Cheer Cheers and continued best wishes for the Glade Run Lake Conservancy.A construction bid to rebuild the lake’s earth dam was slightly more than $2.8 million — substantially less than the conservancy’s estimate of $4.3 million.The lake was drained in 2011 for safety reasons because the aging dam was structurally insufficient. Siggy Pehel, conservancy president, and a handful of other citizens soon after the lake was drained formed the Glade Run Lake Conservancy and began raising awareness and money to rebuild the dam.“We are all ecstatic that it came in under the amount estimated,” Pehel said. “It means our contribution, which was about $300,000, will no longer be needed.”Instead, the money raised by the conservancy will pay for more dredging to create 10-foot- deep channels enhancing fish habitat; and to lengthen an existing jetty that allows people with disabilities to drop a fishing line into deeper water.Construction is expected to begin in August and should take about 15 months. Refilling the lake will take four to six months.Pehel said the conservancy will continue even though the dam construction project is funded and ready to begin.

Jeer With just nine days until their “soft” deadline, the political factions in Harrisburg don’t seem intent on delivering a $30 billion state budget in time for the fiscal year that begins July 1.“The two sides of the Capitol might as well have their own ZIP codes,” writes Harrisburg Patriot News columnist John Micek, describing the ideological rift between Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and House Republicans.Say what you will about Wolf’s predecessor, but at least Tom Corbett could get a budget done on time. Wolf’s style appears more like that of Ed Rendell, whose classic budget standoffs included a threatened veto of his own proposal and six-months delay in 2003, which forced state employees to borrow against their withheld paychecks. Granted, Corbett played all kinds of tricks to balance his budgets, but he got them done on time.Wolf wants a sales tax increase, a severance tax on gas wells and a corresponding reduction in local property taxes. The Republicans in the General Assembly want to privatize alcohol sales and reform state pension funds.Wolf has been advised by many, including Rendell, to make a deal — accept pension reform and liquor privatization in exchange for his severance tax and sales tax hike. Wolf, thus far, has resisted the idea. And that means the budget standoff could go on for weeks, even months.Nobody in Harrisburg is planning a summer vacation. The realization might prompt more than a few observers to remark: Aren’t they always on vacation?

Cheer Here’s a couple of thoughts about fathers and Father’s Day.The Fifth Commandment instructs us to “honor thy father and mother, that you may live a long life, full of blessing.” The conditional promise of a long, abundant life makes this unique among the Ten Commandments.It should be instinctual for fathers to desire only good things for their sons and daughters. Devoted dads work tirelessly for their children to have the material things they did not have as children. They also share the benefit of their wisdom, and pay for an education their own parents could not afford for them. That’s why we have Father’s Day.Yet sadly, we are raising a generation being raised largely without dads. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 24 million children in America — one out of every three — live in biological father-absent homes. Nine in 10 American parents agree this is a “crisis.”Consequently, there is a father factor in nearly all of the social issues facing America today. According to the National Fatherhood Initiative, a pro-father organization, children with involved fathers do better than their peers across every measure of child well-being. Statistics prove that absence of a dad leads to poverty, poor maternal and child health, incarceration, crime, teen pregnancy, child abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, poor education, even childhood obesity.That’s why it’s incumbent on all of us to act as father-figures. Teachers, coaches, pastors, Scout leaders, grandparents and others should do their best to model the virtues of good fathers everywhere.For that matter, many women have shown they can be good dads, too.That’s why we’ve broadened the Father’s Day salute in recent years to salute all those who provide, protect, instruct and nurture children. This is their day, too.