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Erie PA News and Events for Wednesday December 14, 2005

Ion Health announced that they are going out of business putting 90 people out of a job. The private Boston-based investment firm JW Childs Associates LP funded the Medicaid/ Medicare HMO. The company cited lower reimbursements from the state but the problem they had was signing up clients. They did a poor job marketing. Ion had said by this time they employ 200 people in the Erie area. In December 0f 2004, Ion announced they were moving their corporate headquarters, the high paying jobs, from Erie to outside Pittsburgh in Wexford PA. That was a major red flag.
Ion Health was to be a major anchor of the Koehler Brewery Square Project. Developer Brad Fairfield was smart enough not to put all his eggs in one basket and signed up Cornerstone Healthcare to move into the Koehler project. Cornerstone is also a Medicaid HMO and will benefit from Ion Health going out of business.

Leon Ray Livingston of Erie PA was the most famous hobo in America in the 1920’s and proud of it. Someone called him the A Number 1 hobo and he was then known as A-No 1. He travelled coast to coast by hopping railroad cars estimating he racked up over a half million miles. Livingston said all the money he spent in his lifetime was $7.61. Ironic that his cheap ways made him wealthy. The grade school dropout had over a dozen books published. He palled around with writer Jack London and “From Coast to Coast With Jack London” was a best seller. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft asked to meet him. Livingston ran away from home at the age of 10 because he did something, he couldn’t recall exactly what it was, and feared that his parents would punish him.

The most difficult job in Erie has got to be as an accountant for RentWay. I went to school for accounting and it takes me a calculator, a dozen sheets of paper and half a day to figure out their earnings statements. You’ve got to give it to William McDonnell, Rent-Way’s Senior Vice President and CFO, for putting a postive spin on weak numbers saying “We achieved over 99% of the bottom range of our full year rental revenue forecast and hit the high end of our full year operating income forecast.” For the fiscal 2005 fourth quarter, the company reported consolidated revenues of $125.1 million, up from $121.3 million in the same quarter of last year. Revenues from the company’s core rental business (which excludes the company’s dPi Teleconnect unit) were $121.5 million, up 4.6% from $116.2 million in the same quarter last year. For the quarter, same store revenues increased 1.4%. Consolidated operating income was $3.0 million, down from $5.5 million in the same period last year. Consolidated net income was $4.3 million versus consolidated net income of $3.9 million in last year’s quarter. Net income allocable to common stockholders was $3.8 million compared with $3.3 million in the 2004 fourth quarter. Net income was positively impacted by a $9.0 million adjustment in the 2005 quarter and a $7.2 million adjustment in the 2004 quarter related to the conversion feature of the company’s preferred stock. This positive adjustment is reversed in the calculation of net income per diluted share, resulting in a net loss per diluted share of $(0.16) in the 2005 quarter and $(0.11) in last year’s quarter.

Matt Kramer purchased Porters Restaurant and Tap Room at Erie’s Union Station in US Bankruptcy Court. Hope he can make a go of it. I used to love going there.

Former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Tom Ridge of Erie PA has an Op-Ed piece in the Washington Times chiding Congress for not following through on master plan to organize the Department of Homeland Security by creating regional offices. Ridge wrote “As part of the regional plan, New Orleans is earmarked as a regional hub. Had that hub been in place, trusted relationships among federal, state and local partners would have spirited life-saving actions sooner rather than later.”

The Marine Corps Reserve Erie Toys For Tots program is asking for your help. Their goal this season is to make sure that every child in Northwestern Pennsylvania has a gift to open on Christmas. Please Help by Donating new, unwrapped toys at one of the designated drop off locations or at one of their events where you can help.

This is the 47th year the Lake Erie Ballet will present the holiday favorite “The Nutcracker.” Performances will be held at the Warner Theatre December 16th at 7 pm, 17th at 7 pm and 18th at 2:30 pm. Tickets are $15 to $30.

Penn State Behrend will hold their Fall 2005 Commencement on Saturday December 17 at Noon. Dr Mary Beth Pinto, associate professor of marketing and Director of the Center for Credit and Consumer Research at Behrend, will be the Commencement speaker.

Michael Blunden of the Erie Otters had a goal and an assist as the Red team beat the White 4-0 in yesterdays Canadian junior hockey team’s intra-squad game. Erie’s Ryan O’Marra hit the post in the third period in the closest the White squad came to scoring. Both Blunden and O’Marra should make the 22-player Canadian team and be lost to the Otters for weeks for the World Junior Championships.

Posted by Dennis at December 14, 2005 7:08 AM

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Posted by: Dan at December 15, 2005 10:50 AM

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