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Fire safety needs more attention

Fire and other emergency officials are rightly concerned about the rash of fires in this region during the first two months of 2022, some of which claimed lives in addition to inflicting extensive property damage. Every other right-thinking resident of Blair and surrounding counties should be concerned also. The second paragraph of a March 1 Mirror front-page article began this way: “Within the first eight weeks of the year, the region has recorded four fatal house fires, a dairy barn fire that killed dozens of cattle and a fire that destroyed a business’s local ...

Witherspoon most worthy of recognition

Shining rays of sun on some good news: The Central Blair Recreation Commission has made an excellent decision in asking Altoona City Council to name a basketball court at 13th Avenue and 19th Street for the late NAACP President Don Witherspoon. CBRC Executive Director Mike Hofer confirmed the intention at the organization’s annual Community Classic Dinner and Auction. Witherspoon was a driving force behind the refurbishment of the basketball courts, where many of the city’s past greats honed their skills. The improvements led to a renovation of the dilapidated court, construction ...

Witherspoon most worthy of recognition

Shining rays of sun on some good news: The Central Blair Recreation Commission has made an excellent decision in asking Altoona City Council to name a basketball court at 13th Avenue and 19th Street for the late NAACP President Don Witherspoon. CBRC Executive Director Mike Hofer confirmed the intention at the organization’s annual Community Classic Dinner and Auction. Witherspoon was a driving force behind the refurbishment of the basketball courts, where many of the city’s past greats honed their skills. The improvements led to a renovation of the dilapidated court, ...

Ideas needed to help address job vacancies

The message “Help Wanted” was one of the most visible and predominant of 2021 in the Southern Alleghenies region — indeed, across America — probably second only to some of the most important announcements tied directly to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the six Southern Alleghenies counties — Blair, Cambria, Bedford, Somerset, Huntingdon and Fulton — the two-word plea for workers has remained a fixture during the first months of 2022 as well. Well-run businesses and industries have a definite planning structure in place to run their operations. That includes a handle on the ...

Council needs more flexibility

Perhaps Altoona could benefit soon — and over the long term — if the Altoona Planning Code were to be revised to make it easier for businesses to acquire approval for development projects. Based on a Feb. 24 Mirror article, City Council members seem agreeable to considering revisions in response to perceptions — correct or incorrect — that it is hard to do business in the Mountain City. But before city leaders open themselves up to considering specific changes, some serious brainstorming ought to be on the agenda. Some of what needs to be considered: * What existing or ...

Improved rail service long overdue

The opinion that Amtrak service through this region ought to be improved was the central point of a Mirror editorial on Jan. 10, 2020, as two federal House of Representatives panels were about to begin work on a reauthorization bill to replace the FAST Act. FAST was a five-year surface transportation funding bill signed by President Barack Obama on Dec. 4, 2015. Most Americans did not envision in “New Year 2020” that a mere two years later a funding mechanism might be in place for making upgraded rail passenger service reality in what now is being described as “within the next ...