×

Five stories making news in 2024 that aren’t over yet

Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Zachary Sanford was one of about 15 individuals to address the school board during Monday night’s meeting.

Major issues hardly ever wrap themselves up quickly – and many of the headlines that caught your attention are no exception.

Perhaps no issue will dominate the early part of 2025 more than the potential closure of Sheffield and Youngsville High Schools. Closure talk picked up again early in 2024 as John Wortman, Warren County School District board member, began pushing the issue in June.

“I think those are discussions that need to take place,” Wortman said in June.

Things progressed quickly. By September, the school board was entertaining a motion to close Sheffield and Youngsville high schools, with Youngsville students consolidated to Eisenhower and Sheffield students, who already come to Warren for core classes each day, shifting full time to Warren.

“There’s not going to be a school district in 10 years if we don’t do something,” Board President Paul Mangione said earlier this year.

Times Observer file photo Much of the opposition that scuttled a senior living project in downtown Warren centered around preserving these buildings on Pennsylvania Ave. near Liberty St.

The factors cited include “declining enrollment and budgetary constraints and to afford the students with improved course offerings and educational opportunities,” according to the motion approved Monday.

Community debate has been vigorous, and a vote is coming in January.

Driving the discussion is the fact that the school district’s budget has grown by about one-third over the last 10-15 years while the total number of students has fallen by about 25 percent. There appears to be a recognition among many school board members that the financial challenges are not challenges that tax increases alone can solve.

Data presented projects a $794,298 savings for the 2025-2026 school year by closing Sheffield 9-12 and an additional $1.115 million by merging Youngsville into Eisenhower. Over a five-year window, the Sheffield closure would present a total savings or cost avoidance of over $2 million, equivalent to over six mills in taxes, according to information from the administration.

The Youngsville to Eisenhower option would protect total savings or cost avoidance of nearly $5 million, totaling over 12 mills.

Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Breeze Point Landing is the focus of a fourth riverfront development proposal currently in the final design phase. The project would include a boat ramp and floating dock and not require construction activities in the Allegheny River. Construction is expected to start next year.

Information also outlines the district’s cost per student in each school — $16,686 at Eisenhower, $17,472 in Warren, $19,544 in Youngsville and $23,107 in Sheffield.

On the revenue side, a total of $23.25 million was generated by local property taxes. Splitting that out by attendance area, the per capita amount of taxes paid was $722 in the Central Attendance Area, $648 in the Youngsville area, $601 in the Sheffield area and $592 in the Eisenhower region.

Enrollment data shows a total of 8,876 students in the WCSD in the 1979-1980 school year. That number fell to 6,548 by 2000 and under 5,000 in 2010. The most recent data — the 2023-24 school year — shows a total 3,860 students — 1,953 in elementary and 1,907 in secondary.

DEVELOPER ‘NO LONGER MOVING FORWARD’ WITH

SENIOR HOUSING PROJECT

Times Observer photos by Josh Cotton The Clough Farm, part of new State Game Lands 337, on a foggy morning.

The end of a senior housing project in downtown Warren reopens development on a long-debated portion of Liberty Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. The Hudson Group announced earlier this year that “they will no longer be moving forward with the Eagle’s Crest project.”

According to online county assessment records, the city acquired the property back in 2009 and sold it to the developer in 2018. There was evidently a clause that the properties would revert to the city if the project was not completed on a certain timeline.

CHANGING HANDS: ROY TAKES OWNERSHIP OF FAIRMONT WITH PLANS FOR DEMO AND

COMMUNITY SPACE

Revitalization of Youngsville is now the owner of the old Fairmont Hotel in Youngsville.

The group agreed to purchase the property from its most recent other, Nathaniel Weaver, for $20,000.

“We are as a group very excited,” John Papalia, president of ROY, told the Times Observer.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges that remain to fulfill a vision that would see the building torn down and turned into a community space.

“The reality set in,” Papalia said, “that we just purchased a very old and very run down building.”

The decision to sell was prompted, Weaver explained, by “the severe fire and water damages that were a result of the fire that destroyed adjacent Lonnie’s Pizza next door.”

He said that the water, smoke and fire damage “made restoring the building no longer feasible.”

Resolving the decades-long challenge of the Fairmont is in line with the borough’s downtown plan. Phase one was securing the property. ROY envisions phase two as demolishing the building and phase three as creating a park/plaza at the site.

“We are putting our necks out there 100 percent,” Papalia said. “It was a leap.”

LOOKING AHEAD: CITY RESPONDS TO RIVERFRONT COMMENTS AS DESIGN PROCESS CONTINUES

Work on a floating dock and boat ramp in downtown Warren is likely to begin this year, wrapping up a public discussion that has been years in the making.

