Filed Under: News || By Staff and Wire Reports
Category: News || By Staff Report
Have dinner next Wednesday at the Wendy's in White Oak, and the restaurant will donate 20 percent of your check to the McKeesport Symphony Youth Orchestra.
The offer from the restaurant at the intersection of Route 48 and Lincoln Way is valid on both eat-in and take-out orders from 5 to 8 p.m.
. . .
Meanwhile, the McKeesport Symphony Orchestra's next concert, entitled "A Musical Postcard," is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. March 21 in the auditorium of McKeesport Area High School, 1960 Eden Park Blvd.
The concert will include a performance by pianist Xiaoyuan Huang, winner of the Western Pennsylvania Steinway Society Competition, who will perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 19 in Bb major.
Also featured will be flutist Audrey Whartenby, winner of the McKeesport Symphony Young Artists Competition, who will perform the first movement of Mozart's Flute Concerto in G Major.
. . .
March's concert will include "London Suite" by Eric Coates, a traditional Chinese folk song with viola soloist Warren Davidson, "The Moldau" by Smetana, and selections from "Miss Saigon" and the film "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," says Bruce Lauffer, MSO music director.
The artists will be available at a reception following the concert to meet and greet the audience, Lauffer says.
Tickets are $8 for students, $12 for senior citizens and $15 for adults, and discounts are available for tickets purchased online. Visit the MSO's website or call (412) 664-2854 for more information.
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Lunchtime Prayer for Lent: The McKeesport Ministerium is sponsoring a series of Christian non-denominational prayer services on Wednesdays during Lent, a spokesman says. The first was held yesterday at Auberle.
Each service begins at 12 noon, lasts approximately 30 minutes and includes a light lunch. An offering is collected to defray the costs of lunch.
Services are set for March 3 at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, 329 Ninth Ave.; March 10 at Rainbow Temple, 536 Shaw Ave.; First United Methodist Church, 1406 Cornell St.; and March 24 at the Salvation Army worship center, 821 Walnut St.
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Grandparents Get Support: A new program sponsored by Auberle and the Sisters of Mercy provides support for senior citizens who are raising children.
The Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Program meets one Friday morning each month at The Intersection, 115 Seventh Ave., Downtown.
Sister Georgine Scarpino says grandparents from anywhere in the Mon-Yough area are welcome to attend. Along with Erie and Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y., McKeesport is one of four American cities offering the program.
The programs are free and provide "networking" among grandparents; assistance from an Auberle caseworker; information about places to go for services and advice; and other assistance.
The next meeting is slated for 9:30 a.m. March 12. To attend, call (412) 422-8020 or visit the website.
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Category: News || By Staff Report
A new federal law will soon require anyone doing renovation work in a home, school or child-care facility built before 1978 to prevent contamination from lead paint.
Luckily for Mon-Yough area contractors, carpenters and painters, training is available through McKeesport Housing Corp.
Beginning April 22, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will require anyone who is paid to perform renovation, repair or painting projects in any building where people live or where children play to be certified in ways to prevent lead dust from getting into the air.
. . .
The law falls under 1976's federal Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. According to EPA, sanding, cutting and scraping walls or woodwork coated with lead-based paint can send hazardous lead dust into the air.
Lead poisoning can cause birth defects in infants, learning disabilities in children, and kidney disease, high blood pressure and other illnesses in adults.
Angelia Christina, lead program coordinator for McKeesport Housing Corp., says that besides contractors and painters, landlords, plumbers and people who install or maintain heating and air-conditioning systems should also be trained.
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Training is being provided at several sessions in McKeesport through Youngstown's Mahoning County Healthy Homes Lead Hazard Control Program, Christina says.
A registration fee is required. To register or get more information, call (412) 664-7003.
Homeowners or landlords who are hiring someone to do renovations in their home should hire only EPA-certified contractors, Christina says, and should ask for the contractor's state registration number.
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The "Renovation, Repair and Painting" rules do not apply to private citizens working on their own homes, but EPA does offer a free booklet to individual homeowners on protecting themselves against lead dust.
Titled Renovate Right, the booklet can be downloaded from the EPA website (PDF reader required).
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Category: Events, News || By Staff and Wire Reports
The first African-American woman to serve as an Allegheny County judge will be honored Saturday by McKeesport Heritage Center in celebration of Black History Month.
