(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

Despite the mostly empty seats at the December 15 meeting, the New Brighton Borough Council moved ahead with the passing of several measures regarding the maintenance of finances heading into the new year.

Following a payment of the bills totaling $634,121.23 (including a $374,521.02 reimbursement), the Council approved the adoption of a 2023 balanced budget along with a $29 million tax millage–an amount that will mean no tax increase for the borough. Salaries for non-union employees were approved for a 1% raise for 2023, and the benefits were amended to include paid time off for regular part-time employees. “After three years of employment, they would be entitled to one week paid vacation,” stated borough manager Tom Albanese, “plus they could accrue an additional 1.5 days off for every 500 hours of work.”

The council also approved a year-end capital fund transfer that would transfer the remaining general fund to the 2023 pool, before approving a tax exoneration for the purchase of a property at 414 3rd Avenue by Jessica Wilson. The resolution drew concern from Council Vice President John Ramer and council member Jay Glover, but solicitor Ken Fawcett notified the council that there was no power that they could wield in this decision, leading to a reluctantly unanimous approval.

Twelve roads were approved for submission to be re-paved beginning in 2023, most of which are alleys and small stretches of road throughout the main borough “because they are in poor condition,” per Albanese. He also stated that several of the roads will be paved with “flex base” pavement, which will have to be re-sealed following a two-year period. The proposal for the road maintenance will be sent to Widmer Engineering.

The regular meeting closed with an executive session that the public would have been excluded from–if any members of the public were in attendance.

(File Photo)

Story by Beaver County Radio Staff

(Potter Twp., Beaver county, Pa.) The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued a notice of violation to Shell for emissions exceedances at the Cracker Plant in Potter Twp.
DEP said in a release that during the initial startup of the facility in September and October, the cracker plant’s emissions of volatile organic compounds exceeded the limit set in its approved air quality plan. Emissions data from Shell in November also showed increases but not exceedances of other air contaminants like carbon monoxide and hazardous air pollutants
As part of its investigation, the DEP requested Shell submit a root cause analysis and description of efforts to minimize flaring and an emissions exceedance report and mitigation plan that evaluates the commissioning process from the facility.
The DEP said the notice of violation is just an initial step and it’s actively investigating and getting additional information, data and reporting from Shell.

AAA expects nearly 113 million Americans will wrap up 2022 by land, air and sea

’Tis the season to travel. AAA estimates 112.7 million people will journey 50 miles or more away from home from December 23 to January 2. That’s an increase of 3.6 million people over last year and closing in on pre-pandemic numbers. 2022 is expected to be the third-busiest year for holiday travel since AAA began tracking in 2000.

“With Christmas Day and New Year’s Day both falling on Sunday this year, more Americans are planning to travel to take advantage of those long holiday weekends,” said Bevi Powell, senior vice president, AAA East Central. “More people are using these much-needed breaks to reconnect with loved ones and recharge their batteries during the holiday-travel season.”

Nearly 102 million Americans will drive to their holiday destinations. Despite roller-coaster gas prices in 2022, this holiday season will see an additional 2 million drivers compared to 2021. Travel by car this year is on par with 2018 but shy of 2019 when 108 million Americans drove out of town for the holidays, the highest year on record.

Air travel will see a 14% increase over last year, with nearly 7.2 million Americans expected to fly. Flights and airports will be packed this holiday season, reminiscent of pre-pandemic days. Demand for flights has surged despite higher airline ticket prices. AAA expects the number of people taking holiday flights this year will come close to matching 2019, when 7.3 million Americans traveled by air.

Other modes of transportation are also rebounding in a big way. AAA estimates travel by bus, rail and cruise ship will rise to 3.6 million this holiday season, a 23% increase from last year and nearly 94% of 2019’s volume.

Mid-Atlantic region Year End Forecast Highlights:
*Region includes New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Protect yourself — and your trip

AAA recommends working with a trusted travel advisor who can provide advice and serve as an advocate before, during and after a trip. Their extensive knowledge and expertise allow them to help travelers with questions related to travel insurance options, domestic and international destinations and attractions, what to do if last-minute changes to a trip are needed and much more. To get started and to learn more, visit AAA.com/Travel.

