At least one person has died following an overnight crash in Big Beaver Borough. The crash happened around 2:10 a.m. along Route 168. The road was closed for several hours overnight, but reopened around 6 a.m. Officials have not said what caused the crash or released the name of the victim. State police were called to the scene.
WEATHER FORECAST FOR THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3RD, 2019
TODAY – SUN AND CLOUDS MIXED. SLIGHT CHANCE OF A RAIN SHOWER. HIGH – 89.
TONIGHT – SOME CLOUDS. SLIGHT CHANCE OF A RAIN SHOWER. LOW – 55.
FRIDAY – MOSTLY CLOUDY. MUCH COOLER. HIGH – 62.
SATURDAY – MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGH – 65.
SUNDAY – OVERCAST WITH RAIN SHOWERS AT TIMES.
HIGH NEAR 70.
Aliquippa City Council makes plans to update their zoning ordinances from 1965. Beaver County radio news corespondent Sandy Giordano has the report…
On this morning’s Ask the Commissioners segment during Teleforum on Beaver County Radio, the County Commissioners discussed the future of Maple Syrup Festival and if it will even happen next year. Beaver County radio news intern Alex D’Itri has the report…
Gas prices are dropping this week. Beaver County radio news intern Alex D’Itri has the report…
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A new Penn Dot survey has been released in hopes of better serving the motorists of Pennsylvania.
One of the places where memories can be found, or at least re lived is in a museum. In this edition of Beaver County Memories, which is presented by St. Barnabas, we will take a look at the museums that can be found in Beaver County.
First of all, did you know that there are at least seven museums in Beaver County? Well, it’s true. And we’ve got some ground to cover, so, let’s board the memory train and head to the banks of the Ohio River in Freedom where the Beaver County Historical Landmarks and Research foundation operates the Captain Vicary Mansion and historical center. The structure itself is a treasure, having been built by Navy Captain William Vicaary in the 1820’s with giant sandstone quarried and cut from the ground around the building. The exterior stone work is so impressive that It is on the National register of historic places for it’s architectural integrity. While it was originally a home for the Vicary family, today the building now houses exhibits that range from the Graule Studio photo archives, to pristine examples of 1800’s period furniture, clothing, and other artifacts, including a working Victorian square grand piano. The Vicary Mansion is open weekdays from ten until three.
Our next stop on the memory train is a few miles south on the Ohio River in Ambridge. Yet another place on the National Registry awaits in Old Economy Village. The campus of buildings located in the northern part of the borough is administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and is maintained on a daily basis by a local non profit organization called the Friends of Old Economy Village. The settlement was created by the followers of a German religious leader named George Rapp, who, along with 800 followers, migrated to Western Pennsylvania around 1800 and eventually built the beautiful village and collection of structures that sustained their existence and desire to live as a separate society. The group was known as the Harmonist society, a giant religious Utopian family that lived and worked together in communal fashion while they waited for the return of the Messiah. Tours of the grounds, including the natural museum and feast hall, blacksmith shop, cabinet shop, community kitchen carriage house and many other buildings that line old fashioned nineteenth century cobblestone streets are available from April through December.
The next stop really is a train station, or at least it used to be. The memory train is now pulling in to East End in Beaver, Home to the Beaver Station Cultural and Events Center. The Complex is a beautifully restored train station that has an event and gathering facility on the upper floor, and the Beaver Area Heritage Museum and the Beaver County Genealogy and History Center on the lower level. The facility provides opportunity for hosting private events in a grandeur of an 1897 train station in the upper floor meeting room, as well as housing many of Beaver County’s public and private documents, including local cemetery registries. The Beaver County History and Genealogy Center is open to the public Tuesdays through Saturdays during the summer months and Thursdays through Saturdays in the winter. The Beaver Station Events and Cultural Center meeting room and event center is available for private functions.
The next stop on this Beaver County memory train is in Beaver Falls in the basement of the Carnegie Library where the Beaver Falls Historical Museum is located. Operated by the Beaver Falls Historical Society, The Beaver Falls Historical Museum has anything and everything on display having to do with the city of Beaver Falls. Industrial artifacts, sports memorabilia, a huge collection of photographs, and archived writings from local authors, among other things await your inspection. The Beaver Falls Historical Museum is open Monday through Thursday.
