2 remaining Burns Drug stores to close

The Burns Drug stores, longtime fixtures in Scottdale and Connellsville, will close this week.

Co-owner Tedi Tufano, whose father, Bernard Stern, founded the Connellsville business in 1937, said the slow economy has hurt the business she owns with her brothers, Louis Stern and Jay Stern.

Both Louis and Jay Stern were charged last year by the state Attorney General's Office with two counts of insurance fraud and one count each of theft by deception, criminal conspiracy and tampering with public records or information. Both are free on $50,000 bond in the case, expected to go to court this month.

Also named as defendants are Burns Wholesale Drug Corp., 131 W. Crawford Ave., Connellsville, and former Burns pharmacist Chris M. Ruby.

The charges against the Sterns, filed in October 2008, stem from an alleged scheme operated between June 26, 2003, and Aug. 10, 2006, in which about 1,700 fraudulent prescriptions written in the names of Stern family members and Ruby were billed to insurance companies. Fraudulent prescriptions were billed before, during and after Ruby's employment at Burns Drugs, the state alleges.

Ruby, 35, of Greensburg pleaded guilty to insurance fraud. He was sentenced Monday in Fayette County by President Judge Conrad Capuzzi to pay $8,112 in restitution to four insurance companies and the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare, and to serve two years' probation, with the stipulation that Ruby testify against his co-defendants.

Burns Drug Store opened in 1937 in downtown Connellsville in a stately glazed-brick building.

"It's almost like a dynasty in the city of Connellsville," said Mayor Judy Reed. "It's just too bad."

Reed said she has many fond memories of the pharmacy, a popular hangout for teenagers where her sister worked as a teen. Reed said the pharmacy would open on Christmas and other holidays so people could get their medication when other stores were closed.

"They were always consumer-friendly," Reed said. "You could always count on Burns to be open."

On Feb. 20, 2004, an arsonist set fire to the original building, burning it down. Millions of gallons of water were sprayed on the old store, washing away some pieces of the structure.

Louis Stern reopened the store in a trailer, then at its current location in a former McCrory store in April 2004.

Tufano said the Scottdale store has been in business nearly 50 years. A Mt. Pleasant store closed in December 2008 after more than 60 years in business.

At its Connellsville and Scottdale locations, Burns employs about 15 people.

The Scottdale location will close today and the Connellsville location on Wednesday. Prescriptions will be transferred to the Scottdale Rite Aid and the Connellsville Rite Aid. Tufano said all the stores' stock will be transferred to the Rite Aids.