Wellsboro Gazette (Newspaper) - September 25, 2002, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania The Wellsboro per copy God Bless America NO 50 GAZETTE PA SEPTEMBER Stokesdale public water system plans progressing by Gayle Morrow The project that would bring municipal water to Delmar ship residents in Stokesdale and to the Wellsboro Industrial Park Dresser has been given a by the ern Tier Regional Planning and Development cording to Tioga County ment Corporation Executive Di- rector Bob Blair who spoke with members of the Wellsboro Municipal last said there are various funding sources for the including trial development funding Delmar Township has already been working for months on the municipal sewer extension for the same with Oct 21 as the date for bid openings on that project The proposed water line sion project includes a search for an additional municipal water source likely in the area east of Route 287 between the borough and the Junction 6 and Route 287 At the Sept 17 members agreed to send a letter to the county ers requesting money from the county's environmental fund to help get the project underway They also agreed to sign grant for project and to seek out interim project ing In other members voted to table action on extending sewer lines up Pearl even though funding for materials through the state Community velopment Block Grant program is available None of the authority members indicated they knew anything about nor about the materials grant to do the Pearl Street sewer extension Borough Sue who has been serving as the authority's interim tary since Patti Russell retired from the position a few months said with help from Tioga County Housing Authority tive Mike had conducted the income survey which mately showed the dents to be eligible for this type of funding The authority would like to see that chairman Tom Rudy said who has been an cate for sewer extension on Kelsey reiterated his view that borough council is taking action on things that should be the authority's and that there is information the ity should be getting which it is not when Leedy offered to provide authority members with minutes of borough council Rudy said he didn't know if want to get involved in council Meeting minutes after proval by a matter of lic record Authority solicitor Bob Cox Jr reminded those present that the authority is responsible for tal improvements the sewer and water and the ough is responsible for nance certainly known from way back that the authority is re- sponsible for constructing said borough council dent John in attendance at the authority meeting was done regard to the was to check those places to see what funding was available The borough is in favor of extending sewer lines Pearl Street qualified on the ba- sis of income it's not a question of whether more people there wanted it or Rudy had insisted that more people on Kelsey Street wanted sewer extension than people on Pearl Street did is no intent on our part to get in your business or to hold information you think you should Dugan concluded In response to the question of when the Pearl Street sewer ex- tension might be tendent of Public Works Mark whose crew would do the noted the grant money would be available for three years Depending on weather and other he said it would be sible to begin the work late in the fall Rudy then wondered about water line extension can't maintain and expand the system without more he said covering almost every part of the borough it is possible to cover without Dugan said with reference to the fed water system Lack of state funding creates problems for county human services agency by Gayle Morrow i It's trickle-down economics its worst and it's affecting ties across the commonwealth state isn't paying good and they're not going said Tioga County Commissioner Walter Barnes Tuesday as he and commissioners Erick Coolidge and Jim Bogaczyk voted to loan the Human Services Agency to see it through a flow financial issues are ated by the fact that funding sources are not coming from the said Coolidge is a wide problem has nothing to do with mismanagement It has to do with money not being plied to the According to the unanimously passed resolution approving the the county's general fund has which will en- able the commissioners to as amounts of general fund monies to the Tioga County Human Services Department Re- serve The lending is to be and amounts loaned will be voted on by the ers at a regularly scheduled lic the resolution states is a cash flow con- curred agency Administrator Sam Greene have been here be- Greene cited at the state in various billing mechanisms at this has left the agency with mechanism to get from the state Anticipating the agency's fiscal staff had billed the state as early as possible But because other counties had not done the same the state gave an ex- Greene continued now we're just in a mix with everybody he said ing we did wrong The state people are doing everything they can for He noted for some the agency is still waiting for state payments from the last fiscal year Most of the services provided by the agency are mandated by the though the agency has some discretion in how those vices are delivered State funds provide the bulk of the agency's approximately million supplemented by federal grants and other and the recently disputed of county tax dollars The alleged ongoing ment of the local plus in- had been placed in a serve created by the agency in 1994 The commissioners claimed no until re- of the existence of that fund as of June had million in it By the terms of another also passed at the Sept 24 general fund count shows a amount receivable from the Tioga County Human Services and the Tioga County man Services Department count shows the like amount able to the Tioga County General Fund as of The funds are general funds the resolution and there is notable record in the county general fund ledger addressing these photo by CHRIS FORESTER STEVE HOOVER and Curt Lytle hold a box of chestnuts that were harvested from trees outside of Asaph The