The fire at Five10 Flats in the 500 block of East Third Street displaced more than 100 residents and closed the entire structure for several months.

“Bethlehem police detectives met with the Northampton County district attorney’s office to discuss the facts of the case,” spokesperson Capt. William Audelo said recently. “It was advised criminal charges would not be recommended. Therefore, no charges were filed.”

Started by “improperly discarded smoking materials” on the rooftop deck, the fire spread due to high winds and caused extensive roof, smoke and water damage, officials said shortly after the May 2 blaze. The community held fundraisers to support the displaced renters.

Repairs have been underway and are expected to wrap up soon. Callahan, a former Bethlehem mayor, recently said officials plan to resume renting apartments Feb. 1, with a goal to have the entire building completed around April 30 for residential occupancy.

Of the first-floor commercial spaces, Mexican restaurant El Jefe’s Taqueria reopened in late August. Callahan said Mr. Lee’s Noodles could open early in 2026.

A coffee shop is expected to replace the Starbucks, Callahan said, with plans also to add a food spot at the former HandHeldz, which closed in 2024, before the fire.

The building, which includes 95 apartments at 510 E. Third St., was quickly evacuated and no one was hurt in the fire. Nearly 90 firefighters from the city and several regional departments battled the four-alarm blaze, which was fanned by the high wind.

Watch video below:

Peeps chick drop rings in 2026 at PeepsFest in Bethlehem | PHOTOS

Bilal’s Breakfast & Sandwiches, which opened in the spot formerly occupied by Darto’s at 46 W. North St., closed earlier this month, according to manager Server Candir. During its operating hours Monday afternoon, the restaurant had a “Sorry We’re Closed” sign in the window, and its listing on Google says the restaurant is permanently closed. Phone calls to the restaurant were unanswered during operating hours.

There was no mention of the closure on the restaurant’s social media pages or website, although its Instagram profile was no longer available. Owner Bilal Bozkoc could not be reached for comment.

The restaurant opened in May and served a similar breakfast menu as Darto’s, alongside Mediterranean-style dishes.

Darto’s closed in March after operating for more than 30 years. It opened in 1984 under the family of Mike and Mary Lou Dartouzos.

The 4-foot, 9-inch, 400-pound fiberglass chick will drop all over again Wednesday evening at the family-friendly New Year’s Eve celebration.

See photos below.

In 2025, the Lehigh Valley’s biggest commercial deal involved something that could very much be part of its future. Ironically, the land was a part of its industrial past.

Those driving on Route 222 on the very western edge of the Valley in Upper Macungie Township may have noticed a series of industrial buildings sitting on top of a hill overlooking vineyards, farms and the Premise Made chocolate and ice cream shop.

The signs on the highway, just as you’re getting ready to enter the new roundabout with Schantz Road, indicate that the buildings make up Tek Park and it houses a few businesses. That 137-acre complex was sold in October to a company that wants to expand its data center on the land.

It is one of numerous Lehigh Valley data center projects being discussed at planning meetings or on the drawing board.

The Tek Park deal was one of several multimillion dollar deals in the Valley this past year. And, yes, warehouses were involved, too.

Don Cunningham, president and CEO of Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp., said the commercial real estate market continued to rise through the year.

“The commercial real estate market remains strong in the Lehigh Valley,” Cunningham said. “The number of development projects in 2025 was a little higher than the previous year and property values remain high. Despite some upheaval around trade and tariffs, project activity was strong and we saw growth in major strategic sectors like manufacturing and the life sciences.”

Here are some of the more notable commercial real estate transactions during the year:

9999 Hamilton Blvd., Upper Macungie Township

Price: $175 million

Buyer: Tierpoint LLC

Seller: Hamilton Tek Partners LP

Background: TierPoint completed the acquisition of the nine-building, 137-acre complex in October. The St. Louis company was already leasing a building at Tek Park for a data center, which the company said is its largest.

