AAA: Protect Your Pipes from the Deep Freeze

With a cold snap in the forecast and temperatures predicted in the single-digits, pipes are at risk of freezing due to sudden temperature drops, poor insulation, or incorrect thermostat settings.  AAA East Central offers suggestions that can help prevent your pipes from freezing and bursting, which can cause significant damage and expense. “During the cold winter months, we receive many insurance claims from homeowners and renters who fall victim to frozen pipes,” says Mark Sisson, vice president of insurance for AAA East Central.  “All pipes, whether plastic or copper, can burst, and even a small crack can spew hundreds of gallons of water per day.  That can lead to some very expensive damage.”

AAA Tips for Preventing Frozen Pipes:

• Make sure everyone in your family knows where the water shut-off valve is, and how it works.
• When a freeze is expected, consider allowing warm water to drip slightly overnight, preferably from a faucet on an outside wall.  Even a slight trickle may keep your pipes from freezing.
• When there is the possibility of a freeze, don’t turn down the thermostat at bedtime, and instead maintain the same setting day and night. Drops in temperature, which are more common overnight, could freeze your pipes.
• Open cabinet doors. This will allow heat to reach uninsulated pipes located under sinks.
• Insulate pipes in your home’s crawl spaces and attic, even if you live in an area where freezing temperatures are unlikely.
• Seal leaks around pipes that allow cold air inside.  You also should look for air leaks around electrical wiring, clothes dryer vents and pipes. Use caulk or insulation to keep the cold out.
• Disconnect garden hoses.  If possible, use an indoor valve to shut off and drain water from pipes leading to outside faucets.  This reduces the chance that pipes inside the house will freeze.

Recovering from Frozen Pipes:

• If you turn on your faucets and nothing comes out, your pipes are likely frozen.
• You may be able to use a hair dryer to thaw a frozen pipe. Begin by warming the section of pipe closest to the faucet, then work your way out toward the coldest part of the pipe.
• Never use a hair dryer or any electrical appliances in areas of standing water.  You could be electrocuted.
• Never try to thaw a pipe with a torch or other open flame.  It could cause a fire.
• If your water pipes have already burst, turn off the water at the main shutoff valve in the house, leave the water faucets turned on, and call a plumber.

Fed keeps key rate unchanged and pledges to be ‘patient’
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is keeping its key interest rate unchanged and signaling it could leave rates alone in the coming months given economic pressures and mild inflation. The Fed also says it’s prepared to slow the reduction of its bond holdings if needed to support the economy.
The central bank said Wednesday that it plans to be “patient” about future rate hikes. Its benchmark short-term rate will remain in a range of 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent after having been raised four times last year.
Investors cheered the Fed’s message after its latest meeting that it foresees no need to raise borrowing rates anytime soon even while the economy remains on firm footing. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which had already been up strongly, surged about 200 points once the Fed statement was released and was up about 430 points 30 minutes later.
The Fed has been gradually reducing its bond portfolio, a move that has likely contributed to higher borrowing rates. But at some point, to avoid weakening the economy, it could slow that process or end it sooner than now envisioned. Doing so would help keep a lid on loan rates and help support the economy.
The Fed’s note of patience about rate hikes marks a reversal from a theme that Chairman Jerome Powell had sounded at a news conference after the Fed’s previous policy meeting in December. Powell had appeared to leave open the prospect of further increases soon. That message had sparked fears in financial markets that the Fed might tighten credit too aggressively this year.
With pressures on the U.S. economy rising — a global slowdown, a trade war with China, a nervous stock market — the Powell Fed is now signaling that it’s in no hurry to resume raising rates after having done so four times in 2018. And with inflation remaining tame, the rationale to tighten credit has become less compelling.
Still, the Fed is having to maintain a delicate balancing act because some gauges of the economy look healthy. The job market, for example, remains robust, with solid and steady hiring. And corporate earnings have so far been holding up in the face of the global slowdown and trade conflicts. Of the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 that have reported results for the final three months of 2018, 77 percent have delivered earnings growth that topped Wall Street’s forecasts. Some, though, are lowering expectations for 2019.
Since the Fed’s December meeting, Powell and others on the Fed’s policymaking committee have been clear in suggesting that they’re in no rush to raise rates again after having done so nine times over the past three years. Besides invoking the word “patient” to describe the Fed’s outlook toward future hikes, Powell has stressed there’s no “preset course” for rate increases. The Fed, in other words, will tailor its rate policy to the latest economic data.
In its statement Wednesday, the Fed said, “In light of global economic and financial developments and muted inflation pressures, the committee will be patient in determining what future adjustments” to the Fed’s interest-rate policy will be appropriate.
The Fed’s decision was approved on a 10-0 vote.
The assurances from the central bank have helped allay fears that higher borrowing costs might depress corporate earnings and economic growth. They have also helped spur a stock market rally. With the turnaround, stocks are on pace for their best month since March 2016.
In recent weeks, though, the Fed has been hamstrung in its effort to assess the health of the economy. That’s because the partial shutdown of the government that has ended late last week — at least until mid-February — essentially closed the Commerce and Treasury departments, among other agencies. So key economic data that those departments normally issue — involving retail sales, home construction and factory orders, among others — hasn’t been available to the Fed. Beginning Thursday, though, the government will start gradually distributing the delayed economic reports.
The economic impact of the partial government shutdown will be among topics Powell will face at his news conference, in addition to the global slowdown, the U.S.-China conflict and Britain’s struggles to achieve a smooth exit from the European Union. All those threats could potentially jeopardize the Fed policymakers’ outlook for this year.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

