Vol. 135 - No. 148

Partly sunny with a chance of showers and thun-derstorms. Very warm. Hu-mid with highs in the lower 80s. Chance of rain 40 per-cent. Full report, A2

14 pages

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

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

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

Lottery ............................. A7

Opinion ........................... A6

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

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

$1.00

•DonnaJ.Bish,93

Clearfi eld County Dis-trict Attorney William A. Shaw Jr. announced that a Bellefonte man has been charged for the April 1 shooting at the Osceola Mills VFW. A2

Boy gets new hands

An 8-year-old boy who lost his hands and feet to a serious infection has be-come the youngest patient to receive a double-hand transplant, surgeons said Tuesday. A5

Tree falls on children

A huge, ancient pine tree uprooted and fell onto children at a summer day camp Tuesday, injur-ing eight children, two of them critically, fi re offi -cials said. A8

Man chargedin VFW shooting

Tomorrow’s Forecast

Index

ObituariesA7

MORE INSIDE

Page B2

By Jeff Corcino

Special to The Courier-Express

CLEARFIELD — The Clearfi eld-Jefferson Counties Regional Airport Au-thority, which operates the DuBois Re-gional Airport, is in a fi nancial hole, and the Clearfi eld County Commissioners ex-pressed their reluctance to bail them out at Tuesday’s commissioners meeting.The fi nancial situation at the airport has deteriorated to the point that the en-tity hasn’t had enough funds to pay for an audit since 2012.The airport authority is required by the state to have an independent audit performed annually, according to county Solicitor Kim Kesner.According to Commissioner Joan Rob-inson McMillen, Jefferson County Com-missioners agreed to pay the $8,500 fee to have the 2013 audit performed by Catalano, Case, Catalano & Clark-Radzieta LLP, and they are now asking the Clearfi eld County Commissioners if they are willing to pay half of the cost of the audit.And the commissioners have decided to wait before making a decision.The commissioners voted 2-1 to table the Jefferson County Commissioners’ request, with John Sobel and Mark Mc-Cracken voting in favor of tabling. Both Sobel and McCracken said the county has to wait and see what happens with the state budget fi rst before making this decision. Plus, they said the Jefferson County Commissioners should have dis-cussed it with them fi rst before voting to pay the audit bill.McMillen said she agreed with what both McCracken and Sobel have said, but said she voted against tabling it saying she was in favor of paying this bill.“I think we should have paid the $4,200, but give them a stern warning never to do this again,” McMillen said.

In a telephone interview with The Progress, airport Manager Robert Shaf-fer said the audit is already past due, and that is why they were scraping the money together.In addition to the audit bill, the airport is also asking Clearfi eld and Jefferson counties to allocate the airport $65,000

Clearfield CountyCommissioners reluctant to bail out airport

By Tyler Kolesar

Special to The Courier-Express

CLEARFIELD — The 155th Clearfi eld County Fair will be up and running come Sunday, but the Clearfi eld Fair Board, volunteers, and vendors don’t just wave a mag-ic wand to get everything going. A lot of hard work behind the scenes takes place months and weeks prior. Fair Manager Greg Hallstrom said there are plenty of vendors that set up shop this week.“The people that are here right now, they have an off week,” Hall-strom stated, while other vendors are currently attending other fairs in the state and nearby areas. Those ven-dors will come in this Sunday and get their booths in order.As far as physical labor and work done by the fair board and its volunteers, that’s been constantly

ongoing.“For fi ve weeks, the physical la-bor has been pretty heavy,” Hall-strom said.Just yesterday, Hallstrom said

there were plenty of volunteers trying to get things in order before 6 a.m. The fair board itself con-sists of 11 people, but Hallstrom said they rely heavily on others to set up.“Obviously, 11 people cannot do this,” Hallstrom stated.This year they’ve seen anywhere from 25 to 55 volunteers helping out on a regular basis. Projects this year included installing a new fl oor on the stage, setting up buildings, and cleaning/repainting bathrooms. Long days were spent on upgrading the fair stage, which Hallstrom said was greatly appre-ciated.“We get a lot of support, and the fair board can only be thankful for helping us put it together,” Hall-strom said.While the week/days prior to the fair is normally reserved for vendors, the board and volunteers stay busy up until show time.“We’re not just sitting back and

watching vendors,” Hallstrom said.For fair week, they’ve installed some temporary fencing, as they’re replacing some of the old chain link fencing around the fairgrounds. Hallstrom said that’s part of mak-ing the park safer for the other 51 weeks of the year.Like any project, Hallstrom said you always run into some kind of small, unforeseen problems. But they’ve been able to recover nicely for the most part.“We’ve been able to overcome any snag we’ve had,” Hallstrom stated. “It just may have taken a little bit longer.”While there’s plenty to do be-fore the event, during the event requires just as much help. Hall-strom said they’re always looking for extra help, regardless of what the job is.“If you want to volunteer for fair week, we will fi nd a place for you,” Hallstrom said.Those wanting to volunteer can contact the fair offi ce at 765-4629.

