Wows and Scowls
Wow: 84 Lumber Co. has supplied the Fayette Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals with enough material to build 100 outdoor dog boxes, thus enabling pet owners who don’t have adequate shelter for them to keep their animals. SPCA humane officers Elizabeth Davidson and Jamie Speelman came up with the idea to ask for donations, as a means to keep from having to confiscate dogs they knew probably wouldn’t find a new home. 84 Lumber President Maggie Hardy Magerko responded to the request by donating $2,000 worth of materials, which volunteers crafted into the 100 dog boxes the SPCA is giving out. Wow: Sandy Baugh of Lemont Furnace is one of seven recipients of the Unsung Hero Award, given out by Communities in Schools, because of her Christmas gift-giving to babies and children of at-risk students. Baugh works as countywide coordinator for the CIS Pregnant and Parenting Teen program, and this year gave gifts to 35 parents for their babies.
Wow: The Rev. Terry Collins, of Discipleship Ministries, plans a second trip to Kenya in February to help in that impoverished nation. This time he’s taking two other local volunteers, Michael Kabay and 17-year-old Sarah Markwardt, a senior at Uniontown Area High School.
Wow: Ralph Waldo Emerson Snyder of Connellsville Township recently reached his 100th birthday, an amazing accomplishment, and he still doesn’t plan to slow down much. One of his longevity secrets? Heeding what he learned in church and at home. “Trust and obey,” Snyder said as he tapped his family Bible with a cane.
Scowl: More than 3 million people will have to wait until February to get federal tax refunds because Congress took too long to fix the alternative minimum tax, according to the Associated Press. Because the fix, which shields many middle- and upper-income taxpayers from a first exposure to the tax, took place in late December, the Internal Revenue Service won’t be able to start processing those tax forms, which averaged a refund of $2,324, until February. The federal government should be so slow to take money from people.
Wow: Masontown and Brownsville boroughs adopted 2008 budgets that have no tax increase, which is commendable and shows what municipalities can do if they want to live within their fiscal means. However, Masontown residents are facing a $1.50-per-month hike in water bills. Councilman Harry Lee said money generated from the water hike would go toward increases associated with the borough’s garbage collection contract. Still, that five-year contract, awarded by council at the same meeting, raises the monthly household fee from $9.24 to $10.39 over that time frame.
Wow: The West Virginia Mountaineers walloped Oklahoma 48-28 in the Fiesta Bowl. Who’s Rich Rodriguez?