Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

No one was hurt but a house is destroyed after a fire that started when a resident was thawing frozen pipes. City Fire Captain J.D. Tehle tells WESB the owner was using a heat gun to thaw the pipes at 11 Pearl Street, and thought everything was fine but there was a spark in the blown-in insulation, and the fire quickly spread throughout the house. He explained that blow-in insulation is like “finely ground paper. It gets a spark and just takes off.” He added that while they were looking in the crawl space, smoke was coming from the eaves. “It just travels that fast," Tehle said. The fire eventually spread to an apartment at 9 Pearl Street, which ended up with minimal damage. Anita Hubbart and her three children were able to get out of 11 Pearl Street safely. The Red Cross is helping them and the resident of 9 Pearl Street. Taylor Roofing owns the buildings, which are insured. Tehle said there were no problems with the cold – it was 5 degrees when they were called out at ...

Four people, including an Olean man, have been arrested by the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office for trafficking a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of marijuana. The AG’s office says 33-year-old Andrew Kubiak of Olean, 31-year-old John Nelson and Meadville, 39-year-old Jessica Clark of Erie and 29-year-old Nicole Nelson of Santa Rosa California, conspired to buy bulk quantities of marijuana and take it to Meadville. According to the grand jury’s presentment, Nicole Nelson bought a car in Erie that she and Clark drove to Santa Rosa, where it was packed with 85 pounds of marijuana. Kubiak met the women in Sacramento. He and Clark were going to deliver the marijuana to Nelson’s brother, John, but they were picked up by police in Kansas. John Nelson is in Crawford County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail. Kubiak and Clark were released on $25,000 unsecured bond. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Nicole Nelson. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

Two people had to be freed from their vehicles and then be flown to an out-of-town hospital following a head-on crash in St. Marys this morning. City police say a car driven by Brenda Placer of Ridgway and a pickup truck driven by Anthony Gerg of St. Marys were on State Street near the Laurel Run Reservoir when they collided at around 6:20 a.m. Crystal Fire Department personnel freed them from their vehicles. They were first taken to Penn Highlands Elk, but then flown by Stat Medevac helicopter to another hospital. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

To bring facts and clarity to the public debate about immunization in light of the recent measles outbreak, the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health today unveiled a computer simulation that explores the impact of measles outbreaks in cities across the U.S. Users can see how an outbreak would play out if their city had high or low vaccination rates. The simulation – which is easily accessible from mobile devices – is an adaptation of the popular Framework for Reconstructing Epidemiological Dynamics (FRED), a free resource created at Pitt. By visiting fred.publichealth.pitt.edu/measles measles, people can select cities they’re interested in and watch short animations that play out an outbreak with either high or low vaccination coverage. “FRED users can see on a map of any major metropolitan area in the U.S. how one case of measles can turn into a major outbreak or be quickly quashed, all depending on the vaccination rates of a community,” said Donald S. Burke,...

As part of their ongoing downtown improvement efforts, the Bradford Area Chamber of Commerce and the Main Street Program are working on the next phase of rehabilitating Veteran’s Square, with plans to purchase and install eight steel eight-foot park benches. The benches are being made my Swanson’s Fabrication of Bradford, a local company specializing in structural steel and aluminum, including custom design and engineering. “It was important to us to use a local manufacturer for this project,” said Anita Dolan, Main Street Manager, “and Swanson’s Fabrication has an excellent reputation for working with their customers to achieve high quality, professional results.” Each bench will have a bronze plaque signifying who donated the bench. Wright Monumental Works, also of Bradford, will be creating the plaques. “This is a hometown effort with the Bradford Area Chamber of Commerce and Main Street program working together with local companies to achieve a positive visual impact in...