Laurels and barbs
Laurel: Westmont Hilltop High School treated students with special needs to a night “Under the Sea” at its Life Skills prom May 10 at the Community Arts Center of Cambria County. “We want to bring students from all across the area together to have a fabulous night while also building our community,” said Maureen Kalfas, a Life Skills teacher at Westmont Hilltop. About 130 students from schools around the Johnstown area attended.
Laurel: Eleven Forest Hills High School seniors were honored Monday for joining the U.S. military. They are Shawn Yatsky and Dallas Yatsky, both Navy; James McKendree, Space Force; Brian Primavera and David Roberts, both Marine Corps; and Quinn Yuschick, T.J. Carroll, Kory Marsalko, Daimen Box, Devin King and Monica Krug, all Army National Guard. “When you have 11 kids going into the armed forces, I think it speaks volumes about ... commitment and community,” said school Principal Rebecca Roberts.
Barb: Low reimbursements for medications paid by insurance plans and their pharmacy benefit manager middlemen have forced another local independent pharmacy out of business. Westmont Rexall Drug Store in the West Hills will close Tuesday, owner Mike Gnagey said. The announcement comes on the heels of Mainline Pharmacy’s closure of nine locations across the region in March. Gnagey said: “Every retail pharmacy is dealing with exactly what Mainline and myself is dealing with. Reimbursements from insurance companies is the whole matter. … What really upsets me is I’m busy – the store is busy, but I can’t make any money. Does that make sense in this day and age?” It’s not just a Johnstown-area problem, either – a recent survey of independent pharmacy owners showed that 32% of respondents were considering closing their doors in 2024.
Laurel: Artificial intelligence has advanced into the cardiology department at Chan Soon-Shiong Medical Center at Windber, where the Cathworks FFRangio System creates a 3D model that allows the cardiologist to see and evaluate blood flow and blockages in a patient’s heart. “It’s exciting how (AI is) continuing to improve how we care for patients,” cardiac catheterization lab director Dr. Samir Hadeed said.
Barb: The regional and statewide shortage of firefighters was in the spotlight again Monday during a listening tour of Johnstown- area fire stations hosted by state Rep. Jim Rigby, who said that shortage is “the No. 1 thing” all fire departments are dealing with. The number of volunteer firefighters in Pennsylvania has dropped from 370,000 in the 1970s to fewer than 40,000, many of whom are middle-aged or well into retirement. That dearth of volunteers has a run-on impact on the number of professional firefighters, too, as city fire Chief Robert Statler said: “The number of volunteers affects what I have coming in, also. When I was hired in ’96, there were 150 people that tested for, like, six jobs. … The last test we gave, we had 12 people.” And Statler said numbers are continuing to decline despite recruitment efforts: “None of it seems to be working.”
Laurel: Government officials working together to provide basic needs for their constituents was the message Monday at a Cambria County Transit Authority dedication program for four new natural gas-powered buses. “These are opportunities where a community comes to Washington and says, ‘This is important to us,’ ” said U.S. Rep. John Joyce, R-Blair, who acquired a $2,200,138 federal Com- munity Progress Fund grant that was matched with $550,034 through the Pennsylvania legislature to fund the $2,750,172 purchase.
Barb: State police allege that a driver fell asleep at the wheel before causing a wreck that killed three highway workers from a Somerset County company early April 17. The 24-year-old man was driving a large box truck on Interstate 83 when he allegedly dozed off at around 3:25 a.m.; his truck then hit a construction vehicle, which struck and killed the three CriLon Corp. employees. The investigation is still ongoing and no decision has been made on whether to file charges in the case.
