2009
Four high schools survive; a drilling ban comes and goesBy COLIN KYLER ckyler @timesobserver.com
A continued economic downturn and a successful campaign to keep four high schools open were a few of the themes which emerged from 2009. Here is a month-by-month look at some of the biggest news affecting the county over the past year.
January
Funding cuts for the new year's county budget had some upset, leading District Attorney Ross McKeirnan to engage in a war of words with the county commissioners. The library was the biggest loser, however, seeing its funding slashed by 35 percent.
David Beattie of Columbus was given a life sentence for the murder of his roommate.
Bernard T. Hessley became the first in Warren County to represent defendants facing the death penalty.
Warren County School District was one of four districts in the state to be denied a share of a $155 million pool of funding.
Cadet 2nd Class Brett A. King, a Warren High School graduate, was among those representing the Air Force Academy at the 56th Inaugural Parade.
February
CB&I closed its Warren shop which had been established in 1900. It had fabricated steel for the St. Louis Gateway Arch.
Work on the city pool forced it to shut down for the summer. New drains were installed to bring them up to federal standards.
Beacon Light Behavioral Health Systems cut 50 positions. A loss of revenue and and assets as well as changes in the way the corporation delivered services contributed to the cuts.
GRO-Warren was formed to provide funding for Warren's Main Street program.
Warren County School District received $2.2 million in funding from the federal stimulus package.
March
The City of Warren won a Shades of Green Leadership Award for its downtown conservation efforts.
Warren County Humane Society seized 10 cows, 13 horses and six cats from the Darcy Durlin farm in Columbus.
PennDOT supplied Warren's Streetscape with $1 million in funding.
Smokin' Joe's Ribs was rotated out of Ribfest.
Louis Robert Flick was sentenced to two sentences of 30 months to six years in state prison for felony sexual assault. One assault took place in Pine Grove Township.
The Rouse Estate named Jasen Diley its new chief executive officer.
April
Charles Tubbs died in a shootout with Warren City Police. Officer Brian Gulnac was cleared of wrongdoing.
First Niagara Bank bought the main Warren branch of National City Bank.
Ground was broken on Warren's hotel and convention center. The project was estimated to cost $11.2 million.
Forbes magazine listed Northwest Bancorp, Inc. to its list of 100 Most Trustworthy Companies. The company was listed at number 54.
Blair issued a recall on chenille robes. They had been sold over a seven-year period.
May
A $1.9 million rehabilitation gave Chapman State park five new buildings.
Brandyn Patrick Bynum, 25, of Tidioute was charged with striking and killing a U.S. Army veteran.
Cory Altman was found guilty of murder of the first degree and Susan Yeager was found guilty of accomplice to murder in the first degree for the death of Shawn Yeager.
The Transit Authority of Warren County received $2 million in stimulus money. Most of it was for improvements to the maintenance facility.
Penelec workers went on strike, including 26 in Warren.
June
The U.S. Secret Service took over an investigation into a "personal" advertisement placed in the Times Observer linking President Barack Obama's name with the name of four presidents who were assassinated.
The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program ended at Beaty-Warren Middle School due to lack of funding. The 20-year program was replaced with Stay on Track funded through the National Guard.
The Conewango Township building underwent $124,144 in upgrades.
A climbing wall was placed over the water at Brokenstraw Valley Swimming Pool.
July
The county courthouse was cleared following a bomb threat. George W. Evans of Corry was charged following the incident.
Warren County native Ryan C. Clark survived being shot six times by his wife.
Oversize trucks carrying huge white tubes slowed downtown traffic. The trucks were hauling windmills to Centerville.
A fire destroyed Berenfield Container in Clarendon. Nobody was hurt in the fire.
A PA CleanWays study reported 59 illegal dumpsites in the county. The sites accumulated nearly 300 tons of litter.
August
A murder-suicide in Warren left Christopher and Amy Chimenti dead.
The U.S. Forest Service closed four buildings at Birdsall Edey.
Heavy rains left large areas of the county flooded.
Construction at Warren County Career Center sent welding students to Jamestown Community College.
The $7.7 million Streetscape renovation project began after years of waiting and delays.
St. Bonaventure University provided dual enrollment services for local high school students.
September
The Warren County School District required parent permission for students to watch a speech by President Barack Obama.
Brennan Collingwood, 16 at the time, allegedly shot Travis Barnett with a shotgun. The case was transferred to juvenile court.
The low-head dam on Conewango Creek was removed. Mussels had delayed the removal several times.
Clean-ups on the Allegheny River and Conewango Creek left the two bodies of water with less trash.
A program for the Warren General Hospital to provide the Warren County Jail with medical service fell through.
October
The cast and crew of "Titanic the Musical" strung together 52 canoes to demonstrate the length of the ship.
The Midtown Parking Lot began using an automated fee system. The new system presented trouble for some trying to get in and out.
Warren County School District received $3.8 million for regular education and $1.3 million for special education from the state after the budget impasse ended.
Ground was broken for a skate park in Warren after years of delays.
Signs urging county residents to keep Eisenhower open draw criticism for listing the home phone number of the school board president at the time.
November
Two of three write-in candidates won positions on the school board.
Warren City Council voted to repeal an ordinance requiring business licenses.
A food drive in downtown Warren collected more than a ton of food.
Warren City police charged a woman from Falconer, N.Y. with posting a nude photo of a woman on Facebook.
Former county judge and district attorney Samuel Bonavita passed away.
December
Ground was broken on the Tidioute Area Health and Dental Center.
The school board voted to keep all four high schools in the Warren County School District. There had been options to close Eisenhower High School and convert Sheffield High School to a K-8 facility.
A drilling moratorium on the Allegheny National Forest was overruled by a federal judge in Erie.
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samibigelow
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12-31-09 10:03 AM
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You forgot about Penn Traffic filing for bankruptcy and two of the Quality Markets in the county will be closed because of it. Also, the grants that were awarded by Blair to several groups in the County. Once again, things are leaning once again to the city.
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