« This Is Erie 8 - Cherry Street Pier | Main | Erie PA News and Events for Saturday February 3, 2007 »

Erie PA News and Events for Friday February 2, 2007

The city is taking away a $300,000 state for the proposed grocery store at 19th and Parade Streets. The grant must be used by June. The city wants to use the money to demolish the Warren Radio building at 14th and French Streets. The Erie Redevelopment Authority wants to have townhouse built at that location. Invest Erie Community Development Corporation was formed in 1999 for the sole purpose of building a grocery store and plaza at 19th and Parade. The City of Erie gave the group more than $450,000 in Erie taxpayer money. That money is gone. Riesbeck’s Foods has repeatedly said that they will locate a Mor For Less Food Store at the site. All they need is the building to lease. Much of the money that should have been spent in construction has gone to salaries of Invest Erie Community Development Corporation officials. The land is vacant but at least the money did create a couple of high paying jobs. The City of Erie owns the property and refused to sell it to the group because they can’t get financing to build. Invest Erie Community Development Corporation then sued the city - using the same money the city game them for the project. Matthew Pisano is still receiving a paycheck as the current head of Invest Erie. Past head of Invest Erie Community Development Corporation Matt Selker was even rewarded with his outstanding work of five years of not getting the store built with a job by Erie County Executive Mark DiVecchio.

Three people from Erie PA were each charged with two felonies in Nebraska Thursday after being arrested along Interstate 80 with 30 pounds of marijuana and nearly a pound of cocaine. Pierre A Jones, 24, Jamie D Pullium, 25, and Danitra A Johnson, 24, all of Erie, were each charged with possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute and possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute. The street value of the drugs was about $40,000. The trio was traveling from Arizona to Pennsylvania. A conviction of the cocaine charge carries a sentence of up to 50 years in prison, and the marijuana charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Luke Luszcak, a chef at Boston’s The Gourmet Pizza in Erie, didn’t realize he’d be making such a difference in the lives of Saint Vincent Health Center’s youngest patients. But he is. From Feb 9 through Valentine’s Day, Luke will be baking heart-shaped pizzas for customers to enjoy while dining in or taking home. Boston’s will donate one dollar for each pizza sale to the Children’s Miracle Network. That’s where Luke’s story comes full circle. He was a miracle baby nearly 20 years ago. “Luke was born on October 6, 1987, three months early, and weighed just 1 pound 13 ounces,” said Robin Luszcak, Luke’s mom. “I was rushed by ambulance to West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh for Caesarean delivery. That’s what happened twenty years ago. Look how far we’ve come! Today, babies like Luke, stay right here at Saint Vincent.” While Robin came back home to Erie not long after delivering Luke, he needed to stay in the intensive care unit in Pittsburgh. Twenty two days later, Luke was transported back to Saint Vincent’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where Robin and her husband Ronald could stay by his side. Robin remembers Gayle Furhman, one of Luke’s nurses, taking excellent care of him. “I still see Gayle,” said Robin, who also works at Saint Vincent. “And whenever we have a chance to talk, we reminisce about the time Luke was in the NICU - all 64 days of time. What makes Saint Vincent’s NICU so special is the way the physicians and nurses genuinely care about the babies and about their families.” And the Luszcaks are all about family. James Vanderhoot is not just the general manager of the Erie Boston’s location, he is also Luke’s uncle. “We are excited to team up with Children’s Miracle Network to help with its mission of saving and improving the lives of children, like Luke,” said James. “Boston’s stores and employees look forward to our Valentine’s fundraiser every year because it gives us a chance to help those in need in the local communities where we live and work.” “I think it’s great that I have a chance to give back to the kids,” said Luke. “I would do anything I could to help the children in the hospital. And right now, it’s making pizzas.” Carrying on the tradition of its parent company, Boston Pizza in Canada, Boston’s began selling the specialty pizzas and paper hearts in 1999 as a way to give back to local charities. Over the years, Boston Pizza and Boston’s collectively have sold more than 360,000 heart-shaped pizzas and donated more than $500,000 to local charities. To participate in this year’s fundraiser, visit Boston’s The Gourmet Pizza at 8091 Peach Street across from the Econo Lodge, or call (814) 217-1140 to place an order or for more information. In 1986 Saint Vincent Health Center was selected to join the Children’s Miracle Network. Together, Saint Vincent and the hundreds of Children’s Miracle Network corporate sponsors and individual donors have raised more than $2 million to help children throughout Erie County. All funds raised locally stay in Erie