TierPoint said it has started a 100-megawatt power expansion that it expects to complete in the second half of 2026. TierPoint clients at Tek Park include large technology service providers that are using advanced cooling solutions in support of artificial intelligence and other compute-intensive workloads.

TierPoint told LVEDC that it could add up to 100 jobs. The expansion project, including work on the utility substation, could support an estimated 350 or more construction and engineering jobs.

Tek Park was opened by AT&T in 1987 as a Bell Labs research center. Other current tenants include Aesculap Biologics and Aesculap Implant Systems, members of the B. Braun family of companies.

A data center company bought a Lehigh Valley industrial park for $175 million, plans expansion

4728 E. Valley Road, Upper Saucon Township

Price: $150 million

Buyer: Lehigh E Valley RD Ind Owner LLC

Seller: Kay-Lehigh LLC

Background: Lehigh County property records show the 118-acre parcel along East Valley Road was sold in September to a limited liability company in Clayton, Missouri, owned by Panattoni Development.

Panattoni describes itself as “one of the largest privately held, full-service real estate development companies in the world” on its website.

Upper Saucon Manager Thomas Beil said the township has already approved the 309 Commerce Center, a complex consisting of three warehouses totaling 1.77 million square feet. The land is near Route 309 and Center Valley Parkway.

Beil said dirt is already being moved for the project.

Land on Route 309 in Lehigh County slated for 3 warehouses is sold for $150 million

4700 Bath Pike, Hanover Township, Northampton County

Price: $35.9 million

Seller: 4700 Bath Pike Propco LLC

Buyer: Columbia Wegman Hanover LLC

Background: The Vero at Bethlehem, a retirement home, was purchased by the limited liability company, owned by Sabra, a California real estate investment trust specializing in health care real estate.

The 102,172-square-foot building sits on 6 acres along Route 512, a mile north of Route 22.

Built in 2023, the Vero specializes in personal and memory care, according to its website. Amenities include a full-service restaurant and bistro, a salon and barbershop, a game room and a library. It is managed by Legend Senior Living.

Lehigh Valley senior living home sold for about $36 million

4815 Tilghman St., South Whitehall Township

Price: $28.2 million

Seller: Yasin N Khan MD and E S Khan MD

Buyer: Elliott Bay Medical Properties Holdings IV LLC

Background: The medical building complex was sold in April, according to Lehigh County property records.

It houses Lehigh Valley Health Network’s Center for Orthopedic Medicine – Tilghman, along with an urgent care facility.

Seattle-based Elliott Bay is a real estate investment company that has acquired, owns and manages health care properties leased to specialty care providers and health systems across the U.S.

301 Town Center Blvd., Forks Township

Price: $25.5 million

Seller: Shops at Muncy Creek LP

Buyer: CFE Easton LLC

Background: This shopping center just north of Easton along Sullivan Trail is anchored by a Giant supermarket and was sold in November.

According to Northampton County records, the new owner is based in an office building in Sayville, New York.

2141 Commerce Center Blvd., Bethlehem

Price: $15.1 million

Seller: Lehigh Valley Industrial Park Inc.

Buyer: BGO-Petrucci Bethlehem Cold Storage Owner LLC

Background: Developer J.G. Petrucci is planning to build two warehouses on the 18-acre site in Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII, just off Route 412 near a Wawa convenience store and baseball fields.

The first warehouse will be 216,000 square feet and will be used for cold storage. The other will be 101,000 square feet.

Northampton County records said the parcel was sold in September.

610 Uhler Road, Forks Township

Price: $12.35 million

Seller: Uhler Road LP

Buyer: ABR Realty 1

Background: The building houses A&H Sportsware Co., which makes women’s bathing suits.

The buyer is based in a private residence in Bucks County, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.

1492 Van Buren Road, Palmer Township

Price: $11.6 million

Seller: Exchange 12 LLC

Buyer: 1492 Van Buren Inc.

