TyronePA.com

The Tyrone-Snyder Public Library has announced that tickets for the seventh annual fund raising concert event will go on sale beginning Saturday, February 23.
The tickets for this year’s concert will again be $30 per person. All seating for the concert is reserved seating. Tickets may be purchased at the following ticket outlet locations: Bressler’s Food Mart & Sports, Kopp Drug in Tyrone and the Tyrone-Snyder Public Library located in downtown Tyrone.
Concert tickets may also be ordered over the telephone by calling the library during normal operating hours at 814- 682-1017. If you need to call the ticket number after hours, simply leave a message with your return telephone information, and you will receive a call back to place your ticket orders.
This year’s concert will again be held at the Tyrone Area High School Auditorium on Saturday evening, April 19. The doors will open promptly at 6:30 p.m. and the show will begin on time at 7 p.m.
“I cannot thank the Tyrone Area School District enough for allowing us to use this great facility for our fund raising concert each year. I have had many of the entertainers tell me after the shows that they thought the sound system in the auditorium is one of the best they have been around lately. Without the help of the school we could never be able to have this concert. There are just no other venues in our town that could support such a show,” stated Chuck Banas, concert chairman.
This year the library concert is planning on bringing a show to the area from Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Pittsburgh. The show will be called a “Salute to the Legends.” All of the contracts have been signed and arrangements made for what should be another great evening of entertainment.
Morris Levine of Tyrone summed it up after last year’s show when he stated, “This was a tremendous show and so very entertaining. People should not miss these shows.”
All of the money that is raised from the concerts goes exclusively to paying the mortgage on the Tyrone-Snyder Public Library, which opened seven years ago in downtown Tyrone. Currently, the concerts have generated over $53,000 as the march continues toward the $100,000 goal that was originally established.
When asked if there were any other important announcements that should be released this early, Banas did not hesitate by saying, “Yes! Get your tickets early! They are on a first come first serve basis, and every year I get some of our local people who wait until the week of the show to try and purchase tickets and then are unhappy that they are sitting so far back in the auditorium.
“We have people calling already from Altoona, Lancaster and Pittsburgh asking to purchase tickets. They saw or heard of the concert release date that went public last week. In addition, we are starting to work with our corporate sponsors who buy the ads and blocks of tickets to support the library. The seats fill up faster than most people realize.”
In the next few weeks the library will be releasing information to The Daily Herald on each of the acts that will be taking part in this year’s event.
The count down to concert night has started, and we are at 65 days and counting.

As borough council members are still pondering a possible 10 to 15 turbine wind farm proposed by Spanish-based wind energy developers Gamesa Energy USA on the borough’s watershed property located atop Ice Mountain, a locally formed coalition wants to inform area residents of the impacts of industrial wind farms on people, wildlife and the landscape.
The wind farm public forum will be Wednesday, March 26, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., in the auditorium at the Tyrone Area High School.
The “Save Ice Mountain Coalition” consists of the Juniata Valley Audubon Society, the Moshannon Group of the Sierra Club, the Little Juniata River Association, and Save Our Allegheny Ridges. Over 1,400 Tyrone-area residents who have signed a petition against Gamesa’s proposal to the borough are considered part of the coalition and are helping coordinate the upcoming forum.
At the March 26 public forum, four experts in energy production, windplants, ecology and bird migration will make half-hour presentations, each of which will be followed up by question and answer sessions from the audience.
There will be tables set up outside the auditorium, manned by Save Ice Mountain volunteers, who will have informational sheets, maps, data, research papers, and other items of interest for the public to view and take home.
Juniata Valley Audubon Society President Dr. Stan Kotala, who has been at the forefront of the opposition against the Sandy Ridge Wind Farm, said the forum will be open to all, and municipal officials from Blair and surrounding counties are encouraged to attend.
“This will be the first such forum in our area,” stated Kotala. “Local residents will learn about the effects that the proposed Sandy Ridge Wind Farm will have on their daily lives, such as decreased opportunities for recreation on Ice Mountain, increased noise and aesthetic degradation.”
He added, “As well as the effects on Ice Mountain’s natural heritage, such as forest fragmentation, disruption of migration for golden eagles, and direct mortality to birds and bats.”
The speakers for the forum include: Dan Boone, an energy expert from Maryland; Kim van Fleet, an ornithologist who is the Important Bird Area Coordinator for Audubon Pennsylvania; Laura Jackson, an environmental educator and founder of Save Our Allegheny Ridges; and Dr. Stan Kotala, president of the Juniata Valley Audubon Society.
Kotala believes that many residents in Tyrone do understand the negative impact a wind farm would have on Ice Mountain, stating that “1,400 people from the 16686 ZIP code have signed the petition opposing the windplant.”
If anyone is interested in helping set up and/or assist at information and handout tables for the March 26 Save Ice Mountain public forum, contact Dr. Stan Kotala at 946-8840, or email him at ccwiba@keyconn.net.
Refreshments will be served. Much more detailed information will be available in the coming weeks.

