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Trafficking ring suspect to enter drug program

HOLLIDAYSBURG — One of the four individuals taken into custody in June 2025 for trafficking narcotics out of a Fifth Avenue residence was admitted into the disposition in lieu of trial program during Blair County plea court Friday morning. Altoona resident Heather Joy McConahay, 38, is facing three felony counts of possession with intent to deliver, a felony count of criminal conspiracy to commit possession with intent to deliver and two misdemeanor counts each of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia across two separate but related ...

Altoona Redevelopment Authority scaling up blight battle

At a meeting of the city Redevelopment Authority Friday, the board agreed to sell two blighted homes to developers under renovation agreements, while also receiving reports on nine other renovation projects at various stages of completion involving blighted or financially encumbered structures. Friday’s activity represents the continued “scaling up” of an initiative designed to use measures exclusively available to government to rescue problem properties that would otherwise slide toward demolition, usually by removing obstacles, so the properties become attractive for private ...

Transportation Center in downtown Altoona dedicated in Miller’s honor

Around 2016, when Altoona Blair County Development Corp. Executive Director Marty Marasco was ready to retire, he reached out to Steve McKnight, who had formerly worked for ABCD Cop., and suggested he apply for the top job. “What about Pat,” McKnight asked, speaking of Marasco’s ...

Intergovernmental Stormwater Committee exceeds requirement for sediment reduction

During the past seven years, the Intergovernmental Stormwater Committee has exceeded its requirement to reduce the amount of sediment that annually flows into area streams by more than 700,000 pounds per year, according to ISC stormwater coordinator Chelsey Weyant. The requirement of the seven-year Department of Environmental Protection permit cycle — initially five years long — was to shrink the amount of sediment washed into area streams in the committee’s nine-municipality urbanized area in central Blair County by 1.4 million pounds per year. That represented a 10% ...

Man who sought photos of minor girls loses appeal

A Clearfield County man in prison for attempting to obtain photographs of minors has lost an appeal of his case in which he charged his lawyer with ineffectiveness for not filing pre-trial motions to dismiss the charges against him. The defendant, Reed Eugene Meeker Jr., 43, of Osceola Mills ...

Suspect who threw Molotov cocktail at Railroaders Memorial Museum takes plea

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Clifton Heights man who threw a Molotov cocktail at a railcar doused in gasoline outside the Railroaders Memorial Museum in May 2025 was sentenced Friday morning to 25 days to two years less one day in the Blair County Prison after pleading guilty to the misdemeanor charges ...