GAZETTE THE CENTRE COUNTY
www.CentreCountyGazette.com
CATA TO HIKE FARES
Passengers of CATA Bus and CATA Ride will soon see an increase in fares. The new hiked rates are set to take effect Saturday, Aug. 19, with the start of the fall service schedule./Pages 3
August 10-16, 2017
Volume 9, Issue 32
Thompson to address constituents at town hall meeting
TWO-WHEELED TRAINING
By G. KERRY WEBSTER editor@centrecountygazette.com
PATRICK MANSELL/Penn State University
POLICE OFFICERS from local departments and throughout the northeastern United States are receiving International Police Mountain Bike training at Penn State. The extensive training schedule includes patrol procedures, riding tactics, night operations and basic bike maintenance. The sessions are led by Penn State Police Lt. Matthew Cover and Lt. Chad Hamilton of the State College Police Department.
County monitoring mosquitos for West Nile Virus By SEAN YODER
syoder@centrecountygazette.com
STATE COLLEGE — Robert Bloom spends his weekdays driving from place to place in Centre County, emptying mosquito traps, relocating them and checking around for standing water. Bloom is the county’s West Nile virus coordinator, and the specimens he collects he will put on dry ice to “knock them down a little,” then he will put them in tubes and back on dry ice to be sent to the Department of Environmental Protection for testing. DEP will know within about a week if a collected specimen is positive for West Nile. There were several West Nile positives in July in Centre County, but not yet enough to warrant spraying. On Aug. 3, Bloom was working in a small park along the dead-end Walnut Spring Drive in State College Borough. It’s a straightforward process, really: Bloom pinches off the opening of a small clear box on a gravid trap to secure the mosquitoes, picks the whole apparatus up and moves it to a new location. Gravid traps use an attractant mixture of water, alfalfa or timothy hay, and sometimes brewer’s yeast and whey to lure a female mosquito in as a site to lay eggs. They’re then sucked up into a box or fine net by a fan and trapped there. Bloom has 11 such traps in the county. If there are a lot of mosquitoes in a trap but no larvae or pupae, Bloom will search the area for Police Blotter .................... 2 Death Notices .................. 6
standing water. He said he’s currently working such an area in Patton Township where he’s so far been unable to locate and treat the standing water with larvicide where mosquitoes are breeding. If a positive is found, Bloom ramps up surveillance in the area and sets more traps. Humans get West Nile from being bitten by an infected mosquito, which gets the virus from another animal. It can cause flu-like symptoms for a few days, but most of the time doesn’t do long-term damage. In the worst cases, it causes encephalitis in its victims. The most at-risk population is those ages 50 and older. There are 60 different types of mosquitoes in Pennsylvania and most do not transmit the virus. Bloom has been in the position for about 31⁄2 months, having taken over the program from his predecessor, Bert Lavan, who built the program up. The virus appeared for the first time in Pennsylvania in 2000, when infected birds, mosquitoes and a horse were discovered. Pennsylvania’s monitoring and control programs now span 40 counties, with the collection of mosquitoes and dead birds, and monitoring of horses and chickens, funded with grants from DEP. So far this year, Centre County has seen nine total positive cases, none of them human. There were two positives from avian samples and seven mosquito positives. The two infected crows came from Penn and Halfmoon townships, on July 6 and West Nile, Page 6
Opinion ............................ 7 Ag Progress Days .............. 8
Health & Wellness .......... 10 Community .................... 12
FREE COPY
UNIVERSITY PARK — Centre County finally has a town hall meeting with U.S. Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson. On Aug. 4, the congressman announced he would hold a town hall event at WPSU Penn State. The meeting comes a full six months after residents called upon Thompson to host such a meeting in the community; however, claiming a conflicting schedule, the congressman said he was unable to hold such meetings at that time. “The People’s Business: A Town Hall with Congressman Glenn Thompson” will be held at 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10, at WPSU’s 238 Outreach Building, 100 Innovation Blvd. Thompson’s camp invited 100 residents of the Fifth Congressional District to sign up, online, to participate in the studio audience. Audience members will question the congressman, and more questions
and remarks will be obtained directly by WPSU through its social media outlets. “WPSU approached us with interest in hosting an event with an in studio audience, and we thought it was a great idea,” Thompson told Centre County Gazette. “There’s a lot of value in this that it is a very recognizable orGLENN ganization THOMPSON that can air the event throughout the entire district. Most people of the district will be able to easily tune in and see or hear what’s happening. That’s what we wanted. We want to reach as many people as we possibly could, and doing it Thompson, Page 6
Startup helping students define, develop ‘soft skills’ Live It is ‘Facebook, LinkedIn, electronic portfolio, rolled into one’ By KAREN WALKER correspondent@centrecountygazette.com
STATE COLLEGE — It won’t be long before local kids are heading back to school, where they will begin another year of checking off boxes: completing homework, taking tests and striving for good grades. As they work to meet each academic standard, what exactly are they learning about themselves? How are their experiences preparing them for life after graduation? Who will stand out to colleges and prospective employers? These are important questions that a local startup company, Live It, is striving to help students answer. Founder and CEO Kerry Small explained, “With this generation of kids who are being taught to the test and who have had highly structured academic careers and even highly structured extracurriculars, we’ve found that there are plenty of ways to mea-
Back to School ................ 18 Sports .............................. 24
KAREN WALKER/For the Gazette
KERRY SMALL and his team interviewed 60 companies and surveyed 2,000 students to develop the Live It program.
sure hard or technical skills, but understanding soft skills like leadership, team-building, conflict resolution, problem-solving Local startup, Page 5
Around & In Town ......... 27 What’s Happening ......... 28
Puzzles ............................ 29 Business .......................... 30