Up next on WCN 247, the DEP reveals what water wells and PA have gone bad because of
gas drilling.
Find out if any are in our backyard.
We take a look at taking out our frustration on pumpkins.
And we meet Westminster College star first year quarterback Paul Colombo.
Dan Swank is back in the Titan Radio Live Lounge and he has a guitar.
All this and more is coming next.
Hello and welcome to WCN 247.
I'm Amanda Sloan.
We're focused on the environment for this edition of WCN 247 from pumpkin smashing and
community gardens to fracking and poisoned wells.
We're covering your campus and your community.
A major energy company halted efforts to force Lawrence County property owners to accept
drilling under their land.
This summer Texas-based Hillcourt announced it wanted to move beyond fight with local
land owners and begin producing gas from fracking operations.
Hillcourt tried to use a 1961 state law to drill under the property owners in New Bedford.
Owners who refuse to sell the mineral rights, Hillcourt says it will drill around the property
owners who refuse to sign leases.
Hillcourt is drilling in a 3200 acre track of land in the New Bedford area.
In other fracking news, at least four local wells in the Lawrence County area are on the
list of wells poisoned by gas drilling.
This information released from the state environmental protection agency this fall.
Those local wells are in the Pulaski area.
The DEP says they have 243 confirmed cases of well contamination in the state related
to fracking since 2008.
The agency had fought not to release the list of wells until it was challenged by media
outlets.
The DEP decision to release info on how many private drinking wells have been impacted by
gas drilling comes six years now into the gas boom in PA.
Our Chris Robb is in WCN Studio A to break down three big things we should always keep
in mind when it comes to fracking.
Chris?
After years of delays and confusion, Pennsylvania released details of 243 cases of water pollution
caused by drilling.
Four of those are in Pulaski Township, here in Lawrence County.
We dug through that lengthy report, but even though the DEP is finally releasing numbers,
you should keep three big things in mind.
Number one, conventional drilling still pollutes.
Counties with the most drilling experience most of the problems.
At the same time, confirmed water contamination cases have dropped over time, from a high
of 43 cases that originated in 2010 to only four as of this point in 2014.
Number two, neighbors should test their water.
DEP officials want people to know homeowners with wells are at risk for more than methane
pollution from drilling.
Drilling sediment clouds people's tap water.
Impoundments leak toxic wastewater from the fracking process into nearby water supplies.
In some cases, the pollution was temporary and the water cleared on its own, but in others,
the agency required drillers to permanently replace ruined water supplies.
Number three, there are still plenty of unknowns.
The exact number of contamination cases is indeterminate.
The DEP's files are scattered across regional offices and the Associated Press described
the record keeping as inaccurate.
However, the agency says it will improve its organization.
And while lawmakers have worked to change the requirements for drillers to self-report
problems, there's no way to know about contamination that took place before the new state regulations.
Driller's stress the DEP's report fails to point out that some of the pollution on record
was only temporary.
I'm Chris Robb in Studio A for WCN.
Back to you, Amanda.
After Halloween is over, there are so many pumpkins that no one knows what to do with.
The Sierra Student Coalition at Westminster hosted a pumpkin smash.
WCN 247, Teran Sifantes-Lameen, is in Studio B to tell us about this interesting way to
take out our frustration.
Teran?
After Halloween is over, there are so many pumpkins that no one knows what to do with.
The Sierra Student Coalition at Westminster hosted a pumpkin smash.
What am I stressed on?
What am I stressed on?
Wondering what they do with all those smash pumpkins?
They send it to the field station to get mixed up and composted for the spring.
For WCN, I'm Teran Sifantes-Lameen.
Back to you, Amanda.
Westminster has a secret garden that not many know about.
It's a community garden dedicated to a former Westminster alumna that recently passed away.
Her mother met with Dr. Clarence Harms, Westminster's field station director, biology department
faculty and other Westminster representatives concerning an appropriate memorial.
Okay, there are 22 plots.
Typical plot would be about 15 feet by 30 feet.
So you're talking about 350 square feet, something like that.
Everybody's invited.
We have some from Sharon, mostly the Wilmington area, but I had somebody from Pittsburgh,
that when they found out that they would probably have to do more than just plant something.
In other words, weeds grow.
They decided it probably wasn't in there.
We would not oppose someone coming from any distance as long as they're sure they can
take care of it.
We don't want them to buy into something that's going to be a burden.
So anybody.
Neighbors.
A lot of neighbors here, Voland, New Wilmington, wherever.
Have equipment, rototellers, so when they start getting things ready in spring, we have
equipment for them to do it.