Background: A joint venture including developer Lou Pektor is planning to build a $110 million residential development on the 32-acre that includes more than 400 apartments and townhomes.

The land was purchased in June from developer Abe Atiyeh.

According to Palmer Township Director of Planning Craig Beavers the project has yet to receive all township approvals. He said the Board of Supervisors has approved a settlement agreement that allows the project to move forward if it complies with township land development requirements.

Beavers said this hasn’t happened yet and the project still hasn’t been submitted for reapproval from both supervisors and the planning commission. That means construction may not start until late in 2026, or beyond that.

The multifamily community will feature seven apartment buildings totaling 320 units, with 92 townhomes. It will include a 10-acre park between the apartments and townhouses.

Lehigh Valley developer Lou Pektor pushes ahead on project that will create more than 400 homes

6300 Lower Macungie Road, Lower Macungie Township

Price: $9.4 million

Seller: Danweber Land Trust

Buyer: Lower Macungie Township

Background: In April, township commissioners voted unanimously to buy the 45-acre farm field where developer Jason Danweber proposed building 180 apartments. The plan raised worries about traffic and flooding and prompted commissioners to hire a lawyer to oppose it.

The tract across from Lower Macungie Middle School will remain open space dedicated to recreation.

Lower Macungie Township OKs agreement to buy, preserve Danweber land

901 Hamilton St., Allentown

Price: $9 million

Seller: PPL Electric Utilities Corp.

Buyer: DDCAP Allentown LLC

Background: Regulatory approval for the sale of PPL’s former headquarters in downtown Allentown was given in July 2024 and the sale was announced that March. It was finalized in January 2025.

Buyer D&D Realty Group of Scranton purchased the 24-story building at Ninth and Hamilton streets after PPL relocated its HQ down the street to Two City Center. It plans to convert the former utility headquarters into a residential building with 112 apartments averaging 1,100 square feet.

D&D is known for its redevelopment projects, converting properties into mixed-used commercial and residential spaces. It has renovated old buildings in downtowns in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area for several years.

Sale of iconic PPL Building in Allentown receives approval from state commission

Morning Call reporter Evan Jones can be reached at ejones@mcall.com.

Four LCTI students created and executed the design concept as a community service project.

“I want kids to be inspired by what we did,” said Aubrie Briody, one of the LCTI student painters.

After Just Born approved the students’ sketch, they projected the design onto the crate to produce a New Year’s Eve cityspace that features a disco ball, fireworks and human-sized Peeps.

The new design will allow the Peeps chick to be on display at the family-friendly holiday event, rather than hidden in a tractor-trailer, Just Born logistics manager James Rutt said.

The project as a whole offered an opportunity to get students who specialize in design, painting, warehouse and distribution involved.

“It touched a whole bunch of different occupations in the school,” Rutt said.

Kylie Ackerman, Solimar Chung and Joney Jones worked alongside Briody to paint the crate under the guidance of instructor Keith Lyons.

“I’ve always loved to draw, since I was little,” Chung said, adding that the Peeps were her favorite part to paint.

The design program at LCTI has allowed Chung to engage in tactile learning.

“I just really took a liking to it when I started doing hands-on activities,” Chung said.

Chung is working to apply her design skills toward revamping her bedroom. She hopes to pursue a career in interior design.

“Just Born as a whole really does support workforce development among students,” Corporate Affairs Specialist Courtney Angle said.

Sherwin Williams donated $450 worth of paint for the project.

The newly adorned crate is “really a piece of art,” Angle said. “We’re hoping it will last for many PeepsFests to come.”

Making Peeps last is a favorite activity of Ackerman’s, who said she likes to wait a week or two to enjoy the confection.

“I love stale Peeps,” Ackerman said. “It’s so weird, but they’re amazing.”

When the longtime Bethlehem-area resident had an idea, she would always see it through, friends and family said. It was a trait that helped her raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for causes across the Lehigh Valley and Osceola County, Florida, where she relocated after retiring in 2008 as the first executive director of the Greater Lehigh Valley Auto Dealers Association.

