Recent Stories

Politics

September 7, 2016

Hot weather in August leads to spike in utility usage

The borough manager, Bob Villella wanted to share the following information with the community about August electric usage: August 2016 was the second hottest month of August since 1947.  The 76.0 degree average temperature was exceeded only by August 1995. The hot and humid weather lead to another record usage by the Borough for 2016.  Ellwood City’s customers as a whole used 5,962,000 kWh in August.  This is the highest amount of electricity by Ellwood City since July of 2013. The Borough’s hourly peak usage of 12,773 kW occurred on August 12 at 5 pm.  This peak is higher than…

September 7, 2016

Wayne Township Monthly Board Meeting

The Wayne Township Supervisors, 1418 Wampum Road, Ellwood City, PA 16117, held its monthly Supervisor Board Meeting, Thursday, August 4, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. Under the direction of William Hepler, Supervisor, the meeting opened with the ‘”Pledge of Allegiance” and a “Moment of Silence”.  Other officers in attendance were Supervisors: Chairman, Charles Hutchison & Vice Chairman, Rick Weingartner; Township Solicitor, Ryan Long.  Secretary/Treasurer, Shari D. Baney. Motion was made by Weingartner to Approve the July, 2016 Minutes. 2nd by Hepler. All in favor. Public Input:  Tootie Welsh – Repeating a question to Chairman Hutchison regarding Melinda Cappello as Township Manager,…

August 25, 2016

Gibbons thanks residents for participating in Tele-Town Hall

HARRISBURG, Aug. 24 – State Rep. Jaret Gibbons, D-Beaver/Butler/Lawrence, today said his Tele-Town Hall meeting held Tuesday night showed that 10th Legislative District constituents’ top three concerns are job creation, property tax reduction and health care. Gibbons said the input he received will be invaluable when he returns to Harrisburg to further work on issues that matter to his constituents “I am pleased that hundreds of constituents participated in the discussion,” Gibbons said. “It’s so much more convenient for constituents to participate from their homes and, at the same time, for me to reach thousands of people in my district.”…

August 24, 2016

Electric Comparison: July 2015 vs. July 2016

Bob Villella, the borough manager, wanted the following message forwarded to the residents of Ellwood: “The following information is being provided to inform Ellwood City Electric customers to a comparison of Electric Sold and Purchase Power Adjustment (PPA) or Rate Adjustment in July of 2015 with July of 2016. The Rate Adjustment for July of 2016 (the August bills due in September) will be $0.0135 per kwh. This amount will be added to the electric bill of each user, Residential, Commercial and Industrial. In July of 2015, the Rate Adjustment was $0.0247 per kwh. The reduction in 2016 is equal…

August 23, 2016

Community Members Concerned About Electric Bills if Hospital Closes

Updated 8/23/16 at 2:16pm. In order to keep its doors open, Ellwood City Hospital is still in search of a partnership. This alone is a concerning topic considering that it’s the closest hospital for Ellwood and surrounding area residents, however, many residents are equally concerned that if the hospital closes they may see an even greater hike in their personal electric bills. The hospital generates a lot of revenue for the borough, if it is to close, it will no longer provide a large portion of the electric revenue. For community members, the impact this will have on the already…

August 18, 2016

Standing Up to Ellwood Electric- Updates

In previous posts we have introduced the Facebook group, Standing Up to Ellwood Electric. It’s a group consisting of local community members that are concerned about the increased electric rates. Dave Gulish, the founder of the group, has been regularly checking on the status of the issue and makes relevant information available to the public via his site. Yesterday he updated his site, posting one image of a scanned document he obtained from the county municipal building. He also included a basic mathematical chart explaining how to find out your electric rate charges. More updates to follow. To visit Standing…

August 16, 2016

Former Councilman Pleads Council to Oppose New Water Treatment Plant

With recent incidents involving contaminated water sources all across America, it’s not surprising that former councilman, Ralph Chiappetta, wanted to address his concerns at the Monday council meeting regarding the new water treatment plant that is supposed to be replacing the old one- affecting many Ellwood City residents. His concern with this is that the plant will be supplying water to homes from the Connoquenessing Creek and Beaver River instead of where the water is currently supplied from, the Slippery Rock Creek. His main concern is that the quality of the newly proposed water sources are less than that of the…

August 16, 2016

8/15/16 Council Brief: Motions and Concerns

Last night council had their monthly agenda voted upon. Before the motions were read, a few visitors had some concerns they addressed to council. Paul Dici brought to the councils attention that the Freedom Health Care company lot, in Ellwood, is not being properly kept up. He said there are “weeds four feet high”. Bob Villella responded to Dici’s concern saying that he had been in contact with the owner of the property already and it was supposed to be cleaned up last weekend, however if it wasn’t then he would get in contact with the owner again. Villella also…

August 16, 2016

Bernstine Statement on Conviction of Attorney General Kathleen Kane

State House candidate Aaron Bernstine issued the following statements on the criminal conviction of Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane: “The past 24 months have seen a cascade of criminal charges against top officials, including two former state treasurers, a half-dozen members of the general assembly, and now the state’s top law enforcement official.” “The pattern of corruption, self-dealing, and the cynicism that it engenders has done incalculable damage to state government and deepened the chasm of mistrust between citizens and their elected officials. It is shameful that Attorney General Kathleen Kane now stands convicted of a nine counts stretching from…

August 12, 2016

Ellwood City School Board August Meeting Brief

The following is a brief summary of the Ellwood City Area School Board meeting held on Aug. 11: Awards/Recognition The following teachers received EcoLab Visions of Learning Teacher Grants for the 2016-17 school year: Jill Folino- $1071 for 72 sets of headphones for classroom tablets Dana Stelitano- $500 online computer program for speech Seth Rosenberger- $2287 materials designated for learning through kinesthetics Chris Costa- $3000 designated for use of the Mark lab Facility at Perry Megan Berty- $2987 designated for PA Common Core Standards Materials Brittany Severn- $2586 for reading resource books Sheery Shearer- $2100 hands on learning for reading,…