We have shovels, rakes, pitchforks, that kind of thing, and the little shed over there.
Each gardener gets a key to the shed where we keep the equipment so they can come in
anytime.
The water supplies, the dry season, they pull a hose to where they're watering.
The Westminster College Field Station dedicated the Margaret Meg Rankin Memorial Garden and
Nursery this past month.
Rankin, a 1986 Westminster alumna, was a 4th grade teacher in Rhode Island, and an outdoor
enthusiast and avid gardener.
She took her students outside the classroom as often as possible.
Last, last spring, the broadcasting and communications department at Westminster lost one of our students.
The late Paul Sammons, Paul was a senior comm major and was very active with Titan Radio
and the Westminster Cable Network.
Paul's classmates put together a remembrance video, and for the time, it will be aired.
Let's take a look.
One of our favorite memories was we actually came out here in the Quad, and for Weaver's
Vineyard Production class, we had to do the Frisbee exercise.
So Paul was my partner, and that was a lot of fun.
It was a lot of fun to just get to know him as a friend and as a student.
My members are Paul.
He was a very good guy to talk to.
Every time he was in here, he always had a smile on his face, very, very genuine, very
hard-working, and I never had a dull moment with him when I was in here.
It was just a pleasure to be around and a pleasure to work with.
The way that he carried himself was outstanding.
He always had a way of, you know, asking questions and something that we always kind
of are annoyed by when we go to classes and stuff like that, and we always, you know,
want to just get out of there, but not Paul.
Paul always wanted to be there, and he never took a time for granted.
Up next on WCN 247, we take a look at first-year star quarterback Paul Colombo.
One swing, serenades us with his guitar and voice.
More to come on WCN 247.
Here's a place where the music never stops, where you can tune in day and night, commercial
free, Titan Radio 88.9.
When I first came to college, I knew that I wanted to study chemistry, and at Westminster,
I get to do it every day.
For my senior project, I produced an inorganic compound so I could study the positions of
its atoms.
Being in a small class let me work one-on-one with my professor, I've learned so much from
Dr. Smith.
Thanks to him, I'm doing research that's never been done before.
Westminster College helped me pursue my passion.
Pursue your passion at Westminster College.
It's just one embarrassing picture, an angry rant, or a little bit of gossip, but then others
see it.
They share what you started.
It's all out there, forever, and it's too late to take it back.
Kelly.
Huh?
What were you saying about Amanda and Steve?
Oh, nothing.
Just some dumb rumor I saw online.
It was probably fake.
So, what about Mr. Frisco's test yesterday?
Oh, my God.
Stop cyber-bullying before it starts.
Think before you post.
The Westminster Titan football team has seen many new faces this season.
One in particular seems to stand out.
First-year star quarterback Paul Columbo has had a record-breaking season.
Just recently, Columbo broke the school record for longest run by a quarterback.
He also broke the school record for all-time longest run by any position, with his 96-yard
touchdown run.
I sat down with Paulie football and learned more about his passion for the game.
Are you ready?
The Westminster football team has seen many new faces this season.
One in particular seems to stand out.
Freshman quarterback Paul Columbo is your typical freshman, except for the small fact
that he calls West Palm Beach in Florida his home.
One might wonder how he found the small town in New Wilmington, PA.
The coaches had a recruiting fair down in Florida this year and it was a lot of small
colleges and they did a really good job of attracting five or six of us from the area
and they brought us up here on visits and it was really nice and I really liked the
campus and the football team and where I could see it heading and it was a pretty easy decision.
It can't be easy being so far away from home.
It may be a hard adjustment for Paul going from seeing his family every day to a couple
times a semester, but there is a positive being so far away from home.
I'm really close with my family, we're a really close family so it's hard but I think it will
make it appreciate when I'm down there for winter break a little more and it makes me
appreciate them a little more seeing when I'm with them every day but it's definitely hard
and it's going to take some getting used to.
As if sending your child to college isn't hard enough, imagine sending them across the
country.
My mom, she always sends me texts like call me, call me, so yeah, I call my mom and my
dad usually every night.
Although he may not have blood relatives here in New Wilmington, his football team seems
to have taken that role.
They're definitely, they're my family away from home, so it's nice always having someone
to talk to and friends to be around, so I guess that's a good thing.
Paul doesn't play the only role as a freshman from Florida, the Westminster College football
team has welcomed multiple student athletes from Florida to the field, giving each other
all comfort knowing someone from their home state.
They're so far away from home that we all kind of feel the same way, but I have a lot
of other friends I can go to, but we all have that same, that same situation kind of stuff.
