A proposal to turn Bloomfield Borough Park into Perry County’s first early childhood “Basics Trail” set the tone for borough council’s Dec. 2 meeting.

Perry County Literacy Council Director Leslie Heimbaugh told council the Harvard-based Basics program focuses on children from birth to age 5, when the brain forms most of its lifelong neural connections. “If you don’t excite those connections between ages 3 and 5, you’ll lose them,” she said.

The project would install seven weatherproof signs along a loop in the park, each sharing simple parent child activities tied to the program’s five learning principles. A Little Free Library would stand at the end of the trail, stocked and maintained at no cost to the borough. Heimbaugh said the Literacy Council has grant funding for installation and

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