She never let go of friends, either. Even though she left the Lehigh Valley more than 15 years ago, she kept in close touch with her neighbors and companions over the years, scheduling regular calls and arranging visits between the two states.

She even refused to let go of her own life without a fight after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006. She battled the disease for 19 years, seeking trials and treatment in clinics across the country, until she succumbed to the illness Nov. 30 at the age of 82.

Even in her passing, there was one last thing of which she could not let go.

According to friends and family, her dying wish was to see the construction and fundraising for a food pantry and community center in Kissimmee, Florida, for which she was involved in campaigns and fundraising until her health declined.

Cusimano’s legacy also lives on in the Lehigh Valley, and her friends and family here are determined to meet Martha’s final wish. They have launched a campaign to raise the final $300,000 needed to complete the food pantry and community center.

Martha’s service

Born in Buffalo, New York, in 1943, Cusimano was raised in a faithful Catholic family. Her mother was a special education teacher and her father worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.

She met her husband, Jim, through their Catholic Youth leadership group while they were in high school.

The two of them were both raised in working class, heavily Catholic, Irish and Italian immigrant communities in Buffalo, which their daughter, Patti Gomas, said instilled in both of them a lifelong dedication to community service.

“My parents being raised in this Buffalo, core faith, service, values immigrant family type of upbringing, they really kind of shared that same sense of values and service to others,” Gomas said. “Lets just put it this way, none of my siblings and I ever had any problem checking the box for school for our service activities. We never had any problem showing our volunteer hours.”

The Cusimanos married in Buffalo the year after Martha graduated from high school, and started their family in New York as Jim entered law school. They moved to Pennsylvania in 1970 and spent a year in Reading before settling in the Bethlehem area, when Jim took a position as superintendent of Catholic education in Allentown.

Immediately, the Cusimanos fostered a tight-knit community in their Hanover Township, Northampton County, neighborhood. Martha was an avid host, and her kids remember her hosting friends and neighbors as well as bishops, priests and other important clergy from the Allentown Diocese at their home.

“She was just the perfect hostess,” said Mary Taylor, a former neighbor of Martha’s and close friend to her daughter Theresa and son Joe. “I was always helping her, because I was a kid then, and we would have to help her clean and set up for parties. She was always hosting people from the diocese and church, and neighbors.”

In her free time, Martha was active with her church and in the Catholic schools community. It was her idea to organize the first marathon for Catholic schools in 1979, an initiative that raised over $50,000 for Catholic education in its first year and $75,000 in its second, according to a news article from The Morning Call archives. The marathon fundraiser tradition still continues at some Catholic schools in the area.

“She came to me with idea for a diocesan marathon for each individual school to raise money,” said Anne Marie Culver, wife of a former Bethlehem Catholic High School principal. “It was a big undertaking, they had never done anything like that before.”

“She was tenacious and persistent about something,” Culver added. “If she had an idea and wanted to go forward with it, she would keep after it until you finally said, ‘OK, I’ll volunteer, I’ll help.’ “

By the time her youngest child, Patti, entered first grade around 1979, Martha — uneasy with idle time at her disposal — entered the workforce. She spent years leading public relations for Allentown College (now DeSales University), where she earned her bachelor’s in business and marketing while employed. She became the lead spokesperson for St. Luke’s Hospital and health network in 1984, leading their community and public relations.

“She just was not that stereotypical housewife of the ’60s and ’70s,” Gomas said. “She was very much like, ‘How can I change the world … in whatever way I can?’ “

For 10 years beginning in 1990, Cusimano also organized the Concours d’Elegance, a prestigious vintage car show that raised money for the Burn Prevention Foundation, now called the Burn Prevention Network.