The temperature read single digits. The wind chill was heading for record lows.

Yet the only number concerning the County Commissioners was 10, as in the time that the trio was to call to order Wednesday’s work session as per the usual schedule.

During this particular work session, Public Works Director Dan Colville had a slew of updates regarding his department, including:

• A request to have a plaque dedicated at Brady’s Run Lodge in honor of a recently deceased Public Works member
• The need to restore/replace the pipes at the Brady’s Run Recreational Facilities; some of which are 40+ years old
• A snow truck having a malfunction and needing immediate repair

The last of these led Colville to reveal that the Department does not have a credit card in their name, a revelation that shocked Commissioner Sandie Egley:

 

Later during the meeting,  Commissioners’ Chairman Dan Camp spoke about the current situation involving the Beaver County Transit Authority, as he said that the recent changes have led to a slew of complaints that have arrived steadily:

 

The routes that are experiencing changes are Route 1 (from Chippewa to Pittsburgh via Route 65) and Route 11 (Rochester-Beaver-Brighton-Vanport), and the BCTA public meetings will be Monday at 5:00pm & 7:00pm at the Transportation Center in Rochester.

The meeting lasted 30 minutes before the Commissioners exited for executive session and those in attendance braved themselves back into the cold.

President Donald Trump is insisting that congressional negotiators working on a compromise border security deal include money for his proposed wall between Mexico and the southern U.S. border. Trump tweeted that if the negotiators, scheduled to hold their first meeting Wednesday, aren’t “discussing or contemplating a Wall or Physical Barrier, they are Wasting their time!” Trump’s insistence on a wall led to an impasse with Democrats that resulted in a 35-day partial government shutdown.

(File photo from previous fire in the City of Beaver Falls)

BREAKING NEWS: A KITCHEN FIRE BROKE OUT AT A HOME IN BEAVER FALLS THIS AFTERNOON. BEAVER COUNTY RADIO NEWS CORRESPONDENT SANDY GIORDANO HAS DETAILS. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report…

Wolf renews bid to put state’s minimum wage among highest
By MARC LEVY, Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf is rolling out a second-term proposal to raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage after similar first-term proposals by the Democrat fell flat in the Republican-controlled Legislature.
Wolf said Wednesday he wants to raise Pennsylvania’s hourly minimum to $12 this year, making it one of the highest in the nation, with annual 50-cent increases to bring it to $15 an hour in 2025. He says it would boost pay for a million workers and provide savings in programs for the poor.
Pennsylvania has been at the $7.25 federal minimum since 2009.
Most states and each of Pennsylvania’s neighbors have increased minimum wages above the federal minimum.
Wolf’s administration is also considering a regulation to boost pay for hundreds of thousands of salaried employees by making them eligible for overtime pay.

The state is reporting that another five Pennsylvanians have perished from influenza as the virus remains an officially widespread situation.  According to data released yesterday, the fatality count in Pennsylvania due to the flu has risen to 25 for the current season, including the first confirmed flu-related death of someone age 18 or younger.  There have been 19-thousand-757 reported cases total state-wide, over four-thousand more than a week ago.

Big changes are in store for hunters in western Pennsylvania this year. The Pennsylvania Game Commission approved yesterday a Saturday start to the deer-gun season instead of the traditional Monday opening. Commissioners are also working on rules to allow semi-automatic rifles to be used in hunting big game, including deer, elk and bears.

Gov. Tom Wolf is renewing his call for lawmakers to toughen Pennsylvania’s gun laws, after a truck driver walked into a Pittsburgh synagogue and fatally shot 11 people. The Democrat spoke Tuesday at an anti-gun violence rally in the Capitol, joined by the ex-wife of a man badly wounded in the synagogue shooting. The state House GOP’s majority leader, Bryan Cutler, says Pennsylvania says policymakers might find agreement on mental health interventions.

A secretary for Big Beaver’s Municipal Authority is accused of taking thousands of dollars. Sheri Horinka was charged last week after an audit showed two checks were cashed by the 51-year-old totaling 13-thousand-500 dollars. Horinka had served the authority as a part-time secretary and treasurer dating back to 2015. She’s free after positing 15-thousand-dollars bail.