Local News-Friday, Sept. 8th

UPDATE: Fire heavily damaged a business in Hometown this morning. The blaze reportedly broke out at Hazleton Scrap on Liberty Street in Hometown around 5:30am. Our source had reported it was the Hope Storage and Towing facility, but a company representative said that was it not their business that was affected by the fire. We apologize for the error. Preliminary reports indicate that two buildings were damaged, and the windows blown out of the rear of a third building. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

A malfunctioning compressor forced the evacuation of a North Manheim Township plant yesterday. Schuylkill Haven firefighters were called to the Lehigh Valley Dairy on Manheim Road mid afternoon after an air compressor failed, causing the basement to fill with smoke. All employees were evacuated during the incident, but were able to return after 4pm. Four people suffered injuries following a Wednesday afternoon crash in Norwegian Township.

State police indicate that 80-year-old Andrew Dinich of Minersville was stopped at the intersection of Route 901 and 209, then pulled into the path of a car driven by 47-year-old Kathy Mann of Minersville. Dinich and his passenger, Madeline Dinich both had moderate injuries. Mann, and one of her two passengers, were also hurt. The crash happened after 3 o'clock Wednesday.

Schuylkill County court jury has found a Schuylkill Haven man guilty of providing alcohol to minors. Robert Dixon, of Willow Lake, was found guilty of corrupting minors and furnishing alcohol to two teenage boys in a June, 2005 incident. Several other charges were dismissed or reduced in the case. Schuylkill Haven police apprehended Dixon after he reportedly gave beer to the teens. According to the Pottsville Republican, the boys testified that they were working with police on a "Buy Bust" to catch Dixon providing alcohol to them. The police were reportedly waiting nearby when Dixon handed a beer to one of the boys. Dixon's attorney contended that his client was trapped by police, and that Dixon had purchased the beer for himself, not the teens.

An area man died in a crash in northern Pennsylvania last weekend. 31-year-old Casey Krause, of South Manheim Township, was found in his SUV in the Bear Run Creek, near the Lycoming-Potter county line. Krause reportedly drowned after the crash, and his death is being ruled an accident. He was visiting a camp in Potter County with friends when the crash occurred.

Four firms have submitted proposals for services during the 2006 annual county-wide fall clean-up and electronics recycling event set for September 18th through the 30th. Appearing at Wednesday's County Commissioners work session, County engineer Lisa Mahal said Valley Waste, Tower City, Mostik Brothers, Atlas, Potts & Monger Sanitation, Pine Grove, and Sorin Iron & Metal, Shenandoah were the lowest responsible bidders. Approval is expected at next weeks Commissioners board meeting. In other business, the Commissioners heard from Mark Alonge of the North Central Highway Safety Network on a budget change directed by PennDot for the Smooth Operator Grant. The new budget for the aggressive driving project is for just under $1.9 Million Dollars. The original proposal was for just over $2-Million dollars. Dennis Zahora of STS asked the commissioners to act on a fuel and petroleum products bid award at next week's board meeting. Zahora recommended a fuel bid contract be awarded to Petroleum Traders Corporation at a cost of $.0054 per gallon of Gasoline and $.0599 on diesel over refinery cost. No bids were received for petroleum products and STS will receive three quotes for those products as needed.

The audit of providers who gave services to Schuylkill County's Mental Health and Mental Retardation program has been completed. Parente Randolph of Hazleton was hired by the county to audit several providers after the MH/MR program overspent its budget by $3.2-million-dollars in 2003. One of the program's largest providers, ReDCo, was very slow in turning over the records necessary to complete the audit work. The investigation took over two years to complete. The financial problems go back over six years, but were covered by state overpayments dating back to 2000 and 2001. County solicitor Paul Datte indicated that the auditors needed to meet with ReDCo to review the findings. Then, the final report will be presented to the county commissioners.