Published: April 22, 2009 11:27 pm      

IN BRIEF | Woman pleads guilty to underage sex party

EBENSBURG – An Ebensburg woman pleaded guilty this week to having a sex party last year with young boys.

Elizabeth A. Hemming, 33, of the 300 block of South Phaney Street, was charged with sexually exploiting children younger than 18 and sharing obscene materials with them. Ebensburg police said the charges stem from a May 17 party.

Still pending are similar charges against Susan Churilla, 43, of Twin Rocks, who police said took part in the same sex party.



Handcuffs stolen from constable’s car

Dale Borough police are investigating the theft of a pair of handcuffs, leg irons and a GTS system from a locked, parked car owned by Constable Mark Barbarich.

Barbarich told police he had parked his car Tuesday evening outside his borough home.

Around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, a neighbor called to tell him that one of the windows had been smashed.

The car, while it does not have any written identification on it, does contain a cage separating the front and rear seats.

It was the first time in the 15 years he’s been a constable that his vehicle has been broken into, Barbarich said.



Police seek missing Bedford area woman

BEDFORD - State police are asking for the public’s help in locating a missing Bedford County woman.

Lynne W. Scheffler, 64, left her residence on Elk Lick Road, Chaneysville, around 9 a.m. Tuesday to go to a dentist in Bedford but never arrived for her appointment, police said Wednesday.

Scheffler has been diagnosed as being in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

She is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 155 pounds. She has short gray hair and green eyes and was last seen wearing a pink coat, blue jeans and black loafers.

Scheffler was driving a 2003 Ford Explorer with registration WR73656, police said.

Anyone with information about her may call state police at 623-6133.



West End group plans cleanup Saturday

Johnstown’s West End Improvement Group has organized a community cleanup set for Saturday morning.

Anyone interested in participating should meet at 8:30 a.m. at Greater Johnstown Middle School, 280 Decker Ave.

Gloves and trash bags will be provided.

The cleanup will be assisted by Cambria County’s court system and Alternative Community Resource Program.



Art will bloom at weekend show

EBENSBURG – The borough’s annual Art in Bloom show will be held Saturday and Sunday at the county courthouse, where 171 pieces of professional and amateur artwork will be on display.

The categories are painting, drawing, photography, dimensional and mixed media.

Monetary awards will be given to first, second and third place winners, and honorable mentions will be awarded in each category. Other prizes will include people’s choice, best of show and the mayor’s pick.

Chuck Olsen, an artist who has exhibited his work in more than 200 regional, national and international exhibitions, is the juror. He is a full-time professor at St. Francis University in Loretto, where he teaches courses in art history, photography, painting and drawing.

Admission to the show is free.

Hours are noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Art in Bloom is sponsored by Ebensburg Area Business Commission and Main Street Partnership. It is partially funded through a grant from the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies.



Extension offers food-safety course

SOMERSET – Somerset County Cooperative Extension is offering a basic food-safety training program for nonprofit groups titled “Cooking for Crowds: A Volunteer Guide to Food Safety.”

It will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in the extension conference room in Partners Hall at 6024 Glades Pike.

The session will be repeated from 9 a.m. to noon April 30 at the same place.

The extension office said a minimal registration fee will be charged.

The registration deadline is one week prior to the program session.

Information: 445-8911, ext. 7.



College breaks ground for science pavilion

LATROBE – St. Vincent College broke ground Wednesday for construction of the Sis and Herman Dupre Science Pavilion, a 102,000-square-foot educational facility that will provide new or renovated classrooms, laboratories and offices for the Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Computing.

The facility is part of an approximately $40 million initiative that also includes funding for new endowment and instrumentation. More than $27 million has been raised in this effort. The first phase of construction and renovation, expected to be completed by August 2010, is fully funded.

College President Jim Towey called it the largest and most ambitious project in the college’s history.

“Thanks to the generosity of our donors, we can go forward at a time when other colleges and universities are pulling back,” Towey said.

Special features will include an 80-seat lecture hall with a 3-D digital projector, a planetarium and a digital imaging laboratory.

The Sis and Herman Dupre Science Pavilion is named in recognition of a $7.6 million gift from their family and friends. Herman Dupre is a 1953 graduate of St. Vincent and is renowned for his patents in artificial snow-making and ownership of Seven Springs Mountain Resort.

The Richard King Mellon Foundation made a $7 million grant for this project, which was the largest foundation grant in the college’s history.

Other major donors to the science center project include the Katherine Mabis McKenna Foundation, Edward B. Dunlap Family, the CentiMark Foundation and the Benedictine Society.