Sewickley Herald

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dardanell
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Sewickley
Suburban Pittsburgh's Largest Audited Paid Newspapers
Voi. 78 No. 12

Wednesday, March 16, 1977
Twenty Cents
QV directors file
A 34-year-old Ross Township man lost his life in this van photographed after the accident on Sunday evening on Ohio River Boulevard in Edgeworth.
(Photo by Sloan News & Photo Service)
Boulevard accident fata/
The Tuesday, May 17 primary election will see some new entries to the local political races as well as those who would continue to serve in public office. For some seats, such as Quaker Valley School Director and Sewickley Council, the newcomer is in contest with an incumbent of long standing - a situation that will make the usually predictable outcom-unpredictable. .
QUAKER VALLEY SCHOOL .BOARD
Region I, Bell Acres, Leetsdale, Leet Township:
Dr. Michael Zahorchak of Bell Acres and Peter H. Zerega, a Leet Township resident, have cross filed for reelection. Zahorchak, QV School Board president, has put in approximately 25 years as a director. His service dates back to representing Bell Acres, formerly Sewickley Township, in the formative years of the Quaker Valley School District.
Zerega, chairman of the board’s finance committee, is an appointee seeking his first elected Jerm of office.-
Heights wins round in
zoning case
A court ruling on March 4 upheld an action by Sewickley Heights in ordering developer William R. Seach to show Financial responsibility for the townhouses he proposes for the borough. The ruling was made by Judge J. Flaherty of the Allegheny-County Common Pleas Court.
Under the court order, Seach must Furnish the information, subpoened by the borough, within 20 days of March 1977. Failure to comply means the testimony and exhibits entered by Seach in nine months of public hearings shall be ‘stricken from the record.”
Through the -hearings that began February ’76, Seach is challenging the validity of the borough’s zoning ordinance Continued on page 5
In contest for the seat is Joseph S. Palmer, D, a well known and long time Leetsdale resident, making his first bid for the school board.
Region II, Sewickley:
Incumbent David E. Starr, D, of Nevin Avenue joined the School board eight years' ago as an appointee. Serving out the two-year-term he went on to be elected for a six year term and now faces opposition for Malcolm Hay, Jr., a Sewickley Republican. A native of the area, Hay lives on Grove Street Extension and is treasurer, for Allegheny County Republicans.
Region III, Edgeworth, Osborne, Sewickley Heights, Aleppo, Haysviile, Glenfield, Sewickley Hills:
Natasha Green, D, of Edgeworth an appointee this past fall to the six year post vacated by the out-of-state move of Mrs. Sharon Smith has cross-filed for reelection. Ms. Green whose background is education and has taught on a college level was instrumental in establishing the Montesorri School in Moon Township.
Also running for the seat is August W. Frisch, R, of Woodland Road, Edgeworth. A general counsel for Westinghouse. Corporation he with his wife ’ and six children, five of whom'are school age arid attending QV, have lived in Edgeworth for the past three-and-a-half years.
Region III also has a two year term vacated with the decisions of incumbent Mrs. Anne G. Phipps not to seek reelec-*tion. Thr.ee candidates have filed for the post: Maureen M. Tierney, R' of Osborne, Gary E. Wildman, D, of Edgeworth and David A. Nimick, R, Edgeworth.
Mrs. Tierney has a degree in political science from Trinity College, Washington, D. C. and before her marriage worked for two years as a systems representative for Honeyell Corporation.
Gary Wildman, D, of Pine Road is manager of plant engineering for Pitt- * sburgh DesMoines Steel Company and with his wife and daughters, one of Quaker Valley elementary school age, has lived in Edgeworth for the past year and four months.
Republican David A. Nimick had served as a school board director before Quaker Valley became a jointure. Self employed in tax and accounting work he and his family have been Edgeworth residents for 2 years.
A Ross Township man was pronounced dead at the scene of an accident Sunday evening- on Edgeworth’s dangerous Ohio River Boulevard strip. Richard E. Hammel, 43,133 Mayer Drive, Pittsburgh, was thrown through the windshield of his van after it swerved, into a tank truck driven by Thomas Park Hickman, 3313 Sunview Drive, Pittsburgh. The truck was owned by the Pitt Oil Co., 100 River Avenue, McKees Rocks.