Cynthia Ackron Baldwin, who also served two years as a state Supreme Court justice, will deliver the annual Black History Month address at 2 p.m.
The program, which is free and open to the public, will include a solo performance by singer Byarr Meekins and an original poem by Jordan Slater, a fifth-grader at Francis McClure Intermediate School in White Oak, a spokeswoman said.
Lydia Lockhart, a professor of business administration at Penn State's Greater Allegheny Campus in the city, will serve as mistress of ceremonies.
. . .
Baldwin, a 64-year-old city native and McKeesport Area High School graduate, in January was named the first-ever chief legal officer for Penn State University.
A graduate of Penn State who earned both bachelor's and master's degrees at the university, Baldwin has been a member of its board of trustees since 1995, and chaired the board from 2004 to 2006.
Baldwin, who will serve as the university's interim general counsel, was asked by Penn State President Graham Spanier to establish a new in-house legal department to review contracts and policies, and help lead the search for a permanent attorney.
. . .
Prior to her 2006 appointment to the state Supreme Court, Baldwin was for 16 years an Allegheny County judge and served as a visiting and adjunct professor at Duquesne University, where she earned her law degree.
She also served for 12 years on the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.
Besides her local and state activities, Baldwin has experience in international law. In 1994, she was named a Fulbright scholar and traveled to Zimbabwe, where she lectured at the University of Zimbabwe School of Law and served as an adviser to the country's supreme court.
Baldwin later helped lead judicial education programs in Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania, and in 1998 taught seminars for judges, law professors and students in the People's Republic of China.
She lives in White Oak with her husband, Arthur, a senior engineer at the National Energy Technology Laboratory in South Park.
. . .
Light refreshments will be served following Saturday's events. The Heritage Center is located at 1832 Arboretum Drive in Renziehausen Park. For additional information, call (412) 678-1832 or visit the center's website.
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Category: News || By Jason Togyer
Port Vue, Liberty See Big Switches: Locally, the biggest changes will occur on buses serving Port Vue, Liberty and North Versailles Township, when the 60P Port Vue-Liberty route essentially merges with the 60M East Pittsburgh, to create the new 62 Liberty-North Versailles.
Some South Allegheny Service Axed: Commuters who use the 58P Port Vue Flyer and the 58V Versailles Flyer to reach Pittsburgh may be unhappy as well.
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Category: Cartoons || By Jason Togyer
Potholes are beginning to pop up all over the area and some believe that the worst is yet to come.
Crews have been out patching some of the potholes, but with all the snow and plows on the roads, it's a difficult battle.
"I think it's going to be very bad from what I'm seeing. They're on every road. They're popping up with the bad winter we've had and it's not looking good right now," Bob Crawford of PennDOT said. (KDKA-TV)
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Category: News || By Jason Togyer
City residents are eligible for nearly $313,000 in home improvement funding this year through the Allegheny County Home Consortium Program.
The money --- administered by McKeesport Housing Corp. --- will provide low-interest loans for homeowners to repair or address lead-based paint hazards, building code deficiencies, handicapped accessibility or address emergency conditions.
Rental properties are not eligible for the funding.
Council by 6-0 vote approved the city's participation at February's meeting. Councilwoman Loretta Diggs was absent due to illness.
There are restrictions on income levels, said Bethany Bauer, city community development director.
McKeesport has been a participant for several years in the HOME Investment Partnership, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Created in 1990, the HOME Program is the largest federal grant program for creation of affordable, low-income housing by local and state agencies.
The program is specifically designed to preserve and increase homeownership in low-to-moderate income communities, keep the elderly and disabled in their homes, and reduce blight by repairing substandard houses. About two dozen families in the city have been helped each year, according to county records.
Councilman Darryl Segina questioned how city residents are being told about the availability of funding. "Is there any advertising?" he asked. "How do you get people to come in?"
"Demand has been so great we've never had to advertise," Bauer said, but both she and Mayor Jim Brewster suggested it may be time to re-advertise the program to the general public.
Residents who need to make home improvements and want to see if they qualify for assistance should call the McKeesport Housing Corp. at (412) 664-7003.
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Summer Concert Series: The city will partner with the McKeesport Lions Club to present the summer concert series at Renziehausen Park, Brewster said.
