the leadership of John Zimmerman
- The creation of a newsletter to facilitate the dissemination of information among membership
The Homework
- Get three people in your social circle to join
- Take action on any of the topics discussed in the meeting. Run social media, start a newsletter, work on a website, or anything else that may benefit SCYD.
Opinion
The Democratic Party is really 20 factions in a trench coat, and we’re going to have a hell of a time wrangling all these cats, but I feel it’s possible if enough of us put in the work. Party leadership in most counties is aging, and someone will have to take the helm eventually, so it might as well be us.
I look forward to seeing what SCYD does in the coming year, and I know that I will be involving myself further by starting this very newsletter.
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East Pennsboro Township Democrats
2025-02-26 East Pennsboro Township Democratic Club Meeting
Along with the lack of message and connection, many attendees felt that there should be more ways for younger people to learn about how to run for office, campaign, etc. There seemed to be a consensus that they didn’t feel like younger people were getting as involved as they could, but they weren’t sure how to reach them.
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Government
Silver Spring Township
2025-02-25 Silver Spring Township Recreation Advisory Council CANCELLED DUE TO LACK OF QUORUM
2025-02-03 Silver Spring Township Conservation and Preservation Committee
2025-02-03 Silver Spring Township Conservation and Preservation Committee
Submitted by Andrew Bowman The Silver Spring Township Conservation and Preservation Committee held its regular monthly meeting. The board mainly discussed issues pertaining to historical designations and the upcoming Costco. They also discussed Bird Town Pennsylvania, a conservation project that Silver Spring is enrolling in. The board sees this is one of their bigger conservation projects, in an area they’ve only done minor work in thus far. One bureaucratic matter that came up was a debate in the township administrative staff about broadcasting meetings online. Apparently, there are opponents of this idea in the larger boards who have taken an all or nothing stance in the hopes that smaller committees without tech-savvy members will oppose the idea.
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2025-02-26 Silver Spring Township Board of Supervisors
2025-02-26 Silver Spring Township Board of Supervisors
Submitted by Adrian Garcia The meeting began with a report from Frank Evelhoch, Chair of the Land Preservation and Review Board, who provided an annual update to the Board of Supervisors. The Township preserved the 14.4 acre Shillelagh Farm at 623 Carlisle Pike with the Natural Lands Trust (read their announcement here), and a 42.4 acre plot at 56 Greenville Road. There are five additional properties that have accepted the Township’s offer to purchase their development rights, and going through the legal proceedings to finalize the deal. In addition to these five, there are three properties going through the application process. The goals for the year are to continue to preserve undeveloped land, and to educate property owners. The Township is also all but guaranteed to surpass 1,000 acres this year, and celebration planning is already underway. With another 4,000 acres still eligible for preservation, the board has their work cut out for them. Evelhoch acknowledged that it is unrealistic to think that all of it will be preserved, but one can hope.
Township Manager Ray Palmer gave an update on the Township’s financial status, noting that the Township is ahead of income projections due to the completion of the Costco sale. However, the opening of the Costco store has been delayed to Fall 2025 due to unforeseen challenges with the site’s geology. The development of Paul Walters Park continues, although the Township did not secure a multimodal grant for the project. Palmer also mentioned that the Township is in the middle of its annual financial audit.
The public hearing on a zoning text amendment proposed by Statewide Partners LLC and Kennith Homes sparked significant debate. The amendment sought to introduce a new “Accessible Residential Multi-Family Dwelling” definition in the INT-RG zone, which would allow accessible multi-family developments. This was a wildly unpopular proposal among attendees and Supervisors alike, and seen as an attempt to bypass restrictions on where apartment complexes can be built.
Read the saga here.The Vote
Preceding the vote, the supervisors all stated their opinion on the matter.
- Supervisor Laura Brown opposed continuance and the amendment, stating that this is not the appropriate location for apartments, not the intended use of the land, and is tired of tinkering with our zoning ordinances for developers’ sake.
- Supervisor Nancy Konhaus opposed the amendment, stating that she is not interested in putting housing along the interstate, and that that was never the attention of the INT-RG zone. She also added that we do not need to be in a hurry to develop everything right now and that some day there will be a developer willing to utilize that land.
- Supervisor Harry Kotzmoyer opposed the amendment, stating that maintaining the Township’s ordinances is integral to its integrity.
- Supervisor David Lenker, somewhat uncharacteristically, said that did not have a comment. This was met by laughter from the audience.
- Supervisor Carl Machamer stated that he would have liked to review the developer’s changes and solicit advice from Cumberland County before making his final decision.
- Supervisor David Lenker then commented that the township lacks apartments, and that there is also a lack of by-right multi-family zoning.
When asked for a motion by the Chairman Carl Machamer, Supervisor Laura Brown motioned to deny, with Harry Kotzmoyer seconding. All five supervisors voted in favor of the denial, though Supervisor David Lenker was directly asked for his vote by the Chairman, as it was unclear if voted during the calls in favor/against.
