Category: Mon Valley Miscellany, News || By

How was your Thanksgiving? The last time I saw that much pale white turkey, I was shaving. But seriously, folks:

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Former cow-orker Scott Beveridge did a wonderful job rounding up stories about the infamous Donora Smog and the commemorative events that marked the 60th anniversary of that tragedy. (This should have been mentioned back in October, but time slipped away.)

Scott also reports that this Saturday will mark the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Donora-Webster Bridge.

They don't make 'em like this any more ... a steel truss (specifically, a Parker truss) made of lacy structural members built up from smaller pieces.

Slowly but surely, these old truss bridges are disappearing, replaced by cheap (but boring) concrete or deck-girder bridges. The last significant truss bridge that was built in the Mon Valley was probably the Glenwood Bridge back in 1966.

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My fellow Tartan Derrick Brashear, former longtime web guru for Tube City Online, noted recently that an old steel bridge in Butler is about to be replaced.

"I'm one of what seems like must be five people in the world who are products of engineering discipline and doesn't believe that form should be forgotten and only function is worth paying for," he says, "and the bridge they're going to build is yet another one of the usual 'slap a trio of beams over concrete T-bar piers' that are supplanting older, interesting structures with history and character."

Concludes Derrick: "We can't preserve or reuse everything. That doesn't mean I have to be happy about it."

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Meanwhile, just upstream from Scott Beveridge, we note that Kevin G. Barkes (of the KGB Report) has moved back to the Mon Valley.

Specifically, to Fayette City, which as many of you know, isn't a city.

It's no exaggeration to say that Barkes is now the leading computer consultant in all of Fayette City.

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To the long list of things Bill Balsamico doesn't like --- including the former Norwin Dodge, non-white immigrants, Arabs and people who speak English as a second language, we can now add music licenses.

Balsamico, owner of Casa d'Ice Restaurant in North Versailles, is being sued in federal court by Broadcast Music Inc. The restaurant is known worldwide for the outrageous messages posted on its Route 30 marquee.

According to the Tribune-Review, Balsamico ignored at least 30 warnings that he was required to get a BMI license to perform copyrighted music on the premises.

As a part-time employee of one radio station and a volunteer at another, I can assure you that although a BMI license isn't cheap, the penalties for not having one are even more expensive.

And although I'm half-German, I'll try to control my schadenfreude.

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Letter to the Editor: Alert Reader B.C. writes:

"For years I lived in Fawcett Plan, then White Oak, and now Christy Park. I like the city ... (but) in my 42 years of traversing back and forth through McKeesport I shake my head at some of the conditions I see.

"For example, at Fifth and Lincoln Way the red light got smacked by a car. Rather than installing a new pole, it's propped up against the guardrail. Really classy.

"When you enter McKeesport from the Jerome Street Bridge you see a sign that says 'Forging Our Future From Roots of Steel.' Isn't that motto kind of outdated?

"What else is really bad is the litter you see in front of Dollar General and the bum that sleeps or hangs out on the corner by Kwik Cash. Either way you enter McKeesport, the sights are not very appealing.

"Another joke is the condition of Fifth Avenue between the Jerome Street Bridge and Dravosburg Bridge. When are they going to bite the bullet and rip out the old street car tracks so they don't have to repave every four years or sooner?

"The last time they paved that stretch, they supposedly used some type of new asphalt that was guaranteed for at least ten years. After about four years it was worn out, and we've still been driving on it for an additional four years. I wonder if they ever got their money reimbursed?"

Well, we covered the West Fifth Avenue situation back in May. (It's worth pointing out that the light pole on the city side which was knocked down more than a year ago is still laying on the sidewalk in front of Casturo Iron and Metal.)

The city's trying to find the money to repave West Fifth Avenue at the same time the Mansfield Bridge is rehabbed, but the preliminary cost was estimated at $750,000, and removing the trolley tracks would cost another $500,000. I'm going to assume that most of the problems come down to money, or lack of it.

As for "bums" and other people loitering Downtown, unfortunately, anti-loitering ordinances are very hard to enforce. The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that loitering is protected under the First Amendment.

In a landmark 1972 ruling in the case Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville, Justice William O. Douglas called the freedom to loaf or loiter one of "the amenities of life ... responsible for giving our people the feeling of independence and self-confidence."

Of course, Justice Douglas never had to wait for a bus amidst the loiterers and loafers on Eighth Avenue in Homestead at night. He would have felt a lot less self confident.