The love of the game helps Paul get through those rough days, making it all seem worthwhile.
Just something that I don't get sick of and I could be having a bad day and when I step
out there I really enjoy it and I love it and I can't see myself doing anything else.
I'm Amanda Sloan for Titan Town Sports.
Westminster College has announced the addition of Men's Lacrosse as a varsity sport for the
2015-2016 academic year.
The addition of Men's Lacrosse increases the number of Westminster varsity sports to 21.
Men's Lacrosse will be a spring sport.
I talked with Jim Daffler about the future of Lacrosse here at Westminster.
Us has been here for a couple years as a club sport, how do they become a varsity sport?
This has been a decision that's come from primarily from President's Cabinet and the
Board of Trustees based upon enrollment, trying to increase our enrollment and so the decision
was let's go ahead and elevate Men's Lacrosse at this point to varsity status.
We've had a club program and so now we want to take that next step.
Cross coming here, are there any coaches in mind for next season?
We have put out a job posting nationally through NCAA and other sites, advertising the position
of Men's Lacrosse coach, full-time position at Westminster, starting this year with the
idea of bringing someone in here, hopefully perhaps by the start of the second semester,
so that they can do some recruiting since we want to field a team next year.
It's critical that we get a coach here on campus recruiting for next year.
I think this is really an enrollment-driven decision in a lot of ways.
We have had some interest in Lacrosse from students here on campus, but I think the big
issue here is that with some declines in enrollment, the college is looking for ways to increase
enrollment and one way is to do that is through athletics and Lacrosse is a sport that is
very popular in the East, it's very popular, it's growing in popularity in areas like Pittsburgh
and in Cleveland and in Columbus, areas where we do some recruiting, we like to do some
more recruiting, and certainly it gives us the opportunity to bring students to campus
who otherwise wouldn't look at Westminster because we didn't offer a Lacrosse varsity
program.
The first year that we're in the league, we will be members of the Ohio River Lacrosse
Conference.
Now, when either one of those conferences gets to seven schools themselves, then that
conference will dissolve.
So once we get to that critical number of seven in the PAC, which we think will occur,
then it'll just be a PAC sport just like all of our other sports.
Westminster is looking forward to adding women's Lacrosse as a varsity sport in the near future.
At this time, women's Lacrosse remains a club sport.
The Westminster men's and women's basketball teams begin their 2014-2015 season this weekend.
The women travel out of state for their tip-off tournament at Frostburg State Saturday.
Assistant coach Jamie Thiem tells us their plan of action for this weekend and just what
the season is looking like.
I think the majority of our preparation is we're focusing mostly on defense and communication.
I think defense with a young team that we have coming in this year, we have a couple
starters coming back, you know, a big group of freshmen.
Defense is definitely the way that we're going.
We're not so worried about our offense as much as we are concentrating on our defense
because we all know that's what Coach Scott loves about playing basketball is the defense
event.
With any freshman group, you always have a struggle with the change of speed from high
school to college.
High school is a lot different than college.
There's a speed changes drastically even to division three where we play.
But I think this group of freshmen is definitely translating that in.
There's obviously a big learning curve throughout it, learning a new system offensively and
defensively where these kids come from.
But I think overall this group of freshmen has definitely come a long way in the last
however many days, 20 something days that we've been practicing.
So we're really looking forward to getting into this weekend to see exactly how that
translates over.
Our outlook, you know, is different from past years.
In the past we've had a big group of upperclassmen with a lot of experience.
In the past two years we've graduated eight seniors and a lot of them have either started
all four years or they've at least started majority of their career and taken up a lot
of minutes.
So coming in this year, we still have high expectations once again, you know, coming
off of a 15 win season last year.
We're looking to build on that.
We're not looking to rebuild.
We're looking to keep building on that success from the past.
And you know, we're just trying to put everything together, you know.
The men's basketball team stays at home this weekend for their annual buzz riddle tip off
tournament.
Their debut is Saturday night against Kenyon at eight and play against Sunday at four against
Penn State Beaver.
Team head coach Kevin Seroke tells us what we can expect from these matchups.
Still young.
Yeah.
So we're, again, we only have one junior academically, I mean, and then not academic,
but athletically, then we have, you know, seven sophomores and 13 new guys, which will
be, you know, which 11 are freshmen.
So we're still trying to figure out who can play and who can't play and still trying to
piece the team together.
You know, it's a little different, obviously.
The first thing was in the weight room, you know, they, some guys have never lived their
weight in their lives.
