Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

Bradford Police are hoping a new ordinance will cut down on thefts of scrap metal and other stolen items. The ordinance – which is only in draft form right now – would require businesses that buy items such as scrap metal, jewelry and precious metals to keep more detailed records and send those records to police weekly. During a City Council work session last night, McKean County District Attorney Ray Learns said tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of items have been stolen and sold under the guise of being scrap. "The real problem is that sometimes what’s being sold as scrap was never intended to be scrap. So it’s not that somebody is stealing a pile of rusty metal behind a house that they were going to use as scrap," Learn said. "The bigger problem is when they’re cutting good copper pipe out of a house, or they’re cutting up a good well jack, or they’re cutting up a power station or they’re cutting up something else that has a legitimate use and then selling it fo...

Property taxes in the City of Bradford won’t be going up nearly as much as anticipated. The average property owner will see an increase of about $4.50 a month. They had been looking at an increase of around $10. Mayor Tom Riel says they were able to knock the millage down from 4.9 to 1.5 in the past month. “It was kind of scary when we did the first reading (of the millage ordinance),” Riel said. “I want to commend council for their efforts working with everybody to lower that down to 1.5 mils.” “I wish it was nothing,” he said, “but we can’t go without a tax increase every year.” He added that there has not been a tax increase for the past three years. Eliminating the purchase of new vehicles for the police, fire and property maintenance departments is one way they trimmed the budget. Health insurance, pension costs and contract obligations were among the increases expenses they had no control over. Councilman Fred Proper, who oversees accounts and finances, said although the for...

By ANNE HOLLIDAY News Director WESB/WBRR Taxes was one of the main topics of the Bradford Area Chamber of Commerce inaugural legislative luncheon held Friday at the Abasso at The Downbeat. State Representative Marty Causer, one of more than half a dozen legislators and/or their aides who attended, said he knew gasoline taxes would be one of the questions posed by people at the event. He said the current tax is about 31 cents a gallon, and that money goes toward highway and bridge projects. He explained that if the gas tax was cut, the state would have to come up with another source to pay for those projects. Causer added that Pennsylvania is one of the few states that uses the gas tax for highway and bridge projects without using general tax money. Another question concerned a state House bill that calls for providing money to municipalities that have a large number of tax-exempt properties. Bradford Mayor Tom Riel explained that the bill calls for helping municipalities where 17 perce...

02/26/08 - Contest to Create 'Bradford City Flag' The Police Department thinks Bradford should have a City Flag, and that a contest should be held to pick the design. During Tuesday's Bradford City Council meeting, Mayor Tom Riel read a letter from Police Chief Mike Close that offered the suggestion for the contest. All of the details haven't been worked out yet, but the design would be chosen by May 1 and Bottorf Embroidery wouldl create the flag, which would be unveiled during the Memorial Day Parade. City Council would have final approval of the design. 02/26/08 - Bradford City Council Meets Bradford resident Steve Stidd questioned Bradford City Council about using C-D-B-G money for a new splash park at Callahan Park while the pool at Burns Memorial Park on North Kendall Avenue hasn't been in use for 3 years. Mayor Tom Riel and Parks Diretor Chip Comilla explained that many more people use Callahan, which is one reason the money is being spent there. Riel, Comill...

During Tuesday's Bradford City Council meeting, a Jackson Avenue resident suggested painting lines on the street because it's difficult to navigate, especially at night. He also mentioned that traffic has increased since School Street went back to being a "two-way" street. Many of our listeners and Web site visitors are concerned about the line-painting situation on Jackson Avenue. One of them sent us this message: "After thinking a while about this line-painting situation, I have finally come up with a suggestion. Since Jackson Avenue is a narrow street and painting lines is out of the question, why not make Jackson a one-way street like State Street? Have it run going toward Interstate Parkway. I think that most of the traffic that is on Jackson travels in that direction anyway. What do you think?" Please leave your comments here, and we'll pass them along in a future news story on the air and on the web. You can also send us an instant message by goi...