The concerts are held at the Renzie bandshell, which was originally built with the help of a fundraising campaign by the Lions Club, the mayor said.
The Lions Club will help the city find sponsorship to underwrite the cost of concerts and is also working on a proposal to construct a new public pavilion near the bandshell, Brewster said.
. . .
Appointments Approved: In other business, Councilman Michael Cherepko was appointed by 5-0-1 vote to the personnel committee to replace former city Councilman Dale McCall. Cherepko abstained from voting.
Council by 6-0 vote appointed city Controller Ray Malinchak to the McKeesport Industrial Development Authority.
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Category: Cartoons || By Jason Togyer
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Category: News || By Jason Togyer
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If you grew up in the Mon Valley in the 1960s and '70s, and you liked rock and roll music, chances are you were listening to the Terry Lee show.
Mon City native Terry Lee Trunzo was in high school when he got his start as a disc jockey just down the river at Charleroi's WESA (940). From there it was a short hop to Canonsburg's WARO (540) and finally to McKeesport's WMCK (1360).
The sleepy 5,000-watt (daytime) AM station in the Elks Temple on Market Street was better known for its high-school sports broadcasts and ethnic programming than for rock-and-roll.
But Trunzo turned it into the unlikely top station for teens --- at least during his time-slot. And though the signal was limited to 1,000 watts at night, 1360 served as Terry Lee's launching pad for an impressive entertainment empire as concert promoter, record producer and owner of TL's Nite Train.
Pretty soon he was on TV as host of Channel 11's dance party show. And when 1360 became WIXZ, Terry Lee was the only disc jockey retained.
. . .
But the radio business and the Mon Valley were both changing in the late 1970s, and after stints at some other suburban stations, Trunzo left Western Pennsylvania more than 20 years ago.
Ever since, TL's where-abouts have been one of the enduring mysteries of McKeesport. Was he dead? Was he in hiding?
On Saturday night at the Palisades Ballroom, the mystery of Terry Lee's status was solved.
. . .
More than 500 people packed the venerable old dance hall on Fifth Avenue to welcome home a local musical legend. They jammed the dance floor at the Palisades.
Oh, their hair may have been a little bit grayer or even thinner, but the moves were just as smooth and the sentiments were just as sweet as they were more than 40 years ago.
And if you squinted just a little bit, you could have imagined yourself, too, back in the 60s, at the Palisades or the Vigilant Hose Company hall in Port Vue or the White Elephant, or maybe just at home with a certain special someone.
The evening was especially poignant for members of Terry Lee's family, who had no idea just how popular their dad was during his radio heyday --- and didn't realize how loyal all of those fans remained all of these years later.
. . .
Oldies DJ George Lambl of Jeannette's WKFB (770) radio grew up listening to Trunzo. He says Terry Lee, along with Porky Chedwick and the late Mad Mike Metrovich, is one of the Pittsburgh area's most unique and enduring radio personalities, and helped set the standard that others here still follow.
If you missed Saturday's sell-out event, a camera crew was on-hand to capture everything for possible use on PBS. And Trunzo plans a return engagement at the Palisades on May 15.
There's also a rumor that he and his family may come back to the Mon Valley permanently.
For now, you can hear him --- via tape --- on Saturday evenings on WLSW-FM (103.9) in Scottdale.
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Category: News || By Jason Togyer
State Rep. Marc Gergely is one of three legislators asking for a study of whether legalizing keno at bars and restaurants is a viable way to help provide financial aid for college students.
The White Oak Democrat introduced the resolution Feb. 3 along with fellow Democratic state Reps. Neal Goodman of Mahanoy City, Schuylkill County, and Christopher Sainato of New Castle, Lawrence County.
It asks the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to survey other states that have legalized keno; estimate the amount of money the game would generate in Pennsylvania; and determine the potential impact on state lottery sales and other licensed gambling facilities.
The resolution was referred Monday to the state House Committee on Gaming Oversight for further review.
. . .
According to Gergely, the keno games would fund a new financial aid program targeting middle-class families who earn too much money --- more than $66,000 --- to receive grants from the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency.
"Finding a way for PHEAA to offer grants to more students with higher family incomes will allow students to concentrate on getting good grades and selecting a college instead of worrying about whether they can afford an education," Gergely says.
