March 5, 2024, Monaca, PA: 

The United Way of Beaver County (UWBC) and Shell Polymers, Monaca (Shell) is thrilled to announce that Shell has offered an additional $25,000 matching grant to the UWBC’s ALICE Fund! Shell gave a $50,000 Matching Grant toward The ALICE Fund in late 2023 – as of today, this initial $50,000 grant has been fully matched by companies and organizations in Beavery County. Realizing that the need is so very great, and recognizing the tremendous support of The ALICE Fund from the Beaver County community, Shell wants to spearhead the effort of helping even more of their ALICE neighbors through the UWBC through this additional grant. This means that any gifts to the UWBC’s ALICE Fund will continue to be doubled, up to $25,000, through this additional match from Shell.

 

Through The ALICE Fund, the UWBC will award mini-grants in early 2024 to Beaver County charities, not currently funded through the United Way, but which serve those in need in Beaver County, providing food, shelter, after-school programs, and other assistance. An alarming 38% of the households in Beaver County are ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Restrained, Employed). ALICE populations are found in every town, borough, and municipality throughout Beaver County, with the percentages of ALICE households ranging from 17% to a distressing 73%! ALICE households are unable to afford the basics of housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, and technology. (Source: www.unitedforalice.org). 

 

“I am so grateful that Shell immediately recognized the need to support The ALICE Fund as soon as they heard the alarming statistic that 38% of Beaver County Households are ALICE or in poverty. To continue to help in the way of an additional matching grant leverages other donations from Beaver County residents and from the corporate community, allowing us to extend our reach of support even further,” said Mary Lou Harju, Executive Director of the UWBC.

 

“Donating money to The ALICE Fund gives us yet another opportunity to put our words into action,” said Bill Watson, General Manager of Shell Polymers Monaca. “Our employees live in Potter Township, Monaca -throughout Beaver County – and in other communities that surround our plant. We may very well be living right next door to someone who needs the help that The ALICE Fund can provide. So, when we say we support our friends and neighbors, we literally mean it.”

 

“Additionally, an anonymous Beaver County resident donated $25,000 to be used as a matching grant for donations made by individuals to The ALICE Fund,” Harju continued. “This means that I, as an individual donor, can make my gift to the UWBC double in size just by either giving a little more this year or designating all or part of my gift to the ALICE Fund,” said Harju. “We are close to meeting that matching grant as well, but we still need help from the community to do so.” Additional large gifts to The ALICE Fund were given by The Edwin D. Hill Charitable Trust in the amount of $10,000, and by NiSource (Columbia Gas) in the amount of $5,000. 

 

The ALICE population is often overlooked when assistance is offered because they are employed. “We must see them. We must help them,” Harju said. Therefore, she is asking both Beaver County residents, companies, and small businesses to support The ALICE Fund and the 2023/2024 Annual Campaign by becoming a new UWBC donor or, if a current UWBC donor, donating a little more this year to help ALICE. 

 

She hopes that other companies and small businesses in Beaver County will also understand the need to help through The ALICE Fund and give to the UWBC.

 

“I am just overwhelmed by the amount of support that we have received for this endeavor so far,” said Harju. “The high percentage of ALICE households is not going to decrease anytime soon. We need to do what we can to help ALICE, while also trying to lower that statistic in Beaver County. We are grateful to Shell Polymers, Monaca and the many other companies in Beaver County for their generosity. Additionally, the anonymous matching grant donor and the other individuals in Beaver County who are helping us help ALICE through their tremendous support shows just how caring and compassionate Beaver County residents are, and how fortunate we are to live in such a wonderful community.”

Pittsburgh, PA – PennDOT District 11 is inviting the public to attend a career fair on Wednesday, March 6 to learn about available maintenance positions the department offers in Beaver County.

The event will be held at PennDOT’s Rochester Maintenance Building located at 155 Stewart Avenue Rochester, PA 15074 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6.

Available positions in Beaver County include full-time, permanent Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) Operators, seasonal CDL Operators, and full-time and seasonal Diesel Mechanics. Commercial drivers must have a valid Pennsylvania CDL Class A or B with the Air Brake Restriction (L) removed and a current medical examiner certificate.

PennDOT representatives will be on-hand to discuss openings in Beaver County. Onsite application completion, on the spot interviews, driving skills testing, and conditional job offers for select positions will occur. Applicants are asked to bring two forms of identification.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published March 5, 2024 12:32 P.M.

(Ambridge, Pa) The Ambridge School Board hired a new teacher at their meeting. Nicole Kelly was hired to teach fifth grade at Highland Elementary School. She will begin her duties on Monday, March 18, 2024. Her salary will be $48,781 a year.

The board also approved the hiring of all spring sports coaches for 2024.

Their next meeting is a work session on Wednesday March 13, and the regular meeting is Wednesday, March 20. Both meetings begin at 7 pm.

Beaver County Radio News Staff. Published 12:28 P.M.

(Center Township, Pa) An adjunct faculty member of CCBC will be featured in a television series called Into the Wild Frontier. Brady Crytzer teaches history at CCBC and is an expert commentator in the series.

The show is described as a look into early pioneers, scouts, hunters, and traders as they fulfill America’s destiny to expand Westward, exploring uncharted territory to blaze new trails.

Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio. Published March 5, 2024 12:17 A.M.

(Center Township, Pa) State Police in Beaver have released details on a chain reaction crash that took place on I-376 in Center Township in February. 4 women were operating 4 vehicles travelling on I-376 West near mile marker 41 when the second vehicle rear ended the first. As the third vehicle continued operating, the fourth vehicle went on to rear end vehicle 3. Two of the vehicles were able to driven from the scene while two had to be towed. No injuries were reported. Two of the women were issued citations for travelling too closely.

Photo of Skip Haswell obtained from ellwoodcity.org

(Nokomis, Florida) Lloyd “Skip” Haswell has passed away at the age of 79 in Nokomis, Florida. He graduated from Lincoln High School in Ellwood City in 1964 and went on to join the Marines and serve in Vietnam. Many knew Skip for his service with the Beaver Falls Police Department in which he was the chief for many years and his work with Medic Rescue and the Beaver County Coroner’s Office. After retiring, he had since moved to Florida. A full obituary for Skip Haswell has been posted at ellwoodcity.org: https://ellwoodcity.org/2024/03/05/lloyd-e-skip-haswell-jr-79/

Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio. Published March 5, 2024 11:43 A.M.

A global social media outage has caught the attention of the world this morning. Meta owned Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram all went down abruptly approximately an hour ago. Users were logged out of their accounts and are unable to log back in. Intermittent issues have also been reported for Youtube and Discord. Andy Stone, Meta’s head communications, told the Associated Press the company is working on the issue. Service began to be restored to the platforms shortly before noon.

BERLIN (AP) — Production at Tesla’s electric vehicle plant in Germany came to a standstill and workers were evacuated after a power outage that officials suspect was caused by arson. The interior ministry in the state of Brandenburg says unidentified people are suspected of deliberately setting fire to a high-voltage transmission line on a power pylon. Police say they are examining a “letter of confession” by a leftist group in connection with the outage. Environmental activists have been protesting in a nearby forest against plans by Tesla to expand. Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Germany’s interior minister condemned the incident.

Motorists saw gas prices increase over the final week of February. The national average for a gallon of gas is $3.35, nine cents higher than it was one week ago. Historically, March and April bring higher gas prices as travelers start heading out of town for Spring Break and demand increases. Today’s national average is 24 cents more than a month ago but four cents less than a year ago.
The current average price for a gallon of gas in Beaver County is $3.66