chestnuts will be used to try to produce a strain of trees that is resistant to the chestnut which appeared in 1904 Wellsboro man helping to restore chestnut trees by Chris McGann Curt Lytle had an important job to do on Monday morning that could help restore the American chestnut many of which have disappeared from the landscape a Wellsboro forestry con- is also a volunteer with the American Chestnut tion His job on Sept was to collect the nuts from two American chestnuts in the Asaph Run area The nuts will then be replanted in York County A chestnut blight hit trees in 1904 The fungus was first fied at the Bronx Zoological dens and likely came from in- trees imported from the Far East The fungus appears as a red spot and eventually kills the tree By the trees in the ern of Pennsylvania were infected Chestnut blight got to Indiana by 1940 and Mississippi by 1950 many American nuts do not grow more than 10 inches before the blight hits That is where the American Chestnut Foundation comes in sole purpose is to de- a 100 percent resistant chestnut Lytle said The foundation has been the American chestnut with Chinese and European eties to develop a resistant strain They want to get seeds from each region and they don't have any from this Lytle said State foresters the two chestnuts while working on a timber sale in the area are some of the things we keep an eye open for out in the said forester Steven Hoover He explained that the foresters saw the telltale round burrs that protect the actual nut They made a note of the one of which is 9.5 inches breast and about 40 feet tall They are pure American chestnut don't show any signs of the blight Lytle added Since the nuts are on the per branches of the Wellsboro Electric Company donated a cherry picker and manpower to harvest the nuts The linemen collected about 100 nuts from each of the two trees The nuts now have to be boiled to kill a weevil that times gets inside Lytle then intends to take the nuts to a meeting in State College next month and turn them over to the arboretum The hope is that the two trees from the Asaph area have genetic traits that make them resistant to the blight Fall foliage display be quite as vibrant by WERE DISPATCHED Wednesday Sept at about 11.30 to this barn fire at the Murray residence on Lower Elk Run Road in Township The structure was fully involved when firefighters arrived on the scene No further Information was available at press time Personnel from Blossburg and Wellsboro responded Tioga provided back-up services at Liberty was on standby in and Middlebury was on standby in Wellsboro by Chris McGann The prolonged drought in Pennsylvania may affect this year's fall foliage but that does not seem to be affecting tors to Tioga County According to Marc professor of forest ecology at Penn State Pennsylvania's colors may not be as vibrant as in past years don't want to sound too grim because over the years I have been impressed at how resilient the fall colors on Pennsylvania trees Abrams said certain amount of autumn color always seems to come through no matter what But 1 am concerned that this fall the persisting drought is going to have a negative impact on the liage He noted that trees in the southeastern part of the state will show particularly muted colors because of the severe lack of rain in those areas are seeing that trees are severely stressed in many said are signs of widespread wilting of early leaf fall and browning Once leaves they will not go through the normal coloring two weeks of wet weather would hydrate trees ing into October Normal fall weather with warm days and cool nights also help the leaf display the drought has been less severe in Tioga but the lack of rain has been muting the display in the Tioga State For- est dryness on the ridges has caused the soft maple and birch to color fast and lose their said forester Al who re- ports on the foliage for the Tioga State Forest He went on to say that the peak of the fall colors will likely be the first or second weekend in Octo- ber when the oak leaves start to change Wellsboro Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Mary Worthington said that the chamber has been tracking room availability This weekend through the last weekend in October look to be particularly Worthington said Lytle said that the foundation is about two generations away from producing a resistant strain of the chestnut Since it takes about eight years for the trees produce that means there is still about 16 years of work to do He also pointed out that this sort of work is full of especially since some trees are very resistant to the fungus and others are not Prior to the chestnut was jan important the building industry The wood is but light weight It easy to split and tant to decay lot of the old mansions in Williamsport and larger cities have chestnut Hoover said The wood was also used for things like railroad utility poles and furniture Leather makers used chestnut since the bark is high in tannin The chestnuts are also a food source for both animals and mans a Penn State said that the whole idea of trying to restore the chestnut trees pealed to him since he is a con- forester by trade like to do volunteer work because the government put me through GI I feel I owe he said may not this year are going to have a full house and the leaves are going to be she said In the whole year has been strong for the local tourism try my we have had the strongest year I Worthington said She attributed that partly to Sept which has caused many travelers to vacation close to home and in rural areas There is also the heat in major cities this year and people want to get away from that Then there is the variety of at- tractions in Tioga County With all the outdoor there are plenty of leaf peeping ties Rail Trail has been a very successful en- Worthington said recently named the trail as one of the best ten hikes in the world That publicity has brought in a lot of Worthington said She also suggested taking an airplane trip over Pine Creek Gorge to see the annual fall dis- play