Goodman says the measure is aimed at job creation. "We must find ways to help send our young people to college so the state has an educated work force to meet the ever-changing needs of employers," he says.
. . .
Legalization of keno could run into strong opposition in Pennsylvania , particularly from churches, volunteer fire departments and other charities that use bingo as a fundraiser.
The games are very similar in that players receive a physical or digital card and must cover numbers selected at random, either by a computer or caller.
Nevertheless, several states have already legalized forms of keno --- including New Jersey (in 1993), New York (1995), Maryland (2007) and Ohio (2008) --- as a way to raise their income without raising taxes.
In Ohio, for instance, keno can be played at clubs, bars and restaurants, while in Maryland, keno wagers can be made at any retailer that handles lottery tickets. Both Ohio and Maryland hold frequent statewide drawings throughout the day.
. . .
The full text of the resolution is available online.
Thirty legislators have signed onto the bill as co-sponsors, including local state Reps. Bill Kortz of Dravosburg, Joe Markosek of Monroeville, and Harry Readshaw of Carrick, all Democrats.
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Category: News || By Staff and Wire Reports
One of the liveliest new discussion pages on Facebook is devoted to memories of Our Fair City.
Launched just three weeks ago by Andi Cartwright (nee Luketic) of White Oak, "McKeesport Memories" already boasts more than 3,300 members and a vibrant group of discussion boards.
"I thought I'd probably need to go out and find content to post, never anticipating the response I received," she says. "It's pretty much taken on a life of it's own. The subscribers have been adding so much with very little prompting."
What are current and past Mon-Yough residents talking about? According to Cartwright, one hot topic is Balsamo's, the produce market and grocery store that was a landmark at the corner of Fifth and Sinclair streets from the 1920s through 1974.
"I'm finding that, truthfully, I could have called the page 'Balsamo's' and I think they'd have a collective aneurysm," she jokes.
But there are plenty of other topics to talk about, including favorite restaurants of days gone by, fondly (and not-so-fondly) remembered teachers, and carnivals and parades of the past.
Membership in "McKeesport Memories" is open to any registered Facebook member.
. . .
And a Shameless Plug: If you aren't following the Tube City Online Twitter feed, you're missing stories and links that don't make the Almanac.
You don't need a Twitter account to read the posts --- they also appear on the Tube City Online homepage. But you do need a free Twitter account to subscribe.
Other Mon-Yough area Twitter feeds of interest are maintained by organizations such as the Steel Valley Enterprise Zone; the Munhall News Watch blog; Mon Valley Initiative; and Woodland Hills School District.
. . .
Food Bank Has Sweet Treat: It won't be delivered until after Sunday, but last-minute Valentine's Day gift-givers could do worse than the chocolate heart plates being sold as a fundraiser by Duquesne-based Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
For a $50 donation, recipients receive a 5-by-10-inch glass plate from Riverside Design Group, with four ounces of chocolate hearts made by Sarris Candies of Canonsburg and a card acknowledging the gift.
A food bank spokeswoman says the plates are valued at $30, so $20 of each gift is tax-deductible.
Other last-minute gift ideas include eCards with donations in the name of a loved one. Visit the food bank's website for more information.
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Category: Another Viewpoint || By Webmaster
The following is a reader's commentary. It does not reflect the views of the board of directors of Tube City Community Media Inc. or contributors to Tube City Almanac.
. . .
Reader "Joe Lysle" responds to Tuesday's Almanac by passing along a link to the Daily News and says:
The biggest problem was sightseeing? Really? Really?
Not that we maybe don't have enough trucks, or salt, or people to drive those trucks? He's actually going to blame everyone else for this? Bulls--t.
I'll admit, I wasn't here for most of it. I was in Mansfield, Ohio, from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon. But what I did see was a salt spreader "preparing" for the storm on Friday by laying a singular 30-foot strip of salt down Grandview (next to the cemetery) after following it the entire way up Versailles from Coursin Street.
When my wife hiked around the neighborhood (down to Lampert's and then up again towards the Viking) on Saturday, she saw no sign of any truck at all.
