Heroin - Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association

Transcription

Broncos turn
back Steelers
NFL DiviSiONAL ROUND RESULTS
Denver 23,
Carolina 31,
Pittsburgh 16 Seattle 24
CONFERENCE FiNALS (Sunday)
Patriots at Broncos, 3:05 p.m., CBS
Cardinals at Panthers, 6:40 p.m., FOX
J O H N D U D L E Y: S t e e l e r s m a d e m i s t a k e s t h e y c o u l d n ’ t a f f o r d a g a i n s t B r o n c o s . S P O R T S , 1 C
SERVING OUR READERS SINCE 1888
Breaking News: GoErie.com
WEATHER
FORECAST, 6B
Lake effect snow,
3-6 inches
18 high
15 low
INSIDE
Freed prisoners
begin journey home
Americans imprisoned
by Iran began their
journey home Sunday,
their friends and family
awaiting emotional
reunions, after delicate
diplomatic negotiations
that played out in the
shadows of
international nuclear
talks.
Up Close, 3A
Monday, January 18, 2016
HEROiN
$1.00
Recent law
helps antidote
gain traction
statewide,
but local
participation
rates vary
HELP
name Narcan, themselves, and
temporarily reverse the effects
of an opioid overdose, which can
make a person stop breathing.
Since Act 139 took effect in November 2014, DiOrazio and other
rescue workers from Crescent
Hose and North East’s other fire
company, Fuller Hose Co., have
reversed nine overdoses, DiOrazio said.
Local cases of chronic hepatitis C declined significantly
in 2015, and health officials
said new medical treatments
could be the reason.
One hundred four cases of
the viral liver infection were
reported to the Erie County
Department of Health in
2015, far fewer than the 172
cases reported in 2014 and
the lowest annual number
reported in the county since
2003, the first year the disease
was reported.
“We know there are new
treatments that are working
for chronic hepatitis C,” said
Charlotte Berringer, R.N., director of community health
for the Health Department.
“That’s great news because
chronic hepatitis C can cause
long-term liver damage that
is life-threatening.”
About 3.5 million Americans have a chronic hepatitis C infection. Hepatitis
C is most commonly spread
by sharing needles or other
equipment for injecting
drugs.
More than 75 percent of
those infected with hepatitis
C develop chronic infection,
according to the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. It can lead to liver
damage, liver failure, liver
cancer and death.
But local physicians have
been prescribing a new drug,
Harvoni, that is much more
effective at curing hepatitis
C than previous medications,
➤ Please see NARCAN, 4A
➤ Please see HEPATITIS C, 4A
Artist Kris Risto
paints murals
to honor an Erie
neighborhood’s
past with its current
faces.
City&Region, 1B
GREG WOHLFORD/Erie Times-News
The Erie Otters
rebounded from one of
their worst losses of
the season with a 3-1
win over Owen Sound.
Sports, 1C
DEATHS
Brown, Ruth L., 92
Darr, Kenneth D., 94
DeWolf, Marian Hilbert, 72
Ebert, Ronald E., 73
Ho, Hoa Ngoc, 70
Jazenski, Bertha
“Bert” Somerder, 95
Kaminski, Thomas
R., 78
Passarelli, Priscilla V.
Cook, 79
Pyle, Charles E., 93
VanWie, Lula M.
“Lou,” 80
Washburn, Karen
J., 47
FIND IT
Crescent Hose Co. ambulance administrator Jack DiOrazio, 26, displays a dosage of naloxone inside an
ambulance in North East on Thursday. The drug is administered to save the lives of heroin users.
By LISA THOMPSON
lisa.thompson@timesnews.com
Sometimes it would take 10
minutes. Sometimes, 30.
Encountering a heroin overdose victim, there was nothing
Crescent Hose Co. ambulance
administrator Jack DiOrazio
could do but use oxygen and other supportive measures to keep a
patient alive until his team could
meet up with paramedics armed
POSiTivELY
ERiE
with a dose of the opioid antidote
naloxone.
“It hurt waiting for someone
else to show up, and we could not
do anything,” DiOrazio said.
Empowered by a recent state
law gaining traction statewide,
first responders like DiOrazio,
and others, including an addict’s
family members or anyone who
has a need, no longer have to
wait. They can administer the
drug, which goes by the trade
By GERRY WEISS
gerry.weiss@timesnews.com
Leah Loucks knew it would
be a daunting challenge when
she chose to coordinate the
most expensive fundraising
project Zem Zem Shrine Club
ever took on for the Erie Shriners Ambulatory Surgery Cen-
Leah
Loucks, 46,
of Linesville,
raised
$55,000
through the
Zem Zem
Shrine Club.
ter and Outpatient Specialty
Care Center.
“My heart told me to go this
way,” the 46-year-old Linesville
woman said.
“This was such a valuable
project. It would benefit so
many children.”
➤ Please see FUNDRAISER, 4A
CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/Erie Times-News
A wEEkLY FEATURE ABOUT PEOPLE AND iDEAS THAT ARE MAkiNG A DiFFERENCE ACROSS THE ERiE REGiON.
Bridge..............................4D
Classifieds ......................1D
Comics ............................4D
Dear Abby.......................6D
Dr. K ................................6D
Employment....................1D
Horoscopes ....................4D
Lotteries .......................... 2A
Obituaries .......................3B
Public Notices ................1D
Puzzles............................6D
Sports..............................1C
Viewpoint ........................4B
Vital Statistics.................5B
Wonderword ...................2D
Volume 16 Number 109
© 2016,
Times Publishing Company
adno=177868
Details, 3B
New drug helps
treat chronic
hepatitis C
By DAVID BRUCE
david.bruce@timesnews.com
Artwork gives life
to buildings
Otters bounce
back vs. Attack
Erie
sees
disease
decline
NEWS
4A | Erie Times-News | GoErie.com | Monday, January 18, 2016
When should
exam stop?
Mammogram necessity debated
ASSOCIATED PRESS
First responders and others, including an addict’s family members, can administer naloxone themselves.
Narcan: Antidote helps
Continued from 1A
“Now we can actually
do something to help,” he
said. “It is rewarding being able to give somebody
a second chance to get off
their addiction and live a
better, more fulfilled life.”
His
department
is
among the local fire departments, including West
Lake Fire Department in
northwest Millcreek Township, which took quick advantage of the new law.
West Lake Fire Chief Rick
Schau said the department obtained naloxone
with the help of the state
Department of Health and
Saint Vincent Hospital in
late 2015.
“Hopefully, we will
never have to use it. But
if we save one person’s
life, it will be worth it,”
he said. “Every second
counts when someone is
not breathing.”
Antidote available
Act 139 came in response to rising opioid
overdoses statewide.
Of the 68 drug deaths
Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook investigated in
2015, 35 were due to heroin. Those figures were up
from 2014, when heroin
was to blame for 26 of the
county’s 60 drug deaths.
The law put naloxone
— previously available
in emergency rooms or
through paramedics —
into the hands of those
close to addicts and first
responders, including police.
Statewide, police have
reported reviving at least
550 people with naloxone
since the legislation took
effect. But participation
rates vary greatly among
municipalities, said Jason
Snyder, press secretary
for the state Department
of Drug and Alcohol Programs. Delaware County,
he said, has equipped all
44 police departments
with naloxone, resulting in
153 overdose reversals. In
contrast, Allegheny County, which had the second
highest overdose rate in
the state in 2014, has only
13 departments carrying
How
Narcan
works
Part of brain stem that
maintains breathing, heart
rate and other vital functions
Not a panacea
A prescription drug
called naloxone,
sold under the name
Narcan, helps save
heroin users from
respiratory failure.
Where heroin typically
attaches to receptors in
brain’s pleasure zones.
An opioid overdose
occurs after heroin
overloads receptors in
brain cells, causing
breathing to slow, stop.
not seek help at the ER
after taking naloxone at
home.
Naloxone reverses the
overdose by freeing receptors
of heroin, allowing the person
to breathe again. It blocks
heroin for 30 to 90 minutes.
Opioid
Naloxone
Opioid
receptor
Nerve
cell
SOURCES: National Institute on Drug Abuse; PBS;
naloxoneinfo.org; Addiction Prevention Centre
CHRIS SIGMUND/Erie Times-News
naloxone, he said.
State police carry naloxone throughout the state.
Locally, North East police, with help from UPMC
Hamot, and the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, with the
help of Saint Vincent, are
equipped with naloxone.
Other police departments, including Erie,
Millcreek Township and
Edinboro, are working
with District Attorney Jack
Daneri and UPMC to obtain the antidote, Daneri
said.
Public response
Gov. Tom Wolf expanded
Act 139 by issuing a standing order in late 2015 that
made naloxone available
to anyone without a prescription. While the number of private citizens who
have obtained naloxone
is not known, there is evidence of great local interest.
Sen. Sean Wiley, of Millcreek, D-49th Dist., along
with UPMC Health Plan
and Suzanne Johnson, of
the nonprofit Change Addiction Now, held a training session attended by
more than 100 people in
November at the Harborcreek Moose Club.
Of those, 72 people took
home naloxone kits. Others were given a certificate
that would permit them to
obtain naloxone at a pharmacy.
Similar trainings are being planned for the future,
Wiley’s
spokeswoman,
Laura Guncheon, said.
“Too many families have
suffered the loss of a loved
one to this illness,” Wiley
said. “Naloxone is not the
answer to ending the heroin and opioid addiction
crisis, but rather is an opportunity for that person
to have another chance at
recovery.”
Emergency medical personnel at Saint Vincent
and UPMC routinely revive overdose victims with
naloxone. Ferdinando Mirarchi, D.O., UPMC Hamot’s medical director of
emergency medicine, and
Stephanie Larson, D.O., of
Saint Vincent, said they
have not seen much evidence that patients have
been revived by friends
or family before arriving
at the hospital since Act
139 took effect.
Larson fears some might
Justine Russell, a clinical pharmacist in the Saint
Vincent emergency department, said a person revived with naloxone might
appear fully recovered.
But the antidote wears off
quickly and an overdose
could still occur.
“Self-administered naloxone in the home setting
should only be followed
up by arrival at the emergency department,” said
Wayne Jones, D.O., Saint
Vincent’s medical director of emergency medicine. Russell recommends
families keep at least two
naloxone doses on hand in
case one dose fails to fully
reverse the overdose. The
hospital has created twodose naloxone kits which
are available to the public
at the outpatient pharmacy for about $90.
In addition, Larson
said families should keep
naloxone on hand even
after an addicted person
returns home from drug
treatment. If that person
chooses to use drugs again,
the danger of lethal overdose is higher because of
reduced tolerance, she
said.
Larson said unfortunately, a brush with death
does not necessarily propel an addict into treatment but could alert family members to the depth
of the patient’s addiction.
Saint Vincent is working
with Erie County to obtain
grant funding to create a
new kind of caseworker
available round-the-clock
to meet with overdose
victims while they remain
in the hospital and guide
them directly to treatment.
“There is only so much
we can do if a person is not
interested (in treatment),
and there is a very limited
amount of time if a person
is interested,” Larson said.
L I S A T H O M P S O N can
be reached at 870-1802 or by
e-mail. Follow her on
Twitter at twitter.com/
ETNthompson.
WASHINGTON — Lost
in the arguing over whether women should begin
mammograms at age 40
or 50 or somewhere in between is the issue they’ll
all eventually face: when
to stop.
“There’s a point at
which everybody begins to
scratch their head and say
how much longer do you
have to keep doing this?”
said American Cancer
Society specialist Robert
Smith.
It’s an increasingly complex balancing act as older
women are living even
longer. The risk of breast
cancer rises with age. But
so do the odds of other serious illnesses that could
be more likely to kill in
a senior’s remaining life
span — or to make them
less able to withstand the
rigors of cancer treatment.
“If we pick up a cancer
in someone who’s 75 and
they die at 76 of something
else, did it really matter?
That’s really the question
here,” said Dr. Susan Boolbol, breast surgery chief at
Mount Sinai Beth Israel
Medical Center in New
York.
Medical guidelines don’t
agree.
The cancer society’s advice: Women should continue mammograms as
long as their overall health
is good and they have a
life expectancy of at least
10 more years. This past
week, guidelines issued by
the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said there’s
not enough evidence to
recommend for or against
mammograms at age 75
and older, because that
age group just hasn’t been
studied enough to tell.
Getting such evidence
is “critical, given the graying of America,” said Dr.
Jeanne Mandelblatt, an
expert on cancer and aging
at Georgetown University.
Indeed, some in the
80-and-beyond crowd are
as spry as 60-somethings.
“Peoplearetakingbetter
care of themselves,” said
Yale University pathologist Dr. Fattaneh Tavassoli.
“If we don’t start discussing it, it’s going to be more
difficult to come up with
management approaches
for these patients.”
She recently reported
“If we pick up a
cancer in someone
who’s 75 and they
die at 76 of
something else,
did it really
matter?”
— Dr. Susan Boolbol,
breast surgery chief at
Mount Sinai Beth Israel
Medical Center
that Yale’s medical center
is diagnosing more breast
cancer at 90 and older,
averaging about eight diagnoses a year since 2000,
compared with one a year
during the 1990s. Many
were diagnosed after the
woman or doctor detected
an abnormality, not from
routine
mammograms,
Tavassoli said.
About 26 percent of
breast cancer deaths each
year are attributed to a
diagnosis after age 74, according to the American
Cancer Society.
“The question we have
not really studied very
carefully is what fraction
of those deaths is truly
avoidable,” Smith said.
Mammography does decline as women get older.
About three-quarters of
women age 50 to 74 have
had a mammogram within
two years, compared with
41 percent of the 85-plus
group, according to 2013
government figures.
Mammograms
bring
pros and cons for the oldest women like they do for
middle-aged ones, the possibility of reducing breast
cancer death versus false
alarms, unneeded biopsies
and detection of a tumor so
small or slow-growing that
it never would have posed
a threat.
Georgetown’s Mandelblatt used math models to
analyze that balance, and
estimated that healthy
older women could benefit from regular screening through age 78 or 80.
But among women who
already had other moderate to severe illnesses, the
harms of screening could
outweigh benefits as early
as 68, she said.
Hepatitis C: New
drug treats infection
Continued from 1A
said Robert Hower, D.O., a
gastroenterologist
with
UPMC Hamot’s Bayfront
Digestive Diseases.
