Erie Times-News (PA)
Fire victims grateful for aid
January 7, 2008

On July 31, we had a fire that left us out of our home for nearly five months. Jim Thompson, our insurance agent, and Jim Kiefer, of Lake Shore Cleaning Services, referred us to Advanced Drying and Restoration of Erie to help us with the rebuilding process. Since July, we have worked with Chris Hitz, Carl Good, Rob, Shane, Doug, Ray the paint doctor, Kiefer and all of the employees from Lake Shore Cleaning Services, plus Brad and Russ of A.B.L.E. Building & Contracting, Joye and Bill Drayer of Drayer Plumbing and many others who helped our family put its life back together. From the beginning, they helped us through the entire process. They made sure we knew everything that was happening and what we needed to do. No matter how many times we tried to thank them, they'd say it's just part of the job. That may be so, but it became so important to us. We made many friendships from the devastation we suffered. Carl Good promised that Santa was going to come down my chimney, and I am happy to say we moved home Dec. 21. To everyone at Advanced Drying and Restoration, thank you for putting our family's life back together again. Rich and Jodie Turri Erie

Erie Times-News (PA)
City anti-graffiti squad completes first project
March 21, 2008
The city of Erie's anti-graffiti squad is now in action. The squad -- members of a task force appointed by Mayor Joe Sinnott -- completed its first project Thursday, removing graffiti on a wall near the northeast corner of State Street and the Bayfront Parkway. Sinnott held a news conference there to announce the formation of the task force and to show the removal work. "To help beautify the city, we need to start getting rid of some of this," the mayor said.  Erie 3rd Ward District Judge Tom Carney, who will head the task force, said the group will also seek community help to identify vandals and try to suggest tougher fines for violations. "We think graffiti's ugly,"he said. "It's criminal in nature, and we're going to work our hardest to abate it." Carney was the catalyst for the task force, having approached the mayor about it, particularly about graffiti on industrial buildings on the West 12th Street corridor in the 3rd Ward. "I just showed an interest that I'd really like to see something done, and the mayor challenged me" to form the task force, Carney said. Another task force member, Christopher D. Hitz, president of Advanced Drying and Restorations, has volunteered the firm's services in removing graffiti. Its equipment used a baking-soda-based abrasive to remove the graffiti from the wall Thursday."We have the equipment, we have the knowledge, and we have the staff to be able to take care of these problems to be part of beautifying the city," he said. "We're going to be doing a lot more in the next couple months."Another task force member is Dennis Braendel II, vice president of Braendel Painting and Services, which will assist in restoring walls, signs and other surfaces covered with graffiti. Other task force members include John Tretter, business agent for Laborers Local 603; downtown businessman Tom "Tippy" Dworzanski; Wally Brown, coordinator of the Little Italy Neighborhood Crime Watch Group; David J. Grabelski, assistant professor at the Institute for Intelligence Studies at Mercyhurst College; and Maria L. Garase, assistant professor at Gannon University's Criminal Justice Program. Grabelski said Mercyhurst is doing an analysis of graffiti and researching successful anti-graffiti programs."Nothing we do here is going to stop graffiti," he said. "All you can do is minimize it."Garase said Gannon will work on the analysis, but it also will be surveying local businesses about graffiti. The university will also have volunteers work on graffiti removal and speak at middle and high schools about prevention. Sinnott said the city's recent arrest of vandals in connection with spray-painting helps deter graffiti, but he said it's difficult to stop."It's a hard problem to deal with," he said. "But we've got to start dealing with it and do the best we can to stay out in front of it and combat it."