March 2024

The Hamilton-Gibson Women’s Project will host a Tea Party on Saturday, April 6th at 2pm to benefit Haven of Tioga County, and to promote their upcoming production of original works entitled WOMEN. 

In 2018, when Coudersport Rotary Club started selling annual Lottery Calendars, Bob Brown bought a calendar as a gift for his uncle, Mark Brown, a member of the Mercer Rotary Club. Mark liked the idea so much that he showed it to his club and Mercer Rotary began buying calendars to support Coudersport Rotary. They became “our friends from Mercer” because they won so often.

A few years ago Mercer Rotary began offering Coudersport Rotary members an opportunity to support them by entering their Night At The Races event. A horse named Slow Mo was entered by Coudersport Rotarian Ronnie Schenkein and was the winner of the 5th race.

Mark Brown’s nephew, Bob Brown, a Coudersport resident, was at the race and was kind enough to come to our March 18, 2024, meeting and surprise Ronnie by presenting her with a trophy and a beautiful red rose, plus prize money.

BRADFORD – State Rep. Martin Causer (R-Cameron/McKean/Potter) will hold monthly satellite office hours on Thursday, April 4, at the following locations:

• Emporium Borough Office – 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.
• Port Allegany Borough Office – 11 a.m. to noon.

 Lane Crawford (11th grade, PASD) and Levi Howard (11th grade, PASD) students in Mr. Bryant’s Networking and Security shop at the Seneca Highlands Career and Technical Center, recently earned their Security Pro Certifications. These certifications mark the third achievement for both Lane and Levi. They previously earned their PC Pro and Network Pro certifications. In addition, Lane and Levi will represent the CTC in the state-level SkillsUSA cybersecurity competition in April.  For more information on the Networking and Security program, feel free to contact Mr. Bryant at bbryant@iu9ctc.org or (814) 642-2573. For more information on the benefits of industry certifications, go to https://w3.testout.com/certification/certhome.

On March 28, at 2:21 pm Austin and Emporium Fire Dept. were dispatched to 231 Costello Ave. for a wildfire. The fire is in the yard spreading quickly in all directions and threatening multiple structures. Update one of the structures is on fire

At our March 18, 2024 meeting at A&W West End Grill, Rotarian Paul Herzig introduced Bill Carpenter, Sewer Operator for Coudersport Borough.

Bill is an award-winning Certified Operator in the State of Pennsylvania and said that he originally spoke with our Rotary Club in 1971.

Our old sewage plant was built in 1968 and was upgraded in 2001. Bill explained that there are many regulations from DEP and that our system uses a laboratory accredited by the state. The plant is manned every day of the year.

Coudersport has a biological system. Raw sewage goes through an oxidation ditch, where bacteria and protozoa feed on it. Then it goes to settling tanks, where solids go below water. A clear effluent goes
through purifiers to a UV ditch where 40 UV bulbs maim the bacteria so they can’t reproduce. Bill said clean water comes out. It is required to be 85% pure but ours is 99%. You could drink the effluent. It has a high oxygen content when it goes into the river, which helps fish in the summertime. During drought, sometimes as many as 250 trout were seen in the effluent pool to get oxygen.

The sewer Board also takes care of over 20 miles of the collection system, which was recently expanded to Sweden Valley. Bill said that if there is any digging, including your own if greater than 2 feet in your yard, please call to be tested for underground lines.

Sometimes lines get clogged. The main causes are tree roots, and “flushable wipes” which get caught in the screens. They biodegrade but much too slowly. Don’t flush them! and household grease.

Thank you Bill for your informative and interesting presentation!

UPMC Physician: Make an Informed Decision for Organ Donation
By: Swaytha Ganesh, M.D.
Medical Director, UPMC Living Donor Program

Deciding to become an organ donor is important, and it’s worth considering more often than when you renew your license at the DMV.

Every nine minutes, someone in the United States joins the national organ transplant waiting list. Every day, 17 people on that list die waiting for an organ because there are not enough donors. Every person who says yes to organ donation gives hope to the tens of thousands of people waiting for organ, eye, and tissue donations.

Two Routes to Organ Donation

There are two ways you can give the gift of life through organ donation:

• Living Donation: A living person can donate a kidney or a portion of their liver. Living donor transplant offers an alternative for people on the transplant waiting list and increases the number of organs available, saving more lives. The living donation process begins with an assessment at an accredited transplant center to determine eligibility. Next is the matching process. Living organ donors often have a beneficiary in mind when they undergo the suitability check. Others simply desire to save a person’s life, even if they don’t know the recipient personally.
• Deceased Donation: This simply means that you authorize medical professionals — at the time of your death — to assess your eligibility to transplant your healthy organs or tissues to someone in need. Registering to be a deceased organ donor doesn’t guarantee that you will save someone else’s life, but it does make that possible in the right circumstances. If you choose to be a deceased organ donor, you may be able to donate your heart, kidneys, liver, pancreas, intestines, or lungs. You also can donate tissues, such as your corneas, heart valves, ligaments, veins, and bone.

There are over 106,000 Americans currently awaiting transplants, and many have been seeking a donor for years. Choosing organ donation, either living or deceased, has the potential to take recipients off the waiting list and give them another chance at life.

Consider the Facts