Rathmann Fruit Farm was awarded a $7,500 grant from the state for high-efficiency geothermal heating equipment. Grants, awarded under the Small Business Advantage Grant Program, provide a 50-percent match of up to $7,500 for equipment or processes that reduce energy consumption, promote pollution prevention and increase profitability. The Small Business Advantage grant program is open to small business owners whose business or facility is located in Pennsylvania. An eligible applicant must be a for-profit business enterprise that is a corporation, limited liability company, partnership, sole proprietorship or other legal entity that has no more than 100 employees and is a separate legal business entity at the time the application is submitted. Applicants may be manufacturers or service providers.

Kevin Beech made 56 saves through regulation and overtime and turned aside another seven of nine in the shootout as the Erie Otters beat the Windsor Spitfires 3-2 in an Ontario Hockey League game played last night in front of 2,801 at the Windsor Arena. Zack Torquato, Shayne Taylor and Josh Kidd, with the eventual decider, were successful in the nine-round shootout, the longest in Otters franchise history. Stanislav Polodna and Torquato scored for the Otters in regulation. Torquato’s goal was just the second in Erie franchise history scored while two men short. Tyler Rennette scored the other on December 16, 1998 against the Guelph Storm. The Otters improved to 13-34-1-2 with the win.

The Gannon men’s basketball team was held without a point for the final 9:40 of regulation and fell 58-44 at Michigan Tech Thursday evening in the opening game of a weekend road trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The Gannon women’s basketball team fell behind 28-12 and could never recover as the Lady Knights dropped a 75-61 loss at Michigan Tech Thursday evening in the first of two games in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Will Washington hit 6-of-10 shots from 3-point range and finished with 24 points in Northern Michigan’s 82-69 victory over the Mercyhurst mens’ basketball team.

Northern Michigan opened Thursday’s women’s basketball game against Mercyhurst by scoring 17 of the first 23 points and held off any Laker charge by making 30-of-37 free-throws as the Wildcats beat Mercyhurst 80-64.

David Sedmak was named the new head football coach at Mason High School in Mason, OH. Sedmak previously spent 13 years as the head football coach at Shaker Heights High School. Sedmak was a three-year starter for the Allegheny College football team, where he was named athlete of the year for the 1980-1981 season. He also wrestled for two seasons at Allegheny.

Drew Astorino of General McLane announced he has accepted a scholarship from Penn State. Coaches from Penn State visited him at school last week and when Joe Paterno called him, he accepted the offer.

“The Piano Lesson” will be performed at the Erie Playhouse February 2-3, 8-11, 14-18. For tickets call (814) 454-2852 ext 0.

The Roadhouse Theatre production of “The Last of the Red Hot Lovers” will run Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm through February 10. Admission: Regular seating $12, Riser seating $15, VIP table seating $20. Reservations can be made by phone at 814.456.5656. The Roadhouse Theatre 145 West 11th Street, Box Office hours: 2-6 pm Tuesday - Saturday. The Theater accepts cash, checks, Visa, MasterCard and Discover. It has been twenty years since Scott McClelland toured the country in Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues. After 625 performances of that Tony award winning play, Mr. Simon’s timing and comedic style had become part of McClelland’s acting arsenal. Now for the first time since Biloxi Blues the actor returns to a play by the greatest comic writer of the American Stage. The show is being directed by his wife Kim McClelland who acted in this same play on the stage at 1505 State Street several years before the McClelland’s met.

The 20-member Gem City Jazz Ensemble will present their winter concert on Tuesday, February 6, from 7:30 pm - 9 pm at St. John Parish Center, adjacent to St. John Lutheran’s Church, 2216 Peach Street. Under the direction of Tim McKinney, the jazz ensemble will perform many great jazz standards and big band favorites, including My Funny Valentine, Moten Swing, In the Stone, and Girl Talk. Plenty of off-street parking is available. The concert is free and open to the public; free-will offerings will be accepted.

