Sewickley Herald

              Sewickley
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Serving Aleppo, Bell Acres, Edgeworth, Glenfield, Haysville, Leet, Leetsdale, Osborne, Sewickley, Sewickley Heights, Sewickley Hills
Wednesday, March 3, 1999
They’re squlg-gles and wiggles drawn by some of the most recognized names In the country. For more on the celebrity doodle auction, see Page 11.
Sdiod
■	SA and QV wrapped . up. .the .celebration, of.
Black History Month this weekend. Creative and performing arts took center stage.
Page 14
People
■	New businesses have come to town and old ones have changed ownership. To find out who and where and what, see
Page R7
Sports ,
H A trust fund has been established in the memory of Jeff Rona, QV graduate and soccer star, to benefit students, athletes and science.
Page B1
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Y(2K)s & Wherefores
Get compliant, not complacent
Be B-L—1 HUUa By MHn
_______________■* Writ writer______________
12:00 a.m. Jan. 1, 2000.
The house is dark, the street lights are inoperative, the car sits immovable in the driveway and your calls of New Year’s wishes to family and friends fall on hushed phones.
All the clamor from the horns and noise-makers, the clinkingchampagne.ekiae&.and the shouts of welcome can’t chase these manmade demons away.
The party’s over — not by choice, but by circumstance
But it doesn’t have to be that way; the picture doesn’t have to be that bleak.
"There is no silver bullet. There is no one-size-fits-all solution." William Sipple
In their pursuit to inform businesses and groups about the Y2K problem, Drs. William Sipple and Frederick Kohun of Robert Morris College, have traveled the world for the last few years lighting fires of hope.
They explained their agenda to the Senior Men’s Club audience at the YMCA in Sewickley: “Our purpose, generally, is two things; one is to inform and the other is to scare.” Sipple said. ‘We used to Just scare people, but now we also try to help solve the problem.”
Sipple, dean of the School of Communications and Information Systems, and Kohun, a Sewickley resident and department head of Computer and Information Systems, have given seminars for CEOs, upper management, educators and small businesses. They have also done an award-winning four-part video series on the subject for PBS.
“Our approach (to Y2K) is in the category of buying insurance No one would be foolish enough to go without homeowners’ insurance, but your wish is not to have to use it,” Sipple said. ‘This is the attitude we’re confronting with the Y2K problem. People who dismiss it outright just play the odds.”
Instead of just dismissing the problem, the duo recommends being well-informed about the situation and taking action accordingly.
The Y2K issue has been known by computer programmers and information technology specialists since the ’60s. Then programmers, due to cost and space restraints, used dates of two-digit fields for the month, day and year,
LECTURING ON Y2K world-wide are Drs. William Sipple and Frederick Kohun of Robert Morris College.
thereby saving megabytes of expensive storage. Now 40 years in the future, when the zeros appear, the old century will be recognized rather than the new one
Many corporations, despite the knowledge, did nothing because it was so far in the future. Many managers made conscious decisions ‘not to do anything” because they would no longer be with the company when the issue became critical.
The future is now, and procrastination is unacceptable.
Sipple and Kohun’s theme sums it up this way; ‘The problem is real, the deadline is immovable and your bottom line will be affected.”
“It was not until we started addressing it as a management problem and a legal problem that we started to get the attention of the corporate higher ups,” Sipple said.
Until this time, it was the “other guy’s” problem, now it’s everyone’s.
Problems ranging from local black-outs to disrupted communication services, among other inconveniences, have been predicted as a result.
“It’s a very simple problem,” Kohun said. ■	CoRfintMd on Next page
▼-SEWICKLEY1
Park planners continue work at river’s edge
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_________Hoff writer_______
It was a more homey scene than what council chamber is used to: a coffee urn, bagels and cream cheese
There were colorful architectural foam boards on sleek black easels in the front of the room and a dozen or so inquisitive people waiting.to hear what the status of the Riverfront Park Project is.
What they heard was easy on the ears. Dina Klavon, a landscape architect who lives near the proposed site for the park, proudly announced, “We have the money. It is going to happen.”
And after two years of preliminary planning and tireless grant applications, the Saturday morning meeting was more of a brainstorming session than a briefing.
Klavon shared her idea of integrating the indigenous plant life of the area into a park that showcases the river, while taking advantage of the railroad that runs along the riverfront.
‘The park would have not only recreational, but educational value,” said Klavon. ‘The park would talk about Sewickley.”
The proposed centerpiece of the park in her original design, which she expects to revise at a later date, is a railroad car. What kind of car is undetermined.
Peggy Standish, who spearheads the project, is in the middle of talks with Conrail people.
Meanwhile the Riverfront Park Committee, which is presently emerging from the Civic Garden Council’s protective wing to become its own entity, has been somewhat successful in securing donations, if not grants.
“We were turned down for the T21,” said Klavon about a transportation grant. She did-
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