CLEARFIELD TWP — Customers of the Herman Oil and Gas will pay less for natural gas this winter than last year.

The company announced in a news release that its rates beginning Nov. 1 have dropped due to projected decreases in the market prices for natural gas supplies. The cost of gas this month is $3.46 per MCF, about a 46 percent decrease compared to October’s price of $6.43.

MCF is the measure of volume of natural gas and equals 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas.

The company has more than 400 customers.

[naviga:h3]Chipotle locations start to reopen after outbreak[/naviga:h3]

SEATTLE — Customers returned to Pacific Northwest Chipotle restaurants Wednesday as the chain reopened after an E. coli outbreak that sickened about 45 people to Washington state and Oregon.

Forty-three outposts of the Mexican food chain in Washington state and the Portland, Oregon, area were closed at the end of October because of the outbreak that hospitalized more than a dozen people.

Health officials from the two states have not found the source of the E. coli outbreak, despite testing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.