WEDNESDAY -

THURSDAY,

FEBRUARY 17-18, 2016

VOL. 137 — NO. 41 Serving Southern Clarion and Northern Armstrong Counties $1.00

The Leader-Vindicator

Punxsutawney Phil pro-claimed a couple of weeks ago that spring is just around the corner, but ap-parently Jack Frost is try-ing to hold on as long as he can by sending us snow, ice, freezing cold and arctic winds.

Despite this recent stretch of “real” winter, how can we complain after the gentle treatment we’ve re-ceived through much of the season? To reach Feb. 16 be-fore local schools had to call their irst snow day, is quite amazing for our area.

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By JOSH WALZAK

L-V Editor

PINEY TWP. – Demolition work at the old county home, located along Route 68 in Piney Township near Sligo, was expected to begin this week.

Terry George, a board member for the adjacent Clarview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, said last week that the property would be cleared for possible future ex-pansion of the Clarview and Coun-try Springs personal care facility campus.

The Clarview board announced last August that it had purchased the nearly 12-acre old county home site, which was last occupied by the

Peaceful Valley Ashram Retreat.George said that the old facil-

ity, built in 1905, had fallen into disrepair, and that a loor on the irst level recently collapsed into the basement.

“It has deteriorated past the point where it’s salvageable,” George said.

Originally built as Clarion County’s “poor farm,” it later be-came the county’s nursing home. It was closed when Clarview opened and has changed hands several times in the subsequent decades.

George explained that Hall-strom Construction of DuBois was contracted to tear down the main

Old county home to be demolishedWORK IS SET to begin this week on the demolition of the old Clarion County Home, located along Route 68 in Piney Town-ship.

By JOSH WALZAK

L-V Editor

By EVANNE GAREIS

L-V Staf Writer

NEW BETHLEHEM – For 50 years, Goodwill of North Central Pennsylva-nia has changed the lives of adults with disabili-ties by offering on-the-job training at its stores, but a Redbank Valley High School senior will make company history next month when he becomes the irst teen to complete the new Youth On the Job Training (OJT) program.

Labeling him as a suc-cess story for the program, representatives from the Goodwill headquarters in Falls Creek gathered at the New Bethlehem loca-tion last week to recognize and interview 17-year-old Jeremiah Wolfe of New Bethlehem as the spokes-man for the Youth OJT program to appear in up-coming newsletters, as well as on the company’s YouTube channel, Face-book page, Twitter and Instagram.

The Youth OJT, which is funded by the Ofice of

RVHS student excels in Goodwill training program

By EVANNE GAREIS/L-V Staf Writer

SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD Jeremiah Wolfe of New Bethle-hem, a Redbank Valley High School senior, organized some of his favorite items, books, while working at Goodwill last week. As its irst participant ever, Wolfe is currently taking part in the new Goodwill Youth On The Job Training Program, and is expected to complete the program’s required hours in March.

By JOSH WALZAK

L-V Editor

TOBY TWP. – After a rocky start, Toby Town-ship oficials said last week that they were pleased with the cooperation from the Rimersburg Municipal Au-thority (RMA) and the prog-ress that was being made to ind a solution to an ongoing water and sewerage rate di-lemma.

At the township’s month-ly meeting on Feb. 10, Toby Township supervisor Alan Carmichael told fellow su-pervisors Carl Vogle Jr. and James Conner that a small committee of Toby residents and members of the RMA had come together and were making progress in inding ways to lower the monthly bills for Toby customers who recently were added to the RMA water and sewerage systems.

“We’ve come a long way,” Carmichael said, explaining that Toby resident Randy Reinsel had taken the lead in meeting with RMA mem-bers.

“We’re working together very well,” Reinsel added.

The effort began after the RMA alerted Toby residents last month that due to hav-ing fewer residents tap into the new water and sewer lines, the existing Toby cus-tomers would need to make up the difference in monthly debt service payments. Ini-tially, Toby customers would have seen their monthly bills balloon by $40 to cov-er the debt payments. The plan sparked outrage among the Toby customers, and the authority soon relented, and agreed to hold off on a ma-jor increase until the two sides could work together to ind common ground. In the meantime, the RMA raised rates $6 for water and $3 for sewerage, per month — the same increase applied to all RMA customers at the start of the year.

Last week, Carmichael said that RMA members listened to the Toby argu-ments, and that the authori-ty is looking into restructur-ing the loan that was used to

By JOSH WALZAK

L-V Editor

RAYBURN TWP. – A new warden for the Armstrong County Jail was named at last week’s meeting of the county’s Prison Board.

Phillip Shaffer, 54, a deputy warden at the But-ler County Jail, was recom-mended by the board to ill the post.

The recommendation, which now must be formally approved by the county com-missioners, was made fol-lowing an executive session at the Prison Board’s Feb. 11 meeting at the county jail in Rayburn Township.

“He has a great resume,” Prison Board member and county Controller Myra Miller said following the rec-ommendation.

Sheriff Bill Rupert, who serves as chairman of the Prison Board, said that Shaffer stood out among the nine candidates interviewed due to his experience and background in the prison system.

Shaffer has been

ESTHER AND ROBERT Shreckengost of New Bethlehem enjoyed dinner at Snug Harbour for Valentine’s Day, as part of their winnings in The Leader-Vindicator’s 1st Annual Val-entine’s Day Contest. The couple met at a friend’s birthday party 58 years ago, and have been married for 55 and a half years. They have four children and 10 grandchildren, and celebrate Valentine’s Day each year. In addition to the dinner, prizes included dinners or gift certiicates to the Korner Restaurant, Joe’s Pizzeria and Restaurant, RRR Roadhouse, Sweet Basil Italian Restaurant & Bar, Sakura Bufet, the Outlook Inn and the Shannon-Dell Restaurant. They also received lowers from Valley Flowers & Gifts and BloomTown Flowers, a massage from Pristine Nails & Spa, and chocolate covered strawberries from Dan Smith’s Candies and Gifts of Clarion.

The Valentine’s Day Contest

Winners Are...

By EVANNE GAREIS

L-V Staf Writer

NEW BETHLEHEM – Two local county sheriff de-partments recently released their annual end-of-the-year reports for 2015, and once again there was an increase in the number of pistol per-mits that were issued.

In their statistics, Clar-ion County Sheriff Rex Munsee reported that 1,326 pistol permits were sold in Clarion County in 2015, an increase of nearly 100 per-mits from 2014, while Arm-strong County Sheriff Bill Rupert issued 2,662 permits in his county in 2015, up more than 900 permits from the previous year.

“Pistol permits deinitely increased,” Munsee said.

“We issued more than the previous year,” Rupert

agreed.While it is legal for in-

dividuals in Pennsylvania to openly carry irearms in public without a permit, Munsee explained that pis-tol permits, also known as concealed carry permits, are required if someone wants to carry and conceal any kind of irearm.

“If a irearm can be seen, no permit is required, but if an individual wants to carry it in a purse, pocket or inside a vehicle they must have a permit,” he said.

According to Munsee and Rupert, the increase in gun permit sales has been an ongoing trend in both coun-ties for several years — with Clarion County seeing its biggest jump between 2011 and 2012 when permit sales

Progress made on Toby water,sewerage rates

Warden named atArmstrong County Jail

Statistics show increase in gun permits for 2015

See Demolished, A12

See Goodwill, A11

See Warden, A11 See Toby, A11

See Sheriff, A6

See L-V, A6