Hickman and the driver of another car struck by his truck were treated and released from Sewickley Valley Hospital after the accident at 7:45 p.m.
Dr. R. A. Spanard of the Ohio Valley Hospital pronounced Hammel dead, Edgeworth police said.'The Allegheny County coroner’s office said Hammel died of blunt force, injuries to head, chest and abdomen.
The truck driver said hewas proceeding west on the boulevard in the curb lane
when he saw Hammel’s van swerve across the double center line and strike the front of his tractor. The tractor spun around on the pavement, swerved across the highway into the parking lot of Bambino’s, a doughnut shop on the river'side of the boulevard.
Parkman told police he tried to avoid hitting the building: He brought the truck to a stop as it rammed and broke a brick support pillar of the building. En route it struck two cars: One,, owned by Alex A. Criego, P.O. Box 174, Aliquippa, was stopped in the driveway preparing to enter boulevard traffic. The other owned by Peter H. Zerega, 105 Wm. Penn Circle, Leet Twp. was parked near the support pillar.
Criego was treated and released from the Sewickley Valley Hospital.
There were several witnesses to the accident which drew a large crowd of spectators and stopped boulevard traffic.
the Blarney Stone: a moment of truth
In this world there arefew fraternities to which you can belong for so little risk to life and limb as in Kissing the Blarney Stone, Yet, believe it or not, many a brave soul—-who would not cower at turbulence on a jetliner or who would dare to set sail on a sinister lake in a dinghy—will climb to the top of Blarney Castle, only to have courage fail at the last minute.
Except for bowing to this world famous tradition, there would be little reason to go out of your way to the place because, Heaven knows, there are ruined castles all over Ireland.
Sewickley Bridge News Pages 4&5
By Betty G. Y,, Shields
But from all over the world they come— foot, in cars and buses, Irishmen and jrists alike—to kiss this famous rock. Not that Blarney Castle is not a beautiful in. As ruins go, it is a romantic one. The proach over a winding path with a little ioden bridge over the troubled waters of rushing stream reminds one of those idlic soap advertisements about Ireland television. When the keep of the 15th ntury castle heaves into view, with an undance of moss and vines softening the sonry of grey stones, it is a storybook
3nce into the thick of the ancient mains, as you wind upwards on the steep d slimy stairway to a pinpoint of ylight above, you begin to wonder why u are risking a broken limb on a silly est but then, you ate in Ireland, It is nilar to how the Irish regard the fairies. don’t believe in them myself, but I know
ey’re there.”	„
So it is with the Blarney Stone m the
stronghold of the old MacCarthy Clan, one must remember the promise:
"There is a stone that whoever kisses,
Oh! he never misses to grow eloquent ’Tis he may clamber to a lady’s chamber Or, become a member of parliament.”
There are really two stories one should know in connection with Blarney Castle, the first is how one of the-lords of the manor kept putting off the dictums of Queen Elizabeth I with promises and flattery until the Queen, incredulous and, quite put out, waved off another putoff with the remark, "Oh, that is just all BLARNEY.” And we know how difficult it was to resist Her Majesty, Good Queen Bess.
The other story has to do with the celebrated stone. Another lord of the castle, Cormac MacCarthy, shy and diffident, is supposed to have been walking beside a river from which he rescued a woman from drowning. As the story goes,
he thought she was a peasant but it turned out she was a witch. As a reward for her rescue, the witch told Cormac of a magic stone in the castle that would give the gift of eloquence to the person who touched it With a kiss.
Returning to modern times, at the top of the stairway, there on the opposite wall in the ruins of the keep, is the famous-stone, You look at it, an ordinary stone, worn smooth from so much bussing. Imbedded in a wall, it is above a sheer drop of one hundred feet with only a couple of thin bars to strain out the victims. Immediately you are invited to kiss the one, the only, Blarney Stone.
At this time, you look about—to the left, to the right—your friends seem to have deserted you. As I said earlier, not everybody who goes to the top of the stairs at Blarney Castle kisses the stone.
Here is your personal moment of truth. You will either leave this spot, perhaps Continued on page 7
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