Theme parks, Vegas & NYC top holiday getaways
Theme parks in Orlando and southern California, Las Vegas and the iconic holiday destination of New York City top the list of the most popular destinations in the U.S. for the year-end holidays, based on advance national AAA Travel bookings:

Orlando, FL

Anaheim, CA

New York, NY

Boston, MA

Atlanta, GA

Tampa, FL

Phoenix, AZ

Las Vegas, NV

AAA to rescue almost 900,000 at the roadside

The more than 100 million Americans planning to drive over the holidays need to be prepared for slowdowns and breakdowns. AAA expects to respond to close to 900,000 calls for help. Before a trip, vehicles should be inspected to check key components like the battery, fuel system, tires, brakes and fluid levels to avoid an unnecessary breakdown. It’s important to do this as early as possible in case there is an issue that needs to be fixed.

Rushing Home for the Holidays

INRIX, a provider of transportation analytics and insights, expects the most congested days on the road to be Friday before Christmas, December 27 and 28, and on Monday, January 2, as travelers mix with commuters. In major metros, motorists could experience double the typical delays. Nationwide, motorists could see travel times up to 25% longer.

Best & Worst Times to Travel by Car

Source: INRIX

Travel Forecast Methodology

In cooperation with AAA, S&P Global Market Intelligence developed a unique methodology to forecast actual domestic travel volumes. The economic variables used to forecast travel for the current holiday are leveraged from S&P Global Market Intelligence’s proprietary databases. These data include macroeconomic drivers such as employment, output, household net worth, asset prices, including stock indices, interest rates, housing market indicators and variables related to travel and tourism, including gasoline prices, airline travel and hotel stays. AAA and S&P Global Market Intelligence have quantified holiday travel volumes going back to 2000.

Historical travel volume estimates come from DK SHIFFLET’s TRAVEL PERFORMANCE/Monitor ^SM. The PERFORMANCE/Monitor ^SM is a comprehensive study measuring the travel behavior of U.S. residents. DK SHIFFLET contacts more than 50,000 U.S. households each month to obtain detailed travel data, resulting in the unique ability to estimate visitor volume and spending, identify trends and forecast U.S. travel behavior—all after the trips have been taken.

The travel forecast is reported in-person trips. AAA and S&P Global Market Intelligence forecast the total U.S. holiday travel volume and expected mode of transportation. The travel forecast presented in this report was prepared for the week of November 15, 2022.

About S&P Global Market Intelligence

S&P Global Market Intelligence is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI). S&P Global is the world’s foremost provider of credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity and automotive markets. With every offering,  many of the world’s leading organizations are able to navigate the economic landscape so they can plan for tomorrow today.

About INRIX 

Founded in 2004, INRIX pioneered intelligent mobility solutions by transforming big data from connected devices and vehicles into mobility insights. This revolutionary approach enabled INRIX to become one of the leading providers of data and analytics into how people move. By empowering cities, businesses and people with valuable insights, INRIX is helping to make the world smarter, safer and greener. With partners and solutions spanning across the entire mobility ecosystem, INRIX is uniquely positioned at the intersection of technology and transportation – whether it’s keeping road users safe, improving traffic-signal timing to reduce delay and greenhouse gasses, optimizing last-mile delivery or helping uncover market insights.

AAA East Central is a not-for-profit association with 70 local offices in Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia serving 2.7 million members.  News releases are available at news.eastcentral.aaa.com.  Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

Christmas is coming soon, but so is the new year–and the County Commissioners’ agenda for their December 14 meeting was heavily pointed towards many new things that will start appearing in 2023.

Among those new things will be the final renovation/replacement to the outdoor courts at Brady’s Run Park. According to Parks & Recreation director Tony Caltury, the pieces for the new outdoor court for “dek” hockey have arrived: “They’re waiting for a stretch of a two or three day window where it’s decent weather where there’s no precipitation, so that should be done in the next couple of weeks.” Caltury also updated the Commissioners on the new Zamboni headed to the Ice Arena; the machine is set to be delivered in January 2023.

EMS director Eric Brewer spoke about the new Motorola radios that were installed at the Beaver County Jail; one of the many facets of Beaver County essential services receiving the radio system upgrades. “We did a walkthrough yesterday with Motorola,” Brewer stated. “Everything’s gonna start at the beginning of the year, but there’s progress on the jail’s radio station system.”

The resolutions for the December 15 public meeting were then presented to the Commissioners by Solicitor Garen Fedeles; among them was a resolution to approve the Final 2023 Budget for Beaver County. The public can still view the adopted draft of the 194-page budget on the Beaver County website until it is voted upon at 10:00 AM on December 15.