“Five years ago we saw
a 40 to 45 percent chance
of cure, now we are seeing
90 to 95 percent,” Hower
said. “If insurance compa-
nies continue to approve
this drug, I think our local
numbers will continue to
decline.”
D A V I D B R U C E can be
reached at 870-1736 or by
e-mail. Follow him on
ETNbruce.
Fundraiser: Woman raises money for Shriners center
Continued from 1A
When Loucks met with
officials from the Erie
hospital, prepping for
the Shrine Club’s annual
First Lady fundraiser, she
was given a list of seven
projects Shriners needed
financially backed.
The items included new
carpeting for the hospital,
a scanner to digitize more
patient records, and an
electric pallet jack to move
supplies around the facility.
Loucks, an office manager for a Crawford County construction company,
locked in on a new surgical lighting system for the
hospital’s operating rooms.
The existing lights, she
was told, were 12 years
old, and replacement parts
were becoming obsolete.
The cost of the project
was $53,500, more than
double the price of any
other project on Shriners’
list.
Loucks raised $55,000,
and presented the hospital, 1645 W. Eighth St., with
the money Wednesday.
“It means so much to us.
We strive here at Shriners
to provide the best patient
care to the children we
serve,” said Greg Hall, the
hospital’s spokesman. “So
by having state-of-the-art
equipment, it increases
our ability to provide the
best quality service.”
The life of the low-energy LED lights is 30,000
hours, longer than halogen
bulbs. The lighting system
also provides a cooler and
more comfortable room,
with 34 percent less beam
heat over halogen lights.
“The LED surgical lights
allow for better clarity in
the surgical field,” said
Corinna Franklin, M.D.,
a pediatric orthopedic
surgeon at the hospital.
“We are able to adjust the
lights as we need them for
the particular case we are
working on.”
Loucks used a multievent approach to tackle
her fundraising project.
The largest event was
the Jewelry Jackpot raffle
held at the Shrine Club,
2525 W. 38th St., on Oct. 24.
The fundraiser featured 20
vendors, drew more than
400 people, and raised
nearly $20,000 for the project.
Loucks said she received hefty donations
from the Clarion County
Golf Committee ($20,000)
and the northwest chapter of the Pennsylvania
Auctioneers Association
($4,500) through fundraising events those organizations hosted.
G E R R Y W E I S S can
be reached at 870-1884
or by e-mail. Follow him
on Twitter at twitter.com/
ETNweiss.
Leah Loucks helped raise money used to purchase LED
operating room lights at the Erie Shriners Ambulatory
Surgery Center and Outpatient Specialty Care Center.
6B | Erie Times-News | GoErie.com | Friday, January 22, 2016
•The place
to express,
share opinions
VIEWPOINT
Quotation for today
Praise undeserved is satire in
disguise.
Henry Broadhurst
Thought for today
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
Psalm 37:5
Broaden access to antidote for overdoses
The Issue: Heroin, opioids are regional scourge
Our View: Drug could save some lives being lost
A
number in Monday’s Erie Times-News report on
efforts in the Erie region to counteract the effects of heroin overdoses offers an indicator of
the scale of the problem and the importance of those
efforts. The location it comes from dispels any stereotypes about the problem’s reach.
The number is a result of Act 139, a state law that took
effect in November 2014, which sharply expanded access to a drug that can temporarily reverse the effects of
an overdose of heroin or other opioids. Previously the
drug, naloxone, was available only through emergency
rooms or paramedics.
Since Act 139 took effect, Crescent Hose Co. ambulance administrator Jack DiOrazio said, rescue personnel from Crescent and North East’s other fire company,
Fuller Hose Co., have counteracted nine overdoses.
That those potentially lifesaving actions occurred in
their North East service territories belies any assumption that heroin addiction is only an urban scourge.
Another number reinforces why it’s so important to
get naloxone into the hands of all first responders —
along with those of families and others close to addicts
— as soon as possible. Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook
reported that more than half of the 68 drug deaths he
investigated in 2015 were due to heroin.
The North East fire companies are among others in
the region that are equipping their responders with naloxone. The North East Police Department, with assistance from UPMC Hamot, and the Erie County Sheriff’s
Office, with help from Saint Vincent Hospital, are also
carrying the drug.
State police carry naloxone throughout Pennsylvania. And other police departments in the region are
working with UPMC and Erie County District Attorney
Jack Daneri to follow suit, Daneri said.
Those efforts should be pursued with the urgency the
scale of the problem demands. It’s especially important that the Erie Bureau of Police and the Millcreek
Police Department, whose officers protect and serve
more than half of Erie County’s population, be equipped
with the drug.
Naloxone, of course, is a temporary antidote to an
overdose, but not to an addiction to heroin or other
opioids. It offers those who’ve overdosed a potentially
lifesaving reprieve and another chance at recovery.
Heroin/opioid addiction is a powerful and insidious
affliction that reaches into all walks of life. Getting addicts into treatment is iffy business that depends on
their interest in recovery, and the potential for relapse
always looms.
That’s why there’s considerable promise in an effort
by Saint Vincent to work with Erie County to secure
grant funding for round-the-clock caseworkers dedicated to steering overdose victims directly into treatment
while they’re still in the hospital.
“There is only so much we can do if a person is not
interested (in treatment), and there is a very limited
amount of time if a person is interested,” said Stephanie
Larson, D.O., of Saint Vincent.
YourView
Letters to the Editor
Waterford in need
of major changes
I am not a political person and do not
have a lot of sophisticated words to write
this letter. However, empty words just get
in the way of the point anyway, as I witnessed when I attended a meeting in Waterford Borough in November. Actually, it
was Election Day, which is sort of ironic,
as this letter addresses voter turnout.
In a recent letter to the editor, I read
about a “disheartening outcome for the
entirecommunity...duetovoterapathy.”I
believethatwithrisingcostsandourneed
to work as many hours as possible to keep
up with bills and family commitments,
most of us are too busy and too tired to
investigate those who may be running
for office. By no means is this a “good”
excuse; I just see it as the way it is for a
lot of citizens.
I believe the Waterford Borough Council has, in most recent years, given itself a
reputation that some might say lacks fairness and professionalism. Its members’
actions may not constitute illegal, but
most agree they are not ethical. You may
not be familiar with the Sunshine Law,
which I was not until a couple of months
ago. This is a law specifically designed to
keep order and all decisions that elected
officials are making open to the public.
Basically, it exists so no one gets railroaded in a closed-door meeting and so
a secretary keeps track of minutes and
makes them publicly available.
There are some instances in which
I question if these laws are truly being
followed. For instance, the meeting I attended on Nov. 3. The council president
ran the meeting and spoke through the
whole meeting and was also able to recap
the whole meetingin the minuteswithout
taking notes.
There is also the issue of employees.
It seems, in most recent years, Waterford
Borough has gone through a shockingly
highnumberofemployees.Itsoundskind
of unusual that there would be that big of
a turnover.
My point is that voters become apathetic when they lose confidence in the government. Waterford is in desperate need
of some changes. I believe we should take
time to be active in our communities, and
taketimetovoteandworktogetherforthe
good of all, to make them better places for
future generations.
Betsy Greggs|Waterford
‘White committees’
can’t solve problems
facing minorities
The crime in Erie has grown greatly in
the past 10 years due to drugs and mere
stupidity. Much of the blame is due to
discrimination and disparity for people
of color and minorities in general. I’m
notincludingwhite females,becausethat
part of the law doesn’t truly fit the criteria of true minority. I’m a female who is
French, Indian and black, and therefore
I know exactly how I’m treated regarding
both sides, depending on who it is.
How many black people do you see
working at minimally paying employers such as restaurants in Erie or convenience stores? How many people of
color are employed at city, state or other
government jobs? It’s a shame to say, but
probably one to every 500 whites. People
have the nerve to say, “why don’t they get
Have your say
The Erie Times-News invites you to write
letters to the editor, expressing your original
thoughts, on topics of public interest. Letters
should be no longer than 250 words. We
reserve the right to edit for length to make
space for more letters. Letters will also be
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accept no more than one letter a month from
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We retain the right to archive and
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Send your letters to:
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Regular mail: Letters to the editor,
Erie Times-News, 205 W. 12th St.,
Erie, PA 16534
Fax: 870-1865
Questions: Call Pat Howard at 870-1721.
a job?” or some negative connotation.
I’m in no way condoning crime, but
this city needs to come together and stop
acting like people care, when all that is
happening is a large group of fake white
citizens is hoping to see young black men
and women fail at livelihoods, raising
their children and living a decent life in
thecommunityofErie.Itmaysoundhard,
but it’s the truth. All these people are getting funding to supposedly make changes
to better our neighborhoods. But they
have no idea what the black community
needs, and what is more ironic, they have
very little black representation involving
peoplewhocouldsharetheproblemsand
try to come together to actually solve the
problems.
How are white people going to solve or
even represent the black community by
sitting and talking about the same things
and never make one change but still keep
getting funding? It is a farce, and until
both white and black come together and
white committees stop pretending, life in
Erie is going to stay the same or become
worse.
Constance L. Burnett|Erie
am bored with seasonal record-setting
snowfall statistics. My brother, who lives
in Virginia, always tells me, though, that I
choosetoliveinErie,sostopcomplaining.
Now, Erie television meteorologist
Geoff Cornish and his cohorts are good
meteorologists. I think that what excites
Cornish’s love for snow here is not that
he is from a former community that lacks
vast amounts of the white stuff. No, I think
what excites him is where he works. You
see, he works for Erie News Now. But he
reads it as Erie New Snow.
Dennis Mead|Summit Township
Meteorologist has
vested interest
in heavy snowfall
I enjoyed reading the Good Morning article John Dudley wrote (Jan. 19).
His words are music to many of us who
have lived in Erie for many years. I, too,
Investing in oil is like
getting ‘free money’
Every one of your letter writers have
one thing in common: They need oil. So,
invest in Big Oil through dividend reinvestment plans. Big Oil pays fat dividends
every quarter. That’s like getting free
money every quarter. Wake up, America.
D. Wetick|Fairview
Don’t view hunting
as war against nature
In regard to “Deer suffered” (Jan.
18), over the past few decades there has
been a shift of attitude within the hunting community that directly reflects our
cultural changes in parallel. More and
more I see the influence of a “man vs.
nature” mindset in which man is to go
to our readers
editorial Board
Ken nelson, President and Publisher
doug oathout, Executive Editor
Pat howard, Editor/Opinion and Engagement
Matt Martin, Editor/Online News
Jeff KiriK, Sports Editor
Kristin Bowers, City Editor
• Editorials, at top, are researched and written by the editorial staff and
represent the newspaper’s institutional views, which are independent of the
newsroom.
• Opinion columns, letters and cartoons reflect the author’s or artist’s views
and not necessarily the view of the newspaper.
and conquer nature in more and more
violent and uncaring ways.
A prime example of this attitude are
the hunting and fishing shows on television currently. Shows titled “Adrenaline
Junkies,” “Arrow Affliction,” “Extreme
Angler TV” and “Meateater” reveal this
movement toward a violent and warlike
hunting posture that rivals modern warfare. Indeed, the technology of hunting
weapons and devices has come to a point
where we can detect fish and game in any
environment, under any condition, and
take them by high-technology means. We
even have adopted a sportsman ethic
under which we can enter tournaments
whose goals are to take from the environment as many creatures as you can, and
the largest harvest in both number and
weight wins.
Let us hope that the person who shot
that deer and left it to die is a member
of a small minority of hunters, but even
this one example is too much. It is up to
the hunting community to report these
people to the Pennsylvania Game Commission and have their licenses taken
away from them.
It would also behoove us to realize and
teach hunters that they are in a sacred
environment and what we do in that environment reflects on all humanity and
on ourselves. Let’s move away from the
attitude of war against nature to an attitude of stewardship and care of nature.
Timothy Good|Wattsburg
BORN ON THIS DATE: Nancy Grove, Ann
Downey, Shelly Miller, Jamie Tarbell, James
Kupniewski, Terence Reagan III, Kathleen
Lutsch, Yvonne Lucas, Nancy Greenaway,
Carrie Waisley, Luke Dugan, Mary Elwell,
Nancy Callahan, Cheri Anderson, Mary
Hinkson, Betsy Belson, Cheryl Dinges, Aaron
Arkon, Barbara Burton, Emil Chernicky, Alice
Gross, Nancy Morris, Timothy Stancliff, Karen
Rindfuss, Kimberly Troyer, Sarah Vaskovich,
Vincent Swecki, Pete Hess, Mary Kauffman,
Susan Van Veld, Joseph Stewart, Mary
Boniger, Maria Pyrdek, Michael Whitley,
Charles Pittman, Andrea Mientkiewicz,
Elizabeth Miller, Matthew Bigwood, Hollie
Anysz, Mary Fernandez, Karen Clark, John
Wurst, Jessica Monocello, Joe DiPasqua,
Taylor Aquillano, Julie Wittman, Thomas Meyer,
Neil Leroy, Julia Murphy, Joe Smart.
Visit us online
You can find current and past and more letters
to the editor at GoErie.com/opinion.
IT’S MONDAY
REAL PEOPLE
JUMP-START YOUR WEEK
MASTERS
Consignment sale
owner to hold event
CITY&REGION • 1B
Get all of your news every day
here and at GoErie.com
Spieth surrenders
green jacket to Willett
SPORTS • 1C
WEATHER
Monday, April 11, 2016
$1.00
More
heroin
antidote
on hand
Global
concern
FORECAST, 6B
Breezy, with
rain
53 high
33 low
INSIDE
Why they love
Donald Trump
Police throughout
county have kits
in case of overdose
Supporters stand by
Republican
presidential hopeful as
champion of political
incorrectness.
Up Close, 3A
By LISA THOMPSON
Weather not as
bad for breaks
Erie sees fewer water
main breaks in 2016, in
large part due to a
milder winter.
City&Region, 1B
Vital statistics
Discover which of
your old friends is
getting married or
just had a baby.
News, 6B
Pink Floyd
guitarist on tour
David Gilmour is on
his first tour in a
decade to promote his
latest solo album,
“Rattle That Lock.”
Entertainment, 5D
DEATHS
Condon, James
M., 83
Fogle, Margaret
Power, 88
Frontino, Siero J.
