At yesterday’s meeting of the Mifflin County Regional Police Board, Sergeant Andre French was promoted to the position of Chief of Police, effective immediately.  The board also announced the retirements of Chief Scott Mauery, with 25 years of service, and Corporal Robert Whisler, with 24 years of service.

Landline Telephone service was restored to parts of several counties yesterday after a two-hour outage.  Service was restored at 10:00 am to parts of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry and Snyder Counties.  Some CenturyLink customers were without landline telephone and landline-based 911 service.  The outage began at about 8:00 am.  Damage to a fiber telephone link most likely in the Perry or Cumberland County areas was believed to be the cause.

A traffic stop earlier this week in Huntingdon County resulted in the arrest of a Philadelphia man.  According to State Police, 50-year-old Marcus Jones was stopped for a summary violation Monday evening on William Penn Highway in Porter Township.  Jones provided false information and fled the scene.  He was taken into custody after a brief foot pursuit.  Jones had several warrants out of Philadelphia.  Charges were filed through District Court.

The Pennsylvania Senate has approved a bill that would allow temporary nurse aides hired during the COVID-19 emergency declaration to receive certification to continue working in the field.  At the outset of the pandemic, Pennsylvania authorized individuals to be hired as nurse aides on a temporary basis after they completed an approved 8-hour online training and passed a preliminary examination. Under current law, these individuals will no longer be able to work as nurse aides once these temporary provisions expire.

Senate Bill 1268, sponsored by Senator Judy Ward (R-30), would amend the law to deem temporary nurse aides hired during the emergency declaration to have satisfied the necessary training and testing requirements to be certified on a permanent basis.  Candidates would be required to complete the online training program and competency assessment, and meet other certification requirements.

The American Red Cross bloodmobile will be in Juniata County today.  You can give the “Gift of Life” at the Thompsontown Ambulance League on State Street in Thompsontown from 1:00 pm to 6:30 pm.