Sewickley Herald

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tecyded paper WWW.9hplus.c0m
A Gateway Publications Newspaper
Vol. 96 No. 49
Serving Aleppo, Bell Acres, Edgeworth, Glenfield, Haysville, Leet, Leetsdnle, Osborne, Sewickley, Sewickley Heights, Sewickley Hills
Wednesday, December 8, 1999 • •
Nick Batyko has embraced playing the goalie position, and quite successfully, for Sewickley Academy. For his story, see Page Bf.
50 Cents
INSIDE
Feature
■ She loves all creatures, big and small, so Jackie Fera has become a docent for the Pittsburgh Zoo, Volunteering keeps it all in balance.
Page 2
Lifestyles
■ There are holiday happenings aplenty for everyone to enjoy. With the wonderful kick off of Light-Up Night, the season of sharing has begun.
Page 12
Focus
■ The Millennial Memories series continues with more stories of life in Sewickley in the early days.
Page B12
local News....	* •«i^l
Opinion		....6
School		
lifestyles		...11
Sports		..Bl
Obits «•••••*•	. B14
▼ SANTA CONIES TO TOWN
SEWICKLEY
WISHFUL THINKING: On Saturday, Laura Kuo, age 4 of Sewickley, and other children visited with Santa in Wolcott Park at the end of Quaker Valley Rotary’s annual parade. For more on Sewickley’s holiday season kickoff, “Light-Up Night,” see
page 11.	Photo by Heidi Robb
▼ SEWICKLEY HILLS
Reverse 911 system needs further consideration
ly Mere I. Donovan
__________________Staff write________________
The issue of getting the reverse 911 system into Sewickley Hills is once again hampered by the fact that there would be no one to answer the calls; no police officer is on duty after 5 p.m.
Chief Norbert Micklos of the Ohio Township Police Department, which supplies police and fire protection to Sewickley Hills, Emsworth and Ohio Township, explained, “All of our 911 calls come from the North West (McCandless) Communications office. We don’t have a technician to operate equipment that we don’t have to begin with,
“If we could get all three municipalities to agree to share in the expense, then I could take a good, hard look at it,” Micklos said. “It’s a good program to get because it helps the police help the community.”
The only cost to the community might be min-
imal, or none at all.
“By using computers to call up blocks of areas,” he said, “the reverse 911 system will automatically pick up phone lines and call those numbers. We would have to either have dedicated telephone lines, or add more regular lines.” For example, you could call up a certain area like downtown, south of town or just a couple blocks that the computer was programed for. The more telephone communication lines, the better to help those in need of any warnings,
The purpose of a reverse 911 system is to contact people in case of an emergency, such as a lost child or to warn of a major storm headed our way.
“There is also an elderly person response system that can be set up to periodically call an elderly person's home to check on them. If it is, they depress the “0” twice, If the response is negative, then help can automatically be sent.” ------------------------Continued on Page 5
Borough wraps up leaf collection ahead of schedule
By Erin Mrihy
__________Staff writer______
Fall can be a beautiful season in terms of weather and arrays of colors.
As the weather begins to change, however, the leaves become more of a mess and a hindrance than pieces of beauty.
Sewickley Borough began making leaf pickups, which is part of the borough’s general taxes, on Oct. 11, and should have ended collection by last week. Collections usually followed the street sweeping routes and were done approximately every seven to 10 days.
This year, though, brought about a change. Since there was hardly any rainfall, the leaves began their trek to the ground much earlier.
“.Ail the leaves fell off quick,” said Kevin Flannery, borough manager. “Some communities are behind, but we are a bit ahead of schedule because we have been taking advantage of the weather. The right time to pick up the leaves is when they are dry since they are easier to handle."
According to Flannery, all property owners in the borough have a right to compost their own leaves if they like, but they may not burn them. If they aren’t composting the leaves for their own uses, borough residents must rake the piles to the curb for pickup.
But sometimes the leaves are piled on the road, which elicits a big no-no from the borough.
“We advise them that this is not acceptable," Flannery said. “If they have their own service come, we talk to them. If they don't comply, then we work with them on it. We will also issue a letter of warning.”
After the leaves are picked up, some arc out-sourced to an actual composting landfill, and the rest are dumped on a site that is borough-maintained. The piles are rotated, watered and then used as
■	■ Continued on Page 5
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