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Freedom is NOT free. It comes at a terribly high cost for those who gave their all, their last full measure of devotion that freedom might endure. To the fallen of wars past and present, some 40 onlookers, organizers, and participants paid tribute on Monday, May 26th, at the I-81S Great Bend Welcome Center. It was a stirring 25 minutes.

Great Bend Welcome Center, the only interstate rest stop in the Commonwealth which has erected on its grounds a Veterans’ Memorial for those who paid the supreme price in the name of America’s freedom, specifically honors eight soldiers from the 1st Battalion 109th Mechanized Infantry Pennsylvania Army National Guard who sacrificed all in Operation Iraqi Freedom: SPC Lee Wiegand, Hallstead; SGT Eric W. Slebodnik, Greenfield Twp, Lackawanna County; SFC George A. Pugliese, Carbondale, Lackawanna County; SSG Ryan G. Ostram, Liberty Township; SPC William L. Evans, Hallstead; SPC Oliver J. Brown, Athens, Bradford County; SGT Andrew W. Brown, Pleasant Mount, Wayne County; SSG Daniel L. Arnold, Montrose.

By squeezing the expenses of the individual “buildings,” the Blue Ridge School District’s administration and Board of Directors managed to cut about half a million dollars from its current budget to offer a new one for the 2014-2015 fiscal year totaling under $17 million, while at the same time hiking property tax rates by nearly the 3% limit allowed by the state. Tax rates will increase from 46.99 mills to 48.39 mills. At a meeting on May 27th that combined a business session with a workshop, the Board approved a preliminary budget for the fiscal year that will begin on July 1. The public will have a month to review the revenue and spending plan before it is formally adopted at the very end of June. Business Manager Penny Greene said that some of the figures are subject to change as better data from the state becomes available.

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