Local News-Friday, March 9th

Two cars were moderately damaged in a crash in South Manheim Township early last evening. A 17-year old male from Orwigsburg was attempting to turn left from Schuylkill Mountain Road onto Berne Drive after 5pm when his car struck a Chevy Impala driven by Linda Wolfe of Auburn, which was southbound on Berne Drive. The teen’s car hit the passenger side of Wolfe’s car. Neither driver was hurt, but Wolfe’s car had to be towed from the scene.

Schuylkill Haven State Police are looking for the driver of a blue Ford Bronco, which was involved in a hit-and-run in Branch Township early Thursday. The vehicle was driving on Silverton Road, attempting to turn into the Good Intent Hose Company in Branch Township. The driver was apparently driving too fast on the snow and ice covered roadway and lost control. The Bronco hit a parked car, which forced it into a second vehicle. The driver fled on Silverton Road, heading toward Route 209. Anyone with information about the crash should contact Schuylkill Haven State Police at 593-2000.

The Pottsville Business Association welcomed a recently opened new business to downtown Pottsville Thursday. The "Grateful Thread" at 20 North Center Street is a project of Schuylkill Women in Crisis.
Schuylkill Women in Crisis Executive Director Sally Casey explains that the project will benefit their clients who seek job skills, and an opportunity to raise funds for their operations. The store began operations on Feb. 13th and is located at 20 North Centre Street in downtown Pottsville.

A Sheppton man is the victim of identity theft after someone obtained his bank card information. Frackville State Police report that someone used the bank card information belonging to Lyman Berger of Sheppton. The unknown thief completed 3 transactions at a Wal Mart in Temecula, California, valued at $602-dollars. The investigation continues.

Spring ahead this weekend, albeit three weeks early. The rite of spring, moving our clocks ahead one hour, would normally have occurred in April, but because Congress passed the Energy Policy Act in 2005, Daylight Savings Time will begin this weekend, and will revert to Eastern Daylight Time one week later than normal in the fall. Most computer systems have programs which would automatically adjust the time one hour early Sunday, but the early change has forced businesses to apply program fixes so that the change occurs early. Microsoft Corporation issued a program update for its Windows operating system that can be applied to make that change. If you choose not to go to the trouble of changing your software, just change your computer clock Sunday morning. And oh, by the way, set your clocks ahead one hour Saturday night, and you’ll be right on schedule on Sunday morning.

A Pottsville woman was convicted Thursday for selling drugs at her home. A jury convicted Robin Lechleitner on two counts of delivering a controlled substance, in this case, cocaine. She was found not guilty of criminal use of a communication facility, according to the Pottsville Republican. Lechleitner was charged by Pottsville police for selling a total of $150 dollars of cocaine to a confidential informant on two separate occasions from her Race Street home. She is expected to be sentenced at a later date.

The Schuylkill County Commissioners Wednesday approved weatherizing repairs to pipes in the county-owned 1912 building located near Rest Haven. County Buildings Supervisor Bill Liptock said Simplex Grinnell of Allentown will provide repairs and place an anti-freeze solution in the pipes at a cost of $22,529-dollars.
The repairs will be covered by insurance with the county paying a $2-thousand-dollar deductible, but the county will seek to recover the cost of the repairs from the company who initially weatherized the pipes if it’s determined the work was faulty. In other business, Liptock received permission to advertise for bids to provide cleaning services at the human services building for a period of one, two and three years. The bids will be opened March 28th with a tentative award date of Wednesday April 11th. The Commissioners were also asked to approve submission of an application to the Pa. Department of Education for $236,172-dollars for the Head Start program. The program will serve 107 eligible children and families in an extended day of six hours and extended year of 180 days. Dennis Zahora of STS asked the commissioners to award a contract for the STS computer system for registration, scheduling and dispatch to the low bidder, Route Match Software, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia at a cost of $175,736-dollars. Approval was sought to sell three properties, two in Shenandoah and one in Mahanoy City, to those boroughs for $1.00 for demolition.