Down River
Born to be…
By John Lipez
Born to be…
We all know a few, people occupying positions they were made for. It doesn’t happen to everyone, but you recognize them when you see them.
Examples?
Don Malinak was born to be the Lock Haven High School football coach…
Rick Vilello, the mayor of Lock Haven…
John Wert, hotdog grill chef at the old Citizens Hose Company festivals…
You get the idea. And here’s another one, Kira McBriar Rosamilia as the manager of Downtown Lock Haven, Inc.
Kira came on board in August of last year and in a little more than a year has brought her high energy zeal to Lock Haven’s downtown. The Main Street/Bellefonte Avenue commerce area had been on an upswing in recent years, vacant storefronts filling with bustling retail operations and now Rosamilia and the Downtown board have taken downtown promotions and the public response to the next level.
If you go to Facebook, you can’t miss Kira singing/dancing/selling her heart out for whatever event or business is in the offing. Her enthusiasm is undeniable, her talent considerable as she sings the praises of downtown happenings.
The Thanksgiving weekend was the most recent example, the organization’s outstanding staging of carriage rides, visits with Santa and his reindeer, a parade that brought hundreds if not thousands to the downtown.
And that wonderful weekend was free to the public and visitors responded, long lines for the horse-drawn carriage rides and a visit with Santa.
Just check out the Downtown Lock Haven Facebook page and you’ll see for yourself. Kira is uninhibited, entertaining, always with the most appropriate attire and a great salesperson for the downtown. It’s all positive, promoting the downtown and its resources.
This community needs to keep her around. Kira McBriar Rosamilia is the biggest thing to hit Lock Haven’s Opera House building block since Tom Thumb in 1881.
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Fire company merger makes sense:
Didn’t see that one coming, word earlier this month that two longstanding Lock Haven volunteer fire companies are looking at merging. But it makes sense, based on information provided by Lock Haven Fire Chief Bob Neff.
As envisioned by the Hope-Hose Company on E. Church St. and the Hand-in-Hand Hose Company a few blocks away on N. Henderson St., the two companies will, with the t’s crossed and the i’s dotted, become one. The location will be an expanded Handies’ structure, a couple more bays added to house the trucks now in the Hope-Hose building.
The consolidation opens up the Hope-Hose site for if and when the city decides to move its police department there. The last we heard, there is no consensus on council as to whether to relocate law enforcement down the street to the Hopes building, renovate the present police site in City Hall, or construct a new building on the old Heilig-Myers/Town Tavern lot along Bellefonte Avenue.
by chance or choice, the Hopes-Handies consolidation should speed up the process to get the multiple city fathers and one mother to make a decision as to a future location for the police department, tucked in the same back corner of City Hall’s first floor for much longer than half a century.
Chief Neff also told us the two companies have approved a new name for the consolidated fire department, but Down River couldn’t pry that information from him. He did say the company will have a new number, 42, consolidating fire company #4, the Handies, with fire company #2, the Hopes. A nice way to recognize the untold thousands who have volunteered their time to serve the community in a time of need, often at great personal sacrifice, for nearly a century and a half.
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World Cup fever, anyone?
With apologies to longtime Lock Haven High/Central Mountain High soccer coach Abe Stauffer, that fever just isn’t happening here at Down River.
As this is written, with the World Cup on the other side of the world with weeks and weeks to go, the United States was clinging to life, going 0-0-2 in its first two contests, pounding a total of one goal into the net. As has been told to coach Stauffer too many times, they need to eliminate the off-sides rule to produce more goals.
Maybe the game is too nuanced for Down River, but the preference here is for a 40-33 Eagles-Packers game over a nil-nil (0-0) score between the US and the Brits.
