Beaver trustees meet

Beaver trustees meet
NORTH LIMA -- Beaver Township trustees will meet in special session at 7 p.m. Tuesday to discuss the recently tar-and-chipped roads. Their regular monthly meeting will follow at 7:30 p.m. Both meetings will be in the township meeting room in the South Range Plaza. The meetings had originally been scheduled for last Tuesday, but were canceled because of the terrorist attacks.
Barbecue benefit set
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- An old-fashioned Texas barbecue to benefit the Lawrence County Association for the Blind will be from noon to 6 p.m. Sept. 23 at Sheriff Robert Clark's ranch on Hartzell Road, one mile southwest of State route 168.
Tickets are $10 each and can be purchased at the sheriff's office, the association office or at the gate.
Money to fight blight
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Youth groups seeking to clean up environmental blight and raise money have the opportunity to earn a 50-cent bounty for their organizations for each abandoned car or light-truck tire they collect along roads or in the rural areas Sept. 22.
Groups must register by Tuesday by calling Emily Baker at Lawrence County Recycling and Solid Waste Department, (724) 658-6925.
Courthouse to expand
ERIE, Pa. (AP) -- A $34 million expansion in downtown Erie is helping to bring the federal courthouse into the 21st century.
U.S. Rep. Phil English of Erie, R-21st, said the project will help rejuvenate the area and attract more private businesses. Hundreds of employees will work at the complex, which will connect the courthouse to a former library.
"I think it's going to have a dramatic impact because what you're going to have is a modern federal complex that brings together and integrates some historic buildings," said English, a Republican.
The courthouse was built in 1937 and the former Erie County Library was built in 1897. Both buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Erie Mayor Joyce Savocchino said the project has been a priority of her administration since she took office 12 years ago. She said the courthouse is the last piece of property that needs to be developed on the bayfront.
Nurses' contracts
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Allegheny General Hospital announced it has halted contract negotiations with its nurses union despite a growing demand for nurses and pressure from staff to boost salaries.
"We are not making another offer," said hospital spokesman Tom Chakurda.
The hospital opened wage talks last month with the Service Employees International Union, which represents its 1,500 nurses. Hospital officials were looking for ways to stop nurses from leaving for higher-paying jobs.
Chakurda said administrators struck a deal with a union bargaining committee but the nurses rejected it.
The hospital may be forced to use traveling nurses to make up for those lost.
Rental car problems
ERIE, Pa. (AP) -- Wayne Koble and three PNC Bank colleagues rented a car from National Car Rental in Philadelphia shortly after the terrorist attacks occurred last week.
Together, they drove one of the last cars out of the lot to drop themselves off in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis.
In doing so, they and many other travelers have left rental car companies the problem of retrieving their vehicles.
National Car Rental employees in Erie said their cars are as far as Indianapolis and Orlando.
Arsenic update
COLUMBUS (AP) -- The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said 346 water systems in the state would have to update equipment if the government accepts a new advisory on arsenic.
The National Academy of Sciences released a report Sept. 10 showing that the cancer risks of arsenic in drinking water are much higher than the Environmental Protection Agency previously acknowledged under the Clinton and Bush administrations.
The academy report warns of health risks when arsenic concentrations exceed 3 parts per billion. The standard currently in effect -- set in 1942 -- is 50 parts per billion.