Category: default || By jt3y

The first free medical clinic outside of Pittsburgh will open next week in the YWCA of McKeesport, Downtown. The Ninth Street Clinic will be staffed by volunteer doctors and nurses on Thursday nights, Laurie MacDonald, interim executive director of the Y, told the Almanac this week.

The clinic will be headed by Dr. Bill Markle, a family practice physician at UPMC McKeesport, MacDonald says, and will be modeled after Pittsburgh's Birmingham Free Clinic.

The clinic is intended to answer a need for medical care among the Mon-Yough area's working poor, she says. "A lot of people don't have insurance but do have jobs, and they don't qualify for (free) medical assistance," MacDonald says. People without health insurance wind up using emergency rooms for illnesses that would otherwise be treated by a family practice doctor. Perhaps more seriously, chronic conditions that could be treated through regular visits to a doctor wind up as debilitating illnesses before the patient finally visits an ER.

In addition to providing preventative and pallative care, the McKeesport clinic will also be referring patients to mental health and mental retardation services, MacDonald says. The clinic will be 100 percent staffed by volunteers, and if you or someone you know can help, call (412) 664-4304.

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Y? Because We Need It: It's no secret around town that the YWCA has been struggling for some time with declining membership, though it continues to offer community services like Y-Teens for local girls, and to function as a community center for activities like the clinic.

But a little birdie recently told the Almanac that the YMCA is entering serious financial difficulty, brought on in part by the cost of maintaining its beautiful but expensive landmark building at the corner of Sinclair and Ringgold streets.

Besides offering a very good collection of fitness equipment, a nice swimming pool, an indoor running track and exercise classes for all ages, the Y also offers "residence rooms" for transients and the poor, and the upkeep on those is steep while the "profit" is slim to non-existent.

I learned to swim at the McKeesport Y and took my driving test there, and generations of other local kids have taken advantage of health and fitness classes, personal development coaching and other community services. If you're paying for an expensive membership at some commercially-run gym in Monroeville or West Mifflin, consider joining the YMCA instead. It's cheaper and every bit as good, plus your membership helps support an important resource to the community.

And if you can contribute time or treasure (the McKeesport YMCA is a United Way qualified agency --- make sure to designate Code 112 on your form), consider doing so. We need agencies like the YMCA now more than ever. To volunteer, call (412) 664-9168.

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I Want to Ride My Bicycle: U.S. Steel Corp. and Allegheny County announced yesterday that 1.5 miles of property near the former Duquesne Works has been transferred to the Regional Trail Corporation. Once grading and other improvements are complete, the new land will close a major gap in the planned hiking and biking trail between Point State Park and Washington, D.C. ... and incidentally, will provide easy bike trail access to Kennywood.

U.S. Steel cleared the land by removing parts of the old pipeline that carried coke oven gas from Clairton to the former blast furnaces in Duquesne and also began the process of grading the land for the trail. (Map)

A significant gap still exists Downtown between Christy Park and Duquesne. In a prepared statement, Allegheny Trail Alliance President Linda McKenna Boxx said that local agencies and volunteers are “we’re working hard to make the connection to Point State Park by next fall.” She hopes to have the entire 335-mile-long "Great Allegheny Passage" complete in time for Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary celebration next year. (Tube City hard-hat tip: Alert Reader Kris.)

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To Do This Weekend: Norwin Senior High School, Mockingbird Drive, North Huntingdon, presents The Taffetas, at 8 p.m. today and tomororow in the auditorium. Admission is $5. Call (724) 861-3005 ... Deaconess Ministry of Mount Carmel Baptist Church, 90 Port Perry Road, Crestas Terrace, North Versailles, holds its spring tea from 12 to 3 p.m. Saturday. Featured speaker is Rev. Avis Williams of First Baptist Church, West Mifflin. Call (412) 823-2841 ... Pleasant Hills Rotary Club will hold an all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner and a bake sale from 1 to 7 p.m. tomorrow at the Pleasant Hills Community Church, 199 Old Clairton Road. Tickets are $7 for adults, $4 for children under 12. Call (412) 551-6015.