The Erie Zoo has now closed until March 1. They’ll save nearly $80,000 by closing. Next year is going to be a tough one at the park as the zoo will be losing $200,000 in gaming revenue dollars from Erie County. Animals = bummed.
VisitErie has released hotel tax figures for October of this year. October brought in $40,385, which was down 4% from the same time last year. For fiscal year 2009/10, $219,274 has been collected.
The hearing to determine if Jordan Brown will be put on trial as an adult was postponed yesterday. Brown, 12, is accused of killing his father’s fiancee, who was also pregnant. Brown is being held here in Erie.
Millcreek has received $491,000 of federal stimulus money to reimburse costs of replacing and repairing a roof on the streets department garage and for installation of solar panels on a different garage. Luckily for you Millcreek residents, you’ll be able to view how much energy those panels are generating on the township’s web site.
DC Streetsblog has an interesting look at GE Transportation and their plan to get an Amtrak contract that as of this time doesn’t exist. They write:
Convincing lawmakers to add funding for new Amtrak locomotives may sound like a tall order at a time when the Obama administration is seeking to embrace fiscal austerity, but GE has some influential allies. Pennsylvania Sens. Arlen Specter (D) and Bob Casey (D) joined Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA), who represents the Erie area, to introduce legislation in October that would offer a 30 percent tax credit for new locomotive purchases made before 2013.
Sad story from Corry where an 85-year-old man killed himself in the parking lot of the State Police barracks there. Russell Welser Jr. had been living in nearby Wattsburg.
Local blogger and ErieBlogs contributor Joel Natalie has a post about Jared Staszewski, or Erie, who is leading an effort to lobby Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis to hire a general manager for the team. They’ve put up a billboard and are collecting signatures on a petition. Browns fans need to organize something like this.
State Budget Secretary Mary Soderberg has sent a letter to Senate and House appropriations committee chairs urging immediate passage of the Capital Debt Act, House Bill 1418, to allow the commonwealth to resume payments for more than 1,000 ongoing capital projects across the state. Several projects in Erie are on the list waiting for funds, including the Erie Art Museum expansion and Metro Machine’s drydock and shipyard improvements.
HospitalityNet reports that 18 hotel and water parks opened across the country this year. Splash Lagoon of course is one of the such parks across the country and local company American Resort Management operates the Castle Rock Resort in Branson, which opened in 2009.
Sports
The Edinboro wrestling team remained 17th in the NWCA/USA Today Division I Coaches Poll and 19th in the InterMat Division I Top 25 this week.
Edinboro University assistant wrestling coach Kyle Cerminara recently participated in the USA/Russia Dual at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. Cerminara was one of three Team USA wrestlers to post victories, as Russia handed the United States a 4-3 defeat in the senior freestyle meet.
Events
The Energy Roundtable for Northwestern Pennsylvania will tackle renewable energy – including available systems and technologies, as well as site-specific considerations and cost effectiveness – during their next quarterly meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday, December 3, 2009, at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center, 301 Peninsula Drive. To register or for more information, call 814/456-6299, fax 814/459-6058 or e-mail jmiller@nwirc.org. There is no charge for the event.
Playing Riley Finn, Sarah Michelle Gellar’s boyfriend on the hit TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” from 1999 to 2000, may have gotten Marc Blucas noticed in Hollywood, but the former star center for Girard High School’s basketball team was a local standout long before capturing that breakthrough role. Blucas returns to Erie to tell his personal story – “The Dream and the Drive” – on Thursday, Dec. 17, as a guest of the Mercyhurst College Communication Department. His talk, which is free and open to the public, begins at 6:30 p.m. in Walker Recital Hall on the Mercyhurst campus.
