Sewickley Herald

              Sewickley
A Gateway Publications Newspaper
No task is too small for Lew Safran, owner of Safran’s Market and the Sewickley Herald’s Man of the Year for 1998. For his story, see Page 13.
VoJ. 96 No. 14
Serving Aleppo, Bell Acres, Edgeworth, Glenfield, Haysville, Leet, Leetsdale, Osborne, Sewickley, Sewickley Heights, Sewickley Hills
Wednesday, April 7,1999
INSIDE
Sports
Soccer brings players from many schools onto the field for high-spirited team play. Cooperation is key.
Page B1
Letters
■ This week's Letters to the Editor respond to local and international topics from QV sports and HUD housing to the crisis in Kosovo.
Page 8-10
Lifestyles
■ The season hasn't ended for events to suit every interest. To find out what's going on in Sewickley, see
Page 15
INDEX
Incal News -....	
Opinion.......	.,,.6
Lifestyles.,....	.. 13
Sports 	 			
Church.......	.811
Obits........	
▼ SPRING BREAK	.'V
FEELS LIKE SUMMER: Sunny days brought the children into the parks last week. Sunbathing was the order of the day in Way Park for (from left) Bethany and Scott Pulkowski and Mimi and Gerard Rothfus, all of Sewickley.
Pliolo by Wendy Whlttemore
CTM
Brooke’s cancer goes into remission
By Mark Btrlcn Staff writer
Perhaps prayer was a factor. Maybe luck, maybe technology,
Whatever the reasons, Brooke Perkins and her family are not going to question the remission of her cancer following a bone marrow transplant (BMT) two months ago,
While not out of the woods completely, Brooke’s recovery from the BMT is going smoothly.
“She has more energy than Bryan and I put together,” said Garnet Duzicky, Brooke’s mother.
The five-year-old was diagnosed with two separate inoperable cancers in her abdomen, and for the past year has undergone several bouts of chemotherapy leading up to the BMT, a procedure that, in some cases, has been fatal.
A BMT injects two different chemotherapy drugs into what is called a “central line,” a catheter inserted into the patient's chest wall that runs directly to a vein near the heart.
Brooke had two central lines for a period of
time before the BMT, but, according to her mother, is down to one which will be removed on the 100th day of her recovery,
The BMT requires a full 100 days of recovery following the D-day barrage of chemotherapy.
During those eight days, the body's bone marrow cells are destroyed, requiring frozen replacement cells harvested beforehand to be transplanted into the body after the chemicals run their course,
While not able to play with friends or visit high traffic public places such as fast food restaurants because of a weakened immune system, Brooke is in the middle of her 100-day recovery and is still going strong, according to Brooke’s uncle, Dave Powers.
“She does have to be isolated from places with a lot of germs and she's not allowed to swim, but she has 45 days to go and (the family) just got back from a trip to Niagara Falls," said Powers.
The trip is the first major outing for Brooke since she was diagnosed last year.
“We asked the doctor if it would be all right,” -..........■.——■ Continued on next page
rmmumi
Council sends protest letter to task force
By Mark Berton
__________Staff writer_______
A letter sent to the Pittsburgh office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development protesting the proposed acquistion of two houses in Sewickley by the Sanders Task Force will, most likely, be ineffective, according to disk force administrator, Joyce Norrish.
The houses, 516 Ohio River Boulevard and 529 Bank St., represent just two out of 60 houses in Allegheny County that are currently "in the pipeline,” said Norrish.
Having to place 100 houses, the task force is 60 percent to its goal in only the fourth year of its seven-year mission.
Even though Sewickley is arguing that more than 25 percent of borough property is tax exempt and that placing these houses will “add to the financial burden of taxable property owners," Norrish said these are not factors that the Task Force takes into consideration.
“The city of Pittsburgh is over 50 percent tax exempt,” said Norrish, “and Rankin is over 40 percent tax exempt.
“We figure that Rankin is smaller than Sewickley in size and over 40 percent of its land is non-taxabie."
While recent lack of funding will set back the purchase of additional houses, Norrish assured that financial problems will not stop the purchase of houses in Sewickley.
“HUD is confident that funding will go through. Right now, we’re in a holding pattern," said Norrish.
“It might slow us down, but it’s only a matter of time.”
The letter, a two-page plea for reconsideration, claims that “two properties in the borough of Sewickley is disproportionately high by virtually any measuring stick,” a statement that Norrish also disagrees with.
———* Continued on Pogc 2
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