You could quibble about the specific figures or argue that the study is self-serving, but there's no denying the State System of Higher Education gives a huge financial boost to the communities that host a state system campus.

Slippery Rock University and the other 13 state system schools generate more than $6.7 billion annually in economic activity, according to the SSHE study released last week. The study estimates the schools produce nearly $11 in economic impact for every dollar invested by taxpayers through the state's annual appropriation.

The system will receive $412.8 million from the state this year for the universities' operations and another about $65 million for capital construction.

“That's a tremendous return on investment,” says state system Chancellor Frank Brogan. It would be hard to disagree with him.

The study also concludes:

• Each university has an average economic impact of $310.2 million and supports about 4,400 external jobs — that's more than the entire population of Slippery Rock.

• Students, faculty and staff of the universities pay a combined $61.1 million in state income and sales taxes. Those whose jobs are supported by the state system pay another $121 million.

• Nearly 90 percent of the students who attend the 14 universities are state residents.

• Of those, almost 80 percent will stay in Pennsylvania to live, work, raise families and pay taxes.

• The state system has 12,000 employees and supports about 62,000 jobs statewide.

• The total economic impact of the state system itself is $4.4 billion. Another $2.3 billion is generated through jobs that exist because of the universities.

Here we go again.Western Pennsylvania is bracing for another wave of heroin overdoses similar to the outbreak of January and February 2014, when heroin laced with a potent synthetic opiate was flooding the region. At least 22 deaths in Western Pennsylvania were linked to the heroin laced with fentanyl.The scourge subsided in February of last year but appears to have resurfaced 14 months later.Last week, Pittsburgh officials reported a surge in overdoses that included 11 incidents within 24 hours. Two of the 11 overdose victims died Tuesday.The last time this happened, officials blamed fentanyl added to a batch of heroin, which was packaged in single-dose stamp bags bearing the street brand names “Theraflu.” This time around the names are “Chicken/Waffle” and “Predator”.It's too soon to determine what's actually in this new batch of drug besides heroin, but fentanyl is the assumption for now. And some changes since the last episode should diminish the fatal effects. The biggest change is that the antidote Narcan is widely available to emergency service providers. An injection of Narcan, also called naloxone, quickly halts the effect of opiates including fentanyl.The other big change is knowledge. Law enforcement officers gained knowledge from the previous distribution of tainted heroin. They're a little better prepared to get it off the streets, along with the people who are manufacturing and distributing it.

Cheers and best wishes to the Butler Fall Festival Committee.A month ago, committee President Sheri Hershberger said the Fall Festival, a longtime downtown event, might have to be canceled because of a lack of volunteers and funding. But since then, seven additional volunteers have been recruited — enough help to continue the festival this fall.“Folks were willing to step up and help,” Hershberger says. “It looks like we are proceeding forward with running the festival.”However, the event is still short on financial sponsorships. The loss of support from the Rodfathers of Butler Car Club has left the committee short for the 37th annual festival on Sept. 19. And a rainout of the event two years ago dug a financial hole out of which the committee is still climbing.“It takes about $20,000 in donations to make it happen each year,” says Hershberger, adding the committee has $5,000 on hand but would like to keep that as a cushion and raise the entire $20,000.Sponsorship by a big-name musical group or two would also help.Anyone considering sponsorships should visit the website butlerfallfestival.com and click the link to the Sponsorships webpage.