Sewickley Herald

              Vol. 47 No. 10
SEWICKLEY, PENNSYLVANIA, THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 1950
Price Ten Cents
To Expedite Gateway Center In City

J Jl

W. P. SNYDER, III
W, P. Snyder, III, of Sewickley [ Heights, Friday was appointed chairman i of a state committee to co-ordinate work | on the Point Park and Gateway Center [projects by Governor James H. Duff in j Harrisburg. Mr, Snyder is vice president | of tlie Shenango-Penn Mold Company 5 and a member of the executive commit-I tee of the Allegheny Conference on Com-Imunity Development, which planned tire j Gateway Center.
Agreements for carrying forward the (¡project adjoining the state’s new Point IPark in Pittsburgh have been signed, IGov. Duff said. He hailed this move as lone of the outstanding achievements in ithe municipal development that has taken ¡place in Pittsburgh in recent years.
1 Gateway Center is the first major Icommercial urban redevelopment under-•taken in Pennsylvania and the nation.
The Governor pointed out that the State’s program in developing Point Park and the fact that a major highway interchange will be located in the area had a “substantial effect on the decision of tire Equitable Life Assurance Society to proceed ninth the project.”
“With the large amount of work involved in the highway traffic interchange and development of the park, together with the Gateway Center Project,” Gov. Duff said, "a high degree of timing and co-ordination in tire construction program will be required to avoid confusion and inconvenience to tire traveling public.”
Gov. Duff said Mr. Snyder’s committee will include representatives of Equitable, tlie State Departments of Forests and Waters and Highways and tire City and County Governments.
|d50 REO CROSS FUND
Iwickley Leads
ISewiekkw ?ther C°mmunities lies ami C°'^lÎl1irmcn Richard L. lied nl i 's' Gi!bei't S. Rafferty re-
f'Wuniiir.o i Cr0ss Gonl for the Valley fual Rcd Cro^l -h° fet Week of tho
khy loadï tL C nV°‘ As n «»«It. Se-“Cls tho °«>or individual ^
munities in the campaign.
Response to the 1950 drive during the first week was termed by General Chairman Gordon W. Cameron, “a true indication of the interest Allegheny County residents take in the humanitarian work carried on by the Red Cross.” $390,843, or 33.8 per cent of the $1,157,-500 county goal was reported at the first report meeting, held on Friday, March 3rd. The larger portion of the gifts came from tire advance gifts and corporations divisions, as the workers arc just now beginning to contnct the residents of the county.
Tho advance gifts reached 76% of its goal and the corporation division, 58.7 per cent. Couhty employes reported $40,505; Public employes, $6,955; Downtown, $6,084; City-County, $5,987, and McKeesport, $6,041. There still remains a total of $766,657 to bo raised.
Community Calendar
Thursday, March 9
8 p. m. “Double Exposure”, a play by the Youth Fellowship of St. Stephen’s and the Presbyterian Church, in St. Stephen's Parish House.
Tuesday, Mnrch 14
6;15 p. m. Annual Y.M.G.A. Dinner, Dr. Howard Seharfe of Shadysido Presbyterian Church, speaker.
Proposed Parking Lots Here
Board of Trade Heard Survey Results
On an average business day, 19,008 persons were counted entering the Sewickley business district and 18,201 left it before 6 p. m., according to the Traffic and Parking survey made by Pittsburgh City Traffic Engineer Donald M. McNeil. 75% of those people entered tlie business district by private ear; 89% of those who did so stayed less than three hours, Mr. McNeil told the members of the Sewickley Valley Board of Trade at a quarterly business meeting held Tuesday, February 28, at the Elmhurst Inn.
Of the 678 legal parking places, 254 are equipped with meters to limit the parking to two hours; 38 are regulated by signs to two hours, and 386 have unlimited parking. However, there are 785 vehicles or 11% which remain more than three hours in tire business district. 1,593 or 89% remain less than .three horns and there are 244 trucks which load and unload with 60 staying more than an hour. 21 vehicles were observed in “no parking alleys” or streets and five trucks remained there more than an hour.
The peak period for parking is from 3 to 3:30 p. m. Saturday morning was also checked and it was found that there were more pedestrians and not so many cars at that time. The business district is suffering from the lack of parking near the center of business activity, which is on Beaver, just north of Locust Place. It has been found that people are reluctant to walk over 800 feet to transact retail business, so he recommended a 75-car parking lot to be built within 800 feet of the center of activity. The estimated cost is $52,000, providing for an outlet to Green Street and another to Walnut Street, with a paved surface and parking meters to regulate the time the cars remain in the parking lot.
Friday, March 17
8:15 p. m. The Bat, a three act mystery play will be presented by Leetsdale High School Dramatics Club.
March 22, 23 and 24 11:30 a. m. to 10:00'p. m. Antique Show at Sewickley Academy, sponsored by the Child Health Association for benefit of their fund for playgrounds.
Friday, March 24
10	a. m. Bake Sale — Hand Work — Aprons, sponsored^ by The Guild of tlie United Presbyterian Church at McMaster Flower Shop.
Thursday, March 30 S:15 p. m. P.T.A. Meeting at Sewickley High School auditorium.
April 12th-13th
Sewickley Methodist Church Rummage Sale.
Tuesday, April IS
8:15 p. ni. Card Party and Style Show, St. Stephen’s Parish House. Sponsored by the Welfare Committee of tlie Sewickley Century Club.
Thursday, April 27tli 8:30 p. in. Playhouse comedy, “Two Blind Mice”, sponsored by tlie Sewickley Valley Board of Trade for their community fund, at the Sewickley High School Auditorium.
Friday, April 28th
11	a. m. St, Stephen’s Annual Plant Sale to bo held at tho Parish House. On sale will be Perennials, Annuals, Garden novelties, and Tulip Surprise Packages.