When I got home on Sunday, I didn't see any vehicles until Monday early afternoon, when I saw two of the public works trucks inexplicably go down Garbett Avenue, get stuck in the snow on the side of the road, then call a backhoe to pull them out.
Did the backhoe drop the plow on any of the four trips it made up and down Garbett, Abraham or Grandview? No. I watched.
A few hours later, I actually did see a few loaded salt trucks (with plows) make a handful of trips around our corner. Did they spread salt or lower the plow? Nope. Not once.
I know this, because I watched again. It's easy to hear them coming because there's no other traffic in our neighborhood.
Our neighborhood didn't actually get a plowing pass until late (Tuesday) night.
My neighbors and I have been doing our part. We've been digging out the other folks, helping to push cars through the intersection, and clearing the street.
All I'm asking is that the City not act like the reason we didn't get serviced is because we were in the way, or make some false assertion that they're "getting everywhere as soon as they can."
If there were so many tourists and sightseers, then I suppose I should put up my Christmas lights again and collect a donation from each car like I'm the f---ing Celebration of Lights at Oglebay.
I actually went to work yesterday morning, and the obvious shortcomings of our ineffectual City management and public works employees was only further underscored by the fact that both Walnut and Fifth Avenue were still in p-ss-poor condition three days after the storm began, but that I saw two employees sharing the back-breaking labor of pushing a single one-handed salt spreader on the clean, snow-free, dry section of sidewalk in front of the police/fire building -- while another one carried a shovel and watched.
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The preceding was a guest commentary. Responsible replies are welcome.
Tube City Community Media is committed to printing viewpoints from residents of the McKeesport area and surrounding municipalities. Commentaries are accepted at the discretion of the editor and may be edited for content or length.
To submit a commentary for consideration, please write to P.O. Box 94, McKeesport 15134, or email jtogyer -at - gmail -dot- com. Include contact information and your real name. A pen name may be substituted with approval of the editor.
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Category: Commentary/Editorial || By Jason Togyer
Since the Steelers swan-dived this season, Western Pennsylvania has had little need for Monday morning quarterbacks.
Instead, they've all re-invented themselves as Monday-morning snow-plowing experts.
It doesn't matter if the most complicated piece of equipment you've ever operated is a fork to your mouth --- everyone has a theory about why it took so long to clear the roads.
Especially people on Twitter, Facebook and, Lord he'p us, talk radio. They've kept the lines buzzing on KDKA, the official radio station of people who get up three times a night to pee.
. . .
One guy called Marty Griffin --- the only man! in Pittsburgh! who speaks! In exclamation points! --- and recommended a certain brand of road-grader. He was giving out the name of the dealer that handles that particular make when he was cut off.
Marty, giving credence to my Monday-morning quarterback comparison, had his own theory: "It's like a football game! And the plow crews got behind! You can't do that! You can't get behind in the first half!"
No doubt snow-plowing, like football, is a game of inches, and you've got to give 110 percent, too, and execute the plays, and blah blah blah.
. . .
Mostly, people were just complaining. "You ought to come out to McKeesport, the streets are like driving on a washboard." "We haven't seen a plow in New Kensington for three days." "We have two feet of snow on the street in Brighton Heights."
On and on it went, community after community. I was waiting for Grandpa Simpson to call: "I'm cold, and there are wolves after me."
The people who really made me laugh are the ones who said --- and I quote --- "I'd gladly pay more taxes if they'd plow the streets better."
. . .
Har-har-hardee-har-har. If any municipality raised taxes but promised to hire more public-works employees and buy more snow plows, the mayor and council would be boiled in oil.
Pittsburgh Councilman Bruce Kraus, also on KDKA: "We just need to find the money. I'm the chairman of the finance committee, I'll find the money."
Wanna find some money, councilman? Eliminate four of Pittsburgh's nine full-time paid council members. I'll bet that would pay for more plows and drivers.
. . .
Now, it's possible that every single community in Allegheny County has incompetent public-works officials. Or, it's also possible that usual plowing techniques don't work when you have 22 inches of heavy snow and ice.
I did some complaining myself. Sunday morning, I went out to help my neighbors dig. "I haven't seen the borough's plow since Friday night," I said.
"Not true," my neighbor corrected me. "They were past here at least five times last night. It just isn't doing anything."
. . .
