n Fountain Springs: The Butler Township supervisors announced at Tuesday's meeting residents are banned from outdoor burning until May 22 due to the prevalence of wildfires in the county. The Schuylkill County commissioners announced a burn ban throughout the county at their Wednesday meeting.
n Girardville: Curbside recycling in the borough is set for April 25 and 26. In a release, borough officials said residents should put everything out both days, including newspaper and cardboard, clear, brown and green glass and tin and aluminum cans as well as plastic Nos. 1 and 2. Newspapers must be bundled and tied or in brown paper bags and cardboard must be flattened. Glass and cans must be placed in separate containers. For dropoff recycling, dumpsters are on site permanently. However, all recycling rules must be followed. Placement of recyclables on the ground or on top of the bins will be treated as littering. For more information, contact borough hall, Fourth and B streets, at 570-276-1635.
n Mahanoy City: First Congregational Church will hold a ladies spring tea with the theme "Planting, Producing, Prospering" at the church, 700 E. Centre St., at 1 p.m. April 28. The registration deadline is today. To register, contact Evelyn Adams at 570-668-2927. Seating will be limited. Participants must bring their own tea cups.
n Pottsville: The Schuylkill United Way is participating in days of caring to help promote the value of volunteerism, increase the awareness of local human service agencies and demonstrate what people working together for a common good can accomplish, William J. Folk III, United Way community relations coordinator, said in a press release. The days of caring will be May 3 and 5. Volunteers can choose which day is more convenient for them to participate, or they can help out both days, which will be focused on volunteer projects that take place throughout Schuylkill County and help support United Way's 15 partner agencies that provide to more than half of the county's population. Eight of the 15 agencies are participating in the days of caring, providing volunteer opportunities for people, Folk said. Participating agencies include the Pottsville Salvation Army, Boy Scouts Hawk Mountain Council, Schuylkill County Child Development, Schuylkill Women in Crisis, Schuylkill Wellness Services, Schuylkill YMCA, Avenues and the Tamaqua Salvation Army. Thirteen projects must be completed during this event. Although there are already 100 volunteers signed up to participate, there are still projects that need volunteers. On May 3, Child Development needs volunteers to help plant a flower garden and for general cleanup and the Tamaqua Salvation Army needs volunteers to help with painting bathrooms and replacing tiles. On May 5, the Boy Scouts Hawk Mountain Council needs more volunteers to help with general camp setup. Those interested in volunteering are asked to contact the Schuylkill United Way office at 570-622-6421 or email bjfolk@schuylkillunitedway.org.
n Shenandoah: Jay Smarr, a Pennsylvania Humanities speaker, will focus on coal mining songs of the Northeast at 6 p.m. May 1 during the monthly meeting of the Greater Shenandoah Area Historical Society at the 201 S. Main St. history center. Society meetings are always free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
n Summit Hill: St. Paul Lutheran Church will sponsor a bloodmobile visit from the Miller-Keystone Memorial Blood Bank from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. The drive is in memory of the late Paige Rex, a longtime parishioner of the church who played a key role in the church's sponsorship of bloodmobiles. All eligible residents are urged to donate blood.
n Tamaqua: The borough has resumed its mechanical street sweeping program for the 2012 season and officials said streets are posted the day before sweeping is scheduled. Permanently posted streets are swept beginning at 5 a.m. every Thursday and Friday. Those streets include portions of Broad, Berwick, Center, Pine, Railroad, Swatara and Nescopec streets. Drivers must remove their vehicles from posted streets and wait until after operations are completed before moving their cars back to the cleaned streets. Vehicles that are not removed from posted streets will be subject to ticketing and towing at the owner's expense. For more information, contact Tamaqua Borough Hall, 320 E. Broad St., at 570-668-3444, or 570-668-0300 between normal business hours, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.