(File Photo)

Story by Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano

(Center Twp., Pa.) An elderly man died as the result of  a dump truck falling on him Monday afternoon in Center Township. Police Chief Barry Kramer said the accident occurred around 2:30 p.m.  on Fronko Street.. Emergency personnel worked to  free the man and he was flown to UPMC Presbyterian according to Chief Kramer.

The victims identity has not yet  been released.

As we continue to look at Beaver County Memories, we turn our attention to “industrial strength” memories.  This segment is part of a special series showcasing the manufacturing sector. Beaver County Memories brought to you by St. Barnabas.

Beaver County is well known for making steel.  Behemoth mills bearing the names of Jones and Laughlin, Crucible and Babcock and Wilcox became legendary for their contributions to the local economy as well as keeping the world supplied with top quality products, as only Beaver County workers could produce. But there were other things that were made in Beaver County.  Everything from fine china to chocolates, to bricks to cork and many other products were created by local residents through the years.

If you go to almost any antique shop in the area, or search online for collectible glassware, one name that continues to be highly sought after is H.C. Fry.  Fry glassware and oven ware, as it was called, was made in Rochester and became very popular in the early nineteenth century. The company was founded by Henry Clay Fry in 1901.  This wasn’t Fry’s first venture into the glassmaking business. Prior to churning out highly prized art deco dinner and tea sets, he founded and ran the Rochester Tumbler Company.  Fry’s claim to success was inventing the equipment and developing a process that allowed decorative glassware to be mass produced by machinery, instead of being hand blown, a change that was  revolutionary at the time.

In its top producing days of the 1920’s, H.C. Fry employed around one thousand workers. One of the more popular product lines developed was a line of cookware that could be used in the oven to bake the entrée, and then set on the table to serve the item.  Back in the day, that was a new concept.  Putting a piece of beautiful glassware into a hot oven was something that had never been done before.  H.C. Fry Blended beautiful design along with material and manufacturing innovation to create very popular bakeware. The signature look of H.C. Fry glass was a somewhat opaque, translucent glass that was sometimes tinted with green or blue color.

Henry Clay Fry passed in 1929, and just a few years later, the company he founded closed its doors, but the legacy he created lives on.  Avid groups and entire clubs have been formed over the years by people who collect Fry Glass. Even today, Fry Glassware is a very popular and recognizable  item that is representative of 1920’s antique glassware nationwide.

This “industrial strength” Beaver County memory has been presented by St. Barnabas. Archived transcripts of this and other Beaver County Memories can be found at Beaver County Radio dot com. Tune in everyday for another Beaver County Memory on WBVP, WMBA, 99.3 F.M., and online through google play and iTunes apps, and Alexa smart devices.

AMBRIDGE, Sept. 22 – Grant funding to two Beaver County elementary schools will ensure students have access to fresh fruits and vegetables for the nutrition they need to stay healthy and succeed in the classroom, state Rep. Rob Matzie, D-Beaver/Allegheny, announced today.

Matzie said the funding awarded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program includes grants to Highland Elementary School in the Ambridge Area School District and Rochester Elementary School in the Rochester Area School District.

“There’s no question that students need a healthy, nutritious diet to learn and thrive,” Matzie said. “Unfortunately, with the pandemic affecting household budgets and store inventories, some families have found it more difficult to keep fresh produce on the table on a regular basis.

“Securing this funding will help ensure young students have reliable access to the nutrition proven to promote focus, mental acuity, memory retention and other building blocks of academic success – regardless of household budget or other obstacles.”

 Matzie said the funding, which was not broken down by district, is part of a package of more than $7 million in grants awarded to 230 elementary schools.

Under the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, schools will receive between $50 and $75 per student, based on the federal allocation to the state. Funding priority was given to the schools with the highest rates of students eligible for free and reduced-price meals.

More information on the grants is available here.

Story by Beaver County Radio news Correspondent Sandy Girodano 

(Center Twp., Pa.) Center Township Board of Supervisors approved a new 1 year    contract for the township to provide services to  Potter Township. at last night’s meeting.

PIT Welcomes First Cargo Flight from Cathay Pacific

By Natalie Fiorilli

New international all-cargo service touched down Monday at Pittsburgh International Airport, the latest step in the airport’s increased focus on cargo during the pandemic.

Typically, the Cathay Pacific Airways Boeing 777-300ER would be carrying more than 300 passengers. But on this occasion, the aircraft was filled with cargo.

Cathay Pacific flight CX8800 touched down at 9:45 a.m., arriving from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, after a stop in Hong Kong. The flight is the first of 20 scheduled cargo flights operated by Hong-Kong based Cathay in partnership with freight forwarder Unique Logistics International.

The decision to operate out of Pittsburgh International was simple, said Fred Ruggiero, Cathay Pacific’s vice president of cargo, Americas.

“It’s easy to get in and out of the airport,” Ruggiero said. “Other airports are congested; it could take a whole day for a trucking company to pick up freight. In Pittsburgh, everything can be done within three hours. It’s a matter of time and ease.”

Within hours of landing, 3,500 boxes of consumer goods will be offloaded from the aircraft and placed onto trucks heading for distribution centers along the East Coast, Southeast and Midwest.

Pittsburgh’s location is also ideal, said Marc Schlossberg, executive vice president of Unique Logistics, the freight forwarder that coordinates cargo transports from shipper to consumer.

“Pittsburgh sits within a 24-hour drive of about two-thirds of the U.S. population,” Schlossberg said.

“You also need to have the runways, the facilities and the cargo handlers in place, and Pittsburgh has that. We couldn’t bring in a Boeing 777 or other large aircraft to a smaller airport. PIT is kind of ready-made to operate a flight like this.”

