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Company covers digester shortfall for Altoona Water Authority

The company that developed the anaerobic digester project at the Altoona Water Authority’s Westerly Sewer Treatment Plant several years ago recently paid the authority $551,000 to make up for a shortfall in operational income from the digester for 2025 — a shortfall that reflects the firm’s difficulties in obtaining sufficient high-strength waste from customers for the digester to process. Energy Systems Group took on the project as part of a state energy conservation initiative, with a guarantee that for 20 years, participants like the authority would at least break even on ...

School choice bills stirring debate

Two education bills introduced only days ago are moving quickly through the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, drawing sharp disagreement over whether they would bring needed accountability to school-choice programs or undermine funding for students who use them. House Bill 2632 would overhaul Pennsylvania’s education tax-credit scholarship system beginning in 2027-28, keeping the $680 million cap but changing how the money is allocated. The bill would create a new economically disadvantaged scholarship category, adjust donor incentives and impose new oversight requirements on ...

Victim advocacy groups urge timely budget

Domestic violence and sexual assault survivor advocates gathered in the Pennsylvania Capitol rotunda on Tuesday, calling on legislators to pass the state budget on time with survivors’ needs at the forefront and warning of the consequences of last year’s stalemate. The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence is advocating for an increase in the Department of Human Services domestic violence line item of $8 million to bring the total to $31 million. The Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect is calling for an increase in the DHS rape crisis line item of $12.5 million to ...

Summer solstice

This is the sun’s time to shine: Sunday is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Sunday is the solstice, marking the start of astronomical summer north of the equator. It’s the opposite in the Southern Hemisphere, where it is the shortest day of the year and winter will ...

Lake Altoona, Impounding Dam rubber dams in good shape

A recent inspection of the inflatable rubber dams installed seven years ago atop the spillways for Lake Altoona and the Impounding Dam near Horseshoe Curve showed the rubber dams are in fundamentally good condition and could last another 25 or 30 years, according to authority General Manager Mark Perry. That “good news” assuages authority fears that the rubber dams would need replaced far sooner than would normally be expected, due to recent cracking and leakage of air, as reported at a meeting in May. The cracking of the rubber atop the Impounding Dam, however, is only ...