The car show raised over $100,000 for the foundation annually, turning it “from a fledgling event to one that became highly profitable,” according to Dan Dillard, former executive director of the foundation, which offers burn prevention programs and education, and support for burn survivors.

“She was one of the most unique persons I have ever worked with, in that she had no tolerance or understanding of the word no,” Dillard said. “She set a goal to achieve something, and you could go to the bank knowing it was going to be achieved.”

Around same time she was overseeing the vintage car show, she also established what is perhaps her most lasting legacy in the Lehigh Valley: the Lehigh Valley Auto Show, a popular sales event held annually at the Stabler Arena on Lehigh University’s campus that attracts thousands of visitors every year.

The show brings prospective auto customers directly to dealers across the region while also raising money for local charities. According to GLVADA Executive Director Dan Moyer, the show raises about $150,000 annually and has contributed more than $2 million over the last 12 years for Lehigh Valley causes.

“That was the thing about Mom — she never did anything alone, she was the person who brought so many together to say, ‘Let’s get a thing done,’ ” her son Joe said. “But she was tenacious, she would not let it go. If it was a good idea she would be like, ‘No, we all agree this is a good idea, let’s get it done.’ “

The first auto show in 1997 was so successful that organizers decided to establish the Greater Lehigh Valley Auto Dealers Association, which Martha helmed as executive director until she retired in 2008.

Some time between those endeavors, Cusimano found the time to run for office in the 135th state House District, which represented parts of Bethlehem, Hanover Township and Bethlehem Township in Northampton County. She lost in the Republican primary to Pam Opp, who went on to lose to now-state Sen. Lisa Boscola, a Democrat who was was elected to her first term as state representative in November 1994.

Cusimano ran on a platform that included lowering the state corporate net income tax and selling off state-owned liquor stores.

“I think the main thing around her running was really just trying to be a voice for her community, a voice that could be reflective of the types of things that would really help her community,” Gomas said.

Despite running as a Republican, Cusimano “died a die-hard Democrat,” Gomas said, a transition that began around when Barack Obama launched his campaign for president. She was inspired by Obama’s message of “hope” and “change,” Gomas said, and began avidly volunteering with Osceola County Democrats — a tribute to her on their website said Cusimano “led voter registration training and door-to-door efforts for many local, state and national candidates.”

Family and friends

Though she dedicated so much time volunteering, working and fundraising in her respective communities, friends and family say her priority was always her loved ones.

Meg Hower, Cusimano’s first granddaughter, who lives in Florida, said she imbued in her a sense of confidence in her intelligence and leadership. As a child, Hower said her grandmother would enthusiastically celebrate her and her siblings’ and cousins’ accomplishments, encouraging them never to shy away from their potential.

“Gram inspired me to embrace public speaking as a reader at church,” Hower said. “As a young child, I was so small they literally had to set a stool up for me to read into the microphone, I would read the intentions at Mass. You would think I had given an Oscar-worthy performance, she would proudly show me off to everyone after Mass.”

It is the kind of anecdote that may seem trivial — perhaps Cusimano would not have even remembered it decades later — but clearly had a profound impact on Hower as her grandmother encouraged her to pursue her career and her passions.

Today, Hower is a federal government public servant, leading a large team in a high-ranking position (though she could not offer details due to legal confidentiality).

“I’m dead certain that Gram’s encouragement helped me get here, public speaking is a very useful career skill for me, and it began with her,” Hower said. “She was teaching using your voice as a gift, not something to shrink from, and I really embraced that.”

“It mattered to me, especially as a girl, my grandma celebrating without restraint our accomplishments. I never felt self-conscious about what I was capable of,” Hower said. “She celebrated me and encouraged me to go further, she helped us see strength in ourselves before we tried to dim it.”

Just as Cusimano was generous with her time, her talents and her money to people in need, she extended that generosity to her friends.

Anne Marie Gallagher met Cusimano as neighbors in Hanover Township and were inseparable until the day Cusimano died. Even though Cusimano had long since left Pennsylvania, the two kept in close touch with visits and frequent phone calls.