As the words to a once, if not still, popular tune say: “Carry me back to old Virginia.” The Colonel Crowther Foundation is delighted to announce that is where a special tour will be headed on the morning of May 3.
This year is the 145th anniversary of the Battle of Chancellorsville. Of special significance is the day, May 3, when the Foundation will be present on the battlefield. On this day in 1863 Colonel James Crowther was killed in battle giving that last full measure while leading the men he refused to abandon. Many other members of the 110th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers lost their lives on this day in 1863. Colonel Crowther and his men were trapped but he would not surrender. Only half of the men in the regiment survived that day.
The chartered 55-passenger Fullington bus will leave Tyrone at 7 a.m. from the Park and Ride area. One stop is planned in Bedford to board people from that community who are joining the tour. A presentation concerning the Battle of Chancellorsville, focusing on the 110th Pennsylvania Volunteer’s role, will occur on the bus. The bus should arrive in Fredericksburg, Virginia near 11:30 a.m.
The tour will eat lunch at Fuddruckers restaurant before proceeding to the Chancellorsville Visitor’s Center. Each member of the tour will select an item from a special menu for his or her lunch in advance. The folks at Fuddruckers will have lunch ready to eat when the tour arrives.
After lunch everyone will travel to the National Park Service’s Chancellorsville Visitor’s Center. The afternoon will be spent touring the battlefield with Bob Roser. Bob has served as a volunteer tour guide at the battlefield and is Senior Vice Commander of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War Camp No. 4, Irish Brigade in Fredericksburg. He is well-known as a very knowledgeable tour guide with a great sense of humor.
When the tour is complete, everyone will travel to the Fredericksburg National Cemetery where the color guard and others from Camp No. 4 Irish Brigade, will join the tour for a special wreath-laying ceremony at Colonel Crowther’s grave. Colonel Crowther is the senior Union officer whose remains are buried in this cemetery. After the ceremony everyone will have a buffet dinner at Old Country Buffet and return to Tyrone after dinner, stopping at Bedford on the way, arriving back in Tyrone around 10 p.m..
The cost for the tour including meals is $65 per person. Reservations should be made as soon as possible. For a reservation form, contact the Foundation by telephone at 814-641-0353, by mail addressed to: The Colonel Crowther Foundation, 318 Mifflin Street, Huntingdon, PA 16652, or by email at rhileman@pennswoods.net. Full payment in advance with the completed form is requested. Credit card payments are accepted. A four percent service charge will be added for credit card payments to offset the foundation’s cost of processing the payment.

Earlier this week, the February meeting of the Little Juniata River Association had to be postponed due to the weather conditions.
A new meeting time has been set for next Thursday, February 21 at 7 p.m. at the Tyrone-Snyder Public Library.
The Little Juniata River Association is a non-profit organization which seeks to monitor, preserve and improve the Little Juniata River and its tributaries as a cold water resource, now and for generations to come.
Agenda items for this month’s meeting include fish kill details, the status of headwater developments and a new website preview.
However, the main issue to be discussed will be the riverbank clean-up. This year’s clean-up is scheduled for Saturday, April 5.
Last year over 70 people participated in the clean-up and the hope is that even more will volunteer this year.
The goal is to remove as much trash as possible, large or small, from in and along the river. This includes roadside pullouts and the riverbanks.
“The more (volunteers) we can get, the more miles of stream and parking areas we can clean-up,” said LJRA President Bill Anderson.
In 2007, in coordination with the Great PA Cleanup and the National River Cleanup, trash was collected along the riverbank from Spruce Creek to Tyrone Forge.
Interested persons and groups, including Scouts, meet and work throughout the morning, cleaning the river and surrounding areas. Everyone is invited to participate and more information will be available as the clean-up date approaches.
Also, for anyone interested in becoming involved with the LJRA, there are free hats and new logo decals available for all new members. The items are also available for those paying current year dues.
All funds collected are used to defend the Little Juniata River.
Hats and logos can be mailed out or picked up at the next meeting.
Extra hats are available for $15 and logo decals are $1.50.
Interested individuals can find out more about the Little Juniata River Association by visiting the website at www.littlejuniata.org.
To join, send information to: Juniata River Association, RD3 Box 468E Altoona, Pa. 16601. A form is also available online.

Karen Kopera of Altoona was accused of theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property. The defendant was an employee at Lion Country Supply located along SR 220 in Snyder Township and allegedly transferred monies from her employer’s account into her own personal bank account and personal credit card accounts. The total amount stolen, over the listed period of time of July 1, 2005 to October 27, 2007 is $81,461.49. She had been an employee at Lion Country Supply from approximately 1997 to October 29, 2007. Kopera was the assistant manager and had access to a credit card machine.
She was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Joe Moran on Feb. 13. Bail was set at $100,000 unsecured. The preliminary hearing was continued at the request of the Commonwealth to March 4 at 11 a.m. at Magisterial District Judge Fred Miller’s office.