Mercyhurst College piano faculty member Nathan Hess has asked two of his former colleagues at SUNY Fredonia to be his guests in the fourth faculty recital of the year, titled “Nathan Hess and Friends.” The recital is Thursday, Feb 8, at 8 pm in Walker Recital Hall; it’s free and open to the public. Father Sean Duggan, a concert pianist and a monk in the Order of St. Benedict, and cellist Natasha Farny will perform two works by Beethoven for cello and piano: the set of Variations on a Theme from Handel’s Judas Maccabeus and the Sonata in D Major, Op 102, No 2. Farny and Duggan are performing Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano throughout the region, and are excited to share their insights into his music with the Mercyhurst and Erie communities.

First Class, an exhibit featuring exemplary works by Erie Art Museum instructors and students, will open at the Erie Art Museum’s Annex Gallery, 423 State Street, on Friday, Feb 9 and run through Feb 13. A free public reception for this exhibit will be held on Friday, Feb 9 from 7-9 pm. Art is a participatory activity. Through classes at the Museum, ordinary folks try their hand at artmaking, with the help of some of Erie’s most distinguished artists. Included are works in watercolor, jewelry, acrylic, photography and ceramics by Museum instructors Deborah Sementelli-Hoenes, Fran Schanz, Wilda Sundberg, Christine French, Kathy Umlauf, Aaron Young, Jan and Dan Neibauer, Art Becker, Esther Hong and their students. Opening night includes a two-hour delight of demonstrations and hands-on opportunities guaranteed to stimulate the inner-artist. Visitors can throw-clay on a wheel, watch a weaving or watercolor demonstration, see a bellydancer in action and much more. The Erie Art Museum is located a 411 State Street in downtown Erie, Pa. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 11 am-5 pm and Sunday, 1-5 pm. Admission is free for members, free on Wednesdays, $4 for adults, $3 for senior citizens and students and $2 for children under 12. One year memberships to the Erie Art Museum are $15 for students and senior citizens, $35 for individuals, and $65 for families. Guided group tours for adults or students are available for all major exhibitions.

Kids as Curators, an exhibit celebrating the stuff of youth will open at the Erie Art Museum Annex Gallery, 423 State Street, on Friday, Feb 9 and run through March 24. A free public reception for this exhibit will be held on Friday, Feb 9 from 7-9 pm. Musical instruments constructed of found objects, a sunset collaged with collected paraphernalia, brain maps and related silhouettes - these are the divergent paths taken by local middle school students from Wayne, St Boniface and Walnut Creek Middle Schools, while curating and designing a showcase featuring their personal predilections. “Since September, these students have worked with art, social studies, science and language art teachers learning how to apply the museum process to the basic concepts of their curriculum,” said Erie Art Museum Education and Folk Art Director Kelly Armor. “Their distinctive youthful playfulness spills out in their selection, evaluation, interpretation, and presentation of their objects of interest.”

Mezzo soprano Savanity Davis, a senior music education major at Mercyhurst College, will bring the sweet sounds of diversity to Black History Month with a concert of her own making on Friday, Feb 9, at 8 pm, in Walker Recital Hall. Since her freshman year, Savanity has embraced a personal mission: to learn as much as possible about the contributions of African Americans to the world of classical and operatic music. Now, just three months away from graduating, she hopes to share her discoveries with fellow students. Most of the songs Savanity will perform are either by black composers or are based on poems by black authors; for example, “Song to a Dark Virgin,” based on a Langston Hughes poem. Other concert highlights include poetry readings by friends and family, a slide show presentation, and commentary by Savanity’s grandmother, who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in St. Augustine, Fla, in 1960. Mercyhurst assistant professor of music Louisa Jonason is advising Savanity on producing her event and will assist her in making commemorative CDs. Proceeds from the sale of the CDs will benefit Mercyhurst’s Diversity 101 organization.

Works by seven talented young choreographers will be featured when The Mercyhurst College Dance Department presents “Raw Edges IX” on Saturday, Feb 10, at 2 and 7 pm and Sunday, Feb 11, at 2 pm in the Mary D’Angelo Performing Arts Center on the Mercyhurst campus. Tickets are $10 general admission and can be purchased at the door or by calling 824-3000. Each performance will include an intermission chat during which some of the young choreographers will speak about their new works and answer questions from the audience.

The Family Fun Movies in February at the Big Green Screen Theater in the Tom Ridge Environmental Center are Finding Nemo on Sunday Feb 11 and Monsters Inc on Sunday Feb 18. Showtimes are at 1:30 pm. Tickets $4 each.