All aboard! The Beaver County Memory train is now headed out the tracks to Darlington where there at least three historical places worthy of our attention can be found. Darlington is home to Greersburg Academy, yet another local structure on the national registry of historic places. Originally opened as a preparatory school in 1802 by Thomas Hughes, Greersburg Academy is believed to be one of the oldest buildings still standing in Beaver County. It is operated and maintained by the Little Beaver Historical Society.
Just a couple blocks away in downtown Darlington are two more museums on our checklist. The McCarl Industrial and Agricultural Museum of Beaver County and The Beaver County Industrial Museum are located right next to each other on Plum Street. The McCarl Industrial and Agricultural Museum has a wonderful collection of old farm implements including a giant steam tractor on display, along with photographs and other items from local business and industry. The Beaver County Industrial Museum is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the steel and glass manufacturing industries in Beaver County and it features collections from Babcock and Wilcox, Crucible and J & L Steel companies along with items from H.C. Fry Glass, Mayer China, A and S Railroad and other local manufacturing establishments. The Beaver County Industrial Museum and The McCarl Industrial and Agricultural Museum are open on Sundays during the summer months.
And now, this memory train is arriving back home because this edition of Beaver County Memories, presented by St. Barnabas, is coming to an end. Tune in every weekday for another Beaver County Memory. You can also view transcripts of this, and other archived editions of Beaver County Memories at beaver county radio dot com.
Since many fond memories revolve around food, today’s Beaver County Memories segment is sure to be a good one. Today we take a look at the places where we bought our food in Beaver County, the grocery stores. Beaver County Memories is brought to you by St. Barnabas.
Ask almost anybody in Beaver County to name their favorite grocery store of years gone by, and a very common response will be C and L Supermarket in Aliquippa. Owned and operated by Chuck and Lou Borsani, C and L truly was “super” among markets of the day. The store was located at the corner of Brodhead Road and Main street, next to St. Elijah Serbian Orthodox Church in Aliquippa and was, by the standards of the day, “huge”. It had a large selection with many different departments, several check out lanes and even off street parking in a lot on the other side of the street. The Borsani brothers began running a small market in the plan 12 section of Aliquippa in 1943 and eventually moved out to the corner on Brodhead road some time later. The Borsani brothers were aggressive marketers, too. Their weekly “double truck”, or two full page display ads side by side, in the Beaver County Times, became a standard for housewives to seek out as they were planning their grocery lists. C & L Supermarket also sponsored many programs on WBVP and WMBA radio including high school sports and the annual Orthodox Christmas midnight service broadcast every year in January. C & L Supermarket closed in 1988. A new smaller plaza with several shops exists on the site now.
Another prominent Beaver County family, The Ondruseks, had forged their way into the grocery business as early as the 1920’s with a store in Beaver Falls called Economy Foods. By the 1950’s the Ondruseks had opened up another store at the corner of 5th Avenue and Ninth Street in New Brighton. Soon, several other locations would be added throughout Beaver County and about that point in time, The Ondruseks began to refer to their stores as Economy Supermarkets. A unique distinction held by Economy Supermarkets is that they were one of the first advertisers on WBVP, when the station first started broadcasting in May of 1948. In the early eighties, Economy Supermarkets became part of the Foodland distribution and branding system while still owned and operated by Tony Ondrusek. At one point in time, there were nearly a dozen Foodland Supermarkets located throughout Beaver County. Today, the sole remaining Beaver County Foodland location, the New Brighton store, still thrives in a newer location that is one block north on 5th avenue from the original market and is now owned an operated by Mike and Ron Fischer. Among other popular Economy/Foodland locations to have appeared in Beaver County, was one that was opened in The Tusca Plaza in Brighton Township in the 1960’s. That location suffered the demise of an eight alarm fire in 1998, but was rebuilt shortly thereafter. In 2010, The Tusca Plaza grocery store became a Shop N Save supermarket, operated by Joe Spagnolo. The store closed again in twenty sixteen, but was given new life with an ongoing upgrade and is in the process of being remodeled and is opening again soon again as a Shop N Save, owned by St. Barnabas and operated by the Safran Family.