Tuesday, May 2
8 p. m, The Woman’s Committee of the YMCA, will present Barbara Elliott Bailey, concert pianist, in tho Presbyterian Church House.
Mr. McNeil illustrated his talk with examples in which businesses have attracted trade to their locations by providing convenient parking places adjacent to their stores. However, they, too, have problems when only 40% of the ears parked there were driven by customers who were buying in their stores on that particular trip. Borough bought and operated parking lots are preferable to Merchants’ Associations operating the lots, for the borough by enforcing regulations, can force the use of the lots. Also the borough is perpetuating over the years. The cost can be recovered by parking fees, Mr. McNeil said. He also recommended strict enforcement of the traffic regulations, especially in regard to the younger drivers under 34 who have a worse accident record here than the Pittsburgh or national average. He recommended safety education in the schools as well as driver education and training classes.
Mr, McNeil also recommended that council be requested to require large businesses or small ones which attract a large number of patrons, be required to furnish their own off-street parking or at least loading, so the problem will not get worse when traffic volume increases tlie estimated 35% in the next 5 or 10 years. Connection of Blackburn Avenue to Walnut Street to give Heights residents a better access to the business dis-’ trict and to tlie boulevard, also was. recommended. A motion was passed that the Board appoint a committee to study the survey and make recommendations.
Sewickley is surrounded by communities in which the high school pupils are being properly prepared for facing the complex driving and traffic conditions on the highways today. Hopewell Township, West Allegheny, Aliquippa, Am-bridge, Ben Avon and West View high schools all offer, courses in driver education, W. Cullen Gourley told the Board of Trade members. “Should our children be denied this opportunity”?, lie asked. So, for tlie second consecutive year, the Sewickley Valley Board of Trade unanimously passed a resolution urging the Sewickley School Board to install driving education classes in Sewickley High School.
Older drivers tend to forget that when they started driving in 1913, for instance, there were only 1,300,000 cars and trucks in the entire country, compared to 42 million now. Then, speeds of 12 to 15 miles an hour were pretty fast on the mud and dirt streets and highways and now 70 is all too co/nmon. The older drivers grew up with the traffic and learned as they drove, but the young folks of today have to step right into the congested, complex traffic which lias grown up over the years. There are 1,500,000 new drivers each year, mostly
young people, and few of them reach the highways properly trained. Every safety expert agrees that no man, or woman, is fit to drive in today’s traffic with just a few hit-or-miss lessons.
The driver education classes are not hit-or-miss. The instructor, of which Sewickley has one, must take a prescribed course himself. The students are given sight, aptitude, depth perception and other physical tests and spend two-thirds of their time in classrooms learning, among other things, respect for automobiles, which are dangerous instruments. One-third of tlie 41 to 45 hours of instruction is spent behind the wheel or observing in a dual-control car. Laws, insurance, maintenance and good sportsmanship on the road are all taught the pupils. There are many connections in a car, Mr. Gourley concluded, but tlie most important one is the connection between the steering wheel and the seat.
Marshall Stalley of Osborne, * an official of tlie Allegheny Conference on Com-mufiity Development, said that the Conference had embarked on a bold program to rid the county of smoke, which had been discussed for 100 years; the construction of the Point Park, talked of since 1898; solve the parking problem and reverse the trend of falling assessments in tlie Golden Triangle, which dropped $97 million in 10 years. Smoke is now under control; demolitions on die Point Park start this year; fifty million in new office buildings will be constructed on the park’s edges and die Parking Authority is to start 2,000 units in four parking garages tins year. Flood control as well as smoke control and : stream purification were needed before die other improvements could be carried forward.
It is all a part of a serious effort on the part of the Pittsburgh district, of which Sewickley is a part, to improve traffic, livability and maintain the economic health of the district. The problems are becoming more acute and the Sewickley Valley Board of Trade lias a responsibility to help in seeing that progress is made. Planning is no good unless action is taken to make die plans into reality.
Proposals from the floor tiiat the Tuesday luncheons be held Wednesdays, except during the summer; that the Board hold a monthly meeting in the evening and the question of Monday evening opening of stores will all be considered by the Board of Directors or committees.
National Open Qualifier
At Allegheny
The Tri-State sectional qualifier for the National Open golf tournament will be held at the Allegheny Country Club on Monday, May 29th.
Leetsdale Students To Present 'The Bat'
SONJA PROTENIC	DONALD KAELIN
Photos by Ambridgc Citiz Leading characters in "The Bat,” a mystery play in three acts to be present by the Leetsdale High School Dramatic Club at 8:15 p. m. on Friday, March 1 m the Leetsdale High School Auditorium, Miss Protenic will portray Miss Come Van Gorder and Donald Kaolin will play Anderson in the play by Mary Robe Rmehardt (formerly of Osborne) and Avery Hopwood. “The Bat” is being giv under the direction of Miss Elaine M. Saupp.