Local News
16th annual Good News Fund to provide turkeys begins
Today marks the start of The Herald Good News Fund’s 16th annual drive that will provide turkeys for Christmas to families that ordinarily would be unable to afford such a holiday staple.
The year-round fund is affiliated with the Community Foundation of Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, created by local community leaders to benefit the entire Mercer County area.
Because the foundation is tax-exempt, all donations to the fund are tax-deductible. Turkeys will be provided to local families through the Community Food Warehouse of the Shenango Valley and its network of pantries.
In its first 15 years, the fund has generated more than $145,000, all of which has bought more than 17,000 turkeys and other food for the needy. For its 2008 food drive, the fund has set a goal of buying 1,000 turkeys for distribution in the area.
Throughout its history, the fund has garnered most of its contributions from hundreds of local families and several professional offices and businesses.
Turkeys will be bought through Magnotto’s Shop ’n Save and Michael Magnotto, president of the Hermitage grocery store, will provide them at his cost, as he has since the fund’s inception.
As the fund appeal moves through the holiday season, donors will be acknowledged in The Herald.
People wanting to make a tax-free contribution should make their checks payable to The Good News Fund and mail them in care of The Herald, Box 51, Sharon 16146. Contributions may be dropped off at The Herald office, 52 S. Dock St. in Sharon.
The fund offers readers the option of making a donation in the name of a friend or family member as a holiday gift idea.
Being a member of the foundation not only gives the fund tax-exempt status, it assures donors of strictest accountability and conformity to Internal Revenue Service regulations.
The turkeys are distributed through these area pantries: Farrell - Prince of Peace Center; Greenville - Good Shepherd Center and the Salvation Army; Grove City - Grace Community Food Pantry; Hermitage - Holy Cross Orthodox Church; Jamestown - Jamestown Food Pantry, and Mercer - Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry.
And in New Wilmington - New Life Baptist Church; Sharon - Christ Lutheran Church, Covenant Presbyterian Church, Episcopal Community Services, First Baptist Church, St. Joseph’s Food Pantry, Sts. Peter and Paul Evangelical Church and the Salvation Army; and Stoneboro - Lakeview Helping Hands Center.
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Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
Hermitage commissioners introduced an ordinance Wednesday to increase sanitary user fees.
Residents tapped into the Hermitage Municipal Authority lines now pay $95 a quarter. That rate will bump up to $105 a quarter on Jan. 1, under the proposed rate hike.
Two more hikes on Jan. 1, 2012, and Jan. 1, 2013, will result in the rates increasing 50 percent from the current fee. -
Water is on at Forrest Brooke
Water service has been restored at Forrest Brooke Manufactured Home Community after well problems left the 165-unit complex dry Tuesday.
A boil and conserve water advisory has been issued by the DEP and will remain in place until tests confirm the water is safe to drink, Forrest Brooke’s manager Pete Havens said.
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Thunderstorms ripped through parts of Mercer and neighboring counties Wednesday night, downing trees and wires and keeping rescue workers on their toes.
A Mercer County 911 dispatcher shortly after 8 p.m. said they were busy with calls across the northern part of the county. He said there had been a few reports of trees falling on homes.
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City leaders open to talks
Sharon officials aren’t opposed to sitting down with their counterparts in Farrell to revisit the idea of combining the two struggling cities.
“It never costs a penny to talk and there’s no (idea) that’s not worth looking at,” Sharon councilman Ed Palanski said. “I think it would be foolish to oppose looking at the idea.”
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Murphy’s Law doesn’t faze regional planners
A complicated, two-day public meeting blitz in 32 counties ran headlong into Murphy’s Law in Mercer County on Tuesday.
The group Power of 32 are looking to re-write the regional map and create a grand, 15-year strategic economic plan for the 32 counties in four states that make up the Ohio River basin and greater Pittsburgh area.
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Forrest Brooke copes with water outage
Residents of Forrest Brooke Mobile Home Community in Jefferson and Lackawannock Townships woke up Tuesday morning to find they didn’t have any water.
Managers of the park could not be reached for comment, but residents said they were told they won’t get water service back for at least another month.
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City facing bleak financial reality
LaVon Saternow has been Farrell’s city manager since 1992. Shortly after she took the job, Sharon Steel, the city’s economic engine, officially closed down.
Since, the city has struggled to remain solvent and Mrs. Saternow said it is facing its worst financial crisis in her tenure.
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Near-complete addition to let man come home
Although the weather delayed the start of Penny and Paul Strechansky’s construction project by about three weeks, the end of the sawing, hammering and stapling is in sight.
“It should be done by the middle of next week,” Strechansky said of the 15-by-20 foot addition being built onto the back of his garage in Hermitage, which will be the new home of his grandson, David Johnson.
Johnson was critically injured in a car crash June 19, 2009, on what is now Interstate 376 in Lawrence County. The crash rendered Johnson, who just turned 21, blind and brain damaged. He is unable to care for himself.
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Man prison-bound for role in drug buy shooting
It may never be known for certain who fired the two fatal shots that killed a Sharon teen on Nov. 6 on Wallis Avenue during a botched drug deal, prosecutors have said.
But Christopher Swogger, 24, Sharon, was fingered by at least one other suspect as the one whose bullets killed John B. Hosey III, 18, of 422 Meek St. Swogger was sentenced Monday.
Swogger was sent to prison for 1 1/2 to 3 years for having a firearm without a license, ending his role in the criminal prosecutions of the drug deal turned shooting.
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Farrell, Sharon to revisit merger
Times are tough.
In Farrell Monday night, city council heard a grim financial report from City Manager LaVon Saternow.
“It’s not a pretty picture,” Mrs. Saternow said. “We could conceivably run out of cash by the end of the year. I don’t know how to put it more bluntly.”
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Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
