Articles by Jonathan Cortez

September 21, 2015

Council to Vote Today on Addiction Treatment Clinic

Ellwood City Borough Council will vote today on a proposal by Freedom Health Care Services to open a drug addiction clinic on 773 Pershing St. in Walnut Ridge. Contrary to information in a video report, Freedom Health Care Services is not a methadone clinic. The facility will not have any methadone. It is a counseling treatment facility for those with addictions. Freedom Health Care Services is a drug and alcohol addiction treatment facility located in Bridgeville. Ellwood City will be their second location. The company provides individualized, outpatient counseling for drug and alcohol addictions. Patients are by appointment only and…

September 18, 2015

Ellwood City’s Storytelling Festival Tomorrow

The Ellwood City Storytelling Festival, a free event, will be held on Sept. 19 from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Ewing Park. In its 14th year, the storytelling festival is a beloved community event that features free activities for children and professional storytellers. Each year, the event draws up to 1000 visitors. This year’s theme Heroes and Villains will feature many tales. The storytelling stage will feature the talent of Tim Hartman, Joanna Demarest, Alan Irvine, Bill Pate, Jocelyn Dabney and Mike Perry. Each one will interpret the theme in their own style. The almost lost art of storytelling relies…

September 16, 2015

Council to Vote on Proposed Addiction Treatment Clinic

At its regular meeting on Monday, Sept. 21, Borough Council will vote on a proposal to establish a medical clinic/outpatient addiction treatment facility. Council held a public hearing on Monday, Sept. 14 regarding the request by Freedom Healthcare Services. The proposed facility will be on 773 Pershing St. in Walnut Ridge. The building used to be an orthopedic doctor’s office. Following the public hearing, Council held its agenda setting meeting at which Hunter Farmer, a representative of Freedom Health Care Services, spoke. Farmer said the company won a contract through the Lawrence County Drug and Alcohol Commission to provide addiction…

September 2, 2015

Bigfoot the Movie Screening at Ewing Park this Saturday

Bigfoot the Movie will be screened 8 p.m. this Saturday at the Folino Stage in Ewing Park. The comedy horror movie, filmed in and around Ellwood City, was created, directed, and stars Riverside graduate Jared Show. Joining him are cast members Curt Wootton (aka Pittsburgh Dad), fellow Riverside graduate Nate Magill and fashion model Joanie Dodds, originally from Beaver of Falls. Show and other cast members have been touring across the extended Pittsburgh area to support screenings. As of now, Bigfoot has been showed around thirty times, according to Show. “It was a blast going to all the shows and…

August 26, 2015

Meet the Wolverine Workshop Facilitator

[This is Part 3 in a series on the Ellwood City Area School District’s Makerspace program. The previous articles can be read here and here.] At the beginning of August, everything was set for Perry School’s Wolverine Workshop to be fully operational for the 2015-16 school year. The room’s construction was almost complete, and the technology ordered. The one thing missing was the faculty member. The position was filled at the school board meeting on Aug. 13 when the board hired Scott Setzenfand, of Economy. Unlike the equipment, which is a one time cost paid for by an innovation grant,…

August 17, 2015

Medical Cannabis Round Table Discussion, Part 2

“I want to take the Wild West out of cannabis and bring it into a controlled, medical environment,” State Senator Mike Folmer said repeatedly during the medical marijuana round table last Thursday, an event sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. Folmer’s journey to become a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 3 was of a personal and educational nature. “I’m from a very conservative area,” Folmer said. “I’m a Bible-thumping Presbyterian, but when I learned about the research, I realized we’ve been lied to for 70 years about the cannabis plant.” The main purpose of the round table was to present the…

August 14, 2015

Medical Cannabis Round Table Discussion, Part 1

Five guest speakers addressed a crowded room in the Ellwood City Municipal Building’s auditorium yesterday. They were there for a medical cannabis round table discussion sponsored by the Ellwood City Chamber of Commerce. The audience included citizens from Ellwood and surrounding areas, Borough Council President Brad Ovial, two school board members, and Leah and Olivia McGurk, two wheelchair-bound children with Dravet Syndrome, a rare and catastrophic form of intractable epilepsy that begins in infancy- a disease that medical cannabis has proven effective against where other pharmaceuticals have failed. A crew from Armstrong cable was also present to film the discussion….

August 7, 2015

Ellwood City School District Plans K-12 Hands-On Technology Workshops

[This is Part 2 in a series on the Ellwood City Area School District’s Makerspace program. Parts 1 and 3 can be read here and here.] Perry Lower Intermediate School will be equipped with a Wolverine Workshop for the 2015-16 school year. The workshop will have high-tech equipment such as a 3D printer and robotics. However, the Wolverine Workshop is one of several planned Makerspaces in the Ellwood City Area School District. The administration plans to create one at Lincoln High School. An old computer lab next to the library will be renovated and the wall between the room and…

August 6, 2015

Perry School to Create a Makerspace Workshop, the Future of Education

[Part 1 in a series of articles exploring the Ellwood City Area School District’s developing Makerspace program. Parts 2 and 3 can be read here and here.] The Ellwood City School District is on its way to having a fully operational makerspace workshop serving the K-12 student population. That’s fabulous, but what is a makerspace? A makerspace is loosely defined as an area where people can make things. It is a workshop area with various high-tech and low-tech equipment where people work on projects, collaborate, and problem solve. The endeavor is the collaborative vision of several of the school district’s…

July 22, 2015

Borough Council Almost Creates Illegal Parking Lot

At Monday’s Borough Council meeting, council members unanimously rejected a motion that would advertise an ordinance establishing two parking lots, one of which would have been illegal. The lots in question are on Sixth Street and Bell Avenue and in the 600 block of Lawrence Avenue, west of Burger King. The borough had previously demolished the buildings on the property and now own the lots. The motion, as it appeared in the agenda, was the following:“A motion would be in order to advertise an ordinance establishing an umetered parking lot at the corner of Sixth Street and Bell Avenue for…

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