Link to originalFinally, the Board upheld a Planning Commission decision against streaming their meetings online despite wide public support. Concerns about hybrid meetings and potential misuse of AI were cited, although residents argued that public meetings should be streamed to increase transparency.
Additionally, several smaller items were discussed, including a proposal by HSS Investors for a fee in lieu of sidewalks and the approval of a Pennsy Supply MOU related to easements for potential trail construction. Other updates included progress on ongoing projects like Paul Walters Park and the Municipal Campus, with the meeting concluding after nearly five hours of discussion.
Opinion
This was one of the most “action” packed meetings I’ve attended outside the Trindle Springs Trade Center debacle, and there was far too much information to fit in a relatively short format. As such, I have cleaned up my meeting notes and included them as a supplemental for more detail.
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Upper Allen Township
2025-01-30 Upper Allen Township Board of Comissioners
2025-01-30 Upper Allen Township Board of Comissioners
Submitted by Katie J During the January 30th meeting, thirteen people were interviewed to fill the vacancy on the current board. The candidates will be voted on in an upcoming meeting.
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2025-02-05 Upper Allen Township Board of Comissioners
2025-02-05 Upper Allen Township Board of Comissioners
Submitted by Katie J The board attempted to fill the seat, but failed to do so along party lines. The board currently consists of two Republicans (??? and ???), and two Democrats (??? and ???), who voted for separate candidates.
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2025-02-13 Upper Allen Township Vacancy Board
2025-02-13 Upper Allen Township Vacancy Board
Submitted by Katie J The board was convened on February 13th to resolve the deadlock from the previous Comissioner’s meeting.
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2025-02-24 Upper Allen Township Planning Comission Meeting
2025-02-24 Upper Allen Township Planning Comission Meeting
Submitted by Andrew Bowman The Upper Allen Township Planning Commission met to discuss current land developments in the area. Two proposals dominated the meeting: the Funtastik Sports Store planned to go in at 2324 S Market Street, and the next phase of development at Autumn Chase. The former project garnered much debate as the committee members and the project representative discussed foot traffic access to the shop, which could be accomplished either by adding a sidewalk or connecting to the pedestrian path behind the lot. The parties seemed to personally prefer the former option, but the plan would require extending the sidewalk from Round Ridge Road, which could come at the cost of the property owner and/or resident on the corner of S Market and Round Ridge. The discussion ended without a clear resolution, with the project representative being asked to come to the next meeting with their idea for implementing a pedestrian connection.
On the topic of Autumn Chase, there isn’t much to report. As one might expect, they are adding a bunch of large single family houses to the neighborhood running perpendicular to Hertzler Road. While this might be underwhelming on its own, the developer did point out that this is just part of the larger Planner Residential Development, which includes a variety of housing units and community spaces, with a relatively higher concentration on preserving open space and greenery.
Aside from those matters, the agenda itself was quite sparse. Most of the big projects in Upper Allen Township are finished. There’s not a pressing need for new real estate either. However, outside the agenda, there were two notable occurrences at the meeting. The first was the attendance of a class of Messiah engineering students. Secondly, Commissioners Phillip Walsh and Eric Fairchild were rather keen on the South Central Young Democrats presence. Perhaps this could lead to something?
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West Shore School District
2025-02-20 West Shore School District Board Meeting
2025-02-20 West Shore School District Board Meeting
Submitted by Andrew Bowman
The meeting was dominated almost entirely by two policy topics: how to handle gender nonconformity and a proposed natatorium (an aquatic fitness gymnasium) at Red Land High School. Both topics garnered heated debate, something that the district was prepared for as evidenced by the presence of unarmed security personnel. Of the two, the natatorium was the main focus of the board. Proponents of the facility believe it would provide valuable and potentially life-saving lessons to the students on how to swim, and detractors argue that the facility is too expensive, with one member of the public questioning the fairness of the school district paying for a pool that would be on some basis open to the general public. Ultimately, the board did unanimously pass motion to retain design services for the facility using excess money from a borrowed bond fund. The services should give a better idea of the total logistical costs of the facility as well as the general design of it.
As for the issue of gender non-conforming students, there was much public comment about proposals to limit students to restrooms and sport teams matching their sex assigned at birth. At the meeting, voices opposing these policies outnumbered voices in favor. The board did not discuss this matter, however.
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Last year, the school board held a private meeting with the Independence Law Center, a Christian firm based in Harrisburg that specializes in policies such as the ones up for debate. This prompted a large reaction, with those opposed to the involvement of the law firm holding a protest outside the district’s office. Later that year, the conservative board also fired its solicitor, who was considered by some to be not doing enough to help implement these policies.
The board has not proceeded with the Independence Law Center or advanced their policies as of yet, with public pressure likely being a key factor.