“Sal,” 89
Halloran, Joseph
Patrick III, 49
Krieger, Violet “Vi”
Herman, 85
Maneval, William
A., 92
McConnell, Alyse
Ruth, 60
Mother Emmanuel,
O.C.D., 94
O’Brien, James J., 60
Salvatore, Viola A.
“Vi,” 96
Tannehill, Norman
Bruce, M.D., 98
Wurst, Irwin, 87
Ungerman, Mary
Klapsinos
Xethakis, 88
FIND IT
Zika virus
leads some
Erie-area
travelers to
question
their plans
POSITIVELY
ERIE
By DAVID BRUCE
Chris Arkwright and Kristen
Comstock booked a cruise along
the western coast of Mexico in
early 2015, nearly a year ahead
of time.
The Harborcreek Township
couple didn’t worry much about
their trip until they started seeing news reports about Zika
virus. An outbreak of the mosquito-borne illness had been reported in Brazil and was spreading north, toward Mexico.
By GERRY WEISS
Andrea Zill loves her son’s
big heart and compassion for
others.
She sees it when a new kid
arrives in Gavin Zill’s classroom, and the teacher pairs
that child with Gavin, 9, know-
“We had planned the trip
before we knew Zika was even
a thing in the news,” said Arkwright, 32. “Once we learned
about it, we kept tabs on what
was happening.”
Zikavirushasbecomeaglobal
concern, because researchers
say it might cause microcephaly,
a serious birth defect, and pose
other threats to the children of
pregnant women infected with
it. Zika virus causes mild or no
symptomsinmostpeople,almost
➤ Please see ZIKA, 6A
➤ Please see ANTIDOTE, 6A
Nine-yearold Gavin
Zill is shown
in a
playroom at
SafeNet,
where he
volunteers.
ing he will take the new student around and show him or
her the ropes.
She saw it a couple of years
ago, when a friend of Gavin’s,
who was disabled and used a
wheelchair, died.
“We noticed a change in
➤ Please see GAVIN, 6A
A WEEKLY FEATURE ABOUT PEOPLE AND IDEAS ThAT ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE ACROSS ThE ERIE REGION.
Bridge..............................4C
Classifieds ......................1D
Comics ............................4C
Dear Abby.......................5D
Dr. K ................................5D
Employment....................1D
Horoscopes ....................4C
Lotteries .......................... 2A
Obituaries .......................2B
Puzzles............................5D
Sports..............................1C
Viewpoint ........................4B
Wonderword ...................1D
© 2016,
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Details, 2-3B
ILLUSTRATION CHRIS SIGMUND/Erie Times-News
Police throughout Erie
County have a new weapon
to clip on their duty belts
as they engage the region’s
heroin crisis.
Erie County District Attorney Jack Daneri and David
Basnak, EMS Specialist with
UPMC Hamot, on Friday
handed out nearly 70 heroin
overdose antidote kits to the
many local police departments that had been without
the opioid reversal drug, naloxone, or Narcan, since legislation first enabled them to
carry it in late 2014.
State police carry naloxone throughout the state.
Locally, North East and Wesleyville police, with help
from UPMC Hamot, and the
Erie County Sheriff’s Office,
with the help of Saint Vincent Hospital, had equipped
themselves with naloxone, as
did members of several volunteer fire companies.
Other police departments
— Erie, Millcreek Township,
Edinboro, Girard, Lake City,
Union City, Corry, Edinboro
University of Pennsylvania and Albion — had been
working with Daneri and
UPMC Hamot to obtain both
the training and naloxone,
Daneri said.
On Friday, the help arrived as Basnak, on behalf of
UPMC Hamot, delivered 67
kits to the District Attorney’s
Office. Each kit — packaged
in a blue zippered pouch —
costs about $40 and contains
two doses of naloxone, a pair
of gloves and an illustrated
notecard with instructions.
If a department depletes
its supply, it can replenish it
From PaGe one
6A | Erie Times-News | GoErie.com | Monday, April 11, 2016
Antidote: More police now have kits
Continued from 1A
at Bayside Phamacy, 300
State St., Basnak said.
Daneri’s office purchased the kits through
the Pennsylvania District
Attorneys Association. A
UPMC grant program will
reimburse the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, Daneri said.
“Americans have seen
an epidemic of heroin
addiction and overdose
deaths,” he said. “If someone is in the throes of an
overdose, Narcan can be
used to bring them back. In
Erie County, we have seen
a great number of people
who have died. ... Hopefully with these doses here,
we will be able to save
lives moving forward,” he
said.
“We are trying to help
law enforcement and give
them the tools” to help
reduce the community’s
growing number of heroin
overdose deaths, Basnak
said.
Police, along with emergency medical providers
and firefighters, are usually the first to arrive on
the scene of an overdose,
he said.
“We are trying to combat
it on all fronts,” Basnak
said.
Erie police received 25
kits Friday. Police Chief
Randy Bowers said officers have been certified
to administer the antidote
and should be carrying
them on patrol today.
Bowers said Erie police are fortunate because
EmergyCare medical personnel usually arrive at
the scene of drug overdoses with police. The naloxone kits will provide a kind
of safety net for officers, he
said.
“You never know when
there is going to be a need
for it,” he said.
“We just see it as some-
thing we should have. We
are glad to be participating.”
Wider naloxone availability is due to a recent
state law gaining traction
statewide, Act 139.
In the past, emergency
rooms or paramedics were
authorized to administer
naloxone.
Under Act 139, police
and first responders like
volunteer firefighters and
others, including an addict’s family members or
anyone who has a need, no
longer have to wait. They
can administer the drug
themselves and temporarily reverse the effects of
an opioid overdose, which
can make a person stop
breathing.
The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs in March
said that police officers in
Pennsylvaniahadreversed
more than 600 opioid overdoses in little more than
LISA THOMPSON/Erie Times-News
UPMC Hamot has made naloxone kits available to the
District Attorney’s Office and local police through a grant
program. Naloxone is a heroin overdose antidote.
one year. But participation
rates vary greatly among
municipalities, Jason Snyder, press secretary for
DDAP, has said.
Act 139 came in response to rising opioid
overdoses statewide.
According to statistics
compiled by Erie County
Coroner Lyell Cook, heroin is playing a larger role
in killing people in Erie
County.
Of the 59 total drug-related deaths in the county in
2015, 54 percent involved
heroin, according to Cook’s
data.
Heroin was involved in
51 percent of the 60 drugrelated deaths in 2014,
Cook said.
The naloxone handed
out Friday is a part of a
larger regional effort to
reduce overdose deaths.
State Sen. Sean Wiley,
of Millcreek Township, D49th Dist.; UPMC Health
Plan; Saint Vincent Hospital; the Erie County Department of Health; and
DDAP are hosting a naloxone event Thursday at
6 p.m. in Blasco Library’s
Hirt Auditorium, 160 E.
Front St.
Residents
will
be
trained and certified to
administer
naloxone.
Participants also will be
provided a naloxone kit
to take home. The event is
free and open to the public, but participants must
preregister with the Erie
County Department of
Health at 454-6703.
e-mail. Follow her on
ETNthompson.
Zika: Some Erie-area
travelers question plans
Continued from 1A
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Gavin Zill, 9, in December sits on a floor with toys that were collected during a drive he
led for children at SafeNet. He says helping people makes him “feel good inside.”
Gavin: Boy helps others
Gavin. He started looking
at things differently,” Andrea Zill, 32, said. “He’s
very into people’s feelings
and always wants to help
others out. After (his friend
died), he stopped taking
things in his own life for
granted.”
Gavin turned his attention to SafeNet, which provides services, shelter and
temporary housing to victims of domestic violence
and their children.
The Millcreek Township
boy coordinated a holiday
toy drive for the agency in
December. He collected
nearly 175 toys and donated them to the nonprofit.
In August, Gavin turned
his ninth birthday party
into a fundraiser for
SafeNet, and since then,
he has volunteered twice
a month at SafeNet’s
playroom, organizing and
cleaning toys, and throwing out any damaged or
broken ones so children
don’t risk getting injured.
For his volunteer service, Gavin will be honored April 19 at the fifth
annual awards banquet
for Recognizing Achieving Volunteers in Erie
(R.A.V.E.).
The event is being organized by the Junior League
We Want to
Hear From You
Have an idea for future
“Positively Erie” articles?
Please send them to
Times-News/GoErie.com
reporter Gerry Weiss at
gerry.weiss@timesnews.
com, or call him at 8701884.
of Erie, the United Way of
Erie County, the Nonprofit
Partnership, and Get Connected, the region’s online
volunteer portal.
The awards in the past
four years have recognized
more than 100 nominees
with a combined total of
50,000 volunteer service
hours.
The ceremony, hosted by
the Ambassador Conference Center, 7794 Peach
St., Summit Township, will
honor 25 nominees, including Gavin, and name four
winners in the junior, teen,
young adult, adult categories.
Gavin is the winner in
the junior category, for
children ages 7 to 12. Each
winner receives a prize of
$1,000 that he or she then
donates to a charity of his
or her choice. Gavin’s prize
will be going to SafeNet.
“It makes me feel good
inside to know I’m help-
ing people,” said Gavin,
who one day wants to open
his own animal shelter. “I
like helping people and
animals who need help.”
At his birthday party on
Aug. 16, in which about two
dozen friends and relatives gathered at Hinkler
Park in Wesleyville, Gavin
asked his guests to forego
buying him gifts and instead bring an item from
the SafeNet wish list.
The guests filled five
laundrybasketswithshampoo, soaps, washcloths,
toothpaste and toothbrushes. They also donated puzzles, crayons and coloring
books. The Zills delivered
all the items to SafeNet the
very next day.
Gavin has an inspiration
right in his own family, as
his older sister, Mckenzee,
15, volunteered at the Eriebased Second Harvest
Food Bank of Northwest
Pennsylvania for more
than 100 hours in 2015.
“I’m very proud of him,”
Andrea Zill said of her son.
“I love the ideas he comes
up with and just asks me,
‘How do I make this happen?’”
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hasn’t received any Zikarelated calls or e-mails
from customers.
“It’s a combination of
things,”
Cappabianca
said. “We don’t have many
travel packages for those
areas, and we don’t see
many pregnant women
booking trips. If we do get
a call, we would recommend people follow any
travel recommendations
and warnings.”
After discussing the
risk of picking up the Zika
virus during their trip,
Arkwright and Comstock
decided to go ahead with
the cruise.
They packed some insect repellent but didn’t
need to use it, Arkwright
said.
“We didn’t see a single
mosquito,” Arkwright said.
702 West 34th Street | Erie, PA 16508
814.868.5411
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Continued from 1A
all of whom make a complete recovery.
The particular mosquitoes that carry Zika virus
don’t usually migrate
this far north, but they do
thrive in popular travel
destinations like Brazil
and Mexico.
“Our office has definitely received calls from
people who ask whether
pregnant women should
travel to areas with the
Zika virus,” said Nancy
Weissbach, M.D., with the
Travelers’ Center at Saint
Vincent Infectious Diseases of Northwestern Pennsylvania, 2314 Sassafras St.
“We recommend that they
do not.”
In addition to recommending that pregnant
women — and women trying to become pregnant
— avoid traveling to areas
with Zika virus, the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also
offers other advice.
▀ If a pregnant woman
must travel to one of these
areas, she should take precautions to avoid mosquito
bites, including the use of
insect repellent with deet.
The woman should inform
her obstetrician about the
trip as soon as possible,
and get tested for Zika exposure.
▀ If the male partner of
a pregnant woman travels
to an area with Zika virus,
he should use condoms
or not have sex with the
woman for the rest of the
pregnancy.
“Six pregnant women
from Erie Countywho have
traveled to areas with Zika
have been tested for the virus so far,” said Charlotte
Berringer, R.N., director of
community health for the
Erie County Department
of Health. “None have
tested positive, though we
are still waiting for some of
the results.”
Lisa Cappabianca, owner of Cappabianca Travel,
1016 State St., said she
4B | Erie Times-News | GoErie.com | Tuesday, April 12, 2016
•The place
to express,
share opinions
VIEWPOINT
Quotation for today
The surest test of discipline is its
absence.
Clara Barton
Thought for today
God is our refuge and strength, a
very present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1
Erie County heroin fight gaining traction
The Issue: Heroin claiming lives in Erie County
Our View: More first responders get needed tools
L
ives claimed by lethal doses of heroin slip away
mostly in private. The moments surface publicly
in overdose rescue calls sounded in crackling
emergency services’ radio traffic and untimely obituaries that tell the tragic stories, mostly between the lines.
The silence makes it difficult to appreciate the scope
of the heroin crisis in Erie County, as compared with the
more public, equally damaging surge in gun violence.
Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook recently reported
that a spike in heroin-related deaths that began in 2013
has not abated. In 2015, he handled slightly fewer drug
overdose deaths — 59, down from 60 in 2014. But more
deaths, 32 versus 31, were due to heroin.
Death is the worst, but not only outcome of addiction
to heroin and other opioids. The unrelenting dependency these drugs induce erodes the social fabric as
users trade guns or stolen goods for opioids and ad-
dicts’ children land in protective custody because
their parents are too compromised by their need for
drugs to care for them.
Recent displays of official resolve to stave off this
blight signal hopeful and necessary momentum on the
part of those who are in a position to make a difference.
Erie County Human Services Director John DiMattio and District Attorney Jack Daneri first mobilized
around the issue in March 2014 with the formation of
the Heroin Overdose Community Awareness Task
Force. When a new state law set aside restrictions on
who could administer the opioid overdose reversal
drug naloxone in late 2014, Sheriff John Loomis, with
the help of Sheriff’s Deputy Chuck Klenk, a longtime
advocate for families afflicted by addiction, quickly
equipped deputies with naloxone. North East and
Wesleyville police and several local volunteer fire
companies followed suit with the help of both Saint
Vincent Hospital and UPMC Hamot, whose emergency
departments staff the front lines of the crisis.
Gaps in the law enforcement naloxone safety net finally closed Friday as Daneri and David Basnak, of
UPMC Hamot, after months of administrative orchestration finally handed out naloxone kits to nearly a
dozen of the remaining Erie County police departments that had been without the lifesaving tool.
Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper on the
same day traveled to the nation’s capital as part of a
national task force seeking answers to the problem.
Leaders must not dial back, but seek to develop a
multifaceted response that stems opioid abuse
through law enforcement, family support and treatment.
Those whose lives have been upended by drug addiction should take hope and also whatever steps they
need to get help.
A naloxone training event is scheduled at 6 p.m.
Thursday at Blasco Library’s Hirt Auditorium, 160 E.
Front St., hosted by state Sen. Sean Wiley, of Millcreek
Township, D-49th Dist., and UPMC Health Plan. Participants must preregister by calling 451-6703.
YOUrView
Letters to the Editor
Some in Millcreek
can’t afford more
Anxiety in Millcreek continues to grow
amid the Millcreek Township School
District dialogue of another tax increase.
There is significant hardship that continues to rise in this region. While there is
the reality of the education our children
deserve, the community population pie
consistsofmanydemographics.Moreand
more seniors on fixed incomes is a known
factor, but we cannot attract young familiestoacommunitywithoutthejobsyoung
families need to raise their children.
The Erie Times-News covered the
harsh reality of the decrease in the manufacturingsector’sabilityfornewhiresthat
definitively added to the woes of an eroding taxpaying population (“Erie County’s
population sinks,” March 24).
Millcreek residents on fixed incomes
have nowhere to turn and would incur
an additional cost that I know is then
borrowed against home equity. That risky
route can only go so far. What this equals
is these seniors paid for their children’s
schooling and are now borrowing to pay
for another generation’s children.
It is important that the scales of justice
findbalancefortheresidentsofMillcreek
who cannot bear the burden of an additional tax increase.
Diane Zenchenko Esser|Erie
All schooling should
be done at home
Recently the local news outlets have
reported on school districts having difficulty balancing their budgets, or having a
shortage of substitute teachers.
I feel it’s time we move our education
system into the 21st century, think outside
the box as some would say, and move
education to cyber schooling, all done at
home on a computer. The state could buy
each student a new computer each year
if need be, and furnish schooling and lessons via cyber schooling. All students in
the state would be taught with the same
lesson plan, and those who have a higher
IQorunderstandingcouldadvancefaster
without waiting for those who can’t or are
less inclined.
Themonetaryadvantagesofthissystem
wouldbe,butnotlimitedto,no brick-andmortar buildings, no salaries, no health
insurance, no pensions, no busing, no
sports expenses. Also, there would be no
concern about class ranking, no concerns
about threats made to school districts,
and no teacher union influence on government or elections.
What private industry could produce
product for only 180 days a year, have an
inferior product, and still be in business?
Today you would be hard-pressed to find
a successful farmer who would be willing
to trade in his tractor and go back to the
original horsepower, because it’s called
progress, a better and more efficient way
to do things.
Dale G. Forbes|Spring Creek
Satan uses atheists
to do his bidding
In response to the April 3 letter writer
of “Certainty doesn’t prove the existence
ofGod,”“sciencecan’tproveGod,”butyet
it does. If you do research, you will find
scientists and others who will offer you
examples of evidence such as the case for
Have your say
The Erie Times-News invites you to write
letters to the editor, expressing your original
thoughts, on topics of public interest. Letters
should be no longer than 250 words. We
reserve the right to edit for length to make
space for more letters. Letters will also be
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accept no more than one letter a month from
the same writer. Please include your full name,
complete address and daytime telephone
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We retain the right to archive and
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Regular mail: Letters to the editor,
Erie Times-News, 205 W. 12th St.,
Erie, PA 16534
Fax: 870-1865
Questions: Call Pat Howard at 870-1721.
the big-bang theory.
Some scientists and doctors will tell
you that they do believe in God and in
miracles. After a medical miracle occurs,
where there is no possible medical or scientific explanation, it is too far-fetched
to believe that “nothing” intervened or
“nothing” created the miraculous outcome. Therefore they believe it to be the
work of God.
You want us to show you God in the
flesh? Then how about if you explain to
us how the smallest cells, the simplest
life-forms came to be. You will never be
able to do it without having to go all the
way back to God.
While you don’t believe in God or Satan, Satan knows that God exists, and he
uses people like you to do his work, and
you work very hard on his behalf. It’s like
you’re on a mission. You work so hard to
prove your point, and you seem pretty
happy to do so.
Brenda Nikolishen|Fairview
theyliveinacommunityfilledwithdrugs,
crime and hate? Is it their fault that their
motherorfathermaybeadrugaddictand
they are exposed to harmful substances?
Is it the children’s fault that they have no
supervision, no support to stay in school
and off the streets? We need reform.
We need to take back the community
and, instead of getting tough on crime,
understand the factors that a child may
have grown up in. There has been violence in Erie County in which young kids
have been murdered and families hurt
and devastated. Do they have a right to be
upset? Absolutely. But when does it stop?
Does locking them up and throwing away
the key sound like the answer?
We can’t make a community safer unless we get to the heart of the problem.
The problem is the environment, the lack
of assistance and help, and the external
factorsyoung childrensee, hearandgrow
up in. After all, who would “know better”
if that’s the only life a young child has
been exposed to?
Haley Schaef|Albion
How would children
at risk ‘know better’?
Our prisons are continually being
filled. Inmates have to share a cell with
multiple individuals because we have
imprisoned so many people, including
children. The American criminal justice
systemneedsreform.Weareputtingaway
children who have made mistakes. They
“should know better” is the community’s
justification for locking them away. But
should they know better? Is it their fault
Public shouldn’t pay
for buses, libraries
I am more than a little upset about the
amount of taxes I pay for nothing. There
are currently arguments about the Erie
Metropolitan Transit Authority. Who is
going to control the city of Erie or Erie
County? No has ever subsidizedmy transportation. EMTA has no route even close
to where I live, yet I pay. I do not know
tO OUr readers
editOrial BOard
Ken nelsOn, President and Publisher
dOUg OathOUt, Executive Editor
Pat hOward, Editor/Opinion and Engagement
Matt Martin, Editor/Online News
Jeff KiriK, Sports Editor
Kristin BOwers, City Editor
• Editorials, at top, are researched and written by the editorial staff and
represent the newspaper’s institutional views, which are independent of the
newsroom.
• Opinion columns, letters and cartoons reflect the author’s or artist’s views
and not necessarily the view of the newspaper.
what it costs to ride the “E.” I see it advertise on TV. I see it can afford to build a
$30 million maintenance garage. If it can
affordtospendthatmuchmoney,itsurely
does not need my money.
If it costs EMTA $2 to give someone a
ride, then charge $2. If it cannot afford
to operate on its own, let it shut down. I
could never deduct what I spent for gas to
get to work from my taxes. They said I had
a choice to live where I choose. I could
live next door and walk to work.
Private enterprises: Why are they waiting on state funds to start? They are forprofit businesses. I don’t get a discount or
afreeanythingfromthemwhenIgothere.
Why should I be paying?
Libraries: The closest is more than 7
miles away. Once, I did attempt to use the
librarytofindinformationabout thestate
building code. It is tax-funded, and you
would think needed information would
be in the library, maybe next to Edgar
Allan Poe or one of those scary novels. I
am paying taxes for a service that is competing with taxpaying free enterprise. I
already pay taxes for school libraries that
are needed for information. The public
libraries are redundant or for pleasure.
No one else pays for my pleasure. Pay
your own way. With all of the information available on the Internet, I am not
sure why we need this obsolete system at
all. Let taxpaying private businesses, like
bookstores, do what they do.
Larry Merritt|Edinboro
BORN ON THIS DATE: James O’Brien,
Donna Perry, Pat Kennedy, Melanie
Minitsiveris, Stephen Totin, Cynthia Fitch,
Deborah Gerber, Gus Hart, Joan Ozimek,
Sharon Seib, Charlie Leach, Billy Barto, Melvin
Glas, Kenneth Robison, Laura Swartwood,
Fern Rothstein, Ted Schultz Jr., Shirley Cook,
Marlene Sullivan, Brian Peterson, Ronald
Peterson, Barbara Spaulding, Mary Conway,
Jane Fitch, Adell Thornton, Holly Gates, Rod
MacDonald, David Chernek, Judy Shapiro,
Edward Bianchi, Angela Niebauer, William
Lawrence, Martha Gerlock, Wesley McGahen,
Sandy Baumann, Lisa Heidelberg, Jacqueline
Jennings, Judith Dufala, Danielle Rohaly,
Margie Basiletti, Arlene Briggs, Lois Gormley,
Jessica Husted, Douglas Votaw, Julie Nagle,
Liz Swantek, Leslie Drumm, M Covatto, Carson
Lewis.
Visit Us Online
You can find current and past and more letters
to the editor at GoErie.com/opinion.
WEEKEND!
MOVING ON
WHAT TO DO AND SEE
REAL ESTATE
Otters advance to
OHL’s Western Finals.
SPORTS • 1C
Take a look at what’s
on the market in area.
HOUSE TO HOME
Saturday, April 16, 2016
$1.00
Harbor
Place
plan in
limbo
AREA 5K EVENTS
WEATHER
FORECAST, 8B
Plenty of
sunshine
64 high
44 low
DOW JONES
➧
Close at 17,897.46
INSIDE
Company: Project
on bayfront awaits
word on funding
By JIM MARTIN
jim.martin@timesnews.com
Dems show
clear divide
At their at times
heated debate
Thursday night, Hillary
Clinton and Bernie
Sanders illuminated
the divergent paths
they are taking to
what would be vastly
different presidencies.
Up Close, 3A
FILE PHOTO GREG WOHLFORD/Erie Times-News
Participants run in the Glow Erie Fun Run at Penn State Behrend on May 24. This year’s race will be May 29.
Pet expo off
and running
More than 70 vendors
are scheduled to
appear at the threeday Pets on the Bay
expo, which began
Friday and concludes
Sunday at the Bayfront
Convention Center.
City&Region, 1B
Chittister to lead
breakfast event
Erie Benedictine Sister
Joan Chittister will
speak at a Community
Prayer Breakfast later
this month.
Faith, 12D
DEATHS
Brunetti, Danny, 86
Campbell, Bertha E.
Johnson, 96
Danielewicz, Michael
A., 62
DiCara, Evelyn J.
Cofini, 95
Freeman, Ralph
E., 52
Johnson, Kay M., 74
McQuiston, Helen
Irene Tau, 93
Mitchell, Thomas H.
“Mitch,” 80
Rautine, John, 81
Rubeis, Delores
B., 87
Sampson, Roger
J., 69
Stossmeister,
Charles N., 99
Valimont, Mary
Ellen, 58
Details, 5B
FIND IT
Just for fun
These races aren’t
run-of-the-mill events
Karen
Groshek,
special
events
coordinator
at
Mercyhurst
Preparatory
School,
shows some
of the glowin-the-dark
items that
will be
featured at
the school’s
Laker Glow
5K on
Saturday.
By SARAH STEMEN
sarah.stemen@timesnews.com
There are lights flashing, balloon animals, music
blaring, neon sticks glowing, dancing, Hula-Hooping
and screaming.
It’s not a concert. It’s not a festival.
It’s a 5-kilometer run and walk.
Unconventional 5K races are increasing in Erie
— races that entail runners getting caked in colored
powder, dressing in costumes, climbing over inflatable obstacles, wearing light-up glow sticks, getting
chased by zombies and even drinking wine.
Though the themes of these races vary greatly,
➤ Please see IT’S JUST FOR FUN, 5A
JACK HANRAHAN/Erie Times-News
It was November 2013
when Scott Enterprises announced plans to invest $150
million to develop 12 acres on
Erie’s bayfront.
Nick Scott Sr., the company’s president, said the
plan, which calls for two hotels, residential units, office
space, parking garage and a
floating entertainment barge,
had the potential to transform Erie’s bayfront.
But today, nearly 30 months
after that announcement, not
a single shovel full of dirt has
been moved, and the project
remains at the starting line.
Scott said the familyowned business hasn’t lost
interest and still intends to
move forward with what he
sees as a transformational
project.
The holdup, he said, is the
result of the continued wait
to learn what, if any, state
funding might be available
to support the project.
More specifically, Scott
said, he’s waiting to hear
something about the city of
Erie’s application for funding
through the Redevelopment
Assistance Capital Program.
The city’s application for
RACP funding, originally
submitted during the administration of former Gov. Tom
Corbett, includes a request
for $6 million for Scott Enterprise’s Harbor Place project.
An answer on that request
could be coming soon.
Amy Schmidt, chief of staff
for state Rep. Ryan Bizzarro,
of Millcreek Township, D-3rd
Dist., said an answer could
➤ Please see HARBOR PLACE, 5A
County wants ‘warm handoffs’ in heroin battle
Specialists would push for treatment
By ED PALATTELLA
ed.palattella@timesnews.com
On March 11, employees at
Gaudenzia Erie helped rescue
two people who overdosed on heroin outside the drug and alcohol
Bridge, Horoscopes .......6C
Classifieds ......................1D
Comics ............................6C
Dear Abby.....................14D
Employment....................6D
Faith ..............................12D
treatment center at 141 W. 11th St.
The employees and police used
the heroin antidote naloxone, or
Narcan, to revive the pair.
Once the two overdose victims
were taken to a local emergency
room, one was admitted. But the
Lotteries .......................... 2A
Obituaries .......................5B
Pop, etc.........................14D
other refused care and left.
Gaudenzia and other Erie
County social service agencies
are trying to stop that pattern of
nontreatment, which they said has
become common in the national
heroin epidemic.
The county wants to set up a system of “warm handoffs,” in which
specialists on call round-the-clock
Puzzles..........................11D
Sports..............................1C
Sudoku............................8D
Viewpoint ........................6B
Wonderword ...................8D
would counsel heroin overdose
victims right after they recover.
The specialists would encourage the addicts to get treatment
and help them get care.
“We’ve got to have something in
place where people are offered
some immediate treatment,” said
➤ Please see HEROIN, 6A
© 2016,
THE REGION’S ONLY ACCREDITED
BARIATRICS PROGRAM
For more information, visit UPMCHamot.org/BariatricSurgery.
