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Diamonds to the Bloomsburg Fair, our region’s venerable and popular annual gala that began its 164th showing Friday. You can head out to see all the animals, farm products, art, quilts, shows and vendors now through Sept. 28. If you’ve never been there, consider setting a day aside to experience a tractor pull, demolition derby or singing stars like the Oak Ridge Boys, Cheap Trick and Amy Grant. The options are nearly limitless, the food expansive and diverse, and the family fun abundant. For more information, check out the website at bloomsburgfair.com.

Coal to the 8,250 area property owners who have failed to pay the new stormwater fees. The fees, dubbed cleverly if inaccurately as a “rain tax” by critics, may be unpopular, but they are also legally mandated. Some leeway is justified because the fees are new, and here’s hoping the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority — the agency overseeing the collection — keeps that in mind as it moves toward the options of legal action, liens or even shutting off water to customers who owe the fee (a move that should be a last resort, especially if customers are paying the water bill but ignoring the stormwater fee). But the authority already extended payment deadlines earlier this year. If people are refusing to pay the fee in protest, they should reconsider. There are better ways to object to the fee (intended to pay for federally mandated reduction of certain runoffs into the Susquehanna River, and thus the Chesapeake Watershed).

Diamonds to supporters of Luzerne County’s CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) for a successful fundraiser that played neatly off one of the all-time classic American films, “Casablanca.” Held in a hangar at the Wyoming Valley Airport, the event dubbed CASAblanca raised money for one of the most valuable programs in our court system. CASA volunteers help children navigate the foster care system. “Casablanca” is, of course, the iconic 1942 movie starring screen legends Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman that provided generations with some of the most quoted lines in cinema history, from “here’s looking at you, kid,” to “Round up the usual suspects” and “of all the gin joints in all the towns …” Well, you remember the rest. A favorite in this case, words that could have real meaning for the children helped by their CASA volunteer: “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Coal to whoever is responsible for the failure to make the Wyoming Valley Levee sufficiently high enough to avoid a looming flood insurance increase for many residents. As staff writer Jennifer Learn-Andes reported in Tuesday’s paper, the safety buffer atop the levee known as a freeboard is inches short of a 3 foot standard. The technicalities are complex and largely irrelevant to the bottom line: Some residents who thought they were already adequately protected may face an insurance premium increase through no fault of their own. Many people in the flood plain made a conscious decision to buy property there and accept the risk and extra insurance costs. They did not make a decision about the size of the levee they rely on.

— Times Leader

The crowd of people at the Bloomsburg Fair Tuesday afternoon ——- photo by Fred Adams 9-27-05
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_crowdfair.jpg.optimal.jpgThe crowd of people at the Bloomsburg Fair Tuesday afternoon ——- photo by Fred Adams 9-27-05