Down River

By John Lipez

The Little Hospital that Could:
The subtitle for this one could just as well be: South Renovo 1, Lock Haven 0.

It’s Clinton County’s biggest upset since Bullhead Saltsman’s Shot Heard Round the World, back in February of 1961 when the Renovo Railroaders stunned Lock Haven High for the Central State League basketball title.

This time the category is health care and the storyline is that while UPMC Lock Haven is in the process of sadly shedding its better than century long designation as a hospital, the relatively tiny Bucktail Medical Center in tiny South Renovo continues to truck along, as a hospital providing much needed health care services to western Clinton County.

You can read about the better than $1 million in improvements in the offing at Bucktail Medical Center on the front page of The Record this week. A major component is the medical center stepping in to prevent any void in ambulance service in the Renovo area. With an aging, shrinking population in the western end of the county, it’s been getting more difficult to keep EMS service afloat. Kudos to the medical center for its expansion into the ambulance field.

The medical center story is a remarkable one. It was not all that long ago the BMC was ensnared in bankruptcy, its future in doubt. But since Tim Reeves came on board, the hospital has continued to stay afloat and the current million dollars in improvements is a positive sign.

There are no guarantees in the world of health care (Lock Haven once had two hospitals, now its approaching zero). So let’s hear it for the hardy team that won’t give up, at the Bucktail Medical Center, the little hospital that could.

*****
A Day on Cresson Mountain:
Saturday was quite the day in the athletic annals of Central Mountain High School’s couple decade history. And through some quirk in scheduling, Down River got to observe this record-breaking day.

Congratulations to the Central Mountain boys’ basketball team for its second straight District 6 title, earned Saturday afternoon at Mount Aloysius College in Cresson, Cambria County. And congrats to the Central Mountain wrestling team which Saturday night brought home the PIAA Northwestern Regional championship at the Altoona High School Field House in Altoona, Blair County, this after earning the district title a week earlier.

Therecord-online, ever expanding its streaming efforts for the community, was able to provide audio/video coverage (free, we might note) of both the scheduled 3 p.m. hoops contest and the 5:30 p.m. wrestling finals.

And Down River was able to cover both! The wrestling semifinal round ended around 2 p.m. Saturday so, microphone in hand, it was out the field house door and up Route 22 and the Cresson Mountain to Mount Aloysius, arriving just as an earlier girls’ championship game was winding down. As a result, the boys title game didn’t start until closer to 3:30 but since they don’t call fouls like they used to, the Wildcat win didn’t take long and ended shortly after 4:30 p.m.

Again, microphone in hand, it was back through Cresson (driving underneath a Norfolk-Southern bridge carrying the beleaguered railroad’s main PA line through the heart of town), up the hill to the Cresson Summit, then down 22 and back to the field house, arriving just in time for the finals. Two key members of Team Frank (Clinta and Eric) were close behind, bringing their videography gear with them to the field house for the wrestling.

We all made it in time while Michael Frank and Tom Elling kept things under control at the wrestling venue until we got there.

And you may or may not know, but it’s 18 miles from Altoona to Cresson (pretty much straight up) and as the crow flies, 11 miles.