David Caldwell's weekly roundup
of news affecting Blacklick Valley

Closing final

Apparently, the last down in a roller coaster ride filled with emotional ups and downs for local Kmart employees and loyal customers came yesterday when the store announced from its Troy, Michigan headquarters that in spite of thousands of petition signatures and telephone calls the Kmart store located in the former Richland Mall will close on May 11 as previously announced. Store officials noted that a court ruling against their petition to be part of the new developers' plan for the site was thrown out. Customers loyal to Kmart will now have to travel to Altoona or Indiana to shop. The company told the 95 employees that they could apply for jobs at other Kmart stores. Not many employees see that as an option since the two closest stores have only part-time positions available.

Hospital competition

With Lee Regional Medical Center and Memorial Medical Center available to local residents, the medical care available to Cambria and surrounding counties is equivalent to that of many large cities. Although, these two institutions offer patients choices of doctors, according to a series of articles in the Tribune-Democrat this week, the competition isn't necessarily a good thing for the patients or the region. Duplication of services and the high cost of medical machines and procedures drive up the cost of health care and insurance. To make the machines pay for themselves they have to be used so there is always the temptation for doctors to order unnecessary tests, especially since many doctors now are actually employees of the hospitals. Until 1996, Pennsylvania had a policy called Certificate of Need whereby a local hospital would have to prove a need before expanding or purchasing costly medical equipment. The policy was abandoned in 1996 because it was fraught with too many political pitfalls. Since then, the two hospitals in Johnstown have been engaged in a desperate competition to out-do one another. This has brought excellent medical facilities and care to the region but the thrust of the articles is that this excellent care has come at a much higher cost than would have been incurred had the hospitals cooperated and eliminated duplicate services.

This week

The weather for the Blacklick Valley began this week with cold mornings with single digit temperatures that rose into the 40s on Wednesday and promises of even higher temperatures for the weekend. Sunday may get up to 60 degrees or higher. Another positive note this week was a drop in the price of gas at Sheetz from a mid week high of $1.65 to $1.59 yesterday. High gas prices are a concern to everyone who travels any distance but is of special concern to those whose mileage reimbursement when they use their vehicle for employment is a fixed figure. Each price increase in the cost of gas becomes a decrease in pay.

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