Recent Stories

Human Interest

September 6, 2021

History Center Dinner to Feature Local Journalist

Marino Parascenzo has a bit of nostalgia for newspapers. He remembers his days as a “newspaper man” with great fondness. “There was never a day that I didn’t enjoy my job,” Parascenzo said. “Every day was exciting and interesting. There was never a dull moment, and each story had a life of its own.” His storytelling of pounding the pavement of Lawrence Avenue to find stories, to pop into businesses to see what’s new and newsworthy, and to collect police reports, takes you back in time when small town journalism was at its height. “I loved working with my friends…

August 20, 2021

Ellwood City Based T&M Hardware & Rental Honored With Beacon Award

T&M Hardware and Rental was one of 14 retailers honored with a Beacon Award during the Beacon Awards banquet held last week in Marco Island, Florida. The hardware store was presented with the 2020 Beacon Award, which is the industry’s equivalent of a life-time achievement award. “While Tim & Mary were the 2020 recipients, the award ceremony did not occur until this year once it was safe to gather and celebrate in-person with our industry,” said Samantha Post, daughter of Tim & Mary, when reached for comment. “We have been very blessed to be able to do business and call…

August 12, 2021

Northeast Candle Company Ready To Brighten Up Ellwood City

Let it burn. A new candle shop is open in Ellwood City. The Northeast Candle Co., which began in 2019 in the Northeastern section of Beaver County, Pennsylvania by Mark Miller, has opened a retail storefront on 5th Street just north of the train overpass. Mark is a teacher, coach, and business leader who champions education with practical job and career skills. He himself, a life long learner, graduated with degrees in psychology and business management from LaRoche University. Later he went on to complete his education degree at LaRoche. Since then, he completed his post-graduate work at The University…

July 30, 2021

Ellwood City Champion Returns to Basketball Court As Head Coach

Dena Noble has never been able to forget the feeling of being on a winning team. That adrenaline rush of hitting the basketball court is still a draw for Noble, who was recently named head coach of the Lincoln Girls Basketball Team. She wants to provide that feeling to a new generation of players. “I’m looking forward to getting the nostalgic feeling,” Noble said. “I love that feeling, that adrenaline rush especially on game day. I can’t wait to see the girls take what was taught to them and watch it play out.” Noble, the Ellwood native, is no stranger…

July 30, 2021

Carpenter’s Project Wraps Up Successful Week

Even with some few changes this year, the Carpenter’s Project did not disappoint families in the community who needed some help in their homes. “Even with less people this year, we were able to help out 14 families who needed help with safety issues in their homes,” said Steven Miller, Director of the Carpenter’s Project. “I’m very happy with success we had this year.” The Carpenter’s Project started 20 years ago when Chairperson Connie MacDonald noticed that people were getting cited for issues in their homes and didn’t have the means to fix them. Church members of Calvin Presbyterian and…

July 28, 2021

Q&A: Ellwood Native Author Coming To Town For Meet And Greet

Ellwood City native, Cassandra Douglas, has now published two children’s books in her Ellwood City Tales series and will be in town on Saturday, August 14th at 9:00 a.m, for a meet and greet at the Farmer’s Market and will be signing books. Extra copies of each of the books will be sold at the event and will be available for signing. Douglas, 26, has published “The Clock Tower Fairy” and “The Legend of the Panther and Wolverine” and will be making the series a trilogy with a third book in the works. Her independently published works are available online at notable…

July 12, 2021

New Recording Studio Now Open In Ellwood City

Mix, Equalize, Layer… MASTER! Music will reverberate in Ellwood City thanks to October Recording Studio. The studio has just opened its doors and consultations are now available to artists and bands of all musical levels. Rick Fleischer, who has played in multiple bands and has been playing music for 25 years now, and has toured the United States, Canada and Germany, has decided to open a recording studio to the community. “My band has always recorded music on our own so it seemed fitting that we create a space where not only we can record music, but other musicians from all…

June 30, 2021

Local Man Lights Up Ewing Park with Decades of Service

That beautiful twinkle that you see in Ewing Park at Christmas time is a labor of love made possible by one man who remains dedicated to the weeks of effort to string the thousands of lights. For Sam Pawlowski, Christmas in the Park begins in October when he begins the tireless work to complete the massive display. He has been lighting up the park for 25 years. “I get a little done day by day,“ he said—noting he works from 10 a.m. until noon and resumes at 1 p.m. and works until about 3 p.m. Pawlowski, 84, is the only…

June 28, 2021

New Day Care Center To Open In Ellwood

With COVID restrictions beginning to be lifted, more and more people are starting to head back to in person work. A lot of working class people have children at home to worry about and some don’t always have people to rely on for child care. This problem is something that Mary O’Connor Bailey thought about when she decided to bring O’Connor’s Day Care to Ellwood City. Bailey currently has five other locations in the New Castle area but wanted to bring her business to Ellwood City to help the working community here. Bailey graduated college with her business degree and…

June 9, 2021

“Friends Of The Park” Help Fix Up Wampum Community Park

Wampum Park is a local park that over the years had began to get run down and was in need of repairs and updates and when Karen Goebel saw this, she knew someone needed to do something. So she did it. Goebel. a local of the area, talked with the borough in the fall of 2020 and asked if there was anything they could do to help. The borough did offer some help and with that Karen began to get to work. In April of 2021 “Friends of the Park” was created. The group, put together by Goebel, is made…