The Commissioners took a brief moment to acknowledge and wish the best to retired Beaver County Radio general manager Mark Peterson, whom the Commissioners had known and worked with for decades. “When I was a township supervisor for the fire department, Mark got a job at the radio station. We both had brown hair back then,” Commissioner Tony Amadio reminisced. “He was selling advertisments, and I was buying advertisements for the Fireman’s Fair.” Commissioner Jack Manning thanked Mark for his cooperation with the Commissioners, adding that he “wishes his wife and his family well.”

Members from CCBC and the Beaver Valley Airport ended the meeting with a proposition for the Commissioners to help with a possible addition of a public-use terminal to the airport in Chippewa Township. The BVI/CCBC “task force” members spoke about seeking approval for funding and verification from the FAA in the Spring of 2023, which would mean that the designs for the new terminal would have to be completed over the next few months. The cost of building the new facility would depend on the details of the submitted designs (should they be submitted).

The next work session is scheduled for December 21 at 10:00 AM.

FILE- In this Feb. 5, 2018, file photo, the seal of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve System is displayed in the ground at the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington. The Federal Reserve reinforced its inflation fight Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022, by raising its key interest rate for the seventh time this year and signaling more hikes to come. But the Fed announced a smaller hike than it had in its past four meetings at a time when inflation is showing signs of easing. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve reinforced its inflation fight by raising its key interest rate for the seventh time this year and signaling more hikes to come. But the Fed announced a smaller hike than it had in its past four meetings at a time when inflation is showing signs of easing. Though lower than its previous three-quarter-point hikes, the latest move will further increase the costs of many consumer and business loans and the risk of a recession. The policymakers also signaled that they are prepared to raise their benchmark rate by an additional three-quarters of a point and leave it there through 2023. Some economists had expected that the Fed would project only an additional half-point increase.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A new report says a southeastern Pennsylvania county ran a juvenile detention center where troubled teens were beaten up by guards, sexually harassed and locked in seclusion for long periods without a court order. The 208-page grand jury report released Tuesday describes what the state attorney general’s office calls a “dangerous lack of oversight” over underpaid, overworked and poorly trained guards at the 66-bed Delaware County Juvenile Detention Center. The report didn’t recommend any charges, in part because of time limits in state laws for prosecuting. Still, the grand jury says the conduct they heard about could be criminal, and they suspect many more criminal acts may have occurred there.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro speaks with members of the media during a news conference at the Susquehanna County District Courthouse in Montrose, Pa., Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022. Pennsylvania’s most active gas driller has pleaded no contest to criminal environmental charges in a landmark pollution case. Houston-based Coterra Energy Inc. entered its plea Tuesday. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
By MARC LEVY Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro will take office next month talking about how voters across the political spectrum in Pennsylvania gave him a mandate. It’s a message he’ll carry into a state Capitol riven by partisanship and, recently, a breakdown in lawmaking. Shapiro starts off in strong position: his fellow Democrats won the House and state coffers are flush with cash. Still, the state Senate remains firmly in Republican control, meaning that every new law must have a GOP stamp of approval. Now five weeks into his transition, Shapiro is stressing bipartisanship, seeding his transition team with Republicans and avoiding radioactive political issues.

An emergency worker moves debris on top of damaged house early Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022 in Caddo Parish, Louisiana. ,A destructive storm marched across the United States, spawning tornadoes that touched down in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, where two deaths were reported, and it delivered blizzard-like conditions to the Great Plains and threatened more severe weather Wednesday in the South. (KSLA via AP)
By JAMIE STENGLE and STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press
DALLAS (AP) — A destructive storm marched across the United States, spawning tornadoes that touched down in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, where the deaths of a young boy and his mother were reported and about 20 people were injured. The storm also delivered blizzard-like conditions to the Great Plains and threatened more severe weather Wednesday in the South. Forecasters expect the storm system to hobble the upper Midwest with ice, rain and snow for days, as well as move into the Northeast and central Appalachians. Minnesota was expecting a lull Wednesday, followed by a second round of snow.

(File Photo)

Story by Sandy Giordano, Beaver County Radio News
Hopewell Twp., Beaver County, Pa.) The Hopewell Board of Commissioners received some good news  from  State Representative Rob Matzie announcing that they have been awarded  a $250,000 grant for upgrades to the township park. Township manager Jamie Yurcina  reported the grant is from PA DCED’s Covid-19 ARPA Pandemic Response Program. He said  replacement of the playground equipment  and upgrades will occur. The information was received in time for Monday night’s township meeting.