Later on, I tried to get my car out of a parking space. It took two road flares, a pound of salt and an ice-pick to chip away the frozen snow under the tires.
When the borough's plow went by a few minutes later, I watched the blade bounce uselessly off of the road.
On Monday morning, I saw city crews plowing Walnut Street in tandem --- using a backhoe to scrape ice and following along behind with a conventional snow plow.
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Old neighborhoods with narrow streets present another problem. Big dump trucks can't make it through older streets, so many local public works departments use pickup trucks to plow instead. But they're not heavy enough to bust through the snow, and one local cop tells me the pickup trucks are getting stuck, too.
Why are some communities doing a better job? Well, I suspect they have fewer alleys and less densely populated neighborhoods.
And their streets are wider --- they were planned in the 1950s and '60s, not the 1850s --- and their residents have off-street parking. My street, built in the 1920s, is a mess. Nearby post-war streets with newer homes look pretty good.
. . .
By way of disclaimer, I should admit that my grandfather drove a snow plow for the old state Department of Highways (pre-PennDOT) and Port Vue Borough.
Admittedly, he loved this kind of weather. Snow plowing "was like hunting camp for him," says mom. "He got away from us, loaded up the Thermos and disappeared for a couple of days."
(He died in January 1996 during a tremendous blizzard that forced us to delay his burial several days. I still maintain he would have thought that was hilariously ironic.)
. . .
So, maybe I'm soft-hearted. But even though I was stuck in my neighborhood for two days, I still suspect local governments are doing as well as can be expected.
And seriously, just where the hell do we all need to go so badly? Everything's closed. I got two consecutive snow days for the first time in my working life.
Two free days of paid vacation. I'm not complaining.
Nevertheless, I did venture out again on Tuesday. I went Downtown to the state store and got a bottle of scotch.
Sorry, but after listening to people bellyache about snow plowing for four solid days, I needed to get a little plowed myself.
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Category: News || By Jason Togyer
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Category: News || By Jason Togyer
A power outage at a pumping station has forced Pennsylvania-American Water Company to issue a mandatory water conservation notice for all customers in Allegheny and Washington counties.
The company did not identify which pumping station is affected, but Penn-American draws water from the Monongahela River at Elrama and Becks Run.
Customers who are served by the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County in the city, Port Vue, White Oak and other communities are not affected.
However, MAWC customers in parts of Murrysville are suffering low or no water pressure due to a power outage at a pumping station in the Sardis Road area, an authority spokesman said.
Penn-American service areas in the Mon-Yough region include Glassport, Liberty Borough, Lincoln Borough, Lincoln Place, Munhall and West Mifflin and many surrounding communities.
The order from Penn-American asks customers to refrain from using water "for showers, dishwashing, flushing, cooking or drinking until the issue is resolved."
The company said it will notify customers of service resumption through its website.
Heavy snowfall snapped tree limbs and power lines throughout Western Pennsylvania. About 85,000 customers were without power Saturday morning, according to Allegheny County officials.
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Category: News || By Jason Togyer
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Category: News || By Jason Togyer
Pension plans for all city employees will be switched from Huntingdon Bank to Pittsburgh-based Hefren-Tillotson in a move officials hope will improve returns and lower costs.
At Wednesday's meeting, council by 6-0 vote approved transferring the defined-benefit retirement plans for police, firefighters and other personnel. Councilwoman Loretta Diggs was absent due to illness.
About 180 retirees are affected but should see no disruption in the distribution of their checks, City Administrator Dennis Pittman says.
. . .
Huntingdon had managed the funds since taking over Cleveland-based Sky Bank. City officials felt the pensions would be better served by using a full-time brokerage, Pittman says.
Seven firms submitted proposals to manage the pension plans. Mayor James Brewster, Controller Ray Malinchak, Solicitor J. Jason Elash, Pittman and representatives of the city's employee unions interviewed representatives of each plan before reaching a "unanimous consensus" to recommend Hefren-Tillotson, Pittman says.
"Not only was it a good interview process, we learned a lot, and I have to compliment everyone who participated," Malinchak says.
. . .
According to the Better Business Bureau of Western Pennsylvania, Hefren-Tillotson has an "A-plus" rating for resolving consumer differences.
The firm, founded in 1948, has 10,000 clients and manages investments worth more than $4 billion, according to a 2009 article in Pittsburgh Quarterly.
