Down River
Kicking Tires
By John Lipez
Kicking Tires:
Here’s one that doesn’t fit the definition of a news story just yet but makes for a nice little lead item for a column, something appropriate to Down River.
We know that Wawa is making incursions into our part of the state, plans announced in March of this year for the first such convenience store in Centre County. News at the time said the store is planned along Benner Pike, pretty much right across the street from convenience store rival Sheetz (and just down the State College – Bellefonte connector road from another aggressive convenience store player in Rutter’s)..
That March news said that while Wawa has been putting new shops up and down the East Coast, the one in Centre County and one announced for the Harrisburg area would mark a further westward march in Pennsylvania, previously venturing no further west than Lancaster County.
And now we’ve learned that Wawa is looking at a possible location in Clinton County, the former Aungst’s/Creekside Restaurant site where Route 64 empties onto Route 150, right across from Peters Marine Center.
People who know about these things say Wawa reps are “just kicking tires” at this point so we’ll see if it comes to fruition. There are flood plain and traffic access issues to be resolved, it is understood. But Down River has seen a detailed schematic for a convenience store at the site; inquiries have been made to determine if there is accessible public water sufficient for such a store; and a Mechanicsburg area company was in front of the old restaurant last Friday, drilling for core samples.
Add it all up and Wawa just might be jumping into the Mill Hall area to challenge the Sheetz just down Hogan Boulevard; stay tuned.
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Have Foot, Will Travel:
NFL camps are just kicking in for the 2023 season getting closer every day, but one of the league’s top kickers is currently without work.
As of Record press time, Clinton County’s very own Robbie Gould is without a contract, not returning to San Francisco after six solid years with the 49ers.
Football fans locally fondly recall that Gould was a good kicker at Central Mountain High School, a better kicker at Penn State, and then an all-pro kicker in his 18 years in the NFL.
Locals are familiar with the great Gould story. He was a walk-on at Penn State but earned a scholarship and was a reliable if not perfect kicker for the late coach Joe Paterno.
It was in the NFL where Gould got his chance and has gone on to become one of the most reliable kickers in NFL history. Here’s a small sample:
•Ninth all time in NFL field goals, making 447 of 517 (along with 620 of 636 extra points)
•All-time leading scorer with the Chicago Bears while there from 2005 to 2015
•Has earned $47.8 million in his 18-year career
He has put up Hall of Fame numbers but Robbie, now age 40, is not ready to let go. As he told a Bay area news organization when he became an unrestricted free agent in March, “I’m nowhere near retiring. I got a lot left to do from a career perspective — No. 1 being winning a Super Bowl. And, two, I’m pretty close to a lot of milestones I think would be pretty neat to be able to accomplish.”
More recently, Gould told NBC Sports Bay Area, “I know training camp is coming up and I’m ready for the next opportunity. And I’m sure these teams will give these young kids a chance and find out who has a chance to compete. I think things will get a lot more serious. But, yeah, I’m ready to go and looking forward to next season.”
Sometime between now and the September start of the NFL season, you can bet someone will give Robbie Gould a call. And if his previous 18 years in the pros are any indication, he’ll do really well with his new team.
(And this column would be remiss if mention was not made of the hundreds of thousands of dollars Robbie has donated to charities throughout his professional career, including to multiple organizations here in Clinton County; a winner on and off the field in every sense of the word!).
