Silas here. Monday morning. Feathers wet. Coffee black. Let’s run it.
Jackson Township, Cambria County — zoning board hearing tonight at the fire hall on Adams Avenue. Robindale Energy out of Latrobe wants to strip mine wooded land owned by the Greater Johnstown Water Authority. Township already said no — strip mining’s not allowed under their zoning. Robindale’s appealing. Residents say they haven’t been told much and they’re not happy about it.
Blair Township — Water and Sewer Authority voted to keep the Reservoir Road sewer project moving. They’re staring down $2.5 million in ARPA money and $3.8 million in CDBG funding that disappears if they don’t use it by September 30. ARPA dollars getting redirected to Penn Farm area sewer line replacements. Federal money on the table, clock running.
Blair County Prison — former inmate Travis McClure filed a federal civil rights lawsuit. Says corrections officers directed six inmates to beat him in August 2025. Broken nose, eye socket, jaw. Says he waited forty hours for a hospital. Lawsuit describes historic dangerous conditions at the facility.
Franklin County — Commissioners proposing an ordinance to regulate data center development. Public hearing April 28. Chairman Dean Horst says they have serious concerns about what data centers could do to communities, farmland, and natural resources. County’s already getting squeezed by tariffs on the ag side. They’re trying to get ahead of the next squeeze before it arrives.
Hamilton Township, Franklin County — a 20-year-old construction worker named Dalen Martin from Smithsburg, Maryland, was killed April 2 in a trench collapse on Clover Drive. State police identified him Monday. OSHA has been contacted. A kid went to work and didn’t come home. Somebody owes his family answers about whether trench safety protocols were followed.
Chambersburg — ten people injured Saturday night in a five-vehicle crash on Lincoln Way East. EMS from Fayetteville, Chambersburg, Marion, Mont Alto, and WellSpan all responded.
Cambria County — county just designated 300 acres as a Keystone Opportunities Zone. Forty in Johnstown, 260 across the rest of the county. New businesses won’t pay state taxes. Unlike most KOZs, local municipalities don’t have to waive local taxes either. Mixed-use buildings — shops on the bottom, apartments on top — already being discussed. Boundaries not drawn yet. Johnstown still needs a grocery store. Draw the lines.
Richland Township — Humane Society of Cambria County named Carrie Betz as new director. Organization just got approval to buy a 12-acre site on Jari Drive for a new facility. Doubles their capacity. Medical suite, education center, the works. Groundbreaking this fall. Fifty years, 138,000 adoptions, and they outgrew the building. That’s a good problem to have.
Wind farms — two more windmill blade superloads rolled through Somerset and Cambria counties Monday on U.S. 219, headed for the Highland North Wind Farm near Beaverdale. These deliveries have been running since February through Bedford, Blair, Somerset, and Cambria. Energy infrastructure being built in PA-13 right now. The blades are literally driving through the district. Worth asking who voted for the policies that brought them here and who voted against.
I-99, Blair County — lane restrictions started today between mile markers 22 and 26. Part of a $24 million paving and bridge rehab project that runs through June 2028. PennDOT also holding a public meeting April 21 at the Altoona Training Facility for four bridge projects — Meadow Street, 13th Street, Tyrone Township, Greenfield Township. If you drive over them, show up.
Rockwood, Somerset County — Main Street streetscape improvements through April 10. New sidewalks, curbing, ADA ramps between Chestnut and Rock streets. $722,000 project. Small town. Small project. Matters to the people walking on it.
Juniata Valley — trout season opened Saturday and the valley showed up. Over three million adult trout stocked statewide. Mifflin County’s Towpath Naturalist Society announced Birdsong Bingo — learn to name the bird that’s been yelling at you from the maple tree. Eleven Juniata Valley student musicians advanced to regional PMEA band competition.
Juniata County — Commissioners meet today at 10 a.m. March 31 meeting was canceled.
Gettysburg — Historic Gettysburg Adams County rolled out the 2026 calendar. Architectural Salvage Warehouse reopened April 4. Speaker series starts April 16. Underground Railroad tours every Saturday, May through August. Film Festival wrapped last weekend with a Revolutionary War and 250th anniversary theme. Gettysburg isn’t just 1863.
That’s the wire. Twelve counties. One morning. If you want the source links for any of these stories, follow the District 13 Raven on Facebook — every article, every link, posted as they break. That’s where the scroll unrolls.
📍 PA-13. All of it. Every day.
