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Sandcastle nearing bike trail agreement (P-G)

Tuesday, 13 July 2010 13:53 MAV
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Last link in Great Allegheny Passage

By Jon Schmitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Allegheny County and Sandcastle Waterpark are expected to announce an agreement within days that will allow completion of the last missing piece of a biking and hiking trail linking Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.

"I really expect we'll have a formal announcement in the next couple days," said James Judy, vice president of operations for Palace Entertainment, owner of the park.

"I believe that is probably going to be the case," agreed county spokesman Kevin Evanto.

The deal would cap years of negotiations aimed at finding a way to accommodate the trail on the park's narrow strip of land between a railroad line and the Monongahela River.

The roughly one-mile stretch is the last link in the 150-mile Great Allegheny Passage from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Md., where it connects to the C&O Towpath to Washington.

When all is complete, it will be possible to bike about 335 continuous, mostly flat miles from Pittsburgh to the nation's capital without interference from motorized traffic.

The former owners of Sandcastle for years resisted efforts to build the trail through the park, saying there wasn't enough room.

"The next time you visit Sandcastle take a close look at the tight access road and try to visualize a 10-foot-wide trail running between the road and the railroad tracks. I hope you will conclude that not having the available land wide enough for a trail does not make us stubborn," said Peter McAneny, then-president of Kennywood Entertainment, in a 2008 letter to the Post-Gazette.

[ Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10194/1072356-455.stm?cmpid=HBEHTML#ixzz0tZOYFJWt ]

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 13 July 2010 13:56 )
 

Aging gym holds hope for Homestead (P-G)

Monday, 12 July 2010 13:08 MAV
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Parents and community leaders plan after-school program for middle schoolers
By Vivian Nereim, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Jim Cannistraci, executive director of the Methodist Union of Social Agencies, poses for a portrait Sunday inside the gym, which is owned by the Steel Valley Council of Governments.

The aging gymnasium is an unlikely place to hold the hopes of a community. The walls are faded orange and the basketball hoops have long been out of service, bare backboards with painted-over graffiti. It is cold in the winter and stuffy in the summer. The floor is uneven, coated with dust.

But parents and stakeholders in Homestead believe that with enough money and hard work, the empty gymnasium off 17th Avenue could become a haven for their children, who have little to do after Steel Valley Middle School lets out except sit in the Carnegie Library or wander the streets.

"If they're not somewhere safe, then they're on the corner, or they're watching somebody fighting," said the Rev. Terry Groce, the mother of a 12-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl.

For more than six months, the Rev. Jim Cannistraci has been formulating a plan to give Steel Valley Middle School students a safe space to stay after school, supervised and well-fed.

[ Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10193/1072156-55.stm#ixzz0tTPLbNty ]

Last Updated ( Thursday, 14 October 2010 16:57 )
 

Steel Valley bus service cuts to affect students (P-G)

Thursday, 04 March 2010 15:04 MAV
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By David Whipkey
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Some parents of children attending Steel Valley middle and high schools will be seeking alternative methods of getting the students to class later this spring.

Beginning April 4, the Port Authority will discontinue the 55D West Run-Brierly Lane and 61F Homestead Park bus routes as part of the agency’s Transit Development Plan. According to Steel Valley Superintendent William Kinavey, about 60 students from both the middle and high school use Port Authority service to get to and from school.

Resident Gerry Hawkins asked the school board last week if anything can be done to help those students affected make it to school in a safe manner should no bus service be available.

“This has been reported all through the media,” Ms. Hawkins said of the service changes in Homestead, Munhall and West Homestead. “I know we do not have school buses in the district.”

Board officials said they planned to contact Port Authority to explore possible alternative transit options for affected students.

“I think that we should definitely have a meeting with the Port Authority to see what we can do,” school director Michael Terrick said. “We need to give the parents tools that can help secure some kind of transit to school for their children.”

[Full story available at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10063/1040014-55.stm]

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 26 May 2010 21:47 )
 

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