Category: default || By jt3y

First, some housekeeping: I am going to be taking a few days off from the Almanac next week. (To quote Jack Benny, "there will now be a slight pause while you say, 'who cares?'") Anyway, it's about time for me to get that trepanning job I've been putting off. The good news is that it looks like Alert Reader Officer Jim is going to step in as the guest Almanac diarist. Please, be nice. (He's a trained killer.)

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Alert Reader Jeff asks if Our Fair City is "the new Connellsville." Meaning, with four fires breaking out the same night, do we have a firebug on the loose?

According to Pat Cloonan's story in the News, one of the blazes was accidental in nature. One was in a vacant house in the Sixth Ward, another was in a garage in the Third Ward, and the third was in a trash bin at Crawford Village.

All three sites are about a mile and a half apart, so it's possible someone took a stroll down Versailles and Shaw avenues and started lighting buildings up. There was also a torch job on Jenny Lind Street in May in which a house with nine people inside was set ablaze; thankfully, everyone got out OK.

It's good that people are asking questions when three suspicious fires break out the same night, though I think the Pittsburgh TV stations jumped the gun a little bit with their scary music and overwrought rhetoric.

I know, I know, TV news, overreacting? Never!

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Meanwhile, it looks like Picksberg developer Barry Stein and the city are going to reach an agreement to finish rehabilitating the old Midtown Plaza Mall, according to Jonathan Barnes in the Post-Gazette. A lot of people over the last 30 years have thought the best way to rehab Midtown Plaza would be to dig a big hole and push it in, but Stein is planning about $1.5 million worth of renovations to the large enclosed part between Fifth and Sixth avenues, as well as work on the parking garage.

Eliminating the parking deck over Fifth Avenue eliminated the loafers who used to frequent that dank, dark cavern, Stein says, and I'll agree it was a major improvement. I wish him lots of luck, and it's also nice to see the city is cooperating with him.

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From the Mon Valley Good Government Dept. comes word that you'll want to keep a flashlight handy if you're driving through Elrama. Scott Beveridge wrote in Thursday's Observer-Reporter that Allegheny Power is turning off the streetlights in Union Township because of unpaid utility bills. According to Scott's story, many property owners are refusing to pay the $18 streetlight tax, and Union Township is now into Allegheny Power for $2,500.

That's not the worst of Union's problems. There are $200,000 in other unpaid bills piled up at the township building, the police force is probably going to be disbanded, and there's a fraud investigation underway of the business office.

The next meeting of the township supervisors is set for June 13. It seems to me Union could make a couple of extra bucks by selling popcorn, because I have a feeling it's going to be very entertaining.

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Finally, a little good news to report: North Huntingdon Township's Police Athletic League has been promised up to $25,000 by General Motors and Major League Baseball to upgrade one of the baseball diamonds in Shafton. It was damaged twice by flooding, in September and in January.

According to Sarah Norris in the Tribune-Review, one of the board members at PAL, Al Bergman, wrote an essay to the judges of GM and MLB's "Diamond in the Rough" contest and enclosed a photo of the field to bolster his case. You can read his winning essay here.

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To Do This Weekend: Mon Yough Trail Council hosts its annual "Yough-N-Roll Bike Ride" tomorrow, beginning at the trail entrance in Boston, Elizabeth Township. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m. for the 40 mile ride and at 8:30 for the 20 mile ride. For more information, call (412) 754-1100. ... Animal Friends will sponsor a rabies clinic for dogs and cats, three months of age and older, at McKeesport Fire Department Station No. 2, Eden Park Boulevard near Renziehausen Park. Inoculations will be done on a first-come, first-served basis from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday. Call (412) 566-2103. ... Pianist and guitarist Matt Tichon plays Beemer's, West Fifth Avenue, at 9:30 tonight. Call (412) 678-7400.