GAZETTE THE CENTRE COUNTY
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Football 2016
Schools, Penn Centre County High
August 25-31, 2016
s Team Coverage State, Eagles & Steeler
Five of Centre County’s six schools are ready to kick off the 2016 high school football season. Find team previews, photos and schedules in the Gazette’s special football guide. Also included are previews of James Franklin’s Nittany Lions, as well as the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles./Inside
Volume 8, Issue 34 GAZETTE of A special publication THE CENTRE COUNTY
FREE COPY
August 25, 2016
Second person charged in death of professor By GEOFF RUSHTON StateCollege.com
STATE COLLEGE — A woman who had been living with Penn State professor Ronald Bettig at his Lemont home has been charged with his murder. Danelle Rae Geier, 32, is the second person charged in Bettig’s death. George G. Ishler Jr., 39, of Pennsylvania Furnace, was arraigned on murder charges Aug. 19. Geier was charged Aug. 20 with first-degree murder, third-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated assault and tampering with evidence. Geier was arraigned before District Judge Kelley Gillette-Walker, who denied bail. Geier is being held at the Centre County Correctional Facility and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 31. State Police allege that Ishler and Geier
believed they were included in Bettig’s recently signed will and would benefit financially from his death. They allegedly told police they had initially planned to drown the 56-yearold Bettig on a trip to Rehoboth Beach, Del. Ishler and Geier also RONALD BETTIG allegedly told police they had been upset with Bettig over his criticism of how Geier was raising her child. Instead, they allegedly told police, on their return from the beach they came up with a plan to lure Bettig to a quarry in Potter Township by telling him there were marijuana plants there that they could harvest.
Once there on Aug. 12, Geier remained in Bettig’s car while Ishler and Bettig walked to the quarry. Ishler allegedly admitted to police that he intentionally pushed Bettig off a cliff, and Bettig fell nearly 80 feet to his death. Geier allegedly helped Ishler later return Bettig’s car to the scene. When they returned, Ishler allegedly staged the scene with items taken from Bettig’s home, including water bottles, a flashlight, a hand rake and a bag, so it would like like he had been there alone. On Aug. 15, Geier and Ishler reported Bettig missing and told State College Police his car also was gone. They allegedly told police they thought he may have gone to California. After Bettig’s car was discovered off Rimmey Road on Aug. 17, Pennsylvania State Police searched the area and found his body at the bottom of a ravine.
Bettig was an associate professor of media studies in Penn State’s College of Communications and, according to the criminal complaint, was on FMLA leave. According to the college’s website, he joined the Penn State faculty in 1988 and taught undergraduate and graduate courses on “the political economy of communications.” “We are deeply saddened by the loss. He was a part of the fabric of this college for many years. All except our very newest faculty and staff members very likely knew Ron, who was one of our longesttenured faculty members,” Penn State College of Communications Dean Marie Hardin said in a statement. “Ron was the kind of teacher who connected powerfully with students, who found his classes in political economy — at both the undergraduate and graduate levels — transformative.”
Home sweet home: Yarger performs at Grange Fair
SPECIAL SUNDAE
By CHRIS MORELLI editor@centrecountygazette.com
TIM WEIGHT/For the Gazette
CENTRE COUNTY Dairy Princess Halee Wasson pours cherries on a giant sundae at the Grange Fair on Aug. 22. The giant sundae has become a tradition at the fair and one of the most popular events there. For more coverage, see Pages 18-23.
CENTRE HALL — When Adam Yarger was a young boy, he told his family he wanted to perform at the Grange Fair. On Aug. 20, that longtime dream came true. “It was the best show of my life,” Yarger said. “It was extremely fun and the energy was insane. I was really blown away by how many people were there. It was great.” The road to the grandstand at the Grange Fair did not come easy for Yarger. For the past couple of years, he’s been working non-stop in Nashville, trying to make a name for himself as a country artist. And while performing at various venues in Nashville is a fun, coming home and performing was a bucket list item
CENTRE COUNTY SPOTLIGHT that Yarger got to scratch off at a relatively young age. “It was a really sentimental night. I was really trying to hold back the tears. I’ve been going to the fair since I was a month old. I definitely had a lot of emotions flowing.” It would be easy to say that Yarger always wanted to be a musician, but that’s not necessarily the case. In elementary school, he began wrestling. His passion for the sport grew as he got older, but he didn’t Yarger, Page 8
Commissioners look to move forward with business incubator By G. KERRY WEBTER
kwebster@centrecountygazette.com
BELLEFONTE — With the county’s first small business incubator up and running in Philipsburg, Centre County Commissioner Mark Higgins is now working on the bigger incubator project in Bellefonte. On Aug. 23, he brought a memorandum of understanding between the county and Rural Business Innovation to provide consulting services and temporary operational support and implementation of a business incubator program for the purpose of economic development. “We’re to the point we need to bring Opinion ............................ 9 Health & Wellness ..... 10, 11
someone on board to help us along on this project,” said Higgins. “This group has the experience we need, and the resources that will help get this project up and going.” According to Higgins, the first thing that must be done is finding a suitable location for an incubator, and he believes with the help of RBI, they could secure that location rather quickly, allowing them to move ahead on other parts of the project. Higgins said because the Bellefonte incubator is going to be larger and have significantly more tenants, the consultant is necessary, and RBI fits exactly into the Incubator, Page 3
Education ....................... 12 Community ............... 13-17
Grange Fair ................ 18-23 Sports ......................... 24-27
TIM WEIGHT/For the Gazette
HAPPY HOMECOMING: Adam Yarger, originally from Centre Hall, performed to a packed house at the Grange Fair on Aug. 20. Yarger is a successful country artist. Community Profile ... 28, 29 Women’s Corner ....... 30, 31
Around & In Town .... 33, 34 What’s Happening ......... 35
Puzzles ............................ 36 Business ..................... 37, 38