Over the holidays, the two sent each other gifts. Cusimano continued to do so even up until the week before she died, showing that even while fighting for her life, her thoughts were with her loved ones.

“We were very reciprocal over holidays, she usually would send me a centerpiece for my thanksgiving table,” Gallagher said. “That arrived six days before she died.”

Her dying wish

Though she moved to Florida to retire, she remained active as ever in community efforts while living there. She volunteered with Habitat for Humanity for eight years, and led fundraising efforts at the St. Rose of Lima Church in Kissimmee.

She and her husband Jim formed a committee to raise money for a new St. Rose of Lima Church building, which opened in 2017. They also helped to raise $700,000 for a food pantry connected to the church.

She did all of this while battling cancer. First diagnosed with Stage 0 breast cancer in 2007, she was in remission until 2019, when she received a diagnosis of Stage 2 cancer. She was diagnosed in 2023 with triple negative cancer, a notoriously difficult type to diagnose and treat.

While seeking treatment options, she visited specialists at the University of Pennsylvania and Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, before receiving treatments in the Jacksonville, Florida, Mayo Clinic.

Her final volunteer project was perhaps her biggest and most ambitious. The Lima Center is an envisioned space, associated with the St. Rose of Lima Church, that would expand its food pantry, adding a commercial kitchen as well as room to hold community gatherings and events. The church’s food pantry served over 70,000 people during the pandemic, according to Cusimano’s obituary, and the new center would help volunteers greatly expand their capacity.

According to friends and family who were with her in the moments before she died, she used her last words to ask for their help to see the Lima Center project through to completion.

Cusimano, along with a committee of volunteers, already raised $4 million for the project, and it needs an additional $300,000 to get over the finish line. Supporters launched a fundraising campaign to help reach the final funding milestone to build the center and to honor her memory.

“I certainly would just want people to remember that she was a very generous person and leader,” Jim Cusimano said. “She was able to attract others to help her in the various missions that she conducted. She was a leader and very articulate and people followed and helped her and supported her and her endeavors, raising funds for the less fortunate.”

The fundraiser can be found at gofund.me/ef3e926a4 on the GoFundMe website.

Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.

The Hotel Bethlehem will partially darken its rooftop sign Christmas Eve.

On Wednesday night, as part of tradition, the part of the sign that says “Hotel” will be turned off so that only “Bethlehem” is lit.

“Through Christmas night, there’s a lot of hustle and bustle in the holiday season,” said Bruce Haines, the hotel’s managing partner. “It’s important for us to take a moment and reflect on what’s truly important. That’s our beloved community of Bethlehem here in Pennsylvania and the miracle that happened in the original Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago.”

According to the Hotel Bethlehem, this is a tradition that goes back more than 50 years. Some former hotel employees say it may have started as early as 1960. Locals note that it paused sometime in the late ’70s.

Haines heard about the tradition in 2018 when local resident Debbie Helms told him about it. Haines said, “I thought it was such a beautiful sentiment that I had to bring it back. It’s a very special way to celebrate our history.”

The hotel is on the site of Bethlehem’s first house. It’s where, on Christmas Eve in 1741, Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf and other Moravian settlers named Bethlehem in honor of the place where Jesus was born.

Joseph Barlow and Sid Tekumalla, class of 2023, invented the helmet design during their senior year engineering capstone course.

Although neither inventor plays baseball, Barlow is a Phillies fan who aims to make the game safer.

“I always didn’t like it when a player would go down with an injury,” Barlow said. “After more research, we realized how preventable it was.”

In their patent application, Barlow and Tekumalla state that more than 240,000 baseball- and softball-related traumatic brain injuries were recorded between 1982 and 2015, data that aligns with a 2017 literature review in the Frontiers in Neurology.

Younger players most often suffered an injury after being hit by a bat, while post-adolescent athletes were more likely to suffer head injuries after being hit by a ball, the study states.

