Michael PoundTimes Staff

FINDLAY TWP. — A call to police from a con-cerned landlord last spring resulted in thearrest of a Findlay Township man on childpornography charges.

Francis H. Northrop has been jailedafter Findlay police arrested him in hisapartment on Tuesday. Northrop, 75, of 404Red Deer Lane, is charged with 39 counts

of possessing child pornography.The discovery of Northrop’s stash came

purely by chance, Findlay police said. Offi-cer Charles Gerlach wrote in court recordsthat police were summoned to Northrop’sapartment by a manager of the Red DeerApartments complex on March 22 becausethe manager suspected that a water linehad broken in Northrop’s apartment and

SURE, WE’RE SUFFERING SOME COLD, BUT OTHER AREAS ARE EXPERIENCING WORSE WEATHER. B3

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Thursday, December 23, 2010

Times photo by LUCY SCHALY

It’s so cold

HOW COLD IS IT?Monaca Water Department employee Jared McKay, above, works to repair a water line break atPennsylvania Avenue and Eighth Street early Wednesday afternoon. Before the water supply wascut off, the break sent water shooting over the tops of cars passing by. Borough officials could notbe reached for comment on the extent of problems caused by the break.

DECEMBER TEMPERATURESYEAR AVERAGE HIGH AVERAGE LOW DAYS ABOVE 40 DAYS ABOVE 502010 29.5 19 3 1

2009 38 23 10 5

2008 41 24 16 9

2007 41 27 14 8

2006 47 30 24 15

All-time average 40 25 — —Source: National Weather Service

By Bill Utterback ● Times staff

Rough monthIt’s been a weird

weather year,beginning with the

record snows of Febru-ary.

Now we see ourDecember anchoreddown in Anchorage.

This is the coldestDecember in 10 years,according to NationalWeather Service statis-tics, with high tempera-tures averaging 29.5degrees and low tem-peratures averaging 19.We’ve had 17 days,including nine in suc-cession, where temper-atures remained belowfreezing. The averagetemperature for themonth is 24.25 degrees,moving us toward atop-five all-time coldDecember.

“We’re stuck in a per-sistent pattern of weath-er,” Lee Hendricks, ameteorologist with theNational Weather Ser-vice facility in MoonTownship, said. “Ourweather systems arepushing off to theNortheast and bringingin cold air behind themfrom the Great Lakes ...it’s been more of a Janu-ary pattern than aDecember pattern.”

Absolutelyno drought

As you windshield-scrape your waythrough another frigidmorning, be encour-aged by this piece ofnews: The drought isover.

Pennsylvania’sDepartment of Envi-ronmental Protectionlifted the droughtwatch for Beaver,Allegheny, Lawrenceand 19 other countieson Dec. 17. A watchor warning had beenin place for 92 days,and residents wereurged to comply withDEP’s voluntary 5 to15 percent waterusage reduction plea.

Feel free to washcars and water lawnsthis week.

The drought persist-ed through one of therainiest Novembers inhistory and a Dec. 1flood that forced families along Conno-quenessing Creek toevacuate by boat.Apparently, that wasdrought spilling intobasements and mak-ing roads impassable.

Here’s the worrisome part: December temperatures in the Pittsburgh

region have fallen in each of the past five years. In 2006, the average daily high was 47. And

there were 24 days above 40, including 15 above50, three above 60 and a 70-degree day.

In 2007, the average daily high was 41; we had14 days above 40, including eight above 50 andtwo above 60.

In 2008, the average daily high was again 41,and we had 16 days above 40, nine above 50 andtwo above 60.

A year ago, the average daily high was 38; we

See COLD, Page A2

Findlay cops find child porn stash Man gets jail for crash with busBill UtterbackTimes Staff

A former Beaver County man has beensentenced to jail for driving his vehicleinto a Moon Area School District bus whileinjecting heroin, according to the Alleghe-ny County district attorney’s office.

John Brady Anderson, 47, of Harmony,Butler County, was sentenced to six to 23months in jail, followed by five years of

probation, Wednesday by Allegheny Coun-ty Judge Edward Borkowski.

Anderson, who once lived in Baden,pleaded guilty to 19 charges — including 13counts of reckless endangerment, twocounts of drunken driving and possessionof a controlled substance — on Sept. 21,according to court documents.

In November 2009, Anderson’s vehicle

See CRASH, Page A6 See STASH, Page A6