Laurels and barbs

Laurel: Although several area high school athletes fared well at last week’s PIAA Track and Field Championships at Shippensburg, two juniors stood out. Juniors Janae Dunchack of Northern Cambria and Kelsey Seymour of Central Cambria claimed gold medals. Dunchack won her third PIAA high jump title and Seymour placed first in the 1600 run. Best in state. Very impressive.

Barb: We’re not quite sure just how big a deal is the annual Pennsylvania Hiking Week; that is, how many hikers participate. But we do know that Cambria County’s trails were left out of the mix this year. Fortunately, several hikes were planned at parks in Somerset County. This is our way of informing the event’s promoter, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, to not let it happen again in 2010. Hiking Week continues through Sunday. It includes several-mile organized hikes on trails listed from moderate to strenuous. Additional information can be obtained online at http://www.dcnr.-state.pa.us/info/hikingweek-index.aspx. We like the concept and want to see Cambria on the list next year.

Laurel: If you’re getting around on wheels, then CamTran is interested. JtownBikeFest, held last weekend, is just one more innovative program initiated by the marketing and planning staff of CamTran, which is headed by Jill Nadorlik. The event included workshops on properly riding on the road, securing a bike from thieves and putting a bike on a bus. Participants also were invited to join a community bike ride through old Westmont. “It’s a way to get the community out ... we’re trying to get people to think outside the box in regard to how they get around,” Nadorlik said. It’s also good PR. Talk about “thinking outside the box.”

Barb: This is hard to believe. A Johnstown man is facing charges of child endangerment and simple assault after he allegedly tied up his girlfriend’s 7-year-old son and hung him upside down from a ceiling. According to a court document, it took place after the man and the boy’s mother were summoned home by a baby-sitter, who reported that the boy had become combative. While the mother was driving the baby-sitter home, the man allegedly hit the boy’s head against a wall, tied his feet together with a belt and hung him from a hinge on a ceiling. The mother freed the child when she returned home, the police said. We’ll be watching as this case moves through the courts.

Laurel: Bob Snyder has spent 27 years as an assistant track coach for Windber Area High School. In that time, he’s helped develop a lot of youngsters, and we don’t just mean around the track. From what we’ve been told, he’s help a lot of athletes over the years, both on the track and off. He’s seen a lot of his proteges, some state champions, go on to compete in colleges and some go into coaching. Snyder called it quits last week after the state finals, after watching his daughter Sarah compete as a hurdler in her final meet. Her coach was her dad. No one, however, expects they’ve seen the last of Bob Snyder around the Windber track.

Barb: As area residents spent last week sprucing up cemeteries and loved-ones’ graves in anticipation of Memorial Day services, state police in Indiana County were called to the Uniontown Cemetery in Green Township. They found that 38 headstones had been pushed off their bases. It happened between May 21 and 23. What a sick act. Call the state police with any tips.

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