Vol. 135 - No. 249

Mostly cloudy. A chance of snow showers in the morning. Highs around 30. Chance of snow 40 percent.

Full report, A2

18 pages

Classi� ed ......................... B5

Comics ............................. B4

Lifestyles ......................... A4

Lottery ............................. A9

Opinion ........................... A8

Public Notices ............... B5

Sports ............................... B1

$1.00

•RichardWareham,68

The Lawrence Township Board of Supervisors ap-proved its fi nal 2016 budget which calls for $2,901,906 in spending and revenue and has no increase in prop-erty taxes. A2

IRS scam in Tri-County Area

The Pennsylvania State Police are alerting residents about recent telephone scams involving callers claiming to represent the United States Internal Rev-enue Service (IRS). A3

Looking for support

Gov. Tom Wolf’s ad-ministration and its allies worked to sway enough rank-and-file House Re-publicans behind a $1 billion-plus tax increase to override opposition from House GOP leaders and end the state government’s 5 ½ -month budget stale-mate. A6

Lawrence Twp.budget adopted

Tomorrow’s Forecast

Index

ObituariesA9

MORE INSIDE

Page B1

FRIDAY-SATURDAY, DEC. 18-19, 2015

John Rossi, owner of Ben Rossi Jeweler in downtown DuBois, said the business is going out of business at the end of this year after serving the area for more than 53 years. (Photo by Elaine Haskins)

By Elaine Haskins

ehaskins@thecourierexpress.com

DuBOIS — As the budget stale-mate continues in Harrisburg, the DuBois Area School Board took ac-tion Thursday as to how the district would compensate for the lack of state funding.

The approved the proposal from First Commonwealth Bank regard-ing a Tax and Revenue Anticipation Note (TRAN), Series 2015-16 in the amount of $8 million, and authorized board President Patty Fish and board Secretary Danette Farrell to execute the necessary documents when recom-mended by Superintendent J. Mark Heckman and Business Manager Jeanette Buriak in the event that the state budget has not been enacted by Jan. 11.

“What we talked about before is having fi nancial aid in place in case the state budget does not come through at a point where we have exhausted our fund balance. For us, that is in February,” Buriak said. “We don’t want to wait until we have no fund balance to try and secure fi nan-cial well being.”

With the approval of the TRAN, everything will be in place in case a state budget is not passed by Jan. 11 that allows Fish and Farrell to sign the documents the district needs to send to the state so the district will have access to the money as needed, Buriak said.

“So we won’t be getting a lump sum of $8 million. We will draw it down as we need it,” Buriak said.

The interest rate proposal from First Commonwealth Bank is a bank quali-fi ed tax-free rate fi xed at 1.20 percent.

Director Tim Deluccia said that he read that Standard & Poor’s has with-drawn its ratings on school districts.

“It hasn’t for us yet, but that is go-ing to be all schools,” Buriak said.

The state legislature and Gov. Tom Wolf have not passed a new budget since the last budget expired in June, and as a result, the state is not paying school districts and local municipali-ties state subsidies and allocations.

DuBois AreaSchool Board OKs loan due to stalled state money

By Elaine Haskins

ehaskins@thecourierexpress.com

DuBOIS — To say that John Rossi is sad that the business his father built — Ben Rossi Jeweler — is closing at the end of the year after more than 50 years would be an understatement.

Rossi, 57, is saying goodbye to the loyal pa-trons of his downtown DuBois store with much sadness because it’s the end of an era for him. As the oldest son of Ben and Laurene Rossi, being a jeweler like his Dad was all he ever wanted to do.

“I was always interested in it,” Rossi said. “He (Ben) was a watchmaker, he wanted me to be a jeweler. That’s what he wanted for me.”

Ben Rossi, born in Lansford, graduated from Fleisher’s Technical School in 1947, where he learned to be a watchmaker.

He came right to DuBois and went to work at Central Jewelry and Furniture on Long Avenue. He then moved to a chain store, Pugh Brothers Jewelry, which was where Peaceable Kingdom is now.

In 1963, he borrowed $5,000 from an aunt and opened the jewelry store which has had three lo-cations all on Long Avenue, John said. At that time, Ben and Laurene had five children; eventu-ally, that number would grow to nine.

“He worked up until he could not work any-more,” John said of his father, who passed away in 2012. “He loved people and that is how he built his business.”

Although he started coming down to the store as a young child, John started working there full-time in 1978 after graduating from jewelry school.

“For me, closing this business is so much more than just ‘closing the store.’ This has literally been my life,” Rossi said. “Since I was a young boy, I have been a part of this, from just being old enough to be at my father’s side when he

Longtime jewelrystore closing indowntown DuBois

Ben Rossi Jeweler on Long Avenue in downtown DuBois will be closing its doors forever on Dec. 31. (Photo by Elaine Haskins)

By Jeff Corcino

Special to the Courier-Express

CLEARFIELD – Clearfi eld Bor-ough Council approved its 2016 fi -nal budget with no tax increase on Thursday evening.

Next year’s budget refl ects $2,419,735 in spending and in rev-enue.

Council also passed an ordi-nance keeping real estate taxes at 25 mills.

At 25 mills, a home valued at $100,000 will be assessed about $625 in real estate taxes to the bor-ough.

The fi nal budget and the real es-tate tax rate passed unanimously 7-0; Councilman Lewis Dutry was absent.

In other business:• Borough operations manager

Leslie Stott said the downtown area is still receiving a lot of vandalism. She said people are riding bicycles on the newly planted landscaping at the Riverwalk, which could damage the plantings. She said some peo-ple are riding BMX bicycles on the wall of the riverwalk instead of the sidewalk. She said the wall was not designed for bicycles and said some-one could become seriously injured.

Also, someone used chalk to draw on every building between Front Street and Third Street.

She also said some of the fl ag brackets on the new light posts have been bent because some peo-ple are reaching up and hanging from them. She said it appears that adults, rather than teenagers, are apparently jumping up and testing their strength by doing pull-ups from brackets.

She said the brackets are going to be removed and straightened and will only be put up when a banner is going to be hung because some

Clearfield Borough Council OKs $2.4 million budget

By Jeff Corcino

Special to the Courier-Express

CLEARFIELD – TAFCO is constructing a new factory in the Clearfi eld Commerce Park, an-nounced Clearly Ahead CEO Rob Swales at the organization’s annual banquet.

TAFCO is a manufacturer of com-mercial refrigeration equipment and it is constructing a new 100,000 square-foot facility on 11 acres in the industrial park, Swales said.

The expansion will retain 80 full-time jobs and the company plans to expand its workforce by 10 percent.

“We are very excited about this project,” Swales said.

He added that his organization has been working on this project for about two years.

“The Clearfi eld County Commis-sioners were actually a large driver behind this project,” Swales said.

New factorybuilding inCommerce Park

Clearfield

See Closing, Page A9

See Factory, Page A9See Clearfield, Page A9