Titusville feels flood fallout as storm cleanup efforts fill the town (2025)

CLARION — Clarion County commissioners were delivered a bleak forecast for their 2025 budget at their Tuesday meeting, as Clarion County’s Interim Director of Central Accounting Rose Logue laid out the probable necessity of a tax increase.

Seeking to clarify things, Venango County Sheriff Eric Foy spoke at the Venango County Commissioner’s meeting on Tuesday, responding to comments regarding school resource officers made by members of Sugarcreek Borough Council in his absence at a borough council meeting the week before.

With 20 years in the books, UPMC Northwest’s leadership, board of directors, staff and community partners all gathered at the hospital Tuesday afternoon to celebrate its anniversary, marking two decades since it first opened for use on Oct. 8, 2004.

Fall leaves weren’t the only things changing colors Tuesday evening in Franklin’s Fountain Park, as cancer survivors looked to pinkify the waters to mark the 17th annual Pink Splash for the Cure event.

BELLEAIR BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s storm-battered Gulf Coast raced against a Category 5 hurricane Monday as workers sprinted to pick up debris left over from Helene two weeks ago and highways were clogged with people fleeing ahead of the storm.

RE’IM, Israel (AP) — At 6:29 a.m. Monday — the exact minute Hamas launched its attack — a crowd of Israelis observed a moment of silence. But within only a few moments, a woman’s piercing wail of grief broke the quiet, and booms echoed from the fighting in Gaza, just a few kilometers away.

Franklin’s city solicitor told city council that, with a decrease in industrial property value looming on the horizon, he saw “no way” the city could avoid a tax increase in the upcoming years.

Despite a fortunate lack of tornado touchdowns, Sunday’s storm still managed to wreak havoc across much of the area, with 70 mph winds, golf ball-sized hail and sheets of rain leading to power outages, flash flooding and innumerable downed trees and wires.

The sky was the limit for Applefest organizers, vendors and downtown Franklin businesses, as large crowds converged on Liberty Street and its surrounding streets amid clear and sunny conditions for the annual three-day event.

CLARION — The 71st annual Autumn Leaf Festival’s “Tournament of Leaves” parade stepped off promptly at noon Saturday, heralded by a blast from the Clarion Fire & Hose Company’s sirens.

BUTLER (AP) — Donald Trump returned on Saturday to the Pennsylvania fairgrounds where he was nearly assassinated in July, urging a crowd of thousands to deliver an Election Day victory that he tied to his survival of the shooting.

Severe weather is running through Venango, Clarion and Forest counties, with a severe thunderstorm warning currently issued through 11 p.m. Sunday, and the potential for multiple tornado warnings.

The annual local fundraiser in which cancer survivors dye the waters of the fountain to pink will return Tuesday to Franklin’s Fountain Park.

TITUSVILLE — Titusville City Council approved to invest its 2024 Community Development Block Grant in the Titusville Senior Center and in sidewalk improvements along East Spruce Street.

The sun peeled back the blanket of heavy river fog over Franklin on Friday morning to reveal a busy crowd turning out for the first day of Applefest.

Friday’s warm, sunny weather drew a large crowd to the annual Autumn Leaf Festival Farmers and Crafters Day in downtown Clarion.

The Clarion County Jail Inspection Board on Thursday unanimously appointed longtime jail staff member Sherry Yates as the new warden, effective immediately.

Sugarcreek Borough Council members clarified at their monthly meeting Wednesday some questions and concerns they had regarding their reluctance to have the borough provide a school resource officer at Valley Grove Elementary School.

Six inductees — but far more than six people — joined the Franklin High School Hall of Fame on Thursday evening.

It’s been roughly a week since Hurricane Helene tore a path of destruction and devastation through the southeast U.S. from the Gulf of Mexico to Virginia.

Venango County library patrons will now be able to use their library cards at any Clarion County library as well as Venango libraries following an official merger of the libraries’ catalog systems.

BUTLER (AP) — Donald Trump is going back to Butler, where the world last saw him pump his fist and beseech followers to “fight,” even as blood streaked his face from a would-be assassin’s bullet.

One driver was transported by ambulance after he was involved in a two-vehicle crash Wednesday morning at the intersection of Center and Seneca streets in Oil City that sent his vehicle into the corner of the 100 Seneca building downtown.

Franklin festival aficionados were out in force Wednesday as the city prepared for the launch of the 41st annual Applefest celebration this Friday.

Families, groups and organizations lined up to watch the Autumn Leaf Festival’s Kiddie Parade as it marched along Main Street on Tuesday evening.

The Oil City Fire Department has received 5,538 smoke detectors to distribute to city residents.

NEW YORK (AP) — Tim Walz and JD Vance on Tuesday went after each other’s running mates in a vice presidential debate that opened with a discussion of burgeoning domestic and international troubles — a hurricane that ravaged much of the southeast U.S. and growing fears of a regional Middle East war.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The 45,000 dockworkers who went on strike Tuesday for the first time in decades at 36 U.S. ports from Maine to Texas may wield the upper hand in their standoff with port operators over wages and the use of automation.

The Venango County elections office says almost 4,000 mail-in, absentee or military ballots have been requested in the county for the Nov. 5 general election.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Widespread devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene came to light Monday across the South, revealing a wasteland of splintered houses, crushed cargo containers and mud-covered highways in one of the worst storms in U.S. history.

FOXBURG — There are big changes coming to the small riverfront community of Foxburg, courtesy of a new neighbor that will dwarf the borough and its population of fewer than 200 residents.

The biggest fall festival in the region will draw multitudes to Franklin this weekend to enjoy arts and crafts, food, fun and autumn in northwest Pennsylvania.

Two Titusville residents suffered fatal injuries as a result of a motorcycle crash on Route 6, near its intersection with Vincent Road in Le Boeuf Township in Erie County, on Saturday evening, according to Erie state police.

Two dozen fire departments from five counties responded to a blaze that broke out at Hickman Lumber along Route 208 in Scrubgrass Township on Saturday afternoon.

Sparks and smoke filled the air as eventgoers watched flint meet frizzen during the 5th Annual Abe’s Black Powder Shootout at Two Mile Run County Park this weekend.

CLARION — Hundreds of children flocked to the Kids Carnival and Touch-A-Truck events this Saturday, as festivities began and royal titles were awarded for Clarion’s annual Autumn Leaf Festival (ALF).

PERRY, Fla. (AP) — Authorities struggled to get water and other supplies to isolated, flood-stricken areas across the U.S. Southeast in the wake of Hurricane Helene as the death toll from the storm rose.

Two dozen fire departments from five counties responded to a blaze that broke out at Hickman Lumber in Scrubgrass Township along Route 208 on Saturday afternoon.

PERRY, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Helene left an enormous path of destruction across Florida and the entire southeastern U.S. on Friday, killing at least 44 people in four states, snapping towering oaks like twigs, tearing apart homes and sending rescue crews on desperate missions to save people …

A social media post that circulated among area school districts late Thursday evening referencing the potential of a school shooting on Friday proved not to be a credible threat, according to Franklin state police, but not before the vaguely worded post was widely shared.