Pennsylvania State Police strongly believe they have the persons responsible for setting fire to the Gudgeonville bridge back in November. Joshua Bell of Albion and Jeffrey Gleason of Conneautville, both in their early 20’s, are not only suspected for the arson of the historic covered bridge but also for taking part in a larger crime spree conducted in both Erie and Crawford counties. Congratulations to the state police for finding these criminals. (Photo credit to butterflywitch212.)
The Plaza Cinemas in the West Erie Plaza will close next Tuesday. We assume its tough to compete with the behemoth that is Tinseltown and all its stadium seating and stuff. Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but we wonder if the theater had switched to showing less mainstream fare and more indie and other smaller pictures, business would have been better. Tinseltown eschews the smaller indie pictures to show Iron Man on 10 screens, but look at the attendance Mercyhurst gets for its film program. There’s an audience for that type of film. We’d go.
Erie has a connection to the Bernard Madoff financial scandal. Harry Markopolos, a native of Erie, is responsible for tipping off the SEC which started the investigation into Madoff’s money scheme. Quoting actor Steve Zahn from the movie That Thing You Do, “You gotta be quick with me! I’m from Erie, PA!” Too bad the SEC didn’t listen sooner to Markopolos instead of being a bunch of wise guys and calling around the office “Marco!”
The Cafaro Company, who owns the Millcreek Mall amongst other properties, has invested, along with the PA REIT, $30 million in the struggling Boscov’s Department Store chain. The privately held, Youngstown, Ohio-based, Cafaro Co., which owns more than 34 million square feet of retail space, invested $20 million in the retailer through Cathco Diversified Fund, LP, owned by members of the Cafaro family.
We secretly love the quarreling going on at County Government central. This week, Sue Weber went off about “cronyism,” charging County Executive Mark DiVecchio with creating a new position, Human Services Administration, with a salary of $76,000. The leading candidate for that position? DiVecchio friend and current director of administration Sean Wiley. To his credit, DiVecchio withdrew the topic before County Council met, but still. With all the layoffs and budget woes the county is facing, we’re not sure now’s the time to be creating new positions.
Parents: a quick tip. If you haven’t had a talk with your children about not taking nude photos of themselves with their cellphones, now’s the time. An 8th grader at JS Wilson Middle School is learning that lesson the hard way after taking a few shots of her self and sending to some friends. As you can guess, it took just a few minutes for everyone in the school to have them. The phenomena is known as “sexting” and 1 in 5 teenage girls have admitted to taking nude photos of themselves and making them publicly available.
Speaking of children in school, 16-year-old Brandy Lyons who stabbed a fellow East High student was in court yesterday. Lyons will be charged as an adult for the extremely violent attack. The wound she inflicted was four inches deep, cutting bone and an artery. While you’re telling your kid not to take nude pictures of themselves, remind them that stabbing other people is a no-no as well.
Judge Shad Connelly has ruled in favor of the Erie Zoning Board and their opinion that the 2 boilers planned for the Erie Renewable Energy plant (the tire burning place) are too high. The current limit is 100 feet. ERE will appeal the decision with the Zoning Board on December 23.
Newline Creations, a company that specializes in web site development and content management solutions, was recently selected for the 2008 Best of Erie Award in the Computer Software Developers category by the U.S. Local Business Association (USLBA). The USLBA “Best of Local Business” award was created to recognize outstanding local businesses throughout the country.
The Mercyhurst College Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is exploding with excitement this year; among the catalysts are a record number of majors, a growing number of alumni landing topnotch research jobs and entering leading doctoral programs, and the debut of a state-of-the-art organic chemistry lab.
Sports
The Erie BayHawks play the Dakota Wizards tonight in another home game at the Tullio. Tomorrow the Hawks will be on the road playing the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
The Otters are home this weekend playing the Guelph Storm tomorrow night, and the Sudbury Wolves on Saturday.
The Erie RiverRats plan on taking advantage of the recent announcement that the Arena Football League will go dormant and not play in 2009. The Erie RiverRats, which are part of the American Indoor Football Association, are unaffected by the AFL’s announcement. The RiverRats general manager Jeff Moran had this to say,
…the Arena Football League shutting down will have nothing to do with the operations of the AIFA. We have a lot of exciting things planned for our fans in 2009, and our future is looking more positive than ever. Without arena football there is going to be a void there that needs to be filled, football fans will still feel the desire to see and be a part of the indoor game once spring comes and this may help minor league football teams like us.
Joe Jones and Gil Cummings combined for 43 points to lead Edinboro to a 75-62 win at Charleston(WV) on Wednesday night. The victory boosted Edinboro to 7-0, the best start since the 1989-90 season, the first under head coach Greg Walcavich. The Golden Eagles fell to 5-3.
The Gannon men’s basketball team, ranked No. 4 in the latest National Basketball Coaches Association (NABC)/Division II Top 25, continues a nine-game homestand Thursday, December 18 against Urbana at the Hammermill Center. Game time is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Events
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, will hold its fall 2008 commencement ceremony on Friday, December 19, in the college’s Junker Center. The ceremony begins at 6:00 p.m. and will confer eight associate, 162 bachelor’s and 20 graduate degrees. Summer graduates participating in the ceremony have received an additional five associate degrees, 46 bachelor’s degrees, and 23 graduate degrees.
View this past Sunday’s comprehensive events list to see a list of events for the week and months ahead. If you would like your event posted here, please contact us via our online form.
I often thought the same thing about WEP. We liked going there b/c of the parking & the lack of crowds, even though the seats were really uncomfortable.
I grew up in that theatre – My father managed it and was the projectionist – I started as an usher when it was the Dipson's Plaza Theatre – Then it was owned by the Cinemette Corporation – I then worked the concession stand back when you had to add all the items together in your head for each customer – We had to mix the coke products because the syrup came in wax cardboard gallon containers and we had to pour it into the tanks so it could combine – then I was an apprentice projectionist –
The theatre was beautiful. Art deco themed throughout the place. The balcony was really wonderful, but was rarely used. Cove lighting – velvet seats and beautiful carpets. The original box office was the little cove that is outside to the left of the front door – The original concession stand was where the video games are on the north west corner inside.
Then the company decided that it should be made into a four-plex similar to Cinema World on Pittsburgh avenue. I worked on the crew that cut up the theatre and turned it into four theatres. (Cinema World is now offices and light industrial space i believe)
All the seats were torn out. I wish I had kept a few. The front walls and screen were taken out – hundreds of wheelbarrow loads of concrete were taken outside to dumpsters. Many large holes were dug to place the support catwalks that make up the second floor hallways and projectionist booths. Then walls were built and dry walled – new screens, seats – a new concession stand…
I then continued as an apprentice projectionist for a while – the original theatre had carbon arc projectors which were similar to the one's the Warner had – then they were changed in favor of a zenon bulb unit – When the theater was remodeled into the four-plex – it was decided to update the existing projectors for new “platter” systems – each movie was assembled on a platter and then wound through the projector and back to a second platter and wound again – this eliminated the need for rewinding reels of movies.
I spent many wonderful days in that building – I knew the building as good or better than anyone alive from the roof to behind the screen – I am sad that I did not get to keep anything from the building as a memento.
It was going to close once before – and was given a small reprieve – it is sad – It never should have been cut up – It was every bit as glamorous as its cousin downtown. Many events could have happened there if it was not destroyed just to make more money –
It will be sad to see what it is turned into.