So they've, you know, learned the techniques and different things like it.
So guys just on our strong, you know, freshmen coming in just on our strong as the guys who
came back.
And then, but they're learning.
And I think on the basketball court again, they're trying to find a, learn a new system
and learn players, new guys who we're playing with as well.
So it's all learning process for them as well.
But Jesse is going to be a good player for us, you know, again, you know, he's a freshman
too.
So he's thought of learning ropes.
You know, we're hoping big things from Jesse, but, you know, again, you know, we're still
having four years down the line from here, you know, I mean, I know he's battled back.
He's battled back for, you know, he's got his surgery already, so he'll be ready to
go next year.
Well, you know, I like to tell a lot of people is this is that, you know, we try to get some
film on, on Kenyon and, you know, obviously we're not getting a lot of film because they
haven't played and we haven't played, but talking to other coaches and they were a very
good team last year.
They didn't lose a lot, but we can't worry about them.
We got to worry about ourselves.
You know, we weren't, you know, obviously we didn't have, you know, the season we wanted
last year, but we were young again, but we'll, we got to worry about ourselves and we're
going to, you know, take one step at a time.
Coming up next on WCN 247, our very own Dan Swank is in the Titan Radio Live Lounge.
When I first came to college, I knew that I wanted to study chemistry and at Westminster,
I get to do it every day.
For my senior project, I produced an inorganic compound so I could study the positions of
its atoms.
Being in a small class, let me work one-on-one with my professor.
I've learned so much from Dr. Smith.
Thanks to him, I'm doing research that's never been done before.
Westminster College helped me pursue my passion.
To your passion at Westminster College.
It's just one embarrassing picture, an angry rant or a little bit of gossip, but then others
see it.
They share what you started, it's all out there forever, and it's too late to take
it back.
Kelly.
Huh?
What were you saying about Amanda and Steve?
Oh, nothing.
Just some dumb rumor I saw online, it was probably fake.
So what about Mr. Frisco's test yesterday?
Oh my god.
Stop cyber-bullying before it starts.
Think before you post.
I'm not a frat boy.
I'm a student.
I'm an athlete.
I'm a performer.
I'm a leader.
I work hard in the classroom.
In the library.
And in the lab.
I dominate on the field.
On the court.
And in the pool.
I stand out on stage.
In the studio.
And everywhere else.
I lead by example.
On my campus.
And in my community.
I'm a fraternity man.
And I am a Theta Kai.
I am a Theta Kai.
I am a Theta Kai.
I am a Theta Kai.
I am a Theta Kai.
I am a Theta Kai.
I am a Theta Kai.
I am a Theta Kai.
I am a Theta Kai.
We are Theta Kai.
College Emmy Winner.
Television Academy is award for Outstanding Documentary.
For Best Television Special.
CBI Winner for Best TV Reporting.
CBI Winner for Best TV Public Service Announcement.
VEA Special Recognition for Outstanding Cinematography.
Best Television Promo.
Festival of Media Arts Award for Best Music Video.
Best TV Feature Reporting.
Recognized for Excellence.
Broadcast and Digital Communications at Westminster College.
Proud of our students.
And proud of our graduates.
WCProud.com.
In our last episode, we premiered a new segment called the Titan Radio Live Lounge.
After an awesome performance, we invited Dance Wing back to play his new single,
Myself and My Song.
I hope you have a wonderful life.
Everything you wanted it to be.
It's been some time since our falling out.
I'd like to think we both moved on by now.
But if you have not come back in a year,
Myself and My Song will still be here.
I hope you get a nice getaway.
It's a pair of sort of friends I don't care.
Whatever helps you see the time heals everything.
Whatever makes you unmet me.
Cause it hurts when things are wrong.
But we can talk cause we have both moved on.
So better things at night won't stay for long.
They're just enough to show you Myself and My Song.
Ta-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
I hope you have a wonderful life.
With a husband or if you think that way, a wife.
White picket fence and a three bedroom home.
With granite countertops so you never feel alone.
Never feel alone.
Never feel alone.
Never feel alone.
Cause it hurts when things are wrong.
But we can talk cause we have both moved on.
So better things at night won't stay for long.
They're just enough to show you Myself cause it hurts when things are wrong.
But we can talk cause we have both moved on.
So better things at night won't stay for long.
Thanks for watching this edition of WCN 247.
Tell your friends, watch us online.
For Myself and the rest of the crew, thanks for watching.
I hope you have a wonderful life.
Everything you wanted it to be.
It's been some time since our falling out.
And I'd like to think we both moved on.
