Politics

Yesterday held Ellwood City’s monthly regular meeting. All of the agendas were passed at this meeting, to view all agenda items click here. There was an exceptionally large number of visitors at the meeting last night, so large that the council meeting had to be moved into the municipal building’s auditorium in order to accommodate all of the visitors. Among the visitors was Aaron Bernstine, a local who is currently running for state representative. Tensions were high and over a dozen visitors publicly spoke in front of council in order to express their feelings about ongoing issues and the upcoming…

Aaron Bernstine, a local to the community and a candidate running for State Representative, was one of many visitors who spoke at the council meeting last night. He was there to express his concerns about the electric contract the Borough is tied into. He introduced himself and gave council his condolences- he said he understands the difficult decisions they sometimes face and that the electric contract being used as a taxation tool for the Borough was in place long before the current council members were voted in, but he further mentioned that he did not believe council is currently making…

The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) recently awarded $75,000 in grants for housing improvement efforts in Beaver and Lawrence counties, according to Senator Elder Vogel. A grant of $25,000 was awarded for Beaver County’s Rental and Utility Assistance Program and $50,000 was awarded to the Lawrence County Housing Rehabilitation and Blight Removal Program. The grants are funded by Act 13 of 2012, the Marcellus Shale impact fee legislation, which allocates certain amounts from the impact fee into PHFA’s Housing Trust Fund (PHARE) to address the need for affordable housing in counties where producing nonconventional gas wells are located. “The PHARE…

Community College of Beaver County and Senator Elder Vogel will honor local veterans during the Veterans Salute Breakfast set for Saturday November 12th at 9 a.m., in the Athletics and Events Center at Community College of Beaver County Monaca, PA. “We are forever indebted to the men and women who served our country with honor and distinction,” Senator Vogel said. “Veterans Day provides us the opportunity to pay tribute to our veterans for their service to a grateful nation and to honor and remember those that did not make it back.” Registration starts at 8 a.m. The event is free…

Yesterday night Ellwood City Area School District held their monthly school board meeting; many topics were discussed regarding school matters. The meeting had more visitors than normal and a large majority of them were district school bus drivers who wanted to attend the school board meeting in regards to a recent personnel incident involving a school bus driver who was fired- which they believe was unfair. Not much information about the incident is being released currently, but the school board informed the visitors they do not handle the hiring and firing of bus drivers since it’s handled privately by the…

No candidate for political office, whether local, county, state or federal, shall post any political signs on Borough property without registering at the Municipal Building, 525 Lawrence Avenue, Ellwood City PA 16117. The registration procedure involves a $50 deposit, which will be returned if the following regulations are complied with: no sign shall be placed prior to four weeks before the date of election and must be removed within five days after the election. If the signs are left on Borough property after this time period, they will be removed by the Borough and the deposits will be retained. If…

Pennsylvania’s heroin and opioid epidemic will be the focus of a special Telephone Town Hall meeting, to be held at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, October 17th, according to Senator Elder Vogel. Senator Elder Vogel is urging area residents to participate in the event, which is part of a statewide effort to gather information on how the growing epidemic is affecting Pennsylvania and what can be done to save lives and battle addiction. It is the second of five ‘regional’ tele-town halls scheduled around the state in the coming months. Those interested in taking part in the discussion can sign up…