What did it take to make the top story for 2005? As it turned
out, $15 million. That’s the cost of the renovation project at
Bradford Regional Medical Center, which was voted the number 1
story.
The project, set to literally change the landscape of the
Interstate Parkway area, will flip the main entrance of the
hospital from its current location to off of North Bennett
Street.
The ongoing struggle involving the McKean County Landfill in
Hutchins has been a source of contention between municipalities,
county commissioners and the Solid Waste Authority. Add in the sale
of the landfill to Rustick LLC, and you have the number 2 story in
The Era’s countdown.
Stories on the rising cost of oil and gas prices throughout
McKean County as well as the country, round out the top three.
Era full-time editors, reporters and photographers voted for the
top stories of 2005, weighing such factors as impact, importance
and long-term effect.
1. Hospital renovation
The expansion project at Bradford Regional Medical Center, which
was announced two years ago, took off in 2005 beginning with a
visit from Gov. Ed Rendell in February.
The governor held a press conference at BRMC where he announced
a state grant of $3 million for the project. The project, now
pegged at $15 million, will include a five-story addition; a
65,000-square-foot outpatient care center; a 17,600-square-foot
expansion and modernization of the emergency department,
effectively doubling its size; further modernization of ambulatory
services and expansion and redesign of surgical service area;
larger, improved space for the Upbeat/cardiac rehab program and
expansion of cardiology services; establishment of a specially
designed medical oncology suite; addition of a new neurosciences
center; replacement of older medical staff office space and the
development of additional parking areas.
The project included city council closing a block of Pleasant
Street from Interstate Parkway to North Bennett Street as well as
reversing the direction of traffic on Pleasant Street and making
School Street a two-way street.
The price tag for the project started at $12 million, but was
increased to $15 million with the increased price of steel and
cement.
2. Trash wars
A three-year battle culminated in 2005 with the sale of the
McKean County Landfill and an extraordinary day that started with
the McKean County commissioners dissolving the McKean County Solid
Waste Authority and ended with the SWA members handing out
thousands of dollars to municipal officials on the street
-literally – beside the courthouse.
The story actually began three years ago, at the end of 2002,
when the Solid Waste Authority increased the tipping fee from $46
per ton to $86 per ton. That increase became effective in February
2003. A legal battle between the Solid Waste Authority and Bradford
City and Bradford Township ensued while the county continued to
look for a buyer for the Hutchins landfill.
In 2005, after an original agreement with Casella Waste
Management did not come to fruition, the authority sold the
landfill to Rustick LLC, who took over ownership in August. Also in
2005, the city and township settled their lawsuits with SWA.
In November, with money left over after the landfill sale, the
SWA announced a $1.3 million windfall to municipalities who paid
the higher tipping fee without litigation. That meeting, however,
turned out not to be valid. That Saturday, the McKean County
commissioners met before the SWA meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. The
commissioners ended up dissolving the authority, which, in turn,
handed out the money to area officials present at the meeting held
on the sidewalk in front of SWA solicitor Tony Alfieri’s
office.
As of Christmas, there was a truce between the two sides as they
work out some sort of resolution.
This story was voted the #2 story of 2003 and the #7 story of
2004.
3. Looking up, for some
Gas prices, along with oil prices, continued to go up throughout
2005. Week after week, Bradford consumers seemed to pay the highest
gas prices around – almost $3 a gallon.
By the year’s end, Attorney General Tom Corbett launched an
investigation into the possibility that gas stations were price
gouging after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the southern part of
the country.
The price of crude oil was also reaching record proportions as
it reached record highs for the modern era, topping more than $60 a
barrel. Production in McKean County continued to be the highest in
the state in terms of drilling, fracking and new wells.
Once again, music was coming from Music Mountain.
This fueled a resurgence of the industry in this area, which had
been lagging since the 1980s. This is especially true at American
Refining Group, the oldest running refinery in the country, which
gets two-thirds of its oil from local producers.
