Page 7 - Michael Pipe News Today

CHRIS MORELLI cmorelli@lockhaven.com BELLEFONTE — As positive cases of COVID-19 continue to turn up in Centre County, the county commissioners agreed to extend a contract with AMI Expeditionary Healthcare to operate the walk-in testing clinic at the former Comcast/Xfinity facility down the road from the Nittany Mall. The current agreement with AMI was set to expire on Saturday, Feb. 27. The new agreement will extend the contract an additional month, through Saturday, March 27. However, the n...

COVID-19 dealt a “devastating blow” to Centre County’s tourism and hospitality industry in 2020, with hotels seeing a nearly $50 million drop in revenue from a year earlier and the resulting local hotel occupancy tax falling by $2.7 million, Happy Valley Adventure Bureau President and CEO Fritz Smith said. But Smith and others are hopeful that they are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel and that optimism was on display Thursday as the Adventure Bureau awarded the second round of 2020...

BELLEFONTE — For several Centre County entities, help is on the way. At Tuesday’s Centre County commissioners’ meeting, it was announced that several groups and non-profits are part of a community development block grant. Chair Michael Pipe said that the distribution of funds was a “rather important and large item.” “The money is now available, it can be dispersed out,” Pipe said. The allocation of funds was approved by the commissioners on Aug. 11, 2020. The recipients of the fun...

Local news from StateCollege.com and Centre County Partners. Read about Centre County Commissioner Pipe Calls on Pa. Republican Leaders to Denounce Trump After U.S. Capitol Riot and more from the State College, PA region

CHRIS MORELLI cmorelli@lockhaven.com BELLEFONTE — A day after the chaos at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., the Centre County commissioners commented on the events of the past 24 hours during a salary board meeting Thursday. They didn’t mince their words. Board chairman Michael Pipe, spoke first. “Essentially, you had an insurrection led by the President of the United States. It’s not a mistake how we got here. I think if you look at the type of things that have been said and done over ...

CHRIS MORELLI cmorelli@lockhaven.com PHOTOS PROVIDED Bally’s has casinos throughout the United States. Pictured is the casino in Atlantic City, N.J. Bally’s has plans for a casino in Centre County “near the Nittany Mall.” STATE COLLEGE — Get ready, Centre County — a casino is on its way. Earlier this week, Bally’s Corporation announced that it has signed an agreement with investor and Penn State alumnus Ira Lubert to develop a planned $120 million mini-casino in Centre...

BELLEFONTE — It’s back. Starting this week, Centre County residents will once again have access to free, walk-in COVID-19 testing at the Nittany Mall in State College. At Tuesday’s Centre County Board of Commissioners’ meeting, county administrator Margaret Gray announced that testing will return to the mall at the site of the former Bon-Ton department store. The hours of operation are from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Testing at the site began on Tuesday and will run through Saturday, Jan. 9. The...

BELLEFONTE — On Tuesday, the Centre County Board of Commissioners approved the 2021 budget. The 2021 budget came in at $81.6 million. The good news? Centre County residents will see no property tax increase for the 11th consecutive year. The millage rate will remain at unchanged at 7.84 mills. There were some minor tweaks to the budget, according to Centre County director of financial management, Tom Martin. The final budget had some minor changes for the better from the tentative one introdu...

CHRIS MORELLI cmorelli@lockhaven.com BELLEFONTE — Over the past several months, Centre County government has made the most of the CARES Act county relief block grant. At Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners’ meeting, COVID-19 grant coordinator Mary Kay Williams presented a “high level overview” of how the funds have been distributed throughout the county. Williams, who joined the staff “five months and one week ago,” talked at length about the funds and broke down the process of distr...

BELLEFONTE — Free COVID-19 testing will be returning to Centre County in 2021. At Tuesday’s Centre County Board of Commissioners’ meeting, they unanimously extended the contract with AMI Expeditionary Healthcare. Free testing will take place from Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021 through Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021. Testing will take place from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays. With cases in Centre County skyrocketing at an alarming rate, the commissioners felt the need to act, especially...