ErieBlogs.com: Erie PA News and Events for Tuesday January 17, 2006

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Erie PA News and Events for Tuesday January 17, 2006

Posted by Dennis on January 17, 2006

I saw on WSEE that the Erie Times-News is laying-off 24 employees. For those of you under age 45, the Times-News publishes a newspaper, a daily publication on folded sheets that contains news and articles and advertisements. There was a mention of a press release but I haven’t seen one yet. They must have sent it to the TV stations by fax. A fax was popular in pre-Internet days. Think pdf in paper form. One facsimile machine sends a transmition by phone line to another facsimile machine to create a duplicate in paper form, a fax. For those that don’t know how to distribute a press release via the internet, I-Newswire.com offers free press release distribution. They welcome you to submit your press releases for events or news free of charge. It’s how I receive much of the info for this blog.

“Bud” Post has passed away. He grew up in Erie but spent most of his life in Franklin, PA. His claim to fame was winning the lottery and then filing for bankruptcy only a couple of years later. He was conviced of trying to shot a bill collector and spent time in prison. Post won $16.2 million and spent nearly the entire amount.

John Allin, the former head of Snow Management Group of Erie and then Symbiot Business Group’s snow removal operations, recently began his new job as president of Snow Dragon, a company formed as a partnership between Allin and Park Ohio, a Cleveland, Ohio-based diversified manufacturing company, to develop and build snow melting units for mid-sized snow contractors. Allin will oversee Snow Dragon’s sales, marketing and manufacturing operations. Allin merged his Snow Management Group of Erie with Symbiot Business Group in late 2004. A year later, Symbiot announced the Erie operations center was closing.

Erie Plastics recently implemented an advanced stacking and packaging system that takes packaging technology to a whole new level. They have implemented a first-of-its-kind, robotic packaging technology. The fully automated “work cell” entails high-speed lid stacking from two injection molding presses, while robotic equipment makes and tapes the bottoms of cartons, fills them with stacked lids and closes carton tops. “Through this technology, we have significantly streamlined lid production, which translates into both improved quality for high-volume products and customer cost savings,” said P C Hoop Roche, CEO and Chairman of Erie Plastics.

Jon P Mihalic was named to the PMI Power 50, a list of the top 50 prolific leaders in project management as chosen by the Project Management Institute. Mihalic is a senior associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, a management consulting firm in McLean, Va. Other executives named to the list include Bill Gates. Mihalic graduated from Gannon University in Erie and received an MBA from Youngstown State University.

Sarah from Erie moved to South Bend, Indiana after graduating from Grove City College. If you’d like to read a cute love story about someone else from Erie that has joined her in South Bend, take a look at this post on her blog.

As part of Gannon’s Executive on Campus program, the university will today welcome back to campus, Ralph J Pontillo. Pontillo graduated from Gannon University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1985. Currently, Ralph serves as the President and CEO of the Manufacturers’ Association of Northwest Pennsylvania, the largest regional organization of its kind in the United States. The MANP serves more than 4,500 member companies that employ more than 120,000 people.

The Gem City Concert Band will be holding their Winter Concert tonight, Tuesday evening, January 17 at 7:30 at the St. John’s Parish Center, adjacent to St John Lutheran’s Church, 2216 Peach Street. Under the direction of Betty McKinney, the 40-member concert band will perform selections including Young Person’s Guide to John Williams, Armed Forces Salute, Sousa’s The Thunderer, and others. The concert is free and open to the public. Donations will be accepted. Please plan to attend. There is plenty of free off-street parking.

Gannon University’s Erie Chamber Orchestra, conducted and directed by Bruce Morton Wright, will perform on Friday, Jan 20. This performance will be a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr and will feature the Shiloh Baptist Church Choir and evangelist DM Jamerson. The concert is free and open to the public and will begin at 7:30 pm at St Patrick Church, 130 East Fourth Street.

The Erie Engineering Societies Council (EESC) will sponsor its 42st annual Engineering Exposition, Expo Erie 2006, Feb 21-23 at the Erie Civic Center Tullio Arena on French Street between 8th and 9th Streets. This year’s show hours are Tuesday, 3 to 8 pm; Wednesday, 11 am to 8 pm and Thursday, 11 am to 4 pm. Admission is free. I went last year and it sucked. All it was, was companies selling equipment to each other. Years ago, when I was going to Gannon, this was a fun, exciting event. I couldn’t wait to go. It used to convince high school students to become engineers. I don’t expect MythBusters but they need to make the show interesting.

Lake Erie Speedway has teamed up with the Image Sports Network (no web site) to televise six (6) local racing events and twelve (12) additional half hour racing shows during the 2006 race season. The six racing events will be filmed and then aired the following Thursday at 7:30 pm in the Erie area on Time Warner Cable channel 20 and Adelphia Cable channel 12. The racing broadcasts and shows will be hosted by Mike Ferguson, a LES staff member. The racing broadcasts and shows will cover numerous aspects including the crash of the week, racing, interviews, update of driver point standings and a preview of the upcoming racing action.