Twelve years ago as the country of Rwanda descended into a 100-day orgy of human slaughter, one man found the courage to save more than 1,200 people. Paul Rusesabagina, dubbed by some as the “Oskar Schindler of Africa,” quietly sheltered them in the luxury hotel he managed in the central African nation. He will tell his amazing story, the basis of the Oscar-nominated film “Hotel Rwanda,” on Monday, Feb 12, at 8:30 pm in the Mary D’Angelo Performing Arts Center (PAC) at Mercyhurst College. Rusesabagina’s visit, sponsored by Mercyhurst Student Government, is free and open to the public. Tickets are now available to the college community, with students afforded one free ticket, and faculty and administrators, two tickets. The general public may pick up tickets - three per person - beginning Tuesday, Feb 6, at the PAC box office. For ticket information, call 824-3000.

90.5 WERG and the Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity of Gannon University invite you to Rock and Roll-up Your Sleeve by donating blood to the American Red Cross on February 14, 2007 from 10 am to 4 pm in Room 219 of the Waldron Campus Center. “Put your bleeding heart to good use” this Valentines Day by donating blood. The Waldron Campus Center is located on West 7th street on the campus of Gannon University. For more information contact Deb Carlson at carlson011@gannon.edu .

The Rodger Montgomery Blues Band will be performing Thursday, February 15 from 7-9pm at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center as part of the Hot Winter Blues and Jazz Series. Blues and Jazz music lovers will enjoy great music along with an assortment of light hors ‘d’oeuvres. BYOB - Bring Your Own Bottle of wine or beer to top off the evening.Tickets can be purchased in advance for $10 at the Nature Shop & Gallery or at the door for $12.50 each. Call (814) 833-6050 for more details.

Zanny Minton Beddoes, The Economist’s Washington-based economics editor, will speak at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, on Thursday, February 22. Minton Beddoes’ address, “Fragile Prosperity: The Outlook for the US and World Economy,” is part of the college’s annual Speaker Series. It will be held at 7:30 pm in the Reed Union Building’s McGarvey Commons and is free and open to the public.

The Erie Engineering Societies Council EXPO Erie will be held Feb 20-22, 2007 at the Erie Civic Center Tullio Arena.

On February 24-25, the Tom Ridge Environmental Center will be the location of the 2007 Erie Winter Carnival, a fun-filled event weekend for all ages. Highlights include professional ice carvings, carved by some of the greatest ice carvers in the world! Watch the Speed Carving Competitions or check out delicate ice-art carvings created with chain saws and fine carving tools. Amazing pieces of art right created before your eyes! Take in one of the great featured films that weekend including Everest, Lewis and Clark, or the special weekend featured film, March of the Penguins. All on the BIG Green Screen. Children can also enjoy special activities including face painting, winter craft, storytelling and a magic show. Walk through the local artist Art Show and stop into the Nature Shop and Gallery for unique shopping options and great winter gifts. Check out all the great exhibits highlighting Presque Isle State Park. And remember to grab a bite to eat with specialty carnival-type foods and other great items from the Sunset Cafe.

The 9th Annual MECA United Cerebral Palsy Barstool Open is set to take place on Saturday, February 24, 2007. Last years event had 1200 participants and raised $30000. Yes, 1200 people out drinking in downtown Erie on a cold February afternoon. Teams of 4 will compete in golf at 9 bars in downtown Erie PA. The putting exhibition contest takes place on holes with wacky designs. This year there are 14 bars participating. Click here for a registration form. Mail the registration form and enclose your check for $100, $25 per person, made payable to: MECA United Cerebral Palsy, 3745 West 12th St, Erie, PA 16505.

On Feb 25, the Brewerie at Union Station in Erie hosts the Erie Illusion women’s football team Beer Fest.

The 25th annual Erie Sport and Travel Expo will be held at Family First Sports Park in Erie, Pa March 2-4. The show features fishing and hunting lodges, guides, outfitters, fishing charters and sporting goods vendors and boat and recreational vehicle dealers. General Admission $6 with children under 10 free.

Dennis Weed

Posted by Dennis at February 2, 2007 7:08 AM

Comments

Posted by: mike at February 2, 2007 11:13 PM

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments:

Please note that all comments submitted are subject to moderation and final approval by the post's author. Comments will be posted as soon as they are reviewed.