To address the risk of ball strikes against a player’s head, Tekumalla took inspiration from work done at the University of Texas to develop a honeycomb structure capable of absorbing impact.

The patented design uses nylon materials to construct the honeycomb, which sits in the helmet, and adds exterior protrusions that help carry the force of the impact away from a player’s head.

The inventors calculated that the most effective angle to connect the interior honeycomb to the exterior protrusions is about 15-25 degrees. The goal is to reduce the overall impact force by at least 80%.

Barlow and Tekumalla started the testing process using materials they 3-D printed at school and a baseball pitching machine.

An adviser, Frank Schweighardt, helped connect the students with industry professionals who completed further testing.

The resulting device is scalable so it can be adapted to both youth and adult helmets.

“We’re going to be looking for companies to sell it to,” Barlow said.

Attorney Jim McDaniel assisted Barlow and Tekumalla as they went through the multiyear process of securing a patent.

Now that the design is patented, companies can reach out to the inventors if they want to pay to complete further testing or buy a full license of the technology, Schweighardt said.

Schweighardt, who worked for Air Products for 29 years before taking a leadership role at the Da Vinci Science Center, advised Barlow and Tekumalla as part of a program he developed to shepherd students through the patent process. That program has now earned a dozen patents.

“My role was to make sure they’re asking the right questions,” Schweighardt said.

Making an impact

Determining when the interior padding of a helmet has been damaged enough that it has become ineffective can be tricky, Liberty High School Athletic Director Fred Harris said.

Harris, who has baseball coaching experience, said helmets are sent to a third-party inspector at the end of each season to determine if they can be recertified as safe for another season. Barlow and Tekumalla’s invention could extend the lifespan of helmets, Harris said.

“They’re a true example of kids that had an idea and used science and our science program here to pursue a passion,” Harris said, “and I think it’s really cool that two kids from Liberty High School pursued their passion and potentially have made an entire sports industry safer.”

Barlow has earned pilot licenses through his aviation studies at the Florida Institute of Technology. He will graduate this spring and aims to pursue a career as a flight instructor.

Tekumalla is a junior at Penn State, studying computer and data science.

They both credit their Liberty High engineering courses with imparting technical knowledge that continues to benefit their studies.

Barlow said his engineering background has made him better able to identify mechanical issues on planes.

“I think the best thing engineering taught me was problem solving,” he said.

The two also credited Liberty High instructors Walter Marshaleck, Maclean Pearson and Kristin Stuby for effectively building their engineering knowledge.

“Sid and Joseph are highly motivated young men who persevered through the patent process to obtain a patent on their PLTW capstone engineering project,” Stuby said in a news release. “I facilitated and led them through the engineering design process, which gave them the foundation to pursue their idea after graduation. What excites me most is that the small-scale testing they conducted in a high school setting was later confirmed through large-scale, industry-standard testing.”

The board said Wednesday that it placed the woman, whom it didn’t identify, on the involuntary exclusion list because she was in the casino for just over an hour while a 13-year-old was alone in her vehicle in the Wind Creek parking garage. The board didn’t say when this happened.

Placement on an involuntary exclusion list prohibits individuals from gaming in a casino in Pennsylvania, via an online betting site regulated by the board or on a video gaming terminal location. The gaming control board said there are 1,469 people on the various lists.

In other actions, a man was placed on the list for leaving two 3-year-olds in a vehicle in the parking lot Parx Casino in Bucks County for 16 minutes.

One woman was placed on the list for leaving two 11-year-olds in a vehicle at Presque Isle Downs & Casino in Erie County for 30 minutes, and another was placed on the list for leaving two children, ages 5 and 11, in a vehicle for 27 minutes at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course for 27 minutes.

The gaming control board also assessed a $31,950 fine against Evolution LLC, an interactive gaming manufacturer licensee, for its failure to file a principal license application for a board member that assumed additional responsibility.