UPMC Hamot Bariatric Surgery and Weight Management Center
Amjad Ali, MD
Jawaid Kalim, MD
Muhammad Asad, MD
adno=195383
-28.97
6A | Erie Times-News | GoErie.com | Saturday, April 16, 2016
FROM PAGE ONE
Heroin: Victims Congratulations!
would get help Basketball Money Mania
FINAL WINNER:
“I
David Sanner, director of
Erie County’s Drug & Alcohol programs.
The need for warm
handoffs was a key topic
Friday at the first meeting of 2016 for the county’s
Heroin Overdose Community Awareness Task
Force, which formed in
2014 and previously met
as a full group in October.
About 45 social service
workers and public officials, including Gary Tennis, secretary of Pennsylvania’s Drug and Alcohol
Programs, attended the
nearly two-hour meeting at
the offices of Community
Care Behavioral Health,
1601 Sassafras St.
The task force reviewed
the most recent statistics, which Sanner, the
chairman, said show Erie
County accidental overdose deaths due primarily
to heroin numbered 26 in
2015 and 27 in 2014.
The group heard about
Gaudenzia’s experience
with Narcan on March 11.
They reviewed initiatives, by District Attorney
Jack Daneri and others, to
get more Narcan kits to local police officers and other public safety workers.
And the group heard
about plans to educate
pharmacies about the
availability of Narcan.
“These actions are
huge,” Sanner said. “This
is what is going to reduce
overdose deaths in Erie
County — Narcan.”
But he and Tennis said
the care must go beyond
Narcan.
t is absolutely critical that after we
save someone with naloxone that we
get them handed off to treatment from
the emergency room.”
— Gary Tennis, secretary of
Pennsylvania’s Drug and Alcohol Programs
“It is absolutely critical
that after we save someone
with naloxone that we get
them handed off to treatment from the emergency
room,” Tennis said.
“It is called ‘warm handoff’ to treatment, and it is
an intervention that occurs
once the person has been
stabilized and their overdose has been completely
reversed.”
Sanner said Erie County
has applied for a $250,000
state grant to help launch
a warm-handoff program,
but that the state’s budget
impasse slowed the review
process.
He and Tennis also
mentioned discussion in
Harrisburg about changing the law to allow for involuntary commitment of
heroin overdose victims,
which would force them
into treatment. The procedures would be similar
to those that allow police
to involuntarily commit a
mentally unstable person.
“They need to get as
robust a warm handoff as
we can give them,” Tennis
said of overdose victims. “I
think if we don’t succeed
here, we are going to have
legislation.”
Daneri, who attended
Friday’s meeting, said a
system of voluntary warm
handoffs makes sense.
“The only way we are going to successfully combat
what is going on is through
treatment and education,”
he said.
The more extreme measure of involuntary commitments of heroin overdosevictimswouldrequire
a significant amount of additional beds in secure facilities, Tennis and Sanner
said. They said they would
prefer a voluntary system
of warm handoffs.
“It’s a difficult challenge,”Tennissaid.“These
folks have been through a
horrendous experience,
having had their overdose
reversed with naloxone. It
is extremely unpleasant;
they’re rattled.
“But we have to keep
ramping up our efforts to
have a muscular intervention, assessment and referral to treatment. Because if
we don’t, they are likely to
overdose again, and maybe next time they’ll die.”
Ron
Koper
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> SPORTS. 1C
FLIP FLAPJACKS FOR
SeaWolves
win 14-0
GOOD
EATING
> FOOD.
1D
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
NO
EASY
FIX
WEATHER
FORECAST, 8B
Couple of
storms
61 high
45 low
DOW JONES
DETAILS, 6A
➧
-140.25
Close at 17,750.91
CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/
Erie Times-News
Indiana shakes up
Republican race
Donald Trump took a
major step toward
sewing up the GOP
nomination in Indiana’s
primary, and main rival
Ted Cruz dropped out.
Bernie Sanders won on
the Democratic side.
Up Close, 3A
As heroin and opioid
addictions hit
communities
nationwide, Erie
and others are taking
steps to fight back.
Do kids, work mix?
Employers and
workers have become
more conscious of the
need to maintain worklife balance. Yet one
possibility of helping
that balance, at least
for parents, has
remained relatively
taboo: bringing kids
into the workplace.
You Inc., 6A
By DAVID BRUCE
Sam Riazzi used to steal Demerol
out of his family’s medicine cabinet
as a way to make extra money.
Riazzi, then a teenager, sold the
opioid painkillers to a co-worker,
but after a few months he wanted
to see what all the fuss was about.
He tried a few himself.
“I fell in love,” said Riazzi, of
Erie, now a 41-year-old operations
manager at World Gutter Systems.
“They made me feel great, that everything seemed better.”
Riazzi’s experiment turned into
an addiction. Over the years, he
graduated from Demerol to heroin
because it was easier and cheaper
to get.
It’s a path millions of Americans have traveled in recent years,
DEATHS
Allegretto, Theresa
F., 84
Bauer, Helen R.
Jelinek, 92
Bleil, Shirley
Eileen, 92
Chesley, Sandra L.
“Sandy,” 75
Fedorko, Mary
Lou, 66
Kerszka, William
A., 94
Kimmy, Leo C. Jr., 79
Kulhanek, Robert
Barney, 87
Levitre, Gail L., 95
Luden, Cindy Louise
Harrison, 64
Lynch, Edward
Patrick Jr., 73
Melzer, Florence E.
Caldwell, 85
Morvay, Sadie W., 87
Sam, Mary Lou, 70
Seymour, Wayne
D., 72
Strayer, Anne “Annie”
Lowe
Vitron, William J.
Sr., 69
Wurst, Donald Sr.
Details, 4-5B
FIND IT
➤ Please see ADDICTION, 5A
Sam Riazzi, 41, now works as the operations manager
at World Gutter Systems, but he had a difficult path to
get there. He became addicted to painkillers as a
teenager and then, like many addicts, turned to heroin,
which is cheaper and easier to obtain.
Death
leaves
case
on hold
Edinboro shooting
suspect could face
homicide charge
By LISA THOMPSON
A former Edinboro University of Pennsylvania student
accused of shooting two fellow students in a marijuana
deal gone awry a year ago
could soon face a homicide
charge after the death of one
of the victims.
Erie County Assistant
District Attorney Nathaniel
Strasser said a man severely
injured in the March 2015
shooting, O’Shae Imes, died
March 19 at Strong Memorial
Hospital in his native Rochester, N.Y.
Imes, who was shot in the
torso and leg, had never recovered from his injuries
stemming from the shooting,
Strasser said.
Devin Stevenson, 21, had
been scheduled to stand
trial in Erie County Court
this month on two counts of
attempted homicide and related charges for the shooting
of Imes and a second victim,
Andrew Baker.
Instead, Strasser filed a
motion Tuesday to withdraw
those charges. He said he has
requested a medical exam of
Imes from the Monroe County
Medical Examiner in Rochester.
If that exam determines
that Imes died as a result of
the shooting, Strasser said
he plans to charge Stevenson
with homicide.
“We believe the approximate cause of death was the
shooting,” Strasser said. “He
has been in treatment since
last year. He never left the
hospital.”
➤ Please see CASE, 5A
Ex-candidate, Election Board seek fee resolution
By NICO SALVATORI
nico.salvatori@timesnews.com
A ruling was postponed
Tuesday in a civil case between the Erie County Board
of Elections and a former
candidate for the Corry Area
School Board, as both parties
agreed to try to seek a resolu-
Business ......................... 6A
Classifieds ......................4D
Comics ............................4C
Dear Abby.......................8D
Employment....................5D
tion outside of a courtroom.
Amanda Cox, of Spartansburg, now a School Board
member, sued the Election
Board in early April. She
wants to be reimbursed for
money she spent to secure her
name on the ballot in the November election after she was
mistakenly left off because of
Food ................................1D
Lotteries .......................... 2A
Obituaries .......................4B
a clerical error by the county
Voter Registration Office.
Cox said she spent nearly
$7,000 to successfully petition
a judge in Erie County Court
in 2015 to get back on the ballot at the last minute.
The amount of legal fees
came into question during a
hearing Tuesday afternoon
Puzzles............................8D
Sports..............................1C
before Senior District Judge
Tom Robie, sitting in for Erie
3rd Ward District Judge Tom
Carney.
Thomas Talarico, the attorney representing the Election
Board, said he “sensed a moral obligation” that Cox should
➤ Please see COX, 5A
Sudoku............................4D
Viewpoint ........................6B
Wonderword ...................4D
Amanda
Cox: Filed
suit in April.
© 2016,
adno=199254
INSIDE
$1.00
4B | Erie Times-News | GoErie.com | Wednesday, May 4, 2016
REGION&STATE
Research on
Erie tunnel
idea detailed
By RON LEONARDI
ron.leonardi@timesnews.com
Erie resident Michael
Fuhrman has spent the
past two years studying
and exploring the concept
of building a tunnel connecting Erie’s east side
with Presque Isle State
Park.
Fuhrman discussed his
preliminary findings Tuesday night during a public
presentation before a
crowd of about 80 at the
Jefferson Educational Society, 3207 State St.
“This look into the concept doesn’t really get
into the nuts and bolts of
how wide, how deep, how
much,’’ Fuhrman, 53, said.
“That’s really the next level. If you can gain community support and they’re
interested, the next step
would really be kind of a
feasibility study. Does this
make sense and how much
does it cost? Do we have
everything lined up to
make this thing happen?’’
Fuhrman’s forthcoming
Jefferson Educational Society essay, “The Case for
Connecting Presque Isle to
Erie’s East Side — A Historic Opportunity,’’ will be
released to the public later
this month.
Fuhrman discussed possible connecting tunnel
points.
“The southern part
would be off of Lampe
Marina or the Port Access
Road,’’ he said. “It would
re-emerge (on Presque
Isle State Park) either on
the road that exists now
next to the Coast Guard
station, or another service
road in that area. You’re
only looking at maximum,
what I can gauge, about 350
feet to 450 feet underneath
the channel.’’
Fuhrman detailed at
least six previous efforts
dating to 1913 in which
plans to connect Erie’s
mainland with the peninsula were discussed. He
also examined how a tunnel could spur economic
development in Erie’s
downtown and bayfront.
R O N L E O N A R D I can be
e-mail.
Wolf, officials want
fine on Uber cut
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HARRISBURG — Gov.
Tom Wolf and Pittsburgharea officials want Pennsylvania regulators to
greatly reduce their record-setting $11.4 million
fine against ride-sharing
company Uber.
The Public Utility Commission fined Uber in
April for operating six
months in 2014 without the
required approval.
The company has said
it would appeal and that
it was “shocked” by the
fine. Uber said no one was
harmed and Pennsylvania
has since approved its operation.
The PUC, which also
regulates buses and taxis,
approved a fine considerably lower than the $50
million recommended by a
pair of administrative law
judges in November, but
still the largest in agency
history.
The next largest fine,
$1.8 million, was levied
against an electric company that ran afoul of regulations with a savings plan
for customers.
San
Francisco-based
Uber Technologies Inc.
uses citizen drivers who
use their own cars to give
people rides. The PUC
raised concerns about
ride-sharing
because
there was no uniform way
to ensure vehicle safety.
Cops: Brothers sold
heroin in kids’ area
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NORTH VERSAILLES
— Two brothers are jailed
on charges they sold $4,600
worth of heroin to an undercover officer in the
children’s play area of a
Pennsylvania Burger King.
Allegheny County police
said one of the suspects,
28-year-old Marlan Byars,
of West Mifflin, had his
6-year-old son with him
when the sting went down
Monday in North Versailles.
Police said Byars’ brother, 31-year-old Otis Pegues,
set up the deal with the
undercover officer. Police
said Monday’s deal was
the third they’ve made
from Pegues in the last two
weeks, the others happening at Wal-Mart and Kmart.
Man accused of trying
to steal woman’s purse
Erie
police
have
charged a city man with
injuring a woman in an
attempted purse snatching on the city’s east side
Monday night.
Police accuse Jezekiah
T. Stockman, 29, of approaching the woman in
the 400 block of East 12th
Street on Monday at about
8:25 p.m. and telling her to
give him her purse. When
the woman refused, Stockman grabbed the purse
and pulled it from her,
knocking the woman to
the ground, according to
the criminal complaint.
The woman hit the back
of her head and suffered
some abrasions to her left
elbow, and she was taken
for medical treatment, policewroteinthe complaint.
Stockman was arraigned
Tuesday by Erie 2nd Ward
District Judge Paul Urbaniak on charges of attempted robbery and simple assault. Urbaniak set Stockman’s bond at $25,000.
Man hurt in motorcycle crash
A 25-year-old man was
injured in a motorcycle
crash Tuesday in Fairview
Township, police said.
The crash was reported
at 4:54 p.m. at the intersec-
tion of Bear Creek and
Kreider roads.
The man suffered an
arm injury and was taken
to UPMC Hamot for treatment, authorities said.
OBITUARIES
Edward Patrick Lynch, Jr.
Meadville
Edward Patrick Lynch, Jr., 73, of Meadville, passed
away on May 2, 2016, at Wesbury United Methodist
Retirement Community. He was born on August 2,
1942, in Erie, Pennsylvania, a son of Edward P. Lynch,
Sr. and Helen Reinsel Lynch.
He is survived by his wife, Sandi Carter.
He graduated from Cathedral Preparatory School
and Gannon University. He was a corporate accountant at Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company.
In addition to his wife, Sandi, he is survived by a
stepdaughter, Melanie Salerno of Meadville; a stepson, Todd Ford of Canadohta Lake; four step-grandchildren, Stevie Golddigger, Rhett Salerno, Cassandra
Salerno and Cole Ford; two sisters, Karen Strub and
her husband James of Erie, Pa. and Sandra Lynch
of Erie, Pa.; a brother, Jerome Lynch and his wife
Barbara of Girard, Pa.; and nieces and nephews, John
Lynch, Stephanie Spence, David Strub, Christian
Strub and Kara Barrett.
Edward was preceded in his death by his parents.
Family and friends are welcome to call on Thursday, May 5, 2016 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Ryan M.
Warren Funeral Home and Cremation Services, Inc.,
544 Chestnut Street, Meadville, Pa.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in Edward’s
memory may be made to the VFW Post 2006, 1045 S.
Morgan Street, Meadville, PA 16335, or West Mead #2
Volunteer Fire Department, 20607 Ryan Rd., Meadville, PA 16335.
