Altoona Planning Commission member Larry Bilotto this week apologized to his colleagues for his vote to approve the land development plan for a Penn State Altoona construction project, saying that if he’d visited the site prior to that December meeting, he’d have learned information not highlighted by the college perhaps leading him to vote […]
City Councilman Ron Beatty this week cast the lone dissenting vote during council’s ratification of Mayor Matt Pacifico’s nominations to fill seats on the city’s authorities, boards and commissions explaining afterward that it signaled his disagreement with Pacifico’s approach to filling those seats. Council appointed 14 new members unanimously in a single block vote, […]
City Council on Monday accepted City Manager Omar Strohm’s retirement, appointed Police Chief Joe Merrill as his interim replacement and named Deputy Police Chief Derek Swope as interim police chief. Strohm has retired after 21 years as an Altoona employee, including the most recent three in the top administrative post. Strohm, 61, will become associate […]
Almost a year ago, Clark Leddy Ward of Altoona was feeling claustrophobic, because his girlfriend was overly busy and their house in Logantown was frequently teeming with kids. So Leddy Ward went out for some fresh air 2,190 miles of it, as he walked from Georgia to Maine, the entire length of the Appalachian […]
Starting late next month, UPMC Magee-Womens Specialty Services in Altoona will no longer have a full-time breast surgeon, but will begin relying instead on periodic visits from surgeons affiliated with UPMC Magee-Womens in Pittsburgh. Patient volumes have been declining in recent years and are no longer high enough to justify a surgeon wholly dedicated to […]