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Spiritual notes: Saturate Altoona set for June

The sixth annual Saturate Altoona will be held all four Sunday nights in June at Heritage Plaza in downtown Altoona. From 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. there will be blessing booths by area churches and ministries giving out food and refreshments. At 6:30 p.m., there will be a worship service with music, testimonies, prayer and a message by pastors or ministry leaders in the 814 area. A prayer tent will be staffed each evening for anyone wanting someone to pray for them. The theme for this year’s Saturate Altoona event is “On Mission With Jesus - by living a win/build/equip/multiply/send ...

Bedford & Beyond paranormal event planned

The Pioneer Historical Society of Bedford County and Fort Bedford Museum will host Bedford & Beyond from 6 to 8 p.m. June 6 at the Hall at Kinton’s Knob, 6441 Lincoln Highway, Bedford. The event features a paranormal panel, mystery, storytelling and the unexplained. The panel will feature authors Mark Nesbitt, Patty Wilson, Stan Gordon, Ed Kelemen, Adam Shefts and Jeffrey A. Dengler who will share their work on UFOs, cryptids, hauntings and the deeper mysteries of the Keystone State. These writers have spent years researching and documenting strange encounters and unusual phenomena ...

Blair County prepares formal offer for prison land

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair County commissioners took another step Thursday toward acquiring land targeted for a new county prison near Duncansville. Commissioners, during their weekly meeting, voted in favor of consulting with a real estate broker and county solicitor on preparing a formal offer to purchase two parcels off Dunnings Highway, above the former Inlow’s restaurant, from Pennsylvania Terminals Corp. Based on a letter the commissioners signed in October and released publicly in March, the county is offering $585,000 for two wooded parcels of about 83 acres, mostly in Blair ...

Logan Township supervisors appoint Wesley Barnhart to fill vacancy

The Logan Township supervisors Thursday appointed longtime township Planning Commission member Wesley Barnhart to the seat on the Board of Supervisors left vacant by the May 4 death of Supervisor Joe Metzgar. One of nine applicants, Barnhart was chosen unanimously by the four remaining supervisors, each individually reviewing the applications and making a choice that was communicated to Township Manager Tim Brown, officials said. Barnhart, who turned 65 Thursday, was sworn in by Chairman Jim Patterson in front of about a dozen individuals who attended the meeting in support. “I have ...

All together now

Morrisons Cove Memorial Park maintenance director Lee Rightenour (right) pulls an umbrella canvas taut as staff members Mark Witmer and Barb Conrad and volunteers Cassie Miller and Brook Hollabaugh attach the ribs to the canopy at Hershberger Memorial Pool in Martinsburg on Thursday. The pool ...

Intermunicipal Relations Committee gives approval for possible coal exploration near Buckhorn

A local council of governments whose mission is the renewable use of materials is entertaining proposals from a pair of energy firms for leasing land it owns for a solar project and for potentially strip mining coal. The Intermunicipal Relations Committee, which operates recycling programs for Altoona, Logan Township and Hollidaysburg, and which has a compost facility with lots of extra, unused ground near the Buckhorn, has been working for the past year and a half with a firm that is hoping to install a solar array; the committee also this week agreed to allow a coal mining company to ...