State briefs
Power purchases set SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) – An additional eight colleges and universities in Pennsylvania will begin purchasing wind-generated electricity, bringing the total number of state schools doing so to 25, state officials said.
Allegheny College, Bucknell University, Dickinson College, Franklin & Marshall College, Gannon University, Gettysburg College, Juniata College and Swathmore College have agreed to purchase energy from Community Energy Inc., which operates windmills in Somerset County.
Last year, the University of Pennsylvania, Penn State and Carnegie Mellon universities purchased 5 percent of their electric power from wind farms.
Bucknell has agreed to purchase a million kilowatt hours of wind energy annually, more than half of which is currently generated at traditional power plants.
CEI opened its commercial wind power plant in 1999.
Audits scheduled
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Allegheny and Westmoreland counties plan to do independent audits of Passavant Memorial Homes, a facility that houses 410 people with special needs.
The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare may do its own audit, depending on what the county audits say, said spokesman Jay Pagni. The department licenses Passavant to care for mentally retarded people.
The counties will investigate salaries paid to executives, golden parachute agreements and claims by former board members who said they were improperly fired.
Rick Senft, the chief executive officer of Passavant, was paid $446,631 in fiscal year 2000 and will likely report a salary of $398,491 in 2001, according to the company.
The average salary for others in similar jobs in Pittsburgh is $80,097, according to GuideStar, a nonprofit research organization.
Official pays taxes
ERIE, Pa. (AP) – The city council president in Erie paid $5,433 in back taxes on his residence and a floral shop he owns after a reporter learned he was in arrears.
A reporter for the Erie Times-News was sorting through county records and found the council president owed money for the years 2000 and 2001.
President James N. Thompson said his daughter has managed his finances on the shop and residence for the past five years.
Thompson’s daughter said her father was not to blame and paid the taxes owed on Friday.
Allegheny loses people
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Recent figures released from the U.S. Census Bureau indicating continued flight from Allegheny County have left area leaders dismayed.
The county had a net decrease of 8,865 people between July 1, 2000, and July 1, 2001, bringing the total population to 1,270,612.
“My own estimate is that we had flattened out or started to gain slightly, so that comes as a very big surprise,” said Allegheny County Executive Jim Roddey. “If those numbers are right, that’s certainly serious and something we should be concerned about.”
Beaver County lost 1,211 people to bring the total to 179,871 in the same period and Westmoreland County lost 702, leaving 368,983 residents. Both Butler and Washington counties showed increases in their population.