That rings a bell

The Cambridge Springs unit of the Salvation Army is looking for bell ringers for its annual kettle campaign (more details from the Meadville Tribune). The money collected (about $4,000) is used to support local families in need.

And in further proof that absolutely everything is on YouTube, here's a Salvation Army bell ringer training video. Best tip: Never leave the kettle unattended.

Unsophisticated palate

There was a blurb on GoErie.com today about Voodoo Brewery in Meadville beginning to distribute its beer locally. I guess this means some more competition for Sprague Farm & Brew Works (located between Venango and Cambridge Springs on Routes 6/19), but I guess raising the profile of locally produced beer is good for everyone in the business.

The article includes this hilarious nugget: "The brewery owners say their biggest challenge is explaining to locals that the relatively pricey beer is meant to be enjoyed for its taste, not its alcoholic qualities."

That makes us Crawford Countians sound like a bunch of rubes. Bring on the Natty Ice and Genny Cream Ale!

Judgment call

Two people have been ordered to stand trial on child endangerment charges for not seeking medical treatment for a 20-month-old after he was scalded in a bathtub at a Cambridge Springs residence, reported Tim Hahn a few days ago in the Erie Times-News. You'll see from reading the article that this was clearly a case of poor judgment—the mother leaving the kid with the boyfriend, the boyfriend leaving the kid in the bathtub unattended, and both failing to err on the side of caution by taking the kid to the hospital.

I guess it's hard to determine at what point bad parenting becomes criminal, but it's equally hard to argue that two people who apparently displayed such poor judgment shouldn't be punished in some way for their actions. Parents all screw up sometimes—but you always hope the screw-ups aren't so monumental that a significant injury to a child results. Nobody is perfect, but there are some things society just won't give someone a free pass on.

Catching up

A few random Wednesday thoughts:

1. I see that leaves are starting to fall from trees around town. Most of the leaves on the trees in my yard, however, are still green. I already have visions of piles of leaves on top of a foot of snow.

2. There were a couple of good articles relating to Cambridge Springs in the Meadville Tribune recently: one on a reunion for alumni and staff of Alliance College at the Riverside, and another on Cambridge Springs Elementary School sixth graders who are volunteering at the local Golden Living Center (aka the old folks' home).

3. The Tribune also reports that, somehow, the official book of ordinances for the borough of Venango has been lost. No one seems to be quite sure how or when it was lost, but it is indeed missing. My theory is that someone attempted to throw the book at someone else and missed completely. The book then landed in French Creek and was never seen again. (Note to local governments: these types of things really need to be digitized and backed up off-site somewhere.)

4. I don't like sending $52.81 to Coaxial Cable each month for channels that skip and stutter way too often. I've found that I'm watching a lot more programs online for free from the TV networks' web sites, since I can watch them at my convenience without having to pay Coaxial for DVR service. I wonder if it's time to put up a rooftop antenna and start pulling in things over the air. It sounds like a lot of work, though.

When push came to shove

Faced with the possibility of losing $163,000 in state funding, Cambridge Springs borough council finally scaled back the proposed renovations to the athletic complex off Brink Drive enough to get an affordable bid on the project. (Tim Hahn from the Erie Times-News provides the relevant details here.) Hahn notes that the current plan includes: improving the park's access road, installing a parking lot, adding one tee ball field and building a water retention area.

There's no doubt that this is a sorely needed project for the area—and definitely worth the tax increases that may come along with the borough and Cambridge Township each kicking in $25,000 to the project. There are far worse ways for tax dollars to be spent, especially when people had to park in the grass and mud just to see their kids play sports.

It seems like there have been concerns about increased traffic on Brink because of expansion to the facility—and that's a legitimate concern given that it's a residential area. It's going to be key for police to have a presence on the street before and after games to keep people honest about following the 15 mph speed limit.

I was a little disappointed that the current set of renovations didn't apparently include any sort of soccer facilities or equipment (or at least the article didn't mention anything about soccer). It's a shame that Cambridge-area kids have to travel to Saegertown to play high school soccer.

Life imitating art?

If you watched the NBC series The Office this week, you probably saw the scene in which regional manager Michael Scott drives a rental car into a lake because he's following the directions from the car's navigation system a little bit too closely. (By the way, if you missed this episode, you can watch it online for free here.

As coincidence would have it, a Georgia man who had a bit too much to drink crashed at an intersection in Rockdale Township and ended up putting his car in a pond early Thursday morning. The Times-News Crawford County beat reporter, Tim Hahn, gives all the hilarious details in this article. (Okay, so drunk driving isn't ever hilarious, but no one was hurt in this accident, as long as you don't consider a 2005 Toyota Corolla to be an animate object.) When emergency responders arrived, the man had already fled the scene and left his submerged car behind. Hahn pithily notes that: "The car was empty, but a shoe was found inside, police said." A paramedic responding to the scene spotted the driver walking along Route 6 (and, yes, he was wearing only one shoe while making this trek).

I don't really think there's any more commentary needed on this situation. It speaks for itself.

We're not all this dumb

Don't let the foolish actions of one man ruin your opinion of all Cambridge Springsians:

Cambridge man with 'pipe bomb' must serve 30 days in jail

He was also ordered to pay the Penncrest School District fifteen hundred bucks for the food they had to throw out on the day of the evacuation. That's just hilarious.

Where everybody knows your name

Someone is investing money in the former Corner Tavern in Venango, upgrading the exterior of the building with vinyl siding and other improvements. The tavern was (or is?) for sale—the price started out in the mid $100,000s if I recall correctly, but dropped down to $69,000. The listing is currently inactive, according to this listing detail page from Coldwell Banker.

I'm not sure if someone purchased the property, which was apparently lost as part of a bankruptcy. Of course, Crawford County government is stuck in the stone ages and doesn't have property records and transfer information available online.

At any rate, whether it's a bank that foreclosed on the property or a new owner doing the work, it's good to see some progress on a building that had the potential to become an eyesore pretty quickly.

Drive-by shooting

The Erie Times-News reports that someone shot a bullet through the wall of a home on Crossingville Road in Cussewago Township, and then got in his/her car and drove away. The incident happened around 11 p.m. on Monday.

This may go without saying, but—even if you're really mad at someone—it's probably not a good idea to shoot randomly into the person's home. Somebody could get hurt. Really badly.

I don't know about you, but I blame this all on our educational system and its lack of concern with teaching firearm safety. Won't someone please think of the children?

Please refer to this classic YouTube video of a DEA agent attempting to explain gun safety in a classroom—and in the process accidentally shooting himself.