York Town Square

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Visit of rainmaker indicated much awry in York, Pa.

This year marks the anniversary of one of York County’s most embarrassing moments.
It was during the most severe of droughts that York Mayor John L. Snyder dug into his own pocket for $350 to bring John A. Miller, a reputed rainmaker, to York… .


We’ll let “Never to be Forgotten” http://www.ydr.com/ntbf tell it from here:
The rainmaker comes equipped with a 30-by-14-inch plywood box that he said emits “16,000 electronic waves into the atmosphere.” The day before the rainmaker arrived, the county was deluged with rain. “His machine buffed the clouds so much they poured it out before he got here,” Snyder said of the rainmaker. Miller leaves in a huff, angered by a newspaper article stating that he failed to bring rain to San Angelo, Texas, as he had claimed. Years later, a York Water Company official recalled that it rained after Miller left.
That type of inanity from the mayor’s office came only two years before summer rioting over racial abuse catalyzed by another senseless Snyder program – the city’s police dog corps.
The drought did bring about one positive change. It catalyzed construction of Lake Redman, joining Lake Williams to impound water to the York Water Company.