High praise goes to Shane Spack, principal of Chicora Elementary School, and the entire administrative-faculty team.

Spack, under pressure of the moment, made a swift and crucial decision this past week to lock down his school under the potential threat of an approaching armed intruder.

The threat turned out to be unfounded, but there was no way for Spack to know it at the time.

It all started with a phone call from a mother of two of his pupils. She reported her ex-boyfriend was on his way to the school to pick up their 5-year-old son.

The man had a gun, she said.

As it turned out, he was unarmed when state police intercepted him outside the school. Armed guards were on high alert inside and the school entrances were blocked and locked.

The incident ended as quickly as it began. Normal operations resumed about an hour later.

The woman who gave the false report has been charged with two counts of terroristic threats, a felony, and misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct. She was jailed on $50,000 bond.

The school's rapid, coordinated response impressed police.

“They did a fabulous job securing the facility,” said Trooper Gesuele Burello, the investigating officer.

Indeed they did.

Slippery Rock's trash committee has done its job.The borough council-appointed committee reviewed council's decision to change the bulk trash pickup calendar this past year. It found the change inconvenienced a multitude of customers, especially Slippery Rock University students living off campus.The committee recommended changing the calendar back to the way it was, even though the borough's trash service, Tri-County Industries, has said it will cost another $1.50 per customer per month to go back to the way things were. That comes out to $21,294 a year — on top the $90,000 increase already in place in the current three-year contract. The additional $1.50 should be taken from the $3 service fee on every trash bill, the committee said. The recommendation was unanimous.This past week, council accepted the committee's report. Council took no action. Council members did not even hint at a proposed course of action.They don't have many options; as councilman Jerry Heller said, they have a contract.The whole affair has us wondering why a committee was appointed in the first place. Who knew trash removal could be so complicated?

Cheers to Kim Smith and Bob Watson, who are leading 360 people on a symbolic 7,000-mile walk from Slippery Rock to Afghanistan in support of military personnel serving there.It’s not a literal walk there, of course. Participants are walking locally and logging distance using a pedometer.Smith, a Slippery Rock University professor of exercise and rehabilitative science, and Watson, SRU’s interim vice president for student affairs, got the idea for the walk from Watson’s daughter, who is stationed at Fort Riley, Kan., and married to a soldier who is deployed to Afghanistan. She started a walk on weekends to promote wellness and social interaction.Watson felt the idea could be applied to SRU’s commitment to wellness, so he took the idea to Smith.Three years ago, SRU started its 10,000 Steps program, which encouraged faculty, staff and students to walk 10,000 steps per day, about five miles, for a 12-week period each semester. Smith and Watson incorporated the Walk to Afghanistan into 10,000 Steps rather than have a separate program.Along the way, Smith said, she discovered it motivates many people to walk for a cause when they wouldn’t walk simply for their health. The number and enthusiasm of participants increased sharply.They appear to have found a winning formula.