This design shifts activity downstream to the Breeze Point Landing area, and includes a floating dock and boat ramp. The discovery of endangered mussels in the area shifted the plan away from encroaching into the riverbed. Under the proposal, there will be multiple sets of rock stairs to directly access the river, trailer parking on the current concrete pad adjacent to the townhouses and the traffic flow on Breeze Point Circle will be reversed. There has also been talk of the project including racks for kayaks and apparatus for kids “to turn it into a storage and activity space.”

“We think we are going to go out for bid next spring,” Mike Holtz, city manager, said in June, and the ramp “might actually get built next summer.”

He views the boat ramp as the “anchor” piece of improvements to the riverfront.

“The focus is now making sure the boat ramp gets put in,” Holtz said, and “work on the amenities as they come.”

City Engineer Chad Yirisic told Warren City Council that staff have met with dock providers to determine cost as well as kicked off the steps to obtain required permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

He said that the final design process and permitting could take up to a year.

“I believe (we will) probably start construction in 2025 and go into 2026,” he said.

OPEN FOR USE: NEW STATE GAME LANDS IN SPRING CREEK OPEN

FOR HUNTING, TRAPPING, FISHING ACCESS

GAME LAND RANCOR: NEW STATE PROPERTY IN

SPRING CREEK DRAWS IRE FROM SOME IN COMMUNITY

State Game Lands 337 in Spring Creek Township opened to the public in January – with criticism over the Game Commission’s expansion also generating criticism.

The deal came about as part of a land swap that gave Pennsylvania General Energy rights to drill under State Game Lands 75 in Lycoming County. A deed for the property transfer filed at the Warren County Courthouse shows the parties as GlenDorn Land Inc. and the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

Most of the land in Spring Creek Township that was conveyed to the Game Commission is located south of Route 426 and largely bounded by Old Route 77. Several parcels across from the Creekside Golf Course north of Route 426 transferred as did two north of Old Route 77.

A couple of historic sites are included in the transfer.

One includes the birthplace of one of the county’s most famous sons – Robert H. Jackson, Chief U.S. Prosecutor at Nuremberg and an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. All that remains at that site is the foundation of the house and barn, which were the subject of an archaeological review several years ago. The other is the Clough farm, the barns of which remain off of Old Route 77.

“There will need to be a thorough evaluation conducted for the Agency needs as well as safety and cost of any repairs or demolitions,” Gustafson explained. “At least one of the barns is in a significantly degraded state, nearly 70% caved in roof and lack of structural integrity. It will likely be demolished after all required consultations are completed. The other barn will need to be evaluated and that hasn’t occurred yet,” he added.

Not everyone was happy.

“Is there a need for more public lands in Warren County?” Keith Klingler, who said he lives across the line in Venango County but owns 3,000 acres of timber land in Warren County, asked the commissioners.

He pointed out there are sizable game lands in Columbus and another in Pittsfield.

“I’ve been working on land use issues for 40 years,” he said. “I’ve seen the erosion of private property in the northern tier … just accelerate.”

He outlined the “ramifications” that come when land is moved into non-profit or governmental hands, citing property taxes.

But, he said, “that’s miniscule to the transfer tax loss.”

He estimated the value of these 2,195 acres in the area of $6 million.

“That’s a huge loss,” he said. “Typically land turns over every 20 years. Those transfer taxes continue to roll in.”

Another challenge Klingler outlined is there will be “no new construction on these lands forever. An even larger loss that no one talked about is the income loss to the state and federal governments.”

He was especially critical of the transfer process when, he alleged, the PGC has over half a billion to buy the land.

“This has been going on for 30 to 40 years,” he said. “These are some of the issues CCAP (County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania) should be addressing, that PSATS (the Pennsylvania Association of Township Supervisors should be addressing) and they’re not.

“They’re (the PGC) acting like a private resource company.”

The letter from the Spring Creek Township supervisors dated Dec. 15 claims the PGC did not see a need for a meeting.

“As a board of supervisors we were astonished by this decision,” the supervisors wrote, in the letter which was also sent to Rep. Kathy Rapp, Sen. Scott Hutchinson, the Pa. Landowners Association and the county commissioners. Spring Creek Township is a small community that has both concerns and interests in this transfer,” the supervisors wrote. “Concerns include the historical integrities of the property, real estate and transfer taxes and the agricultural aspects.”

While the issue is settled, the effect on both county and local tax bases remains to be seen.

Starting at $2.99/week.

Subscribe Today