The family would like to thank Dr. Bailey and the
staff at Wesbury United Methodist Community and Dr.
Zelen and staff.
Please take a moment to share a memory or condolence with the family on Edward’s Book of Memories
online at www.WarrenFH.com.
Sign the Guestbook at www.GoErie.com/obits
Gail L. Levitre
Gail L. Levitre, age 95, formerly of Lake City, passed
away Friday, April 29, 2016, at Pleasant Ridge Manor
West.
Born February 16, 1921, in Piedmont, Kan., she was
the daughter of the late Edgar and
Elsie Johnson Richardson.
Gail was a graduate of Piedmont High School and had been
a homemaker. She attended Lake
City United Methodist Church. She
enjoyed painting ceramics.
In addition to her parents, she was
preceded in death by her husband,
Hector; and her daughter, Diane
Coates.
Gail is survived by her son, Wayne Levitre and his
wife, Patricia of California; three grandsons, Ron
Levitre and his wife Nichole of Colorado and James
Coates and Marc Coates, both of Edinboro; four
great-grandchildren; two great-great-grandchildren;
a sister, Janet Vorse of Erie; a sister-in-law, Vivian
Richardson of Florida; as well as many nieces and
nephews.
Friends may call at the Burton Funeral Home, 525
Main Street East, in Girard, on Thursday from 4 p.m.
until 7 p.m. and are invited to a graveside service on
Friday at 11 a.m. at Girard Cemetery. Memorials may
be made to Friends of Pleasant Ridge Manor, 8300
West Ridge Road, Girard, PA 16417. Condolences may
be sent at www.Burtonfuneralhome.com.
William J. Vitron, Sr.
William J. Vitron, Sr., 69, of Erie, passed away Tuesday, May 3, 2016, at Select Specialty Hospital.
Calling hours will be held on Thursday, May 5, 2016
from 2-5 and 7-9 p.m. at the Brugger Funeral Homes &
Crematory, 1595 W. 38th St. A full obituary will appear
in tomorrow’s paper.
Anne “Annie” Lowe Strayer
Anne “Annie” Lowe Strayer died peacefully, on
Monday, May 2, 2016, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Arrangements are being handled by Ahearn
Funeral Home, Northampton, Mass.
Afeni Shakur, mother
of rapper Tupac, dies
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN FRANCISCO —
Afeni Shakur, the former
Black Panther who inspired the work of her son,
rap icon Tupac Shakur,
and fostered his legacy for
decades after he was slain,
has died of an apparent
heart attack, authorities
said Tuesday. She was 69.
Responding to a 911 call
to Shakur’s home in Sausalito on Monday night,
deputies and firefighters
performed CPR, rushed
her to a hospital and tried
to revive her for about an
hour.
A statement from her
family and the Tupac
Shakur estate, Amaru Entertainment, mourned her
loss.
The statement also
quoted “Dear Mama,” the
classic hit her son wrote
about her: “You always
was a black queen, mama.”
Born Alice Faye Williams, Shakur changed
her name when she became politically active in
the 1960s and joined the
Black Panther movement.
By 1971, she was pregnant
and behind bars, accused
of conspiring to bomb New
York City landmarks.
‘Americanist’ Aaron dies at 103
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Daniel
Aaron, a founding scholar
and ambassador of American studies who explored
and explained his country through books, essays
and diplomatic missions
and helped preserve the
literary canon as the first
president of the Library of
America, has died.
Aaron, who received a
National Humanities Medal in 2010, died Saturday
at age 103 in Cambridge,
Mass., according to his
son, Paul Aaron. Daniel
Aaron had been admitted
to a hospital a week earlier
for breathing problems.
“He was active intellectually, right to the end,”
Paul Aaron told the Associated Press on Tuesday.
Hewasaprofessoremeritus at Harvard University,
where even at age 100 he
worked daily in his office.
But,unofficially,hewasthe
foremost “Americanist,” a
self-described “practitioner of things American.”
Mary Lou Fedorko
Mary Lou Fedorko, age 66, of Millcreek, passed away
peacefully, surrounded by her family, after a lengthy
illness, on May 1, 2016.
Born in Erie, on January 22, 1950, she was the daughter of the late Olive Mary (Lyons)
and Robert “Bud” Aylsworth.
Mary Lou graduated from Strong
Vincent High School in 1967. She
worked as a Northern Division
Supervisor of GTE for many years
and was the co-owner of Parm Tool
& Die Company with her husband,
Pete. Mary Lou loved her “Four
Gs” – Golf, Grandchildren, Golden
Retrievers and Girlfriends. She
was a member of the Kahkwa Ladies 18 Hole League,
Pennsylvania State Women’s Golf Association, a Past
President of The Erie District Women’s Golf Association, served as the Handicap Chairman for the Women’s Golf Association of Western Pennsylvania and
was a member of the Lakeview Country Club, Saddlebrook and Innisbrook Golf Resorts and the Erie Yacht
Club. This true passion for golf led to two holes-in-one
and much enjoyment spending time on the golf course
with friends and family. Off the course, she enjoyed
long walks with her dogs and spending time with her
grandchildren.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in
death by her brother, Harry Aylsworth.
She is survived by her husband, Peter J. Fedorko, Jr.;
two children: Paul Fedorko of Pittsburgh and Melissa
Taylor (Sean) of Millcreek; three grandchildren: Hunter Knobloch, Remie Taylor and Breckin Taylor; a sister, Shirley Mitchell; and many nieces and nephews.
Mary Lou’s family would like to thank Drs. Renata
Ferrarotto and Robert Satcher from M.D. Anderson
Cancer Center, Drs. Abraham and Velcheti from the
Cleveland Clinic and Dr. Jan Rothman from the Regional Cancer Center.
Friends and family may call at the Burton Westlake Funeral Home, 3801 West 26th Street (at Powell
Avenue), on Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m. and Thursday
from 4 to 7 p.m. and are invited to the service there on
Friday at 11 a.m. Burial will follow at the Laurel Hill
Cemetery.
Memorials may be made to Mary Lou’s Pet Fund at
Glenwood Pet Hospital, to pay for animals in need of
medical care, 3853 Peach Street, Erie, PA 16509.
Send condolences at www.Burtonfuneralhome.com.
Mary Lou Sam
Mary Lou Sam, age 70, of Bonita Springs, Fla., formerly of Lake Orion, Mich., passed away on April 30,
2016.
She was a loving wife of Ronald for 48+ years and
dear mother of Scott (Elizabeth),
Todd (Ovidia), and Timothy (Tanya).
She was also a cherished grandmother of Alexander, Katie, Todd
Jr., and Travis and sister-in-law of
Judith (Gary) and Marianne. She is
also survived by many nieces and
nephews.
Mary Lou loved life and lived it to
the fullest. Words cannot express
her total love to her husband Ron,
her children and friends, and especially grandchildren. She played piano for the church she attended
and for many other functions. She was especially
proud of playing for all her friends at Spring Run.
In retirement, she loved all her new and old friends
wherever they were in the country. She enjoyed playing golf and Mah Jonng. Last Christmas she made over
1800 Buckeyes for all. She will be sorely missed by all
especially her grandchildren and friends.
The funeral service will be held on Saturday, May
7, 2016, at 11 a.m. at the Modetz Funeral Home, 100 E.
Silverbell Rd., Orion, Mich. The family will receive
friends on Friday between 3-8 p.m. Interment, following the service, will be at Guardian Angel Cemetery,
Rochester, Mich.
The family suggests that memorial contributions be
made to the American Heart Association.
Mary Lou, my mind still talks to you, my heart still
looks for you, my soul knows you are at peace. - Your
loving husband, Ron.
Sandra L. “Sandy” Chesley
Sandra L. “Sandy” Chesley, 75, of North East, passed
away on Wednesday, April 27, 2016, at WellSpan York
Hospital, York, Pa.
She was born on March 10, 1941, in Houston, Pa., a
daughter of the late Alexander and
Alice Hall Marx.
Sandy is survived by her loving
husband of 57 years, Raleigh J.
Chesley, whom she married on
August 12, 1959, her son, Todd
Chesley and his children, Breann
and her husband Vinnie, Carson
and his daughter Ellie, Danika and
Garrett, her daughter, Robyn Long
and her children, Kyle Long and his
wife Ashley and Larkyn Long and her fiancée Robert
Fisher and one sister, Judy Stokes. She is also survived by her great-grandson, Lucas Chase Fisher, her
pride and joy.
In addition to her parents, Sandy was preceded
in death by a grandson, Cody Long and her brother,
George Marx.
Private graveside services in Grahamville Cemetery
will be held at the convenience of the family. Rev.
Keith McGarvey will officiate. Funeral arrangements
are under the care of the W. Tad Bowers Funeral
Home, 92 S. Lake St., North East, Pa.
Family and friends are invited to join in a celebration of Sandy’s life on Saturday, May 7, 2016 at the
American Legion Post #105, 17 S. Mill St., North East
from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Memorials may be made to the charity of one’s
choice. To send condolences, please visit www.
bowersfuneralhome.com.
Sadie W. Morvay
Sadie W. Morvay, age 87, of Waterford, died at her
home, on Tuesday, May 3, 2016. Funeral arrangements
will be announced by Van Matre Funeral Home in
Waterford.
Wayne D. Seymour
Wayne D. Seymour, age 72, of North East, died
on Monday, May 2, 2016, at his residence. Funeral
arrangements will be announced by the William D.
Elkin Funeral Home, 65 South Lake Street, North East.
VARSITY•8 PAGES INSIDE
Unified area
track teams
break barriers
WEATHER
FORECAST, 8B
Clouds and
sun
63 high
50 low
DOW JONES
9.38
➧
DETAILS, 8C
Close at 17,720.50
INSIDE
Friday, May 13, 2016
AFTER
HEROIN
$1.00
Family
hopes to
help others
by sharing
loved one’s
addiction
struggle
More
work
shifted
by GE
Tasks that could
have meant jobs
here sent to Texas
By JIM MARTIN
jim.martin@timesnews.com
Ryan, Trump
make amends
his kids. He hunted and fished
and rooted for the Cleveland
Browns.
Wieczorek and her husband of
39years,DavidWieczorek,Weber’s
stepfather, thought long about
what other details to share about
Weber’s life. They opted for truth.
Weber was deeply loved. He
also suffered from an addiction
that cut a damaging swath through
at least three generations of their
family, they said.
Weber’s son, Cody Weber, 22,
GE Transportation, which
recently completed a layoff
of 1,500 employees, plans to
move the job of converting
old locomotives — work that
had been scheduled for Erie
— to other locations, including Fort Worth, Texas.
That change, which involves the process of converting old DC locomotives to AC,
will have no effect on existing jobs, spokeswoman Cathy
Heiman said.
What will be lost is the
potential for recalling workers who had been laid off
in recent months, said Scott
Slawson, president of Local
506 of the United Electrical
Radio and Machine Workers
of America.
Some of those former employees staged a demonstration outside the company’s
Water Street gate Thursday,
carrying signs that said,
“Keep it made in Erie.”
John Scott, who lost his
job at GE Transportation in
January after working at the
plant for about four years,
was among those picketing.
“It’s not necessary,” he said
of the company’s plan to shift
work elsewhere. “They could
be making these here.”
The company had originally scheduled 62 conversions to be done in Erie during 2017. Slawson said he
didn’t know how many jobs
that work might represent,
but that each conversion is
roughly equal to the work of
building half of a new locomotive.
Asked for comment, the
company issued a prepared
statement.
➤ Please see HEROIN, 6A
➤ Please see GE, 6A
Donald Trump and
House Speaker Paul
Ryan pledged to work
together despite their
differences after a
meeting Thursday, as
Ryan appeared closer
to endorsing the
Republican
presidential
frontrunner.
Up Close, 3A
‘Trendy new Erie’
An upscale boutique
opened in West Erie
Plaza, and more stores
are on the way.
City&Region, 1B
Altadonna, Kathleen
A. Figoli, 74
Armbruster, John
W., 91
Bartos, Dean
Matthew, 48
Coon, Derek Jay, 29
Derfler, Dr.
Kathleen, 63
Ewing, Carole
Jean, 79
Garcia, Jose V.
“Pucho,” 79
Garske, Raymond
“Ray” G., 94
LeSuer, Elaine
Hinkson, 90
Lindberg, David
Allen, 59
Mannarino, Sharon
A., 60
Mitchell, Donald
A., 64
Rosario, Carmen
Ruiz, 91
Smith, Edward J., 83
Vallimont, Andrew
J., 52
Weber, Paul R., 45
Weschler, Robert
“Bob,” 82
Zimmer, Elmer G., 95
Details, 4-5B
FIND IT
Paula Wieczorek and her family — including husband, Dave, right, and grandson Cody Weber — are sharing
their story in hopes of helping others. The Wieczorek’s son and Cody Weber’s father, Paul Weber, died of a
heroin overdose in February at age 45. Cody Weber has served prison time for crimes related to his own heroin
addiction. “If we can save just one person, then his death won’t be in vain,” Paula Wieczorek says of her son.
By LISA THOMPSON
➤ Obituary: For Paul Weber. 5B
Paul Weber was just 13 years
old when he and four friends got
caught with some marijuana right
before school. A drug and alcohol
counselor met with the boys.
He had a prediction.
“The guy picked Paul, out of
all the questions he asked them,
and said Paul was going to have a
problem,” Weber’s mother, Paula
Wieczorek, said. “We said, ‘What
the heck does he know? He is only
13.’”
Years later, they realized, “He
was right,’” Wieczorek said.
On Feb. 15, Wieczorek, 63, got
the news she had in some ways
expected for decades. Her son,
now 45, had been found dead
in his Erie home — a victim of a
heroin overdose.
The family will host a memorial service for Weber on Sunday.
He was a gifted athlete, who at 10
years old hit 10 home runs in a
season. He was a dad who loved
Treasurer hires lawyer in spat with mayor
By KEVIN FLOWERS
kevin.flowers@timesnews.com
Erie
Treasurer
Susan
DiVecchio
Business .........................8C
Classifieds ......................6D
City of Erie Treasurer Susan DiVecchio has hired a lawyer in relation to an
ongoing dispute with Mayor Joe Sinnott
over hiring a teller in her office.
