Indiana Gazette
The
www.indianagazette.com Vol. 111 — No. 171
24 pages — 2 sections
Funding of 911 system concerns officials
February 2015
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By RANDY WELLS
more local property tax dollars to pay for the call-taking and dispatch system. The funding stream for 911 telephone systems is “truly antiquated,” and Indiana County — and other counties in the state — are desperately in need of a new funding formula, commission chairman
rwells@indianagazette.net
A critical concern facing Indiana County, according to the county commissioners, is how to pay for the county’s 911 emergency telephone system, or more precisely, how to avoid having to shift
Who’s in the news There is good news today in The Indiana Gazette about these area people: Hope Catherina Popson, Cortney Johnson and Lowry Fairman, Patrick Greene, Diane O’Donnell, Amber Ruddock.
INDIANA COUNTY Rodney Ruddock said Wednesday. The problem stems from rapidly changing communications technologies combined with a statutory funding strategy approved in 1990
and only amended a few times in piecemeal fashion. Counties assumed responsibility for 911 telephone service with the 1990 adoption of the state Public Safety Emergency Telephone Act. The law provided for a funding stream based on telephone subscriber surcharges.
Wolf details proposal for gas tax
HEADED TO DEEP SPACE
Inside HONOR ROLL: Calvary Baptist Academy./Page 3 19412015: Longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Bob Simon died in a car crash Wednesday night at age 73./Page 4
By PETER JACKSON Associated Press
THORNDALE — Gov. Tom Wolf fleshed out his plan to tax natural-gas drilling Wednesday, saying it would bring Pennsylvania into line with other gas-producing states and generate as much as $1 billion a year largely earmarked for helping the state’s financially strained public schools. The Democrat made his case for the tax during a visit to Caln Elementary School in Thorndale, located in one of the poorest school districts in Chester County, as he kicked off a statewide “Schools that Teach” tour. Wolf proposes a two-pronged apGOV. TOM WOLF proach: a 5 percent severance tax on the value of the gas, plus 4.7 cents per thousand cubic feet of gas extracted from the Marcellus shale formation to help restore public school aid cut under his predecessor, Republican Tom Corbett. His proposal, modeled after West Virginia’s tax, also contains safeguards that would bar drilling companies from Continued on Page 12
UNDER PRESSURE: State Sen. Jake Corman, who sued over the NCAA’s penalties against Penn State, said that the organization’s president should be fired./Page 9
MIXED RESULTS: The Indiana University of Pennsylvania women’s basketball team trounced Mercyhurst Wednesday, 81-59, but the men’s team lost on a buzzerbeater, 58-55, to the Lakers./Page 13
CRAIG RUBADOUX/Associated Press
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Board urged to attend meeting on rec corridor
Tomorrow
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A snow shower tonight. Cloudy; frigid tomorrow. See Page 2.
Deaths Obituaries on Page 4 CONRAD, Della R., 69, Strongstown FRENO, Robin L. (Siford), 56, Glen Campbell ISHMAN, Evelyn L., 77, Punxsutawney MUMAU, Mark Eric, 57, Concord, Ohio Late death CESSNA, Lila C. (Gromley), 87, Indiana
mharper@indianagazette.net
By MARGARET HARPER
WHITE TOWNSHIP
The White Township supervisors were encouraged to participate in the formation of a multimodal corridor to extend the Hoodlebug Trail during a presentation by Livable Indiana Neighborhood Connections (LINC) at Wednesday’s meeting. Barbara Hauge, representing LINC, said the grass-
roots organization would like to see the Hoodlebug extended through campus, Indiana Borough and to the White Township Recreation complex. A shared open house is set for 5:30 to 7 p.m. Feb. 19 at the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex, where officials will present prelimi-
By YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press
MINSK, Belarus — Guns will fall silent, heavy weapons will pull back from the front, and Ukraine will trade a broad autonomy for the east to get back control of its Russian border by the end of this year under a peace deal hammered out today in all-night negotiations among Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany. The deal was full of potential pitfalls that could derail its implementation, however. In announcing the plan, Russia and Ukraine differed over what exactly they had agreed to in marathon 16-hour talks, including the status of a key town now under rebel siege. Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters that the agreement envisages a cease-fire beginning Sunday as well as a special status for Ukraine’s separatist regions and provisions to address border concerns and humanitarian issues. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said there was no Continued on Page 4
nary designs for the corridor. The public is invited to attend. Two routes that will be examined include Philadelphia Street and Gompers Avenue, Hauge said. There will be cost estimates and obligations of municipalities regarding improving the route to the standard needed. Federal air quality funds of Continued on Page 12
Study: Effects of smoking even worse than thought
Index Calendar .........................8 Classifieds ...............21-24 Comics/TV....................20 Dear Abby .....................21 Entertainment ..............19 Family ...........................18 Lottery.............................2 Sports.......................13-17 Today in History...........21 Viewpoint .......................6
By DENISE GRADY
The new findings are based on health data from nearly a million people who were followed for 10 years. In addition to the well-known hazards of lung cancer, artery disease, heart attacks, chronic lung disease and stroke, the researchers found that smoking was also linked to significantly increased risks of infection, kidney disease, intestinal disease caused by inadequate blood flow, and heart and lung
New York Times News Service
However bad you thought smoking was, it is even worse. A new study adds at least five diseases and 60,000 deaths a year to the toll taken by tobacco in the United States. Before the study, smoking was already blamed for nearly half a million deaths a year in this country from 21 diseases, including 12 types of cancer.
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r e h s i F
Talks yield peace deal on Ukraine
AN UNMANNED Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Wednesday in Cape Canaveral, Fla. On board is the Deep Space Climate Observatory, which will head toward a solar-storm lookout point a million miles away. Story on Page 7.
Weather Tonight
The surcharge in Indiana County originally was $1.25 per month per phone and was later increased to $1.50. But county residents, and consumers generally elsewhere, have been abandoning landline phones in favor of cellphones and other wireContinued on Page 12
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The findings • 60,000 more deaths a year are attributable to smoking. • Some 42 million Americans still smoke. • On average, smokers die a decade earlier.
ailments not previously attributed to tobacco. Even though people are already barraged with messages about the dangers of smoking, researchers say it is important to let the public know there is yet more bad news. “The smoking epidemic is still ongoing, and there is a need to evaluate how smoking is hurting us as a society, to support clinicians and policy Continued on Page 12
MATT ROURKE/Associated Press
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