Category: News || By Staff and Wire Reports

Kettle Collection Down Again: Salvation Army kettles in the Mon Valley are once again falling behind target numbers, according to church officials.

Kettles benefiting the Salvation Army units in the city, Braddock and Homestead are all down by 10 percent from last year --- which itself was a down year for collections.

In all, more than half of the 40 worship and service centers in the Salvation Army's Western Pennsylvania Division are behind their 2008 collections, says spokeswoman Ginny Knor. This year's goal for the 28-county division is $2.5 million; the Allegheny County goal is almost $800,000.

Donations collected in Salvation Army kettles by the McKeesport Corps support after-school programs, an emergency food bank, heating assistance and other programs, a spokesperson said.

Besides the city, the McKeesport Corps also serves Glassport, Liberty, Lincoln, Port Vue, North and South Versailles townships, Versailles, White Oak, and parts of Elizabeth and Forward townships.

Besides depositing donations in the Salvation Army's kettles, contributions to the McKeesport Corps' Red Kettle Campaign can be mailed to 821 Walnut St., McKeesport 15132. Donations can also be made at www.onlineredkettle.com.

"We welcome any groups with unique fundraising ideas to partner with us," says Major Robert Reel, divisional commander of the Salvation Army. "Creativity is key at this point."

Donations for the Braddock Corps should be sent to Salvation Army, 300 Holland Ave., Braddock 15104; while the Steel Valley Corps can be reached at 104 E. Ninth Ave., Homestead 15120.

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Forward Supe Subpoenas Website: A Forward Township supervisor has subpoenaed the operator of the ElizabethBoro.com website, demanding the identities of people posting in a discussion forum.

Supervisor Tom DeRosa is upset over a discussion thread from October and November that accused him of corruption and hiring relatives to work on the township's payroll, according to Eric Slagle in the Daily News.

DeRosa is demanding the IP addresses --- the number identifying an individual computer's connection on the Internet --- of at least three particular posters who made critical comments about him during the last week of October.

The thread has now been locked. Although federal law in most cases protects website owners from libel suits related to comments posted on their pages, posters can be targeted individually.

Website owner Richard Rattanni has posted copies of the subpoena online and urged the anonymous posters to call him personally or contact Sara Rose, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union in Pittsburgh.

Rattanni's network of websites includes individual pages and discussion boards for communities in the mid-Mon Valley, including Elizabeth and Lincoln boroughs, Elizabeth and Forward townships and the City of Monongahela.

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Lincoln Way Closures Posted: Engineering work for the proposed widening of Lincoln Way through White Oak is causing periodic delays and traffic restrictions.

PennDOT District 11 spokesman Jim Struzzi says that restrictions will occur periodically on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., weather permitting, through Dec. 31. Engineering crews are taking samples under the surface of the road in preparation for the planned improvements between Route 48 and State Street.

Flag crews will be on duty, Struzzi says, but motorists should expect delays and changes to traffic patterns from time to time for the remainder of the month.

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Single Lane on Westinghouse Bridge: Meanwhile, eastbound traffic over the Westinghouse Bridge in North Versailles Township is down to a single lane this week.

Crews are repairing bridge pylons, requiring the right, eastbound lane to close. The work should be complete by Friday, Struzzi says.

Approximately 24,000 vehicles daily use the Westinghouse Bridge, which was last rehabilitated in 1983. The 1,500-foot, four-lane bridge built in 1931 is one of many statewide that were rated "structurally deficient," Struzzi says.

The work is part of a $3.9 million project that includes concrete repairs and replacement, painting, weatherization and other improvements to the busy span that carries Route 30 over the Turtle Creek valley. General contractor on the project is Mosites Construction; work will continue through September 2010.