Comics ............................6C
Employment....................8D
Lotteries .......................... 2A
Obituaries .......................4B
People, Dear Abby .........4D
DiVecchio said she has hired Tony
Logue, an Erie attorney, “because I have
a vacancy, and (Sinnott) won’t let me hire
anybody.” DiVecchio said she is paying
Logue $4,000, out of her office’s budget,
to represent her.
In an April 26 letter to City Council, Di-
Puzzles............................5D
Sports..............................1C
Sudoku............................9D
Viewpoint ........................6B
Weekend .........................1D
Wonderword ...................9D
Vecchio wrote that Sinnott “is adamant
that I hire” his choice for the teller’s position in DiVecchio’s office.
The job pays $40,200 a year.
DiVecchio said Sinnott has threatened
➤ Please see HIRING, 6A
© 2016,
adno=201030
DEATHS
FROM PAGE ONE
6A | Erie Times-News | GoErie.com | Friday, May 13, 2016
“We are sharing without shame. We think talking about our loved one’s struggle ... will help people become aware.”
Heroin: Family shares story
Continued from 1A
will join in the memorial
service.
He was not home when
his father died. He was in
state prison serving a sentence handed down in Erie
County Court for property
and drug crimes related to
his own heroin addiction.
The family’s scars bear
witness to the lasting harm
caused by a nationwide
epidemic of addiction to
opioids and heroin.
The number of heroin or
prescription opioid overdoses reached an all-time
high in 2014, when more
than 28,600 Americans
died, according to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Erie County, the number of accidental deaths
due to drugs increased by
222 percent between 2010
and 2015 — from 18 to 58,
— according to the Erie
County coroner’s annual
reports.
Pennsylvania Physician
General Rachel Levine,
M.D., called it the “biggest
health crisis right now in
Pennsylvania,” during a
recent visit to Erie.
The Wieczoreks and
Cody Weber know the toll
addiction takes firsthand.
They also know the power of resilience and hope
in the face of disease.
“We have a story to tell.
If we can save just one person, then his death won’t
be in vain,” Paula Wieczorek said.
‘A new, devastating
experience’
The counselor was only
too right about Paul Weber. Three years after getting caught with marijuana
in the eighth grade, Paul
Weber, at 16, was expelled
from Cathedral Preparatory School after he was
spotted buying pot near
the school.
The Wieczoreks placed
him in treatment for alcoholism when he was 17. He
called his mother, weeping, begging her to get him
out.
Neither of the Wieczoreks had experience
dealing with addiction.
“Everything that was happening was a new, devastating experience for us,”
Paula Wieczorek said.
Severe anxiety and depression her son battled
his entire life compounded the problem, she said.
Paul Weber never completed high school. He
worked sporadically. He
began a family. He offered
love but no stability, his
son, Cody Weber, said.
“There’s a lot of good
memories I have of my
dad,” Cody Weber said.
HElP FOR FAMiliEs
Heroin epidemic
The drug is made from morphine.
It can be injected, smoked or
snorted and gets to the brain
very quickly. That’s why heroin is
so addictive.
Heroin use is up
3
2
Heroin addiction
Heroin typically
attaches to receptors in
brain’s pleasure zones.
(per 1,000 people)
1
0 National figures.
2002
2013
Opioid
Those who used it most
Annual average rate, per 1,000 people
in each group, nationally, 2011-13.
3.6
Male
7.3
Age 18-25
3
When Paul Weber died in February of a heroin overdose,
he had been battling addiction for decades. His family is
holding a memorial service Sunday to remember him and
share the story of his life, including his addiction.
“We would go to sporting
events or we’d go fishing.
He taught me everything I
know about sports.”
But as his father’s addiction deepened, mainly to
alcohol and then cocaine,
Cody Weber said, “I was
kind of on my own, I felt.”
When he was 11, he
said, he saw his father in
the basement with a belt
around his arm, sweating.
“He was using cocaine
through IV. He was just an
addict. He would use anything,” Cody Weber said.
A year later, Cody Weber
started smoking pot. His father tried to intervene.
“He saw himself in me
and he did not like himself,
so I kind of understood.
But I had a hard time with
him giving me advice,”
Cody Weber said.
The Wieczoreks moved
to Texas in 1999 as David
Wieczorek pursued his career as an executive for an
oil and gas company.
They tried to help Paul
Weber’s family from a
distance and in frequent
visits to Erie. Eventually,
they brought Paul, and
then Cody, to Texas to live
with them. Paul Weber
achieved three months’
sobriety.
But having both father
and son together in Texas
was a “disaster,” David
Wieczorek, 64, said.
Paul Weber started
drinking again.
His son was “smoking
weed and not wanting to
listen to him,” Cody Weber said.
Paul Weber returned
to Erie. The Wieczoreks
placed Cody Weber, who
was by then in middle
school, in a faith-based
school for troubled kids
in Austin, Texas. It helped
for a time. But over the
next few years, he bounced
back and forth between
Texas and Erie, where he
did stints in juvenile detention.
A sense of helplessness
drove Paula Wieczorek
into deep depression.
“It was devastating. I
wanted to die. I could not
fix it. We tried and we tried
and we tried. It is overload.
It is way too much,” she
said.
“At same time,” her husband said, “we are trying
to hold jobs and live our
lives and have relationships with friends and
(other) family (members).”
‘Moments of being
happy, joyous and free’
It was Paul Weber who
finally helped his mother
find ways to cope with
problems she suffered because of his unrelenting
addiction. A decade ago,
while she was still living
in Texas, he pointed her to
Al-Anon, which offers support to any person who has
had a problem drinker in
his or her life.
“I found friends who
had an adult alcoholic or
Where they go from here
Opioid
receptor
White
SOURCE: CDC
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
An opioid overdose
occurs after heroin
overloads receptors in
brain cells, causing
breathing to slow, stop.
CHRIS SIGMUND/Erie Times-News
addict in their lives. ... We
could laugh, share our experiences, strengths and
hope and be there for each
other,” she said.
Paula Wieczorek said
she learned about her
son’s illness and her
own role in it and gained
tools that allowed her to
both love her son and set
boundaries.
“I learned I could have
moments of being happy,
joyous and free,” she said.
‘Off to the races’
Cody Weber returned
to Erie for good when he
was 18. He said his drug
use escalated steadily in
his teens from pot to painkillers and then, at age 19,
to heroin, after a friend
suggested it as a potent
substitute for painkillers.
“I got it and tried it and
that was it. Off to the races.
I loved it. I loved the way it
made me feel,” he said. He
sniffed heroin, then shot it
up. A few weeks later, on
a day with no heroin, he
experienced withdrawal.
“Just death, like I did not
want to be alive,” he said.
He said he shoplifted
and burgled other people’s
homes to keep withdrawal
at bay and feed his habit.
“That was the only thing
I knew to make me feel
good, to deal with my problems,” he said.
Until it wasn’t.
About a year after Cody
Weber started using heroin, Paul Weber texted his
mother a picture of Cody.
Cody Weber sat in the
bathroom, passed out,
drug paraphernalia scattered around him.
“I would shoot so much,
hoping that I wouldn’t
wake up from it, that it
would kill me,” Cody Weber said. “Because I had
Nar-Anon, for families and
friends of people dealing
with addictions, meets
Mondays, 7:30 p.m., First
United Methodist Church,
707 Sassafras St.;
Tuesdays, 7 p.m., at Lamb
of God Lutheran Church,
606 E. 38th St.;
Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m.,
1910 Sassafras St.;
Thursdays, 7:30 p.m., St.
Julia Catholic Church, 638
Roslyn Ave.; Fridays, 7:30
p.m., Saint Vincent
Hospital, Spencer
Conference Room, 232 W.
25th St. Visit www.naranon.org.
nothing. I had nobody in
my life. I had nowhere to
go. I felt like I did not have
anything else to live for.”
Police arrested Cody
Weber before he could
die. Cody Weber said initially all he thought about
was getting out of prison
and getting high. Once he
was sentenced in September 2014 to state prison,
he realized he had to get
straight.
“I have seen things and
experienced things in
there,” he said. “I grew
from it.”
Cody Weber and the
Wieczoreks had no idea
that Paul Weber, who had
relied mainly on alcohol,
had fallen for heroin, as
well.
They learned of it late
last year when Paul Weber
woundupintheemergency
department after an overdose. He seemed frightened by it and so they did
not think he kept using it.
Cody Weber talked to his
father in a phone call from
prison on Feb. 13. Cody
told his dad he loved him.
Two days later, he
learned his father was
dead.
Cody Weber approached
a corrections officer whom
he trusted. Turning his
back to other inmates so
they could not see the tears
in his eyes, he told her
what had happened. She
sent him to the chaplain,
who gave him a sympathy
card to mail home.
“There is not a lot they
can do,” he said.
He wishes now his father had gotten arrested.
“I think that would have
saved him. It would have
got him off everything for
a year or two. Everyone
needs sobriety,” Cody Weber said. “He never had a
(rock) bottom.”
Paula Wieczorek said
addiction must be recognized as an illness fueling
a public health crisis of
epidemic proportions.
“We are sharing without shame,” she said. “We
think talking about our
loved one’s struggle and
suffering will help people
become aware.”
The Wieczoreks have
other children and grandchildren who are thriving.
They retired from Texas to
a spacious lakeview home
in Harborcreek Township
a couple of years ago. It
has loads of extra room for
visiting family. Toys for the
grandchildren lie close at
hand.
They mourn Paul Weber
and support Cody Weber,
with clear boundaries set,
as he pursues recovery.
“I think we understand
the disease and what likely
could happen. Every day
he stays alive is a blessing
for us,” Paula Wieczorek
said.
They garner their own
support from Erie NarAnon meetings, similar to
the Al-Anon meetings in
Texas.
“I listen to other people who have the same
trouble, and it helps me,”
Paula Wieczorek said.
The prospect of prison
motivates Cody Weber to
stay clean.
“I am scared to death to
go back there. ... I know if
I get high that is what it is
going to be. Either that or
death,” he said.
His father’s death also
gives him a reason to live.
“I want to stay clean for
myself and for my dad,
because I know he would
want that,” he said.
“Hopefully, (one day) I
can say I am living proof
that it can be done.”
email. Follow her on
ETNthompson.
Hiring: Officials at GE: Work heads to Texas
odds over open job
Continued from 1A
Continued from 1A
to block her preferred candidate, and that the mayor “isn’t
even talking to me right now”
over the issue.
Sinnott on Thursday said he
was “disappointed (DiVecchio)
is using public funds” to hire a
lawyer.
Sinnott maintains that he
is following a long-standing
practice for hiring union positions within offices and departments; if no other union
employees bid on the posts, the
mayor’s administration has the
right to place someone in those
jobs.
“It’s always been done this
way, and it’s always worked
well,” Sinnott said.
Neither Sinnott nor DiVecchio would identify the individuals they would like to see
hired.
The position at issue is
within the jurisdiction of the
American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees union.
Both Sinnott and DiVecchio
said no other AFSCME employees in city government bid on
the job.
Sinnott has said the state’s
Third Class City Code says
that the treasurer “may” appoint employees in that office;
DiVecchio believes that a city
ordinance gives city elected
officials the ability to hire all
employees in their offices.
“I want a legal opinion on
this,” DiVecchio said.
Logue, reached at his
office by telephone Thursday,
declined to comment.
K E V I N F L O W E R S can be
reached at 870-1693 or by email.
Follow him on Twitter at twitter.
com/ETNflowers.
“We continually monitor
our volume to ensure the production system meets our customer needs,” the statement
said. “The production schedule
update this week is a normal
part of business to align our resources across the entire supply chain with the forecasted
volume. This allocation helps
provide some stability to the entire production system and positions us to improve efficiency
in this challenging market.”
Les Burrows, a current GE
Transportation employee who
was outside the gate Thursday,
said he’s not encouraged by the
latest news.
“They are dismantling this
place pretty quick,” he said.
When layoffs were announced in November, company officials had said they would
be looking for other work that
could be done in Erie.
Slawson said the union
thought that converting locomotives to AC might help return
JIM MARTIN/Erie Times-News
John Scott, of Wesleyville, on Thursday protests GE Transportation’s
plan to shift more work to Texas. He was laid off from GE in January.
some former GE Transportation
employees to their jobs.
“We lost it as fast as we got it,”
Slawson said.
“We try to stay upbeat, but
when the hits keep coming, it’s
hard to stay positive.”
J I M M A R T I N can be reached
at 870-1668 or by email. Follow
him on Twitter at twitter.com/
ETNmartin.
IT’S MONDAY
REAL PEOPLE
JUMP-START YOUR WEEK
PIAA PLAYOFFS
Woman recounts years
aboard Brig Niagara
CITY&REGION • 1B
High school softball,
baseball teams to face off
SPORTS • 3C
Monday, June 6, 2016
$1.00
OVERDOSE AFTERMATH: HELP IS AVAILABLE
WEATHER
FORECAST, 6B
Sun and
a storm
78 high
60 low
INSIDE
Front-runner
looks beyond
Tuesday’s contests
Iraqi forces
advance
Iraqi forces secured
the southern edge of
the Islamic State group
stronghold of Fallujah
on Sunday, two weeks
after the launch of an
operation to recapture
the city.
World&Nation, 5A
TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Dr. Stephanie Larson frequently sees overdose patients in Saint Vincent Hospital’s emergency department.
She’s also seen the patterns. After those patients
recover from an overdose,
she said, few seek treatment
for their addictions.
“Not a very large number
of people follow up,” Larson
said.
David Sanner, director of
the Erie County Office of Drug
& Alcohol Abuse, wants to fix
that problem.
He is working to create a
“warm handoff” program to
ensure that every person who
is hospitalized because of a
drug or alcohol overdose is
met by a qualified professional who can guide the patient
through treatment options.
Sanner thinks the program
will reduce the number of
overdose deaths in Erie County by offering patients “a faceto-face meeting rather than
WASHINGTON — Hillary
Clinton, who’s almost sure to
win enough delegates Tuesday to clinch the Democratic
presidentialnomination,said
Sunday that Bernie Sanders
must help her unify the party
after their extended battle.
“After Tuesday, I’m going to do everything I can to
reach out, to try to unify the
Democratic Party,” Clinton
said on CNN’s
“State of the ➤ Up Close:
Union.” “I exMore
pect Senator
campaign
Sanders to do
news. 3A
the same and
we will come
together and be prepared to
go to the convention in a unified way, to make our case to
leave the convention and go
into the general election to
defeat Donald Trump.”
