Sewickley Herald

              The Sewickley Valley’s Home Weekly Newspaper
Vili. SO No. 32
SEWICKLEY, PENNSY VANIA, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1953
Price Ten Cento
PARK MG LOTS TO OPEN 01 NOVEMBER
Offers Prizes For Centennial Windows
BOARD OF TRADE MEMBERS
TO FLY FLAGS
DURING FESTIVAL
Sewickley will have a centennial celebration after all this year, even if the plans for an elaborate pageant, with whisker contests and other tilings which are usually carried on during the ordinary community’s centennial, have been abandoned by the civic organizations o ; the town. There will be a centennial parade starting at 7 o’clock on Friday night, September 4tli; flags will fly on the streets September 3rd, 4th and 5th; merchants’ windows will be decorated with articles a hundred years or more old or with historical items and the state will honor the community'for an excellent traffic safety Tecord.
The Sewickley Valley Board of Trade has appropriated $30 for prizes for the best window displays with a centennial theme before and during the Harvest Festival, September 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Most of the merchants are planning to put in the windows by the first of September and if there are individuals of organizations in the community who would like to decorate windows, a number will be available.
The Board, at its last directors’ meeting, also appropriated $50 to be matched by the Sewickley Kiwanis Club to complete the painting and doing some other finishing work at the picnic shelter at the War Memorial Park. The Board is planning a family picnic on Wednesday, September 2nd, at the D. T. Watson Home, with games and prizes for both old and young, Mr. and Mrs. Karl Kaesmeier are the hosts; Joe Palmer heads the committee and a caterer will prepare the picnic-style supper in advance.
The Appreciation Day Committee oi the Board, which is sponsoring the popular events at 3 o’clock on Tuesday afternoons, is sponsoring a cooking school at the ‘Y’ at 8 p. m. on Thursday, September 17th. Tickets are obtainable from the merchants who are members of the Appreciation Day committee, since the school is being held as a benefit for pay for tire PA system used on Appreciation days.
On August 26th, the Board of Trade, will join Kiwanis Club members in a golf outing at Cambridge Springs, Pa. with non-golfers invited as well. On October 21st, a steak dinner will be held at tire Elmhurst Inn, with those who attend the luncheon regularly treated to a free dinner.
Bob Angros reported on the most successful Board of Trade project in years, the two parking lots, which should be ready for use before the Christmas shopping season. The Parking Authority, of which he is chairman, has the $110,000 bonds and have notified the owners of proceeds from the sale of the revenue ffie properties involved that the authority is ready to exercise its options on the properties and begin work as soon as the houses are vacant and the contracts for the paving, draining and lighting of the parking lots are let.' He commented that n great many people Were surprised that the parking lots are still to be built, os many had given up hope over the past few years. Jimmy Munizza, presideht of the board, whose business is on Walnut Street, said the lots couldn’t be finished too quickly to suit him, since much of the congestion on Walnut Street is cause'd hy motorists going around and around the block, searching for a parking place.
Parking Authority Officials Sign Bonds For $110,000
Successful conclusion of a 414 year campaign by civic organizations of the Valley was recorded on Wednesday of last week, when officials of the Parking Authority of Sewickley Borough signed $110,000 worth of revenue bonds, to finance two off-street parking lots. Shown in the photograph above are; left to right, seated, H. W. Fisher, secretary of the Fidelity Trust Company which is serving as trustee, and J. Robert Angros, chairman of file Authority. Back row, left to right, W. Cullen Gourley, treasurer of the Authority and Martin W. Wise, assistant secretary-treasurer. William S. Tollman, vice-chairman of the Authority and William W. Collin, Jr., secretary, were not available when the picture was taken. William Howard Colbert is the attorney for the Authority.
Captain Way Delivers Pine Tree For Sesquicentennial
Dravo Slant Photo
Captain Frederick Way, Jr., of River Avenue, Sewickley, who edited the Herald during the editor’s vacation, took part in the Louisiana Purchase Sesquicentennial several weeks ago. In the above photograph, lie is shown, center^ handing a young pine tree which he brought down the Allegheny River, to Captain Louis Altlioff, Union Barge Line, who carried it on to New Orleans. C. V. Star-rett of the Buhl Planetarium, accompanied Captain Way on the trip down river.
HARVEST QUEEN BALLOTING
Joan Miller	5660
Pat Lasher	11300
Evangeline Papantonio	360
Martha Poor	5220
Loretta Krebs	1030
Dolly Martin	1120
Jacquc Schurman	3860
Barbara Wintcrmantel	5130
Tree Commemorates Pine Log Rafts
Captain Frederick Way, Jr., of Sewickley and tlie Union Barge Line, a subsidiary of Dravo’s, joined forces several weeks ago to form a sort of water-boume ‘pony express’ to deliver a pine tree from Olean, N.Y., to New Orleans, (Continued on Page 17)
Sewickley First In Valley To Offer Off-Street Parking Lots To Shoppers
Two Convenient Lots With Capacity for More Than Eighty Cars to Be Ready for Christmas Shopping
Christmas shoppers this year will not have to go ‘round and round hunting a parking place, for the two off-street parking lots, one on Green Street, with a drive-out conection with Walnut, and the other on Division Street, are expected to be in operation by the middle of November, according to an announcement Friday fey J. Robert Angros, chairman of the Parking Authority of Sewickley Mr. Angros said, “Much work is yet before us, but the Parking Authority is pointing now to have the parking lots in operation for the Christmas season.”
