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COVID-19

AMED could see job cuts next year

A shrinkage in call volume due to COVID-19 could force AMED to consider service changes for next year, including roster cuts and eliminating its current policy of always sending Advanced Life Support crews to emergencies, according to Executive Director Gary Watters. “It’s scary,” Watters said Monday of AMED’s financial situation. “We realistically could be down $2.5 million by the end of the year.” Seven months in, the authority was down $1.1 million in revenue on a $30 million annual budget, according to Watters. That has resulted from a call deficit, which reached ...

Jobless fraud leads to delays

A resurgence of fraud claims for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program that helps the self-employed has led the state Department of Labor & Industry to put a hold on dispensing money to new PUA applicants, pending confirmation of those applicants’ identities. “Due to an alarming spike in suspicious applications for unemployment benefits through the (PUA) program, additional anti-fraud and identity verification measures will be put in place,” the department stated in a news release. “Payments for new applicants are being temporarily delayed.” There will be no change ...

Not-so-trivial pursuit

For more than 35 years, Elaine Conrad of Hollidaysburg has had a passion for local history. Innocently ignited when she dis­­­­covered a hotel once occupied her residential backyard on Wopsononock Mountain, Conrad, 76, said she has “read, researched, photographed and shared topics A-Z ...

Big tent draws more than attention to venue

HOLLIDAYSBURG — The Blair County Convention Center has found a way to bring in some revenue during the coronavirus pandemic that has restricted the size of indoor gatherings. Since renting a large outdoor tent in August — set up in front of the main entrance — the convention center has ...

Prison hopes to restore volunteer programs

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Efforts are being made to restore some volunteer programs inside the Blair County Prison, possibly starting in October, Warden Abbie Tate told the prison board Thursday. “We talk it about daily,” Tate said when Commissioner Amy Webster, a prison board member, asked during a prison board meeting when inmate programs might resume. The prison’s programs generally include drug and alcohol counseling, religious services, female parenting and C-PREP, which helps prepare inmates for their return to the community. When COVID-19 cases began surfacing locally in ...

Rec Commission may need to trim banquet

The Central Blair Recreation & Park Commission is planning for its 2021 Community Classic dinner with the expectation that COVID-19 will prohibit the usual 500 attendees from packing into the Bavarian Hall to raise money so kids can participate in programs like basketball, T-ball, soccer and flag football. It could end up as a big Zoom meeting. “I just don’t want to kill it yet,” commission Executive Director Mike Hofer said at a meeting this week. Virtual might work, accompanied with a takeout meal, suggested commissioner Ed Frontino, when Hofer shared his concerns about ...