In Beaver Falls, one could not mistake the look and feel of the City Market. Big by comparison to the corner store, but tiny by nowaday supermarket standards. City Market was located at the corner of 7th Avenue and 15th Street in a building that recently housed a dollar store. City Market had classic wooden floors that would creak as one walked back through the aisles to the rear of the store where the deli was located. The store was operated by the Crognale family and closed in the mid eighties.
The aforementioned Safran Family also operates Shop N’ Save Supermarkets in East Rochester and Ambridge, but before those stores came to be, They ran several smaller markets in the Ambridge area dating back to the mid century, including Safran’s Market in Fair Oaks. Later on, Stan and Lou Safran opened Safran’s Market on Church Street In Ambridge. In 1960, Robert Safran opened Pic ‘N Save Market in the 2700 block of Duss Avenue in Ambridge where Harmony Beer Mart is currently located . For a brief period of time in the eighties, the Safran Family also owned and operated Safran’s Inn, located right next to Pic N’ Save in the former Duss Avenue Eat ‘N Park, leading to the perfect set up to host car cruises that would attract thousands of car enthusiasts back in that era. The two buildings were close enough together to string large banners across the span between them and make for a perfect entrance into a cruise lane that circled around the restaurant and then emptied back out onto Duss Avenue. In the mid nineties, Robert Safran’s son, Phil, took the family owned supermarket two blocks south and reopened a vacant Loblaws store as Jubilee Foods. In 2002, Jubilee Foods went back to the popular Pic ‘N Save name that had been a standard in town for decades. Finally, the store underwent extensive renovations and re emerged in 2008 as The Ambridge Shop N’ Save that continues to exist today. In 2010, Phil and his son, Jarrett Safran, acquired the East Rochester Shop N’ Save and continue to own and operate that store.
Any segment about grocery stores in Beaver County can’t be complete without including Bill Camp. Camp started a chain small convenience stores called Fast and Friendly in Beaver Falls in the 1960’s that eventually were located throughout Beaver County. In the 1970’s he bought a full service independent grocery store in Beaver called Value King, which is still in business on 3rd Avenue, known as Beaver Supermarket. In the early eighties, Camp bought a Giant Eagle Supermarket located in Center Township in the Gee Bee Plaza, where Wal Mart is located today. In the next decade, Bill Camp would do alot to change the grocery shopping habits of Beaver County residents, first opening the Rochester Giant Eagle and later on building a brand new Giant Eagle store in Chippewa in the nineties. Camp sold his grocery empire and retired in the early 2000’s, but his legacy lives on as the Rochester and Chippewa Giant Eagle stores are still very prominent shopping locations, now owned and operated by Giant Eagle, Inc.
Other notable grocery stores that once dotted the landscape in and around Beaver County include The Penn Supermarket on Pennsylvania Avenue in Monaca. The Skyline Supermarket in Patterson Township, McCarter’s Supermarket in Darlington, Center and Chippewa Golden Dawn Markets, Midland I.G.A., Northern Lights Kroger, Pavlovic’s Market in Koppel, Yannsen’s Market in New Galilee, Eddie’s Market in Rochester, Comet Food Warehouse in Big Beaver, A & P Supermarkets in Rochester, Aliquippa and Beaver Falls, Foodliner in Ellwood City and a Super Duper in Zelienople, among others.
With that, it’s time to hit the check out line and bag up this edition of Beaver County Memories brought to you by St. Barnabas. Do you prefer paper or plastic? Tune in every day for another edition of Beaver County memories on Beaver County Radio. Complete transcripts of this and other editions of Beaver County Memories can be found at beavercountyradio.com.
A PUBLIC CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL IS BEING BUILT IN MIDLAND…AS WE HEAR IN THIS REPORT FROM BEAVER COUNTY RADIO NEWS CORRESPONDENT SANDY GIORDANO. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report…
WASHINGTON (AP) — A top official in Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign says the Democratic candidate is in Las Vegas where he’s resting after having a heart procedure for a blocked artery. Campaign adviser Jeff Weaver says that Sanders’ wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, is on her way to Las Vegas. The campaign says the 78-year-old Sanders experienced chest discomfort during an event Tuesday and sought medical evaluation. Sanders has canceled events and appearances “until further notice.”