By the end of the year, people scrambled to find alternative
forms of heating and were concerned about just how they would heat
their homes as natural gas prices went higher and higher.
4. Legislative Pay Raises
Pennsylvania’s lawmakers were running for cover this year, as
hot-button political debates over the Act 72 plan -ðwhich called
for property tax relief for the state’s homeowners by supplying
funding to school districts with slot machine revenue – and
middle-of-the-night salary increases took center stage.
As residents demanded property tax relief and numerous proposals
were floated around at the end of the year, the greatest agitation
to Pennsylvanians came from the legislators’ salaries – which were
suddenly second in the country to California.
Locally, lawmakers were split down the middle on the issue –
state Sen. Joe Scarnati, R-Brockway, who was named majority deputy
whip, stood to gain the most from the windfall, a 54 percent hike,
garnering $124,463 when including early payments through
“unvouchered expenses.” Meanwhile, state Rep. Dan Surra, D-Kersey,
also accepted a pay increase – which ranged from 16 to 54 percent –
while Reps. Martin Causer, R-Turtlepoint, and Kathy Rapp, R-Warren,
voted down the measure.
News of the pay increases led to a revolt across the state and
the eventual repeal of the legislation. Rapp, explaining her
decision, said she couldn’t look at herself in the mirror knowing
she voted for an increase.
While Scarnati’s aides touted the lawmaker’s pay raise as good
for his district, the senator eventually backed down and returned
his unvouchered expenses. Meanwhile, Surra reportedly gave his to
local charities and organizations.
5. Man’s Best Friend
Hazel Hurst native and U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jamie Himes
Dana put a local face on the war in Iraq during 2005 – and drew
national attention to her cause.
As American public opinion of the war grew more divided as the
year went on, Dana’s story of courage and the fight to keep her
partner and bomb-sniffing German Shepherd, Rex, drew headlines
locally.
Dana, who was nearly killed after the vehicle she was riding in
drove over a roadside bomb in Kirkuk, Iraq, over the summer,
believed she lost Rex in the blast. As it turned out, Rex only
suffered burns to his nose, while Dana faced a long, uphill
struggle as a result of her injuries.
While Dana fought to regain her footing, her battle at home to
keep Rex was just starting. As a military working dog that was
still useful to the military, Dana needed an act of Congress to be
able to adopt her companion. She gained just that late in the year,
as U.S. Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., high-ranking members of Congress
and Air Force hierarchy installed language in the massive defense
appropriations bill allowing for an exemption to federal law. The
legislation allowing Dana to adopt Rex was officially passed by
Congress on Dec. 22.
Receiving the Purple Heart for her efforts, Dana was also lauded
by such prominent figures as Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. She also received a parade in her
hometown of Hazel Hurst.
6. Prison Problems
The McKean County Prison faced plenty of hurdles in 2005,
including a change in leadership – another change is pending as the
new year dawns – escapees and a debate over just how to bring the
facility into the 21st Century. The county also had to settle a
labor contract with the prison workers’ union and was named the
worst prison in the state in 2005, according to an Associated Press
study of the state’s jails and prisons through information from the
state Corrections Department.
At the start of the year, the county created a prison board to
oversee the facility’s operations. One of its first acts was to
appoint former Federal Correctional Institution-McKean warden
Dennis Luther in a similar role at the county level. But Luther
quickly found out that running a prison on the county level had its
own quirks – he recommended more than 100 changes to the prison in
a review of its operations to the commissioners. A new deputy
warden was later hired to help at the facility.
Sheriff Brad Mason later criticized the way Luther was operating
the prison, indicating that employee morale was declining and that
the inmates had all the rights at the facility. Luther later
announced he was looking to move on from being warden.
The county also had to deal with problems with its work release
program, after inmates scheduled for court appearances didn’t
appear. The facility also had to deal with a handful of
escapes.
The prison is slated for additional improvements in the new
year, according to the county budget and commissioners.
7. Election turnover
There will be plenty of new faces around elected offices next
year as newcomers were voted in to district judge spots as well as
Bradford Area School Board and City Council.
