An award-winning weekly serving Tioga County
Local man crafts monster masks Page 1, Living
140th year, No. 4
v thank you to John baker of Wellsboro for subscribing to the Wellsboro Gazette. have a great day!
WedNesday, october 29, 2014
Officials, advocates:
Sex trafficking happens here by Kelly Stemcosky
kstemcosky@tiogapublishing.com
In the United States, one out of every five girls and one out of every 10 boys will be sexually victimized by the time they reach adulthood. This and other statistics were shared with more than 100 participants in Oasis of Hope’s Sex Trafficking in America presentation on
Fall back on Nov. 2
$1.50
Oct. 24 in Wellsboro. Oasis of Hope is the first licensed safe house in Pennsylvania for minor victims of sex trafficking. The house is run in Tioga County by Oasis of Hope founder Debbie Colton. “Each year, thousands of kids are lured into sexual slavery. The average age of recruitment is 13. And
it’s happening here. Anywhere you have drugs, sex trafficking is happening,” Colton told the crowd of government officials, police officers, school officials, students and community members. She said a common misconception is that sex trafficking only takes place overseas, or only involves foreign women trafficked
to the United States. She defined domestic minor sex trafficking as “the commercial exploitation of American children within the U.S. borders. It is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act where the
County budget goes on display Monday
Wellsboro celebrates Halloween with parade, path
Daylight Savings Time will officially end at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 2. Remember to “fall behind” on Saturday, Nov. 1, by turning all clocks back one hour to be on time for all events on Sunday.
by Natalie Kennedy
On the AgendA:
nkennedy@tiogapublishing.com
Upcoming LocaL government meetings Monday, Nov. 3 • Southern Tioga School District Board of Directors work session, 6:30 p.m., North PennLiberty
Tuesday, Nov. 4
• ELECTION DAY - Polls open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Inside—
• The winner of this year’s dairy calf raffle has his prize in hand following the annual dairy auction - page 3, Living
INSIDE Tanker training .................. 2-A Train-car crash .................. 3-A Opinion ............................. 4-A Mansfield fire .................... 5-A Obituaries ......................... 6-A Halloween highlights ........ 7-A Jumps ............................... 8-A Voter’s guide ..................... 1-B New office ........................ 2-B Social new ........................ 3-B Church news .................... 4-B Record ........................5 & 6-B Loan closing ..................... 7-B Beans and pumpkins ........ 8-B
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04879 11816
See TRAFFIC on page 8-A
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photo by ROBIN E. PALMER
Police officer sawyer Mead (fourth from left) had his hands full trying to keep peace between the princess, pirates, inmate and clown on saturday night during the trick-or-treating route, but served his duty well with comrades (from left) elaina dillon, dylan tomlinson, cody tomlinson, rachel Weaver and silas Mead. For more photos, see page 7-a.
Gazette wins in newspaper contest The Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association Foundation announced winners in the 2014 Newspaper of the Year contest and the Gazette received recognition in three categories. Among weekly publications with a circulation under 7,000, the Gazette was awarded: • Second place in the News Excellence category • Second place in the Promotion category • First place in the Best Use of Video category The purpose of the contest is to recognize outstanding newspaper work, with the emphasis on overall excellence. It is designed to showcase the efforts of the entire staff. Awards will be presented at the PNA Annual Convention, being held Nov. 7 in Pittsburgh.
Local men compete in Las Vegas chess tournament by Natalie Kennedy
nkennedy@tiogapublishing.com
Two Wellsboro men traveled to Las Vegas to compete in a chess tournament and returned with a lot of chess time and a little prize money. Aaron Wilson and Steve Owlett, both of Wellsboro, traveled to Las Vegas, Nev., for the Millionaire Chess Open Oct. 9-13. Both are members of the Wellsboro Chess Club and paid the $1,000 entry fee for a chance to win some of the $1 million in prize money being awarded to the amateur players. Wilson, 21, is a junior majoring in security and risk analysis at Penn State University’s Main Campus. Owlett is an attorney. Both are members of the Wellsboro Chess Club, which is how they began playing in chess tournaments and what took them to Nevada. “We decided to just go for it because we had been
photo provided
steve owlett (left) concentrates on his next move. playing well in our divisions so we wanted to try for some good money,” said Wilson. In tournament chess, players receive a rating from officials and competitors after playing 20 games. Owlett’s rating before the tournament was 987; Wilson’s was 1169. Both were in the Under
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1400 division, the lowest of five with the top division having players rated above 2500. Each played about seven games in five days. Players received a point for a win, no point for a loss and half a point for a draw. Wilson won three and one half
See CHESS on page 8-A
Tioga County property owners will see no increase in their 2015 county tax bill. The board of commissioners announced at its Oct. 27 meeting that, for the fifth year in a row, county taxes will remain the same at 6.75 mills. The 2015 general fund, department of human services, liquid fuels and retirement budgets will be on display starting Monday, Nov. 3. The general fund budget is at $17,775,154, about $64,000 less than 2014’s budget of $17,839,589. “Even through the revenues are falling short of previous years from the state indicators by our evaluation of the budget, because of the management practices and cooperation of all departments, the shortfall of revenues will be accommodated,” said Commissioner Erick Coolidge. No Act 13 impact fee monies are being used to balance the budget, said the board. The budgets will be on display in the commissioner’s hall from Nov. 3 to Dec. 8. Commissioners will vote on adopting the budgets at their Dec. 9 meeting. In a related matter, the Tioga County chief assessor certified the tax base for 2015 is valued at $1.8 billion. That’s about a $6 million increase over last year’s value, said Chief Assessor Deb Crawford. By the time the 2015 tax bills are mailed in February 2015, the value will increase $3-5 million due to new construction, she said.
Human services salaries
The Tioga County Salary Board, made up of the commissioners and Treasurer Kera Hackett, approved a $2/hour salary increase for all current and future caseworkers, drug and alcohol
See BUDGET on page 8-A
14 New Brands and Quality Pre-owned Vehicles
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