Aligned Partners Trust Co., also of Pittsburgh, will serve as trustee for the city's pension funds.
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New Chief, Ass't Sworn In: In other business, about 50 family members and friends of the city's new chief and assistant chief of police came to council chambers last night to see them take their oaths of office.
Bryan Washowich, formerly chief of the detective bureau, has been named police chief, while 20-year city police veteran Tom Greene takes over as assistant chief. They replace Joe Pero and Al Tedesco, who both retired.
"We lost two outstanding public servants, but their opinions weighed heavily on our decision to hire these two men," Brewster says.
"We have talked many, many times in a last four weeks since Al left, and I feel very confident that B.J. and Tom will provide the leadership we need," he says.
Among the first tasks for the department's new command staff is creation of what the mayor described as a comprehensive, city-wide plan to address public safety concerns.
Details will likely be announced in March, Brewster says.
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Salt Bins Ready: The city's salt bins are full in preparation for an expected winter storm this weekend, says Nick Shermenti, public works director.
Of 3,000 tons of salt allotted to the city, 2,200 tons have been used, much of during the last two weeks of December and first two weeks of January, he says.
"If we can get past this weekend, I think we'll be OK," Shermenti says.
The National Weather Service has predicted a total snow accumulation of six to 12 inches in the Mon-Yough area between 12 noon Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday.
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Category: News || By Jason Togyer
A longtime Downtown eyesore could be demolished in the near future.
Council is expected to vote Wednesday night to transfer the four-and-a-half story Lysle Boulevard parking garage to the city's Redevelopment Authority.
The transfer --- discussed at a council work session Tuesday night --- would be the first step toward selling the site to a private developer, who city officials said would likely level the 440-space garage, built in 1959.
. . .
Located on a 1.4-acre lot between Tube Works Alley and Locust Street, the garage is assessed at $1.9 million, according to Allegheny County tax records.
But cars have not been allowed to use the structure since 1999, when falling chunks of concrete damaged several vehicles. At the time, former Mayor Joseph Bendel said the garage needed between $800,000 and $1.5 million in repairs to remain open to the public.
Some repairs were made to stablize the facility, and since then, the lower levels have been used for storage of construction equipment and boats from McKees Point Marina.
. . .
Citing confidentiality concerns, officials would not comment either on or off the record on possible buyers for the parking garage.
"Some of these investors will walk away if they think we're disclosing their business," Mayor James Brewster told council Tuesday night. "It is not a done deal, but I think (council) is going to be very pleased."
However, third parties unconnected with the city have told the Almanac that one potential buyer could be the Tribune-Review Publishing Co., parent company of the McKeesport Daily News and a string of suburban weeklies currently based in Monroeville.
. . .
In June 2008, the Pittsburgh Business Times reported that Tribune-Review Publishing was looking at McKeesport as the possible site for a satellite printing operation that would consolidate four older plants.
The Daily News' current printing plant, built in the 1930s, is located next to the Lysle parking garage. Squeezed between railroad tracks and Lysle Boulevard, it lacks a parking lot or any room to expand.
City officials Tuesday night would not speculate either publicly or privately on those rumors.
. . .
"There are actually several parties who are interested in it," Brewster said. "I can tell you I'm really excited about it, but when you're dealing with real estate matters, all of these things are confidential."
At least one councilman Tuesday night questioned whether the city should transfer any properties to the Redevelopment Authority without knowing who the eventual buyer will be.
"I'd like to see the caveats first," said Councilman Darryl Segina, who added he regrets approving the transfer of the Midtown Plaza Mall to Pittsburgh developer Barry Stein.
Although Stein demolished the Midtown parking deck over Fifth Avenue and renovated several storefronts, the rest of the redevelopment has stalled.
"When I voted for it, I didn't realize it was going to be a 25-year project," Segina said.
. . .
Any reuse of the Lysle Boulevard site would have to be approved by council, and possibly by the Zoning Hearing Board and the Planning Commission, city Administrator Dennis Pittman told councilors Tuesday night.
"The final disposition has to come back to council for its OK," he said. "You will get full disclosure at that time, and the opportunity (whether) to vote yes."
Council meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the public safety building, 201 Lysle Blvd.
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