Sewickley Herald

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Sewickiey
A Gateway Publications .Newspaper
If printed on recycled paper, WWW.9hpius.c0m
Serving Aleppo, Bell Acres, Edgeworth, Glenfield, Haysville, Leet, Leetsdale, Osborne, Sewickiey, Sewickiey Heights, Sewickiey Hills
Vol. 96 No, 4 r '
Wecfnes'day, Japaaty\27,/ 1999 V
Members of Sewickiey United Methodist Church will gather together to prepare the best turkey dinner this side of thanksgiving.
See Page 15.

■v ; INSIDE.
Church
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■'The Rev. Barry Lewis • welcomed those who attended a community service for Christian Unify to Sewickiey United Methodist.
Page 16
Lifestyles
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■ David B. Matthews Historical Society of Sewickiey will host a civic luncheon at tire Edgeworth Club on Feb. 13. For details,
Page 13
Sports
■ QV's Hall of Fame has expanded its vision to include many of the other sports-related, non-profit organizations in the area. See
Page 21
PROJECT UPDATE: Sandy Hughes, vice president of Landau Building Co., general contractor, explained the progress of the construction to guests on the Sewickiey Public Library tour. Hearing about the new children's area from Hughes (center) were (from left) Jim Phipps, Marvin Wedeen, Nancy Chalfant-Walker and Joyce Cortese. For more, see Page 11.
Photo by David Murdoch
▼ SEWICKLEY
Council attends to water concerns
1$ Mark IsrlM
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Sewickiey Council made headway in trying to understand the plight of the Sewickiey Water Authority at last week’s council meeting.
While they had only planned to have Hugh McMaster, Jr., board chair, and Bay Wolfgang give a presentation on the current state of the authority, the entire board turned out en force
Wolfgang spoke in detail on many issues that the water Authority has faced in the past few months. Not surprisingly, the rate hike was on the list.
‘There’s a demand for more accountability from the water authority,” said Wolfgang, who explained that the rate hike was not an arbitrary move on
the authority’s part, but rather a culmination of several predicaments.
‘The age of the valves; the age of the piping is becoming a concern,” he said, adding that automation of the plant needs improvement as well,.
‘There have been a number of ongoing projects,” said Wolfgang, “The system hasn’t been neglected.”
Instead, heavy fines from the Department of Environmental Protection, coupled with the inevitable need for a water tank and upgrades of a tailing system, have forced the water authority to raise rates.
And, according to Wolfgang, options, such as purchasing water elsewhere, are out.
‘(The repairs) would still have to be done regardless of
whether or not you buy bulk water,” said Wolfgang. “There's quite a problem with the age of the facilities and it’s not going to get better. It’s only going to get worse.” -Perhaps the.oniy thing bigger than the rate increase for the upgrades will be the size of the new water tank.
The structure'Will hold 200 million gallons of water and stand close to 250-feet high, as tall as the Northwest Communications tower.
Proposed sites for the water tank are behind the Allegheny Country Club, close to the Sewickiey Haights municipal building; at the existing site of the current water tank; and, lastly, in Aleppo.
Lite the rate increase, there Seems to be no alternative to —* Continued on next page
Budgets melt while keeping roads ice free
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Area municipalities handled the winter weather that wreaked havoc with area roadways earlier this month well, but that clearing did not came without a price.
Osborne officials reported that the borough had used 79 tons of salt from Jan. 1-18.
The roads have been rela-; tively clear with no complaints, according to Joe Reiser, public works chairman.
But, the borough has used 90 percent of the money from the new budget allotted for snow removal for the year, according to Louis Naugle, finance committee chairman.
He broke the news to council ' gently, saying that Catherine Susko, also of the finance committee, had increased the initial amount suggested for snow removal in the preliminary budget.
But despite the increase, snow removal costs to date, for salt and labor, almost equal the appropriated amount.
In the budget, $6,200 had been allocated for 1999, but costs, which include salt and manpower, have reached $5,580 since mid-December.
However, Osborne residents have-nothing to worry about, according to Naugle The budgeted amount is only a line number.
‘We don’t have a problem because we have an undesignated reserve we can tap into."
Enough money left from other sources of income and the carry-over from last year will help to cover costs for future snow removal.
In deciding what amount was to be allocated, Naugie said, the committee had taken an average from the past 5 winters, some up and some down.
“We budgeted for a much milder winter, but sometimes this happens.”
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