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VOL. 135 — NO. 37

THURSDAY,JANUARY 30, 2014

[L-V photo by Evanne Gareis]

AS A RESULT of the freezing temperatures and added snowfall, natural snow balls have formed over much of Clarion County. Named “snow rollers” these rare natural phenome-

nons can only happen with the right amount of cold temperatures, wind, and light and sticky snow. They are hollow because the snow accumulates on the outside as it rolls.

[L-V photo by Evanne Gareis]

AFTER 44 YEARS of business, Ju-Don’s Service Station in South Bethlehem will close its doors for good this Friday, Jan. 31. Owners Donald (left) and Judy Guntrum

have operated the old-fashioned full service station since Novem-ber 1969 which is known for still pumping customers’ gas and washing windshields.

By EVANNE GAREISL-V Staff Writer

RIMERSBURG – On Feb. 5 the boys and girls bas-ketball teams from Union High School and Keystone High School will face off in the annual “Battle in the Burg” basketball game.

While the outcome of the game is important for each team individually, the real winner is the Cancer Cen-ter at Clarion Hospital. For four of the six years the “Battle in the Burg” has

been going on, players, coaches and families from both schools have contin-ued their efforts raising money for the Cancer Cen-ter.

The program started in February 2009 in remem-brance of Betty Jane Mor-timer, an avid Union bas-ketball fan, who passed away in September 2008 after a long battle with breast cancer.

“My grandma really en-joyed basketball,” former Union Damsel player and

event organizer Andrea Mortimer explained. “She loved coming to our games, [and rarely missed]. [My family] thought this would be a good way to keep her memory alive.”

The designated “Battle in the Burg” game has been played during the Union and Keystone matchup for at least five years.

Mortimer added that Keystone became a fixture for the game when her cousin, Matt Clark, be-

Organizers look to build on ‘Burg Battle’ success

[Continued on Page A-3]

By JOSH WALZAKL-V Editor

NEW BETHLEHEM – Compet-ing against 17 other trails from across state, the local Redbank Valley Trail came out on top and was named the 2014 Trail of the Year in Pennsylvania during the inaugural year for the state-wide award.

The announcement was made Monday by state Department of Conservation and Natural

Resources Secretary Ellen Fer-retti.

“Eighteen fantastic trails were nominated during this inaugu-ral year for this designation,” Ferretti said. “Redbank Valley Trails stood out because of the dedicated work of tremendous volunteers; its scenic beauty; connection to other trail sys-tems; and quick and efficient pace of development.”

The new award is coordinated by DCNR’s Pennsylvania Trails

Advisory Committee to elevate public awareness of the thou-sands of miles of trails available for public enjoyment in Pennsyl-vania.

The news of the award trav-eled fast along the 51-mile trail corridor, which spans from Brookville through New Bethle-hem to the Allegheny River, and with a spur through the Rimers-burg area to Sligo.

“Our volunteers are just ordi-nary people with extraordinary

hearts,” Redbank Valley Trails Association president Darla Kirkpatrick said. “Every hour spent on the trail was time away from their families and homes. They represent the good in this country.”

Those volunteers were cred-ited by Allegheny Valley Land Trust director Ron Steffey as the main reason the local trail re-ceived the award this week.

Steffey said that the story of the Redbank Valley Trail began

in 2006 when the local railroad corridor, mainly along Red Bank Creek, was little more than “an orphan that nobody wanted to adopt.”

“The railroad did not want it, the municipalities did not want to have anything to do with the corridor, the state would not as-sume any direct responsibility, and the Allegheny Valley Land Trust did not want it,” he said.

Over the next few years,

Redbank Trail named top in state

[Continued on Page A-6]

By JOSH WALZAKL-V Editor

NEW BETHLEHEM – After several years of on-again-off-again plans and debate among New Beth-lehem Borough officials, it appears that the long-an-ticipated expansion of the A-Plus Mini Mart is ready to move forward.

Borough leaders last week gave the green light for their legal counsel to begin work on an ordi-nance that would allow for a small portion of Jockey Street to be relocated to make way for the expan-sion of the gas station at

the corner of Broad and Liberty streets.

Jeff Doverspike of A-Plus presented project maps to borough council mem-bers at their Jan. 21 meet-ing, showing that the new plans call for the existing convenience store build-ing and gasoline pumps to remain at the front of the property, while new die-sel and gasoline pumps will be added behind the building.

Plans show that the property’s steep bank along Jockey Street will be sloped downward toward the creek, with the portion

A-Plus plans clear next hurdle in NB

[Continued on Page A-9]

By EVANNE GAREISL-V Staff Writer

SOUTH BETHLEHEM – After 44 years a local business is saying good-bye.

Ju-Don’s Service Sta-tion in South Bethlehem will close its doors for good on Friday, Jan. 31, and for owners Donald and Judy Guntrum the decision to shut down is bittersweet.

“I like what I do,” Judy Guntrum said. “We’ve had great customers

over the years, and have made a lot of friends, but we’re getting older, and we work a lot of hours.”

The current operating hours from around 7:45 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and until 2 p.m. on Saturdays is a cutback from the early years.

“We used to be open six days a week until 10 or 10:30 p.m.,” Judy Guntrum said.

The Guntrums bought the service station in No-vember 1969 from Sin-

clair Oil Company and admit that not much has changed over the years.

“[The building had been empty] for about three years when we bought it,” Judy Gun-trum said.

“We cleaned it up, painted and later re-placed a window,” Don-ald Guntrum added.

Also, in 1992 the Gun-trums replaced the old fuel tanks at the side of the building with new ones approved by the

Local business closes doors after 44 years

[Continued on Page A-9]

Unless you’ve been holed up in your house for the past several days, you’ve likely seen the numerous snow formations known as “snow rollers” in yards and fields across this area.

In fact, from the num-ber of phone calls and emails we’ve received on the mysterious snow balls, it seems they’ve caught the attention of just about everyone around.

We’ve seen them before, but never in such high numbers and in so many [Continued on Page A-5]

By JOSH WALZAKL-V Editor

NEW BETHLEHEM – The Redbank Valley will soon get the Holly-wood treatment as a local group is teaming up with an Emmy Award-winning writer/producer to feature the area in a short promo-tional video.

Spearheaded by TechReady Professionals of New Bethlehem and Redbank Renaissance, the two-minute video will be created by Bill Mushrush of Mush Media.

Mushrush met with lo-cal residents and busi-ness leaders Friday at TechReady’s Lafayette Street office to begin plan-

ning for the endeavor.“Every community has

a different vibe,” he said as the group of approximate-ly 10 people viewed videos his company has made for Jefferson County and Fox-burg. “We want to tell your story.”

Gordon Barrows of TechReady facilitated the meeting, saying that while sponsorships for the video project are being sought, the project would move forward to produce a short video to promote the val-ley’s attractions and busi-nesses.

“The goal is awareness,” Mushrush said. “There are a lot of things that hap-pen here that people aren’t

Valley to be featured in promo video

[Continued on Page A-5]

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