Edinboro University Deficit May Force Additional Cuts

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Erie County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Edinboro University may face additional non-faculty staff and manager cuts this year beyond the 13 already announced to ease a budget deficit shaping up to be greater than the $5.5 million gap previously disclosed, a school spokesman said Friday.

Jeffrey Hileman could not say how much larger the deficit might be, but when asked the difference between the numbers, he said, “It’s not unsubstantial.”

He spoke after Edinboro administrators and faculty union representatives met for 2 1/2 hours to discuss the Operations and Workforce Plan unveiled Tuesday by Edinboro president Julie Wollman, which also recommended eliminating 42 faculty positions.

The plan, like one released at Clarion University a month ago, addresses rising costs, declining enrollment and sharply lower state aid.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/edinboro-deficit-may-force-additional-cuts-703272/#ixzz2ergwa2ze

Pennsylvania School Of Business Closing In Allentown

English: City of Allentown from east side (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With its enrollment battered by the recent elimination of federal aid to students who lack high school diplomas, the Pennsylvania School of Business in Allentown will close next year, the school announced Thursday.

“We lost 50 percent of our incoming people,” PSB President Michael O’Brien said.

While it enrolled all types of students, the school specialized in helping those without high school degrees, O’Brien said.  With federal aid to those students eliminated as of July 1, 2012, enrollment plunged.  Over the last few days, school officials decided to close the doors in January, after the fall semester.

O’Brien informed students of the decision Thursday.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-psb-pennsylvania-school-of-business-to-close-20130912,0,52610.story

Police Search For Masked Suspect After Robbery At West Pottsgrove 7-Eleven

Location of West Pottsgrove Township in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WEST POTTSGROVE TOWNSHIP, PA — Police are turning to the public for help to find a man who allegedly robbed the 7-Eleven on West High Street Thursday night.

Police Chief Earl Swavely said the suspect police are looking for is a black male, but no other information was available.  When the man entered the store in the 1100 block of West High Street, he was wearing a ski mask over his face and a dark hooded sweatshirt, police said.

According to police, the unknown suspect was allegedly carrying a silver handgun during the incident.  The suspect left the store on foot, police said.

Read more: http://www.pottsmerc.com/general-news/20130913/police-search-for-masked-suspect-after-robbery-at-7-eleven

Miffed Laureldale Mayor Tells Cops To Stop Writing Tickets

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Laureldale Mayor Fred Feltenberger said he’s angry that borough police officers are ignoring his order to collect more information from people they encounter on patrol.

As punishment, Feltenberger said, he ordered police to stop issuing parking or traffic citations during September.

“If they don’t do the work, they don’t get the reward,” Feltenberger said of the four full-time and four part-time officers.

That work, Feltenberger explained, was his order to stop people on the street, ask their identity and what they are doing in the borough, then fill out contact cards on the people they question.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=510934

Don’t Give Up On Reading, Albert Boscov Tells Crowd

A 1947 topographic map of the Reading, Pennsylvania area. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It was a different Reading back in the day when Albert R. Boscov, then just a child, would go to work at his father’s store on North Ninth Street.

“When I was growing up, Penn Street was the most vital area you could go to.  It had five movie theaters,” the Boscov’s Department Stores chairman recalled of the city in the first half of the twentieth century.  “When I look at Reading today, it’s not what I would like to see.”

“It’s not the Reading I know,” Boscov told a crowd of about 100 at Alvernia University on Friday night.  “And it’s not the Reading it has to be.”

Boscov came to Francis Hall on Friday for the kick-off of Leadership Berks’ “Leaders, Legends, and Visionaries” series.  The discussion was moderated by David Myers, director of Alvernia’s O’Pake Institute for Ethics, Leadership and Public Service.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=510966