Local News
UPDATE: Candidates troll for local support
GROVE CITY — Mercer County has become a political hotbed for the last two weeks as seven Republicans vying for the nod to take on U.S. Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper in November jockey for footing in the primary.
This week, 3rd District candidates Ed Franz, 48, Conneautville, and Paul Huber, 65, Meadville, visited Grove City to meet and greet the locals.
Whether to announce a campaign or to shake hands with groups of a dozen or fewer, nearly all the Republican candidates have made an appearance in Mercer County, most at least once in the GOP-leaning college town of Grove City.
Huber, who said he has been in the race longer than most of his opponents, presented a meaty jobs address to employees and businessmen at George J. Howe Co., Grove City. He talked about extending tax cuts and tinkering with the tax code to make it friendly to small businesses, among other proposals.
He also addressed concerns over the fact that he’d been a registered Democrat as recently as spring 2009. He said passage of the stimulus bill, on top of the prior bank bailouts, drove him to re-register as a Republican. He added that he has supported many Republican candidates, and described himself as a fiscal and social conservative.
Ed Franz, meanwhile, popped in to Beans on Broad, also in Grove City, on Tuesday and spoke to a crowd of Grove City College professors and local conservatives.
An hourly worker at the General Electric plant in Erie, Franz is also a veteran volunteer campaigner who has worked on a number of campaigns for Republicans.
His concerns, he said, include the high national debt and poor economy. Like Huber, he also recommended extending tax cuts and passing a balanced budget amendment.
In all, nearly every Republican candidate has expressed concern with the national debt and economy, proposing remedies in the conservative vein: tax cuts to spur economic growth and reduced government spending.
Franz linked his campaign back to the political wave that swept Republicans to power in 1994, which was when he started getting involved in politics. He said conservatives were on the right track then, but somewhere along the way “the wheels fell off.”
Huber spoke similarly, blaming the GOP’s losses in 2006 in part on heavy deficits. He said Republicans deserved to lose control of Congress.
Besides Franz and Huber, other candidates who have announced include: Steven M. Fisher, 52, Cochranton, a health insurance salesman; Dr. Tom Trevorrow, an Erie ophthalmologist; Clayton W. Grabb, 47, Butler, a pharmaceutical salesman; Mike Kelly, 61, Butler, a car dealership owner; and Donna Reese, an Erie small businesswoman.
Petitions have not yet been circulated or even returned, and there is also time for more candidates to announce. There could be more or fewer candidates by the time the May ballot is finalized.
The winner of the primary will go on to face Dahlkemper in the fall.
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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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Storm damages trees, wires
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