Last-minute fair preparations underway

By Katie Weidenboerner

katiew@thecourierexpress.com

ST. MARYS — A recent audit by the state’s auditor general shows the St. Marys non-uniformed employees pension plan remains out of compliance with other third class cities despite previous warnings from the state, resulting in lower pension benefits for some of the city’s retired workers.On July 17, Auditor Gen-eral Eugene DePasquale re-leased audits of municipal employee pension plans for 16 municipalities across the state, including St. Marys’ plan from Jan. 1, 2013 to

Dec. 31, 2014.While the city’s police pension plan was found to be in compliance, the audi-tor’s report said its non-uni-formed plan raised red flags as city officials ignored pri-or audit recommendations which advised it to bring the provisions of its pension ben-efits into alignment with the Third Class City Code. The report claims some employ-ees who were hired prior to Jan. 24, 2001, are receiving less compensation than the state requires.Thus far, the sub-par

pension plan has also re-sulted in one plan member being denied disability ben-efits which they were statu-torily entitled, according to the report.The city’s pension plan provides a member who be-comes disabled after com-pleting 10 years of Credited Service will be entitled to a total and permanent dis-ability pension after being disabled for a period of six months with the amount of the pension accrued to the date of disability. By com-parison the state provides an employee who incurs a total and permanent disabil-ity after completing 10 years

of service and before attain-ing age 60 shall receive a benefit equal to the normal retirement benefit but with-out offset for social security benefits.Other disparities identi-fied in the report include:• Retirement age defined in the city’s home rule char-ter is 65 years old with 20 years of service, compared to the Third Class City Code’s provisions of 60 years old with 20 years of service.• The city provides a ba-sic monthly pension equal to 30 percent of the aver-age monthly salary, while the state requires a basic monthly pension benefit

of 50 percent of the aver-age annual salary or wages which the member received during the last or any five years of his or her employ-ment by said city, whichever is higher.• The city provides that survivors who are mar-ried for at least one year on the date of retirement, a monthly annuity for the life of the Participant and on the Participant’s death, one-half of the Participant’s monthly annuity payable to the spouse for their lifetime. By comparison, the state re-quires the surviving spouse of a deceased employee who

Audit: Non-uniformed employees pension plan not in compliance

DuBOIS — Two Trea-sure Lake fi refi ghters are facing arson charges.DuBois-based state police said charges have been fi led on Aaron C. Kulbacki, 22, and Christopher G. Leone, 24, at District Court. Kulbacki was a volunteer fi refi ghter and Leone was the Treasure Lake fi re chief at the time of the fi re.According to police, the

incident occurred April 15, between 11-11:30 p.m. in a wooded area at the intersec-tion of Harborview and Jolly Roger Roads in Treasure Lake, Sandy Township.According to a statement from Dana E. Smith, presi-dent of the Sandy Township Fire Department, Jonathan

W. Uren, Treasure Lake Fire Co. chief and John P. Hallowell, chief of the Sandy Township Fire Department, “The Fire Department has been and will continue to cooperate fully with DCNR, the Pennsylvania State Police and the Clearfi eld County District Attorney in their investigation into this matter. As information has been made available to

our leadership we have kept the township supervisors apprised through continued close communication with the township manager, Mr. Dave Monella. The specifi c company these two individu-als belonged to was Trea-sure Lake (one of two com-panies being merged into North Point Volunteer Fire Co). The Treasure Lake line offi cers were informed of the

situation as soon as the in-formation became available to our department. The lead-ership of the Treasure Lake Volunteer Fire Co. took im-mediate action and the two individuals were suspended pending the outcome of the investigation. It is our un-derstanding that one of the two individuals has already tendered his resignation.”

Two area firefighters face arson chargesTreasure Lake

Setup and preparation for the annual Clearfield County Fair is underway at the fairgrounds. This vendor is pic-tured setting up the signs on their popcorn, cotton candy and caramel corn stand. (Photo by Emily Miller)

Clearfield County

St. Marys

See Audit, Page A7

See Airport, Page A7

See Charges, Page A7

WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2015

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