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VOL. 136 — NO. 5

THURSDAY,June 19, 2014

Customer Appreciation Day comes to NB on Friday

By JOSH WALZAKL-V Editor

NEW BETHLEHEM – The Redbank Valley Cham-ber of Commerce’s Customer Appreciation Day in New Bethlehem continues to grow each year, with more participating businesses and prizes than ever before planned for tomorrow (Fri-day), June 20.

Laura Neiswonger of RMS Furniture, who spearheads the annual event, said re-

cently that this year’s Cus-tomer Appreciation Day passport will include a re-cord-setting 50 stops.

Visit all 50 sites — 20 of which are vendors set up in the municipal parking lot behind RMS — and par-ticipants will have a chance to win a trip to Put-in-Bay, Ohio, a “staycation” at a lo-cal hotel, or one of more than 40 prizes donated by area businesses.

Last year, Neiswonger said, 127 people completed

the passports. The winner of the two-night trip to Put-in-Bay last year was so pleased with the vacation package, Neiswonger said they decid-ed to offer it again this year.

“It worked out great last year,” she said, explaining that the trip for a family of four includes two nights at the Bay Resort, golf cart rental, ferry tickets, gas cards for the trip and a $400 Visa gift card to pay for food and other items on the trip.

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[Photo by Ron Wilshire]

MARK WYANT, TIM DIXON, Gordon Barrows and Justin Morgan (from left to right) view a demonstration of a new drone/flying camera purchased by TechReady Professionals in New Bethlehem. The quadcopter is being used to capture high resolution photos and video for use in websites and other promotional material.

Companies find use for drones in valleyBy RON WILSHIREL-V Correspondent

NEW BETHLEHEM – While seeing black helicop-ters over Beautiful Lookout might seem a little para-noid, there is a real chance of seeing a drone hover over the Redbank Valley.

A small 12-inch square white “drone” weighing a quarter of a pound and equipped with a high resolu-tion camera has been mak-ing its way through the area in the last several weeks.

Relax. It’s not a govern-ment drone on a spy mission or delivering a deadly pack-age for any Taliban sym-pathizers in the valley. It’s merely the latest purchase by TechReady Professionals in New Bethlehem.

The technology firm will use the high definition still

photography and video de-livered by the flying camera for use in websites and other community promotional ac-tivities.

“With the recent pur-chase of our DJI Phan-tom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter, TechReady has positioned itself to offer exclusive, nev-er-seen-before aerial photos and video,” said owner Gor-don Barrows. “Anyone can buy a quadcopter and take pictures or video, but our team’s creative editing skills and expertise with the Ado-be suite of programs such as Photoshop have allowed us to produce breathtaking im-ages and high-quality video. Capitalizing on the unique talents of local technology professionals, TechReady has partnered with Tim Dix-on, owner of Digital Penn

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[L-V photo by Evanne Gareis]

A MORNING OF rain and chilly weather didn’t put a damper on swim-mers at the Union Pool Park in Sligo during the Splash into Summer Car Cruise on Saturday, June 14. The event-filled afternoon also included a Chinese auction, a chicken barbecue provided by the Sligo Volunteer Fire Co. and a bounce house.

By EVANNE GAREISL-V Staff Writer

NEW BETHLEHEM – With the end of the 2013-14 school year in the Red-bank Valley School Dis-trict comes the end of the contract for the teachers.

The current contract, which was signed five years ago, is set to expire June 30.

According to school board president Chad Shaffer, members of the board’s negotiating team and Redbank Valley Edu-cation Association rep-resentatives have been meeting one or two times a month to work through different areas in the con-tract.

“It’s still fairly early, but both sides have sat down to meet multiple times,” Shaffer explained.

Even though there is still plenty of work to do, both sides agree that prog-ress is being made.

“So far things have been going well,” Shaffer said.

“There has been a lot of productive conversa-tion,” RVEA president Jes-sica Minich echoed. “We haven’t agreed on any ma-jor issues yet, but I feel like we’re making progress.”

It’s early in the process, and neither side could say when an agreement could be reached.

“These are difficult times in public education, and we need to be sure that a fair agreement is reached,” Shaffer said.

The next negotiation meeting is slated for June 30.

RVSDin teachernegotiations

Vacant shirt factory given for Clarion Co.development

HAWTHORN – A 55,000-square-foot former shirt factory is the latest eco-nomic development tool for the Clarion County Eco-nomic Development Cor-poration (CCEDC).

The industrial site on Wiants Lane in Hawthorn was donated to the CCEDC in hopes of attracting new business or industries to Clarion County. Larry McCauley, owner of Mc-Cauley Trucking and Warehousing in Hawthorn and Brookville, offered the building to CCEDC.

“Larry McCauley called us and asked us if we would be interested in the

building with the possibil-ity that we might be able to get a tenant or some people in it.” said Jamie Lefever, CCEDC execu-tive director. “We thought about it and closed on the property in April.”

McCauley used the site for a number of years as warehousing and storage space, and it is close to his company’s Hawthorn loca-tion. The facility was built in 1965 on a 7.3-acre site. A shirt factory owned by Bert Williams was the last business to operate at the location before McCauley’s purchase.

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[L-V photo by Evanne Gareis]

TIFFANY KAHLE (center) was diagnosed with epilepsy in 2001. Along with her parents, Jamey (left) and Melissa, “Team Tiffers” was created.

Local family supportsEpilepsy Foundation

By EVANNE GAREISL-V Staff Writer

PUTNEYVILLE – From 5K runs to hoagie sales, a local family has done just about everything to raise money for the Epilepsy Foundation of Western/Cen-tral Pennsylvania.

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Everyone likes to be ap-preciated — so be sure to make a trip into downtown New Bethlehem tomorrow (Friday) for the Redbank Valley Chamber of Com-merce’s annual Customer Appreciation Day.

Many of the participat-ing businesses will offer specials, give-a-ways or prizes — and if you take part in the passport pro-motion and visit all the stops, you could win a va-cation package or a num-ber of other great prizes.

Complete details can be found elsewhere in today’s paper.

* * *

We’ve been heralding it’s start for the past several weeks, but the real official start of the summer season finally arrives on Satur-day.

June 21 is the longest day of the year in terms of daylight — so be sure to find an outdoor activity to make the most of it.

And don’t forget to “Take The L-V With You” on your summer day-trips and va-

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