For Pittsburgh International, the new service is yet another step toward developing the airport’s cargo facility as an international logistics center.

“Pittsburgh’s history is as a hub for transportation and logistics. We continue to have that industry as a core part of our economy, which is why I’m proud to welcome Cathay Pacific and Unique Logistics to our expanding air cargo portfolio,” said Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald. “We know now, more than ever, how important it is to move products around the world quickly and efficiently, and we look forward to both companies expanding their business in Pittsburgh. Air cargo has a direct impact on jobs, from those unloading the planes to the trucking companies taking the products to their destinations.”

Last fall, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded PIT an $18.69 million BUILD grant to support the construction of a 75,000-square-foot cargo processing facility and an adjacent surface parking lot to expand air cargo operations.

Under PIT’s “Cargo 4 Project,” the new building will allow for larger aircraft, new cargo destinations on all-freighter aircraft or additional parking for integrator carriers like FedEx or UPS that require sorting facilities and high volumes of truck access. Airport officials expect that cargo capacity in the existing three buildings could be full in the near future.

Cargo continues to be a growing part of PIT’s business plan, according to Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis.

“We are thrilled to partner with Cathay Pacific and Unique Logistics in expanding our cargo portfolios,” said Pittsburgh International Airport CEO Christina Cassotis. “This is another step in building Pittsburgh International Airport into a global logistics center with world-class service. Our speed, efficiency and ideal location offer a unique benefit for carriers and freight forwarders.”

Cathay Pacific chose to operate the nearly 16-hour flight Hong Kong to Pittsburgh, the first scheduled flight on that route since at least 1990, on one of the airline’s four Boeing 777-300ER passenger planes that have been converted for cargo. A highly fuel-efficient, twin-engine aircraft, the “Triple Sevens” were converted in response to the global drop in passenger traffic caused by the pandemic.

“Necessity is the mother of invention,” Ruggiero said. “Passengers aren’t traveling nearly as much right now and cargo has been very busy for us. While we have large freighters, we also have a number of passenger planes parked.”

With 20 freighter aircraft in its fleet, Cathay Pacific is one of the largest “combination” carriers in the world, operating both passenger and cargo services.

By removing the seats in the 777s, the airline is able to carry cargo inside the cabin in addition to the belly of the aircraft. Cathay Pacific is also transporting freight with a number of other passenger planes that haven’t been converted for cargo.

Last month, the airline flew more than 300 cargo-only flights, and there’s potential for more—including, perhaps, to Pittsburgh, Ruggiero said.

The Boeing 777-300ER was converted from passenger to cargo use by Cathay Pacific. (Photo by Beth Hollerich)

“Our hard work is complete and this flight is already set up,” he said. “Cargo is all about finding solutions. Our job is to make it as seamless as possible for the shipper, and in this case, the solution is flying to Pittsburgh.”

The twice-weekly flights are scheduled to arrive in Pittsburgh on Mondays and Thursdays for 12 weeks and are slated to end in November.

“This entire process has had many partners along the way working in collaboration, which includes our federal agency partners of the Transportation Security Administration along with U.S. Customs & Border Protection,” said Vince Gastgeb, PIT’s Vice President of Government & Corporate Affairs. “Their involvement in helping to bring this project to a successful completion is very much appreciated.”

Since April, the airport has welcomed five FEMA charter flights operated by National Airlines, carrying critical medical supplies from South Korea. Additionally, airport officials signed an agreement with Ted Stevens Anchorage International this summer to collaborate in better streamlining the global air cargo

Graham: GOP has votes to confirm Trump court pick by Nov. 3
By LISA MASCARO, ZEKE MILLER and JONATHAN LEMIRE Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans have the votes to confirm President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick before the Nov. 3 presidential election, according to the Senate Judiciary chairman who will shepherd the nomination through the chamber. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tells Fox News that Trump’s nominee will be supported by every Republican in the Judiciary Committee. He adds: “We’ve got the votes to confirm the justice on the floor of the Senate before the election and that’s what’s coming.” Trump expects to announce his pick by week’s end. On Monday, he met with conservative appeals court judge, Amy Coney Barrett, who is considered the favorite to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

(PITTSBURGH) — The North Hills School District has filed a lawsuit against Juul. According to the Tribune-Review, the district alleges that the e-cigarette maker purposely targeted its products to young people, forcing the district to reallocate resources to battle what the CDC is calling an ‘epidemic. Nine other complaints have been filed in Western Pennsylvania. The North Hills School District complaint includes claims for public nuisance, negligence, and racketeering.

(Beaver County)- The Beaver County District Attorney’s office, Center Township Police and FBI Human trafficking force along with the Pittsburgh police department conducted a human trafficking and narcotic operations on September 18 and 19.

16 arrests are pending from the two-evening effort involving several center township hotels and several potential human trafficking victims. District Attorney David Lozier encourages anyone with any information of a possible trafficked individual to call 911or the County Detective Bureau so that law enforcement may intervene in behalf of the victim as rapidly
as possible.

HOUSTON (AP) — Storm surge and rainfall are combining to bring more flooding along the Texas coast after Tropical Storm Beta made landfall. The storm on Tuesday is threatening areas that have already seen their share of damaging weather during a busy hurricane season. Beta made landfall late Monday near Port O’Connor, Texas. It’s the ninth named storm to make landfall in the continental U.S. this year, tying a record set in 1916. Beta is forecast to move inland over southeastern Texas and then over Louisiana and Mississippi later this week. Meanwhile, Hurricane Teddy is heading toward Nova Scotia, where it’s expected to make landfall early Wednesday.