Published: July 04, 2008 11:45 pm      

In Brief: Six to compete in Somerset event

SOMERSET – Six Somerset County 4-H seamstresses will compete in the State 4-H Fashion Revue Aug. 6 in Eisenhower Auditorium at Penn State.

They are Stefanie Miller, Toni Svonavec, Amy Svonavec, Mary Kimmel, Marie Eger and Rochelle Gossman. Also named a finalist is Amanda Engleka.

The finalists were selected at the Southwest Regional 4-H Fashion Revue held in June at the Mountain View Inn, Greensburg.

A total of 60 4-H members will be competing in the state revue, which is part of Penn State 4-H Achievement Week.

Superior Court upholds clinic-crash ruling

ALTOONA – A state Superior Court has upheld a Blair County judge’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit against a Richland Township methadone clinic that had been sued for a crash caused by a patient.

In dismissing the suit against Alliance Medical Services Inc. in January 2007, Blair County Judge Elizabeth Doyle said the law must balance the public interest in helping heroin addicts against the consequences of methadone treatment.

Matthew Stever of Altoona had sued the clinic for injuries from the August 2004 crash caused by Crystal Ickes. Ickes was killed.

Stever also sued Ickes’ psychiatrist, claiming drugs the doctor gave Ickes contributed to the crash, but that suit was dismissed, too.

Ickes was leaving the Richland clinic to return to her home in Altoona after undergoing treatment when she smashed head-one into Stever’s vehicle.

Ferndale Bridge closing for deck work

Traffic will have to take the long way around as PennDOT announced that the Ferndale Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic from 9 p.m. Tuesday until 6 a.m. Thursday. Sidewalks will remain open.

This closure is necessary so the contractor can pour the new deck and allow the concrete to settle.

Traffic will follow an 11-mile detour from Route 403 to

Route 271 to Goucher Street to Franklin Street back to

Route 985 to Route 403.

The overall project consists of replacing the bridge deck and rehabilitating the existing single-span structure over the Stonycreek River. The work will include roadway approach repairs, guardrail upgrades and the replacement of curbs and sidewalks.

Brayman Construction Corp. of Saxonburg is the contractor for the $3 million project that is expected to be completed by July 2009.