Power was knocked out in the College Hill section of Beaver Falls and some neighboring areas, after a large oak tree being removed to make way for a church parking lot came down onto Fourth Avenue, taking down power lines with it. Among the places affected by the outage were Geneva College, and the nearby College Inn Apartment complex. Several traffic lights in the immediate area were knocked out as well. When the tree and wires came down, the rear window of a car was smashed. A woman driving the vehicle narrowly missed being hit herself. The power failure forced the College Hill Pharmacy to close early. Duquesne Light crews worked throughout the evening to repair the downed and damaged wires. By midnight, an estimated one-thousand customers had gotten their power restored.

Beaver County Commissioners Dan Camp and Tony Amadio appeared on Teleforum this morning with Mike Romigh during the Ask the Commissioners segment on Beaver County Radio. As expected, one topic that came up was the over budget situation with the sheriff’s department. Sheriff Tony Buy was on the show last week, saying that it’s not that he’s “unwilling”  but rather “unable” to keep his department from going over budget. Guy wants more money from the commissioners in order to implement the department’s operations for the rest of the year. Camp said discussions with Sheriff Guy are forthcoming. Amadio said that there needs to be compromise. On another issue, both Camp and Amadio deny that they have seen the long-awaited report on the audit of Friendship Ridge. Yesterday commissioners chairwoman Sandie Egley stated that that the report is in, but the commissioners are waiting for financial administrator Ricardo Luckow to return back from vacation to release the report to the public.

Nurses at the Heritage Valley Beaver Hospital will hold a Rally For Quality Care and Quality Jobs at the Beaver County Courthouse today. The rally comes just two days after they announced they will strike for one day later this month over a contract impasse. The hospital’s 500 nurses say they’ll strike July 19th after negotiations Tuesday night failed to yield a new contract. The Service Employees International Healthcare Pennsylvania union is upset because the hospital wants to raise health care premiums for nurses by 50 percent and exclude spouses from coverage. Molly Romigh has been president of the nurses union since 2004. She tells her brother Mike Romigh on Teleforum that they are inviting the public to show up and support the nurses at the rally today. The rally gets underway at 4:00 this afternoon at the courthouse.

Police are investigating after two people were shot early this morning in New Castle. It happened around 4 a.m. on Meyer Avenue in the North Hill neighborhood. A man and woman were both shot. The man is listed in critical condition. The woman was taken to the hospital by a personal vehicle. There’s no word yet on arrests…but police continue to investigate. Stay with Beaver County Radio for the latest on this developing story.

Beaver County Commissioners Chairwoman Sandie Egley announced this morning that the report from the forensics audit on Friendship Ridge is forthcoming. That’s according to Beaver County Radio’s Greg Benedetti, who attended the Beaver County Commissioners’ work session this morning. The report is expected to reveal whether the county owes the nursing home’s new owners money or vice versa. The report is expected to be made public sometime next week.

A one-day strike date has been set for hundreds of nurses at Heritage Valley Beaver Hospital. A three-year contract for the registered nurses represented by the Services Employees International Union last week. Last night, union members voted to reject the most recent offer by hospital management. Nearly 500 union workers plan to walk out on July 19th. S.E.I.U. nurses chapter Molly Romigh tells Beaver County Radio newsman Pat Septak that the main sticking points include escalating health care costs and staff radio. No new talks are scheduled.