As soon as the lots are ready for operation, they will be turned over to Sewickley Borough, which will maintain, operate and police the lots in accordance with a lease-back arrangement between the Borough and the Authority. While the exact time limits and the kind of meters to he installed has not yet been determined, the rate has been set a 5c a half hour, a rate felt to he sufficient to retire the $110,000 bond issue in 25 years.
Tlie old bugaboo of parallel parking will also be eliminated in the parking lots, for nearly all the space will be either. diagonal or straight.
Sewickley is thus tlie first community in tlie Valley to counter tlie threat of shopping centers, with their large, free parking spaces, by providing convenient off-street parking facilities for tlie shoppers. It was not an easy task, either, for the Sewickley District Planning Association first started the agitation way back in tlie spring of 1949, when it employed Donald M. McNeil, traffic engineer, to make a comprehensive parking survey of tlie Sewickley business district. With the cooperation of senior students from Sewickley High School, tlie statistics of the traffic flow were gathered.
The survey recommended that immediate steps be taken- in providing off-street parking for at least 70 cars close to tlie intersection of Locust Street and Beaver. However, nothing was done and Sewickley council voted down a motion that the borough, itself, take necessary steps to secure property and establish a lot. Part of the objection of Council at the time was that it was felt necessary to open Green Street to Thom if a large lot was located on Green Street.
The Sewickley Valley Board of Trade then became more active, appointing a committee which visited parking lots in a number of other communities and met with committees of council and officials of the Sewickley District Planning Association. Tlie Board of Trade, at its own expense prepared preliminary plans and made unofficial inquiries of die owners as to the value of the land and buildings on the xirojected sites. The Board enlisted the aid of other civic organizations and finally convinced council that it should appoint a parking authority. The Parking Authority of Sewickley was established by council in November, 1952,
At the request of the authority, Mr. McNeil recently reviewed his original survey and made several trips to study die, present parking situation in Sewickley in person. It is his opinion, quoted in a supplementary report to the parking authority in July of this year, that "your parking problem lias become more acute since my original survey, due to greater Use. of and increase in registration of private automobiles in this retail shopping area. Within the past month, the Council of tlie Borough of Sewickley has .... enacted legislation assuring your Authority of Its fullest cooperation in the alleviation of this problem. This assistance . . . assures the feasibility of financing your program and also relieves your Authority from yearly attendant operating cost, since they (the borough) have agreed to regulate your off-street parking
facilities with Borough Police personnel as a part of their regular duties . . . providing tlie Authority installs approved type parking meters when the sites are developed.
"Many meetings and discussions have been had with your Authority members and solicitor during the past several months, primarily dealing with proper location of properties which could be combined into off-street parking facility sites. AH efforts were made to avoid costly condemnation proceedings and the Authority has been fortunate that firm priced options for sale have been concluded for two sites; namely, Green Street site and the Division street site, which have a minimum capacity of 37 vehicles and 46 vehicles respectively, or a combined minimum capacity of 83 additional parking spaces.
“The Green Street site is the portion nearest Beaver Road of the site previously recommended in my parking survey report dated October, 1949. The other portion of this site has been eliminated at this time because of the prohibitive price. that has been demanded by the (Jwner. This site is less than 100 feet from file center of business activities of the Sewickley shopping district, which is located at the intersection of Locust Street and Beaver Road. Ingress and egress to this site is also available from Walnut Street to accommodate the parking needs of the business establishments located 'thereon.
“The Division Street site is shghtly south from die center of town, a distance of approximately 450 feet from the intersection of Locust Street and Beaver Road. Direct ingress from Beaver Road is available to this site immediately at Division Street. This site is ideally situated to •service those business establishments located on Beaver Road between Broad Street and Chestnut Street and on Broad Street between Beaver Road and Thom Street.
"Actually, the two smaller sites now available provide better parking accommodations than the one large site originally recommended in tlie report of Oct. 1949, since the walking distance between these sites and all the business establishments is less than from the one large site. Tlie two smaller sites are now economically feasible since the borough has agreed to regulate these sites with police personnel, relieving the Authority from employing attendants.”
“The Green Street site has an area of 12,071 square feet, which, will park a minimum of 37 oars with 326 square feet for each car”. (Since this report, Mr. McNeil has made a supplementary report, , (Continued on Page 17)
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