Trending
Shining rays of sun on some good news:
The Blair County Chamber of Commerce's Lifetime Achievement award is the most prestigious individual award a local business person can attain.
Over the 20-year history of the award, many of the community's giants in business have been honored.
Which is why we feel good for the 20th recipient, Joe Keller, founder of Keller Engineers of Hollidaysburg.
Keller, 68, will be recognized Oct. 17 at the Blair County Convention Center.
He was a Pennsylvania Small Business Person of the Year in 2008 and a Penn State University Alumni Fellow in 2016.
He graduated from Bishop Guilfoyle High School in 1972 and Penn State in 1976 with a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering.
Keller Engineers employs 70-plus people -- 20 of whom have 20 or more years of service.
A soft-spoken, humble gentleman who is a fixture at many of the community's nonprofit events that he and his firm support, Keller started his business in 1991 after serving as director of operations at P. Joseph Lehman Consulting Engineers.
He credits Lehman, among others, for providing him with a business foundation.
Following are the previous recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award:
Ernie Wissinger (2002), G. William Ward (2003), Stephen Sheetz (2004), Donald Devorris (2005), Willard Campbell (2006), John Wolf (2007), Lee Hite (2008), Donald Detwiler (2009), Michael McLanahan (2010), Barry Smith (2011), Fred Imler (2012), Ben Stapelfeld (2013), William Thompson Jr. (2014), Timothy Sissler (2015), Marty Marasco (2016), Harry Sickler (2017), Ann Benzel (2018), Rex Kaup (2019), Mark Barnhart (2021).
Distinguished company, to be sure.
Four ferrets being raised at the Altoona Public Library are participating in the Greatest Ferret Show on Earth, scheduled next month in Chicago.
The ferrets -- Draco, Maya, Apollo and Juniper -- are an attraction at the local library, according to children's services supervisor and ferret caretaker Kristy Wall.
The American Ferret Association learned of the local ferrets through its American Ferret Report publication.
We applaud Wall and the Altoona Library for its creativity and providing yet another avenue to reach our next generation.
The Altoona Curve just completed their 24th season, and the enthusiasm for the franchise still remains very strong.
The Curve averaged 4,330 fans this season -- they've never had a season under 4,000 per game -- and considering Altoona is one of the smallest markets in minor league baseball, that's quite impressive.
There's no question the Curve and Peoples Natural Gas Field represent one of our crown jewels and are a source of great entertainment and community pride, especially throughout the summer months.
It's nice to see that now into its third decade, the local team continues to be very well run and is not being taken for granted.