No increase this year

No increase this year
MERCER, Pa. -- Mercer County retirees will not receive a cost-of-living increase this year because the fund is not earning enough interest. The Mercer County Retirement Board met Thursday and unanimously agreed to the action. The board is composed of the three county commissioners, County Treasurer Virginia Richardson and Controller Thomas Amundsen.
By law, the board must discuss an increase every three years. Cost-of-living increases were given in 2001, 1999 and 1995.
Amundsen said the fund is not earning enough to pay the $1.5 million paid annually to retirees. He said that it is only earning $800,000 to $900,000 and the rest must be made up by the county. When the board eventually does approve a cost-of-living increase, it will be retroactive to 2001, the last year it was given, he added.
Board appointees
MERCER, Pa. -- Mercer County commissioners made appointments to boards when they met Thursday. They appointed Vonda Minner of New Wilmington and Angie George of Jackson Center to the Mercer County Ag Land Preservation Board for three-year terms. They also reappointed John Ligo of Grove City to the board for a three-year term.
Commissioners also approved $9,269 worth of repairs done to a bridge on Sugar Run Road, Green Township. The bridge, which was closed after being damaged in a storm earlier this year, has been re-opened for about two weeks.
They also approved the completion of $163,229 worth of repairs on a bridge on Daugherty Road, Pine Township.
The bridge, built in 1953, has been rehabilitated and weight restrictions removed, said County Engineer Mark Miller.
Express lanes closing
NEW STANTON, Pa. -- Both the eastbound and westbound E-ZPass Express lanes at the Pennsylvania Turnpike's mainline toll facility at Warrendale will be closed for a time Saturday for routine maintenance.
The lanes will close at 8 a.m. and are expected to reopen no later than 4 p.m. Turnpike crews and state police will be on hand to assist traffic control, turnpike officials said.
E-ZPass customers will have to use designated E-ZPass lanes in the regular fare collections areas on either side of the toll facility's open middle area until the E-ZPass lanes are reopened.
New police chief
GREENVILLE, Pa.-- The borough has a new police chief.
Borough council voted Thursday to appoint Dennis Stephens, 46, to head the department which also serves West Salem Township.
Stephens, who had served as acting chief in recent weeks, succeeds Thomas Strahler who retired.
Stephens' salary was set at $43,000, the same figure paid to Strahler, said Vance Oakes, borough manager.
Stephens was a patrolman with more than 20 years of service and had worked the last four years as school resource officer assigned to the Greenville Area School District, Oakes said.
The promotion left a space open in the patrolmen's ranks and council voted to promote part-time officer Mark DeLuca to full-time status, Oakes said.
Funding meeting
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A meeting this week with Dennis Yablonsky, Pennsylvania secretary of economic development, concerning funding for Millennium Park in Lawrence County was promising, said Linda Nitch, executive director of the Lawrence County Economic Development Corporation.
"It was a positive meeting, and it's a work in progress," Nitch said.
LCEDC requested the meeting after state officials informed the group that it was only eligible for $4 million of the $15 million that Gov. Ed Rendell had promised to the project last year.
The LCEDC was not able to provide the necessary one-to-one private match for the entire $15 million. Department of Community and Economic Development officials have said LCEDC can apply for other state funding sources to pay for the project.
Millennium Park is a proposed 500-acre high technology park in Neshannock Township.
Purse falsely claimed
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Police said a purse left behind by a woman dining at Applebee's Neighborhood Grille & amp; Bar on South Hermitage Road was stolen by a man claiming to be her husband. The victim and her real husband left the restaurant around 11 p.m. Thursday, and the woman later realized she had left her purse. She called the restaurant only to learn that someone else had already claimed her purse. Police said a waiter discovered the purse and was taking it to the office to turn it in when he was stopped by a man who said the purse belonged to his wife.
The waiter gave him the purse after the man pointed out the table where it had been left, police said. The thief was described as a white man in his 50s with a gray beard and gray hair.