Only one district judge in McKean County retained his seat this
year. District Judge Michael Kennedy, who is the district
magistrate in Kane, ran unopposed. District Judge Barbara Boser did
not seek re-election. Her seat was won by Bradford Township Police
Lt. Rich Luther, who beat Bradford attorney Dan Hartle.
In the Bradford City slot, Bradford City Police Officer Dominic
Cercone defeated incumbent Chris Hauser.
Incumbent Jim Miller was also defeated for the Smethport seat as
Bill Todd came out victorious in the primary election.
There will be new faces at Bradford City Council as Democrat Bob
Onuffer and Republican Tom Riel will join Tom Shay and Bob Costello
on council. Kathy Graff lost her bid for re-election in the primary
election while Ross Neidich was voted out in the general
election.
Onuffer is the first Democrat to win a seat on the board in
several decades while Riel will sit at the same table as those he’s
opposed and criticized the past few years.
On the Bradford Area School Board, director Dr. August Freda was
defeated in the May primary as two newcomers, Rita Dincher and Pat
Vigliotta, join the board.
8. HARB haggling
There was a tug of war between city officials and Roger Feura
over the status of the former Angells Family Entertainment Center
at 45 Main St. That war spilled over into the Historical
Architectural Review Board, who denied Feura’s request to demolish
the building.
Feura, who is the current owner of the building, wants to tear
the building down in favor of a parking lot. HARB officials, on the
other hand, believe the building can be restored and used.
The project is still up in the air with litigation ongoing
between the two sides. The difficulties with the HARB also extended
into another downtown building which the Church of the Ascension
wanted to tear down. Church officials were granted permission from
HARB to tear down the building, but then Bradford City Council
voted to disallow the demolition.
By year’s end, four people on HARB had left the board. Mark
Luciano, Charla Munn, Dean Bauer and Thomas Seagren all resigned
and four new members were appointed to HARB. They are Robert Baker,
Brian McNamara, Mary Jane Hand and Diane DeWalt.
9. Murder trial revisited
The year started with more testimony regarding whether convicted
cop killer Timothy Williams, formerly of Coudersport, should get a
new trial. Williams was convicted of third-degree murder in 1999
for the shooting death of Kane Borough Police Officer Steve
Jerman.
In his Post Conviction Relief Act motion, Williams’s attorney
Sam Stretton listed several people who allegedly heard Becky Sue
Lucrezi Olson admit she was the actual shooter. This included one
witness who admitted during the hearing that he lied to
investigators when he said he heard Lucrezi admit to the crime. He
said he lied to help his friend.
Another witness in the hearing, Michelle Nelson, was charged
with perjury. State Police claim Nelson lied in an effort to get
Williams a new trial.
In mid-December, Clarion Judge Charles Alexander ruled that
Williams would not get a new trial. Among other things, Alexander
pointed to then-District Attorney Michele Alfieri’s closing
argument in that when Jerman shot Williams Feb. 20, 1999, he was
telling investigators who shot him.
A week later, Stretton filed another appeal, nothing that
Alexander erred in ruling against his client for a new trial.
This story was the #2 story of 1999 and the #4 story of
2004.
10. Ambulance service
The year 2005 was one of changes for the way emergency services
were delivered to residents across the Tuna Valley and beyond, as
the municipalities outside Bradford were faced with either using
the city’s ambulance service or going with Priority Care Ambulance,
operated by Brian Gustafson.
At an informational meeting of the Tuna Valley of Governments in
August, area township and borough supervisors were told they needed
to find a way to support the ambulance service that had served
their residents at the cost of the city taxpayers alone for 16
years.
Earlier in the year, Gustafson took over the reins of McCormack
Ambulance Service from Bradford City Fire Department Chief Bill
McCormack. Gustafson later tried to lure the surrounding
municipalities into coming to an agreement with him for service,
but was rebuffed.
As the new year begins, municipalities were in the process of
adopting resolutions to go with the city’s services.
