We recently received a message from John Siepierski, a guitarist and the fiddler for a new local band called ‘DANK’. DANK plays several different genres of music including alternative rock, indie, and New England traditional dance music.

DANK has been scheduled to play First Night Bradford. As a late addition to the First Night line-up, they won’t appear on the printed schedule. They’re scheduled to perform at Emery Towers at 10:30 pm. DANK will be playing traditional Irish and French-Canadian music on fiddle, guitar, electric bass, and various percussion. The band brings modern and main stream influences into a traditional performances.

DANK’s members are all local to Bradford. They include John Siepierski on fiddle, Brian Thompson on guitar and vocals, and Jay Ervin on percussion.

You can find more information at the band’s web site: http://www.dank-music.com

Bradford Regional Strategy

is the process of hammering out a development plan for Bradford and the surrounding area. In addition to the 100 local residents involved on committees, the consultants invite public input via their web site.

So far, topics for discussion include Bradford’s strengths and weaknesses. Read the information directly from the researchers and consultants. You can read the minutes of each interview session as they talked to local students, township commissioners, realtors, and others. Voice your opinion. Give your two cents about the direction Bradford should take, or how to get where we need to go.

The web site has an in-depth analysis of economic data for McKean County and the 8 counties immediately surrounding it. The study compares local and regional data with national and state averages. It identifies what we have, what we’re short on, and what we’re totally missing to grow now and in the future.

The analysis itself is interesting, and breaks the economic picture into several views. Almost 50% of the region’s economic output is from manufacturing. In McKean County, Forest, wood, and wood related products provide 1,174 jobs. Healthcare and healthcare related industries provide 1,866 jobs in the county.

You can also read some ideas on the subject here.

From their “About Us” page:

The Master Planning Process:

1 – All three municipalities – The City of Bradford, Bradford Township and Foster Township – have agreed to participate in and support this effort.

2 – There are four main committees made up of nearly 100 involved residents:

- Steering Committee

- Downtown Strategy and Regional Business Subcommittee

- Zoning Subcommittee

- Economic Development Subcommittee

3 – There are plans to hold at least two Town Meetings during the process that will be open to the public. Ideas will be presented and input will be solicited from community members.

4 – The planning team will be meeting with government officials not specifically sitting on plan committees during the process to keep them informed.

5 – The planning team make-up:

MacLachlan, Cornelius & Filoni Architects – Albert Filoni, Kenneth Lee, Amy Maceyko

Impact Economics – Simon Tripp

Zoning/Planning – Roberta Sarraf, AICP

6 – Meeting minutes, reports and other documents will be posted to this website throughout the process for public consumption and comment over the course of the next year.

McKean County is part of the Allegheny GeoTrail.

What Is a Geocaching Trail?

A geocaching trail is simply a series of geocaches tied together by a common theme. There is not necessarily an itinerary, as we would think of a traditional trail, but rather a series of points of interest in a sort of self-guided goal-oriented plan. The Allegheny GeoTrail is perhaps the largest of its kind, encompassing ten counties throughout northwestern and north-central Pennsylvania. Within each county are between 10 and 20 designated geocaches which make up the “trail”. The quest to find these caches will take participants throughout the rugged and scenic land of the Allegheny National Forest and its surrounding gateway counties.

Visit the Allegheny GeoTrail site for more details.

For those of us watching the foliage, the peak season is still a little way off. Watching the leaves change as they head toward full color has been especially nice this year, because of all the clear blue skies and bright sun.

The lack of rain has its downside too, as peak foliage will probably be bright, but brief. Leaf peepers might not the famous vistas you see on postcards, but individual trees will still provide spectacular shots.

Predictions about the percentage of leaves that have turned and when peak foliage will appear is the subject of some discussion on Talk About Bradford.

Other sites like FallinPA.com or VisitPA.com provide some good information too.

Things that go bump in the night, ghosts and ghouls will be the focal point of messages presented this month at Open Arms Community Church in Bradford.

The church is launching a series called “Supernatural: The DARK SIDE of Spirituality,” touching on a topic rarely discussed in churches.

“I’m really excited about the idea of addressing the issues of ghosts, demons, psychics, mediums, and so on.,” said Pastor Mike McAvoy. “We need to talk openly about these issues without always coming across critical and judgmental. I’m even more excited to discuss the power of God and the spiritual experiences we’re to have with him”

Many people are intrigued by the television shows about the paranormal and supernatural. McAvoy said he hopes to tap into God’s perspective with the messages, subjects ranging from ghosts, psychics, witchcraft, and other paranormal phenomenon.

“So many people have supernatural experiences but question the source and the long term effect,” he said. “We’re looking to see what the Bible says regarding how to discern the source accurately, what are the effects, how to face negative spiritual experiences, and how to experience positive spiritual experiences.”

Church services are held 5:30 p.m. Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sundays. The message may also be downloaded from the Open Arms Community Church website at openarmsbradford.org.

For more information, or Soundbytes, contact Josh Hatcher:
814-362-2813 cell: 814-331-1721 .

Talk About Bradford is back up and running.

For those of you that don’t know what “TAB” is, it is our virtual community, or discussion forum. It’s sort of like the old general store cracker-barrel. Hang around, listen to what’s going on, speak your piece if you have something to say. It’s also a good place to ask questions if you want to know about Bradford, PA.

Anyone can look to see what people are talking about. The sidebar on this page has an RSS feed listing the latest TAB posts. If you want to join the discussion, registration is free. It just helps us keep the discussion on track and prevents spammers from ruining things.

Our good friend Jason acted as administrator for a while while he upgraded and tuned the forum software. Thank-you Jason! TAB now has three moderators, Laura, Nic, and Spider. They run things on a day-to-day basis, and are tasked with enforcing the rules. Take a moment to check out Talk About Bradford.

Many people are starting to notice that TalkAboutBradford.com has been closed (again). The truth is, it’s very difficult to provide a forum for free speech without exposing one’s self to a lot of liability. A lot of patience and work is involved in keeping a virtual community both civil and interesting. Forget about making money, it needs to be a labor of love.

That said, a virtual community is a nice thing to have. Sort of like the old barber shop, or the cracker barrel at the general store. People can gather to gab, say their piece, or just listen to catch up on what’s happening. If you plan to start another Bradford-related forum, please let us know, so we can post it here.