Erie native and University of Buffalo basketball player Sean Smiley is blogging his experiences this season. You can check it out here. We’ll also add it to our blog roll and blog browser. Good luck this season, Sean.
Ballots continue to be counted in many local races, including Erie County Executive. As of late yesterday afternon, Barry Grossman continued to have a slim lead over Mike Kerner. When an official announcement is made about the race, we’ll let you know. We’re also watching Crawford County results to see if Mike wins anything. If there was no one running in a particular race, he wrote himself in. Last time he did that, he almost won.
One thing we didn’t talk much about this week was the fact that this past election day, voters in Ohio approved 4 casinos to be built in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo. It will be interesting to see what effect this will have on Presque Isle Downs. We suspect casinos in Michigan and the Pittsburgh area will also see decreases in revenues. Do you think table gaming will help bring people to Presque Isle Downs or will the current slots and horse racing be enough?
Anthony Williams, 30, has been arrested in Erie on charges including robbery. His victim recognized Williams from somewhere, and realized they both attended Central back in the day and the victim was able to identify Williams from an old Central yearbook. Good thing I’m not in my senior year yearbook from McDowell. Class of 1994 = stunned.
The episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition that taped in Erie this past summer will finally air December 13 on ABC. For those of us who have ditched cable, it will also be available on Hulu. The episode will run 2 hours.
Governor Edward G. Rendell today said new state investments will allow an Erie County promotional products manufacturer to expand and create additional jobs, and help a Westmoreland County specialty door manufacturer consolidate its Pennsylvania operations. One of the projects approved today was a $460,500 loan to EIDCO Inc., on behalf of Grimm Industries Inc., to acquire and renovate the former Greenbrier
Industries building in Fairview, Erie County. The new facility will be used to produce Little Tikes products.
According to WJET, HERO BX has been awarded a $1,640,250 million grant from the Commonwealth Financing Authority. HERO BX is matching the award amount with its own funds for a total of $3,280,500. The money will be used to complete the company’s expansion project – increasing their yearly output of low-cost, high quality biodiesel, from 45 million gallons to 55 million gallons.
National Fuel Gas Company today announced consolidated earnings for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended September 30, 2009, of $27.0 million or $0.33 per share, and $100.7 million or $1.25 per share, respectively.
As a boy growing up in Erie’s Little Italy, Ron DiVecchio, 75, would rustle up his shoe shine box and walk the few blocks to Rex’s Restaurant at the corner of 16th and Walnut and wait outside for the chance to earn a dime. A single shoe shine bought Ron an eight-cent movie ticket and left a penny for candy and yet another for his piggybank. Life was good. DiVecchio’s story and others like his have been captured by Mercyhurst College students in Dr. Chris Magoc’s Introduction to Public History and Museum Studies class. The stories will be broodcast on cable access starting November 7. Mercyhurst needs to put these on YouTube.
Sports
Erie Otters forward Mike Liambas has been suspended for the remainder of the season by the OHL for a hit he gave last Friday. The Otters released this statement:
As he is a 20-year-old, Mike Liambas’ career in the OHL is over and while the team regrets that this stern response was necessary, as judged by Commissioner David Branch and the league, we respect the decision.
We would be remiss if we did not note in parting that Mike was a popular teammate and an able contributor to the team in his time with Erie. Mike is also an A+ student with an average in the high 90s, and was a selfless contributor to and very involved with local charities in the Erie area in his time with the Otters. He is an exemplary young man and we wish him well in his future endeavours.
More video from the game is here. We hope Ben Fanelli recovers and is able to take the ice again soon.
The Erie Otters are offering some game used jerseys for sale on eBay. You can find them here. All proceeds from this auction will benefit the Erie Otters Education Fund. I’m really happy for you and I’m gonna let you finish, David Shields, but Cory Pecker has the best game worn jersey of all time.
The NBA Development League Erie BayHawks have selected Donell Taylor of the University of Alabama- Birmingham. Undrafted out of college Taylor is a veteran of two seasons with the Washington Wizards. Taylor has spent the past couple of seasons playing in Greece and Belgium.
Gannon’s Kyle Goldcamp (Pittsburgh, Pa./Central Catholic) has been named to 2009-10 Erie Bayhawks’ training camp roster released this week.
Events
Learn how to incorporate the popular “Blue Ocean” strategy into your business at a lunch seminar, “Unlocking the Power of Blue Ocean Strategy,” on Friday, Nov. 13. Presented by the Advertising Federation of Northwest Pennsylvania (AFNWPA), the seminar will be held at the Manufacturer & Business Association Conference Center, 2171 West 38th Street, Erie.
The Blue Ocean Strategy is based on the internationally bestselling book by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, which contends that many businesses are wading in a “bloody red ocean” of competition, price wars and reduced margins. The strategy is structured around the idea that tomorrow’s leading companies will succeed not by battling competitors, but by creating “blue oceans” of uncontested market space ripe for growth, making the competition irrelevant.
In this seminar, Blue Ocean Certified Trainers Dan Monaghan and Amy Pontillo will explain the basic concepts, tools and methodologies behind Blue Ocean Strategy/Value Innovation and the building blocks needed to differentiate your business’s products and services in today’s competitive marketplace.
Cost for the seminar, which includes lunch, is $30 for AFNWPA members, $40 for non-members. Registration will begin at 11:45 a.m., with the lunch and presentation from 12 to 1 p.m.
Please register online by Nov. 10 at www.afnwpa.org.
