Sewickley Herald

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Serving Aleppo, Bell Acres, Edgeworth, Glenfield, Haysville, Leet, Leetsdale, Osborne, Sewickley, Sewickley Heights, Sewickley Hills
\7ol, 96 No.;7 :;
Wednesday, February!?, 1999/
Friends, neighbors and visitors to the Quaker Valley won’t be able to “picture” this year’s Community Guide without you. See Page 6.
‘	50 Cents
Sports
. N Three of the four local basketball teams '" ■ "h'avd'	distihgUish'dd
themselves as Section Champions. All four are in the playoff race.
Page 61
Nows
■ It's the Year of the Hare according to Chinese tradition. China Palace restaurant is ready to celebrate the new year.
Page 4
THE FIRST: The Daniel B. Matthews Historical Society of Sewickley shared the warmth of achievement in the ballroom of the Edgeworth Club on Saturday. For more on this special salute to minority pathfinders pioneers in media, see Page 9.
▼ SEWICKLEY
Church
■ Lenten programs are on the calendars at local churches as the season of Easter preparation begins today, Ash Wednesday.
Page 66
Chief gets officers back to community
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Not too many people in the village can say that when they need a police officer they can just call, “John,” “Rich,” “Tom,” or “Dan,” and wave them over.
However, Police Chief John Mook wants to change that and bring back the “beat officer” to Sewickley,
“Many people in the borough say that they never see an officer,” said Mook at Sewickley’s Committee of the Whole meeting last week.
The announcement of Mode’s plan came on the heels of an informal study of die community liaison office in the borough building.
Mook found that keeping the office open after normal business hours and on weekends with part-time officers was not an efficient investment of the officer’s time.
Mook stated that he even worked a Friday night shift and recorded only one phone call,
Emergency calls are being handled by Northwest Communications	in
McCandless through the 911 service.
Mook also noted that since a pay phone and ticket box are already outside, there’s really no reason for the public to enter the building after business hours.
“I can put that part-time man on the street,” said Mook.
“This is how you get back into the community.”
Mook explained that having a beat officer will also be a better crime deterrent than just having a police car roll past every few hours.
“It’s difficult to see your police officer behind steel and glass.
“You’re a lot closer on the street. The kids get to know you and trust you. The people start talking to you,” said Mook,
As an aside, Councilman Mike Glenn brought up the point that the police department also has bicycles for officers to use as well.
Mook replied that the choice to ride the bike is up to the individual officers.
▼ SEWICKLEY
Parking woes for discussion at later date
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Residents seeking relief from extreme parking hardships within Sewickley Borough will have to wait until council addresses the entire parking issue later on this year.
“We create a greater problem for the borough by granting hardship reliefs,” said Kevin Flannery, borough manager.
“We would be defeating our own zoning ordinance in relieving the hardships.”
Counting the main streets in Sewickley, Beaver and Broad, among others, in an informal	assessment,
Flannery stated that there could very well be as many as 100 hardships.
Police Chief John Mook agreed.
“Whenever council passes an ordinance, it’s up to the police department to enforce that ordinance,” he said, “and we have to enforce it equitably. There’s no way to selectively enforce that ordinance.”
Councilman Richard Brandt, who was an advocate of issuing permit stickers to hardship cases for a monthly fee, maintained his stance throughout the discussion.
“I don’t see how you could give out permits to a few people without giving them to everybody,” said Mook.
Councilman Mike Glenn, who has taken on the task of looking into solutions for the parking problem, said he and Jon Showe, council president, spoke to Greg Shepard of Park-A-Lot Company and found that the idea of building either an above-ground or below-ground parking garage won’t float.
“It will never be cost-effective,” reported Glenn. “The borough will always he subsidizing it.”
Showe said the talk with ™- CantinwMl or rm> page