Northwest PA

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the Millcreek supervisors’ decision to close the J.O.Y. senior center, which has been open for less than a year. Since then, I have sincerely appreciated Supervisor John Groh’s response and willingness to dialogue with me about the matter. What I’ve learned from this is that the senior-center situation is…

Almost two decades ago, my mother told me she was helping her friend raise money for a senior center in Millcreek Township. After many stops and starts over the years, the project finally came to fruition as the J.O.Y. (Just Older Youth) Center in September 2013. My mother and her friend are no longer with us, but they…

Every August, the St. Paul Roman Catholic Church holds its three-day Italian festival celebrating the Feast of the Assumption. St. Paul’s is located in Erie’s historic Little Italy and is the parish my in-laws grew up and were married in. We’ve gone to the festival in the past but have never attended the Mass and procession through the…

It’s official. The Spring 2014 Erie Ambassador class has graduated. Ask us what Erie has to offer. We can share plenty after nine sessions, during which we learned about nearly twenty different organizations that make Erie a better place. Our graduation ceremony and celebration was hosted by the Regional Cancer Center (RCC), which was founded in 1987 as a…

As cold as it was in January for our first session in the Erie Ambassador program’s Spring 2014 course, the temperature climbed to the opposite end of the thermometer for the last. Erie reached a high of 88 degrees yesterday as we gathered at Boston’s restaurant to hear about tourism in Erie County. We learned that our hometown is gaining recognition…

On a brisk but sunny evening, we boarded the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority’s water taxi at the Wolverine Park marina for session eight of the Erie Ambassador program. The water taxi operates daily from late May to early October ($9 round trip/$7 one-way/$7 children) and crosses the bay to Presque Isle Water Works from both Dobbins Landing and Liberty…

The seventh session of the Erie Ambassador program found us in a conference room the Erie Intermodal Transportation Center to learn about planned development for the bayfront and downtown areas. We heard from Brian Weber, of the Weber, Murphy, Fox architectural firm, Nick Scott, Jr. from Scott Enterprises, and John Buchna of the Erie Downtown Partnership. We learned about Scott…

Did you know that used restaurant cooking oil is a “hot” commodity? Did you know there are companies that make a business out of collecting used oil and selling it to biodiesel companies? If you knew those two facts, did you also know that the grease traps these companies provide to restaurants must be locked…

After being teased with a few days of almost-springlike weather, the snow found us again on the evening of the last Erie Ambassador Program session. When we climbed the steps to the Richard S. Wasielewski Water Treatment Plant, a few flakes of snow were falling from the twilight sky, and by the time we exited, a blanket of…

Week four brought us to the Erie County Technical School (ECTS) on Oliver Road for the education session of the Erie Ambassador Program’s Spring 2014 class. My husband, Jim, and I hadn’t been in the building for nearly a decade. The last time was when we attended an informational meeting regarding a sister-city trip to Zibo, China, that our…