Clinton stopped short of
saying that the Vermont
senator, who has suggested
he could take his fight to the
convention and try to sway
superdelegates who now
support Clinton, should withdraw after Tuesday. She said,
however, that the two have
more in common than either
has with Republicans.
Sanders said on the same
program that he would work
to defeat presumptive Republican nominee Trump no
matter who the Democratic
nominee was. He said his
campaign could win significant victories Tuesday, when
California, New Jersey, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota vote.
In two interviews Sunday,
Clinton focused her attention on Trump, blaming his
heated rhetoric for recent
➤ Please see ADDICTS, 4A
➤ Please see CLINTON, 3A
in the gymnasium, exercise on the
playground, time for homework,
and of course, some snacks.
On Thursday afternoon, much to
the surprise of Tatiana, Rigoberto
and dozens of other lower westside
children, there was something else
waiting for them in the gym.
Books.
Free books.
And it came at the perfect time,
too, with school out for summer in
the city of Erie starting this week,
and the propensity for children
— especially from lower-income
households — to not include reading in their summer activities.
The United Way of Erie County
Vital Statistics
Discover which one of
your old friends is
getting married or just
had a baby.
Weather, 6B
History lesson
Statues, monuments,
plaques, wayside
historical markers and
signs, and named
parks and boulevards
are just a few
examples of how our
community
memorializes
exceptional people,
places and events.
NIE Page, 5D
DEATHS
Astemborski, Aloisius
“Al,” 91
Auer, John E.
“Jack,” 84
Barron, Joyce Ann
Kopnitsky, 57
Carlucci, Rose Marie
Hilbert, 79
Chilcott, Doris M., 89
Cotton, Leigh D., 85
Dombrowski, Anne
Walters, 94
Davis, Catharina
“Tineke,” 75
Holmstrom, Meredith
A. “Midge,” 74
Knight, Georgia
B., 88
Murphy, Voncille
Hicks, 89
Smith, Remle
Janet, 78
Smith, William
Sargent, 77
Susi, Florence
Barberio, 84
Worley, Kathryn
Louise Brown, 95
Wright, Nancy Glenn
Pace, 74
FIND IT
Saint Vincent Hospital Emergency room physician Stephanie Larson, D.O., is involved with patients dealing
with heroin addictions. She contributed to writing a grant that will fund a program designed to help heroin
addicts after they’ve left the care of emergency room physicians.
LIVES
By MADELEINE O’NEILL
madeleine.o’neill@timesnews.com
LOST
This
billboard is
part of the
Erie County
Office of
Drug &
Alcohol
Abuse’s
campaign
against
heroin use.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
POSITIVELY
ERIE
By GERRY WEISS
Tatiana Rivera, 9, and her older
brother, Rigoberto, 10, walk to the
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
Center every day from their home
after school.
The program at the center, 312
Chestnut St., offers them play time
➤ Please see BOOKS, 4A
A WEEKLY FEATURE ABOUT PEOPLE AND IDEAS THAT ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE ACROSS THE ERIE REGION.
Bridge..............................4C
Classifieds ......................1D
Comics ............................4C
Dear Abby.......................6D
Dr. K ................................6D
Employment....................2D
Horoscopes ....................4C
Lotteries .......................... 2A
Obituaries .......................2B
Puzzles............................6D
Sports..............................1C
Viewpoint ........................4B
Wonderword ...................1D
© 2016,
adno=203569
Details, 2-3B
Clinton
wants
Dems
to unite
neWS
4A | Erie Times-News | GoErie.com | Monday, June 6, 2016
Addicts: Help available
Continued from 1A
puttingtheburdenonthem
to get follow-up care.”
Accidental
overdose
deaths in Erie County
rose from 18 in 2010 to 58
in 2015, said Sanner, who
also heads the county’s
heroin overdose task force.
In 2015, 26 of those overdose deaths were linked
to heroin.
Sanner said those figures led him to conclude
a program was necessary
to get more overdose survivors into appropriate
treatment.
The county accepted
proposals through Friday
from local social service
agencies seeking to develop and run the program.
Those selected will work
with Erie County hospitals as soon as July 1 to
ensure that crisis services
are available to overdose
patients at any time, Sanner said.
“We’re envisioning contracting with a provider,
or preferably two, to be
available 24 hours a day,
365 days a year to meet
overdose survivors where
they’re at, at whatever hospital that may be,” Sanner
said.
Sanner’s office will supervise the program.
Larson has seen the
need for a program at the
Saint Vincent emergency
department.
She said that although
not all of the overdoses
there are linked to heroin
— alcohol and K2, a form
of synthetic marijuana,
are also frequent culprits
— heroin-related hospitalizations have risen substantially in the area, a reflection of the nationwide
heroin epidemic.
Larson said she would
liketoseemorepatientsget
help for their addictions.
“It really takes a oneon-one approach with
these patients to try to
allow them to see that
(treatment) is an option,”
she said.
Jodie Klus, a division
director at the drug and
alcohol treatment center
Gaudenzia Erie, said the
proposed program would
help overdose survivors
figure out their next steps.
“Sometimes
service
systems aren’t the easiest
to navigate,” Klus said.
“The warm handoff would
be that intermediary step
to say, ‘Hey, this is what’s
available for you.’”
Immediately after an
overdose is a key time to
approach patients and
offer addiction treatment
A billboard on West 12th Street near Cranberry Street is part of the Erie County Office of Drug and Alcohol Abuse’s
campaign aimed at fighting heroin use. The campaign, which has included radio, television, digital and print
advertising, seeks to raise awareness of heroin addiction and encourage users to get help.
Billboards raise awareness
By MADELEINE O’NEILL
madeleine.o’neill@timesnews.com
The faces of heroin addiction are
making a new appearance on Erie’s
streets.
They are visible in a new billboard campaign by the Erie County Office of Drug & Alcohol Abuse
programs. The campaign seeks to
raise awareness of prescription
drug and heroin abuse.
David Sanner, director of the Office of Drug & Alcohol Abuse, said
his office recently spent more than
$22,000 to buy into a media campaign developed by the Commonwealth Prevention Alliance for its
Stop Opiate Abuse Campaign.
Three static and three digital
billboards currently posted in Erie
services, she said.
“When somebody presents with an overdose it’s
kind of a critical period because they’ve almost died,
or died and been brought
back,” Klus said.
Klus said Gaudenzia
Erie had applied to implement the Erie County
program.
The Erie County Office
of Drug and Alcohol Abuse
applied for state funding
for the program in May
2015 with help from a team
that included Saint Vincent’s emergency depart-
make up part of that campaign,
which has also included radio, television, print and web advertising.
The six billboards are carrying
twoseparateimages. One,designed
to demonstrate the connection
between prescription drug abuse
and heroin addiction, portrays a
prescription pill bottle with the
word “heroin” emblazoned across
it and the message, “Break the connection.”
The other displays four portraits
and says, “Anyone can become addicted.”
The three static billboards are
located at the intersections of West
20th Street and Pittsburgh Avenue,
West 12th and Cranberry streets,
and West 18th and State streets.
The three digital billboards are
ment, Gaudenzia Erie and
the Program Evaluation
and Research Unit of the
School of Pharmacy at the
University of Pittsburgh,
Sanner said.
That funding was put on
holdduringPennsylvania’s
budget impasse, but has
since been recommended
for approval pending the
state Legislature’s passage
of a 2016-17 budget by the
deadline of June 30.
If that funding comes
through, it could provide
as much as $100,000 to
jump-start the Erie County
located at the intersection of West
12th Street and Greengarden Road,
along Interstate 79 southbound
near the West 32nd Street underpass, and at 6400 Peach St.
The billboards will stay up
through the Fourth of July weekend, Sanner said.
Sanner said he hopes the campaign will lessen the stigma associated with addiction.
“Addiction can happen to anyone,” he said. He hopes that “people start talking about it and that
they address it within their families” as a result of the campaign.
M A D E L E I N E O ’ N E I L L can be
reached at 870-1728 or by email.
Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/
ETNoneill.
program, Sanner said.
Sanner said his office
has limited funds set aside
to start the program even
without state funding. But
he said the program will
require annual state funding to remain sustainable.
Sanner hopes to get the
program up and running
as quickly as possible,
because Pennsylvania’s
new prescription drugdispensing database will
begin operating this summer. The database will allow doctors to more easily
track and regulate who is
accessing opiate prescriptions across the state.
“The fear is, if people
who are currently abusing
prescription opiates have
difficulty getting prescriptions filled, they may turn
to illegal sources and possibly heroin,” Sanner said.
“It is crucial at this point
that they be made aware of
treatment options.”
MADELEINE O’NEILL
can be reached at 870-1728
or by email. Follow her on
ETNoneill.
Books: Program keeps children reading
We Want to
Hear From You
Continued from 1A
hosted Thursday the first of eight
book swap events across the region to encourage children to
read in the summer months and
prevent loss of learning achieved
throughout the previous school
year.
The project, in its first year,
collected more than 8,000 books
from local companies and organizations that were invited by the
United Way in April and May to
donate new or gently used children’s books.
There were about 1,500 books
spread out across several tables
Thursday at the MLK Center as
Tatiana carefully perused the selections.
She wasn’t just grabbing any
old book and tossing it in her bag.
Each child was allowed to pick six
books, so Tatiana was selective
and took her time.
The third-grader at EmersonGridley Elementary School chose
a book from the Little House on
the Prairie series, a couple of
books about music, and another
about a pony named Blondie.
“I love reading,” Tatiana said
before smiling. “I have a lot of
books at home. Now I’ll have
more.”
Swapping books at the upcoming events are encouraged, but
kids don’t have to. The remaining
seven dates and locations are:
Have an idea for future “Positively
Erie” articles? Send them to
Times-News/GoErie.com reporter
Gerry Weiss at gerry.weiss@
timesnews.com, or call 870-1884.
GERRY WEISS/Erie Times-News
Serenity Sparks, 6, a student at Perry Elementary School, picked out six
books at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center as part of a new
summer book drive coordinated by the United Way of Erie County.
▀ Bayfront Eastside Taskforce
Corner Store, 231 Parade St., June
16, from 2 to 4 p.m.
▀ Sisters of St. Joseph Neighborhood Network — East Side, Poetry
Park, 638 E. 22nd St., June 16, noon
to 2 p.m.
▀ John F. Kennedy Center, 2021
E. 20th St., June 22, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
▀ Union City Public Library, 2
Stranahan St., Union City, June
22, 1 to 3 p.m.
▀ North East McCord Memorial
Library, 32 W. Main St., North East,
June 23, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
▀ Sisters of St. Joseph Neighborhood Network — West Side, InternationalGardens,400blockofWest
18th Street, June 23, 1 to 2 p.m.
▀ Rice Avenue Public Library,
705 Rice Ave., Girard, June 24,
noon to 3 p.m.
The book swaps are open to
children of all ages and their families, with age-appropriate books
ranging from birth to grade 12.
Joelyn Bush, marketing and
communications manager for
the local United Way, said research has shown that just six
books during the summer could
keep a struggling reader from
“sliding” back in his or her reading ability.
Bush on Thursday, at the MLK
center, noticed how frequently
children attending the event
were “shocked” they got to keep
the books.
“They kept saying, ‘We can put
our names in them?’” Bush said
of the kids. “We know we will be
making an important impact on
these children this summer.”
G E R R Y W E I S S can be reached
at 870-1884 or by email. Follow him
on Twitter at twitter.com/
ETNweiss.
In BrIeF
Fire, explosion at
army camp kills soldier
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka
— A fire set off explosions
at an army camp near Sri
Lanka’s capital Sunday
evening, killing one
soldier and injuring
another, officials said.
After the fire broke out
at the Salawa army camp,
it spread to an
ammunition dump,
setting off explosions,
military spokesman Brig.
Jayanath Jayaweera said.
He said personnel from
the army and the air force
were putting out the fire.
Jayaweera said it was
not yet known what
caused the fire.
Residents living within
half a mile of the camp
were asked to evacuate,
Minister of Law and Order
Sagala Ratnayake said.
He said the fire started
at a small arms depot and
then had spread to other
depots where heavy
weapons such as artillery
shells were stored.
The camp is about 22
miles east of Colombo, Sri
Lanka’s capital.
Gunfire hits tourist bus
in France; 6 injured
PARIS — Two rounds of
gunfire have hit a bus
carrying Czech tourists
through southeastern
France, injuring six
passengers.
The prosecutor of
Valence, Alex Perrin,
said the bus was hit
Friday night as it traveled
along the A7 highway on
its way home from a trip
to Spain.
Six of the passengers,
which included school
children, were slightly
injured after being hit by
flying glass and one
person was seriously hurt.
Perrin told BFM-TV
that a first shot hit the
front window and a
second hit the rear
window, shattering both.
There have been no
arrests, claims of
responsibility or even
conjectures about the
motive.
Perrin said “one could
think that this bus ... was
no more a target than any
other.”
Austria: Intern migrants
on Greek islands
BERLIN — Austria’s
foreign minister is
proposing interning
migrants on Greek
islands.
In a newspaper
interview, Sebastian Kurz
said Europe could copy
Australia’s model of
intercepting migrant
boats offshore — either
sending them back or
keeping them in island
camps until their asylum
claims have been
processed.
Human rights groups
have criticized the
practice as inhumane and
a breach of international
law.
Kurz told Austrian
newspaper Die Presse in
an interview published
Sunday that “of course
the Australian model
can’t be copied one-toone, but the basic
principle can be applied
to Europe too.”
Pope proclaims 2 new
saints during Mass
VATICAN CITY — Pope
Francis proclaimed two
new saints Sunday: A
Lutheran convert who hid
Jews during World War II
and the Polish founder of
the first men’s religious
order dedicated to the
immaculate conception.
Francis called Swedishborn Elizabeth
Hesselblad and
Stanislaus Papczynski
“exemplary witnesses to
this mystery of
resurrection” during the
canonization Mass in St.
Peter’s Square. Poland’s
President Andrzej Duda
and first lady Agata
Kornhauser-Duda
attended the ceremony.
— from wire reports

Heroin - Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association

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