Author Archives: ryochum
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Saxonburg’s Main Street Has Money For a Facelift
Thursday, July 01, 2010By Karen Kane, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Lake Fong/Post-Gazette From left, Chuck Matus, JRHSS Design Community; Ray Rush, Main Street Program manager; Dennis Chambers, chairman of Saxonburg Historical and Restoration Commission; and Gary Mullen, member of Saxonburg Historical and Restoration Commission outside the Hotel Saxonburg.
For all its charm and historical significance, Saxonburg’s Main Street is showing its age — and not in a way history aficionados prefer.
Some of the paved sidewalks are lifting; some street curbs are crumbling; and the green strip fronting the string of shops that comprise the bustling business district is looking a little ragged in spots.
It’s all about to be turned around, though.
Raymond Rush, the Main Street program manager, is using a recently awarded state grant of $373,027 from the Department of Community and Economic Development to design a renovation of the four-block Main Street. And he’s expecting the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to follow with a $2.4 million grant for the work.
The grants are the culmination of a partnership between the borough and the John Roebling’s Historic Saxonburg Society, a nonprofit group that sponsors the Main Street program and has deemed as its mission “the historic restoration and economic development of Saxonburg.”
The society is named for the town’s founder, who left his mark on the world with his innovations in wire cable and bridge design. The organization began as the “main street committee” of a citizens group that worked on the borough’s comprehensive plan. Members began meeting around 2000, with Mr. Rush joining about 2002. The group incorporated as an official nonprofit in 2004. Mr. Rush is an artist and historian who lives on a 100-acre farm in Clinton and who founded the annual Penn’s Colony celebration 26 years ago.
Both he and his group have been busy working on a plan to bring a spark to the heart of Saxonburg.
Before the state grant was awarded in May, the society won a $50,000 matching grant for facades in 2006 that’s been used to leverage about $750,000 in private investment, Mr. Rush estimated. The program awarded $5,000 grants to local business owners to improve building facades, and the money had to be matched. Saxonburg also received an $85,000 infusion of money over the past two years from the state Community Development Block Grant program for storm water management.
“It’s been a very vital program,” Mr. Rush said.
Saxonburg’s Main Street captured designations as a historic district on the national level in 2004 and on the state level in 2008. Some 52 historic structures are located on the four-block Main Street between Butler Street on the west end of town and Rebecca Street on the east end.
Among the historic structures is the home of Mr. Roebling, a German immigrant who founded Saxonburg in 1831. The house serves now as the offices for the Memorial Church. He innovated wire cable to take the place of hemp ropes that pulled barges for the Allegheny Canal near Johnstown, and he designed suspension bridges. He died from an injury sustained while working on the Brooklyn Bridge.
As envisioned by the society, the borough and the Main Street businesses, the best way to bring a spark to the district is to revitalize it at its core by replacing the curbs in the four-block area, renewing the planter strip beside the curb and constructing new sidewalks. The project would be topped off with installation of street lights that replicate the style of old German pedestrian lights.
“The idea is to keep with the historic elements of mid-19th Century,” Mr. Rush said.
The total project cost is estimated at $2.4 million, and it will be done in two phases, he said. He expects construction to begin in 2011 and be finished within two years. The primary firms involved are Klavon Design Associates, located in Pittsburgh’s cultural district, and GAI Engineering Consultants of Homestead.
Mr. Rush credits the borough, local businesses and the dozen or so members of the historical society for about six years of work in bringing Saxonburg to the brink of such a major revitalization.
“It’s been steady, hard work by everyone,” he said.
Linda Kovacik, borough secretary/treasurer, put it simply: “It’s just what we’ve been hoping for.”
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Levi’s Campaign Centers on Braddock
Thursday, July 01, 2010By Deborah M. Todd, Pittsburgh Post-GazetteFinding the right images to represent Levi’s 2010 “Go Forth: Ready for Work” campaign would take far more effort than the usual calls to location scouts and modeling agencies.
With blue-collar manufacturing and construction jobs in steady decline, the company wanted to highlight people and places fighting the effects of the recession while preparing for industrial renewal.
So when Levi’s executives decided to try on Braddock for the job last year, it ended up being a perfect fit for both sides.
“This isn’t any kind of traditional marketing campaign. It’s a partnership between Levi’s and Braddock that is 100 percent for the betterment of the community,” Mayor John Fetterman said.
Doug Sweeny, Levi’s vice president of brand marketing, said the company’s advertising agency, Wieden+Kennedy, introduced the town through national news stories in which Mr. Fetterman highlighted the community’s struggles and recent accomplishments.
Once a thriving community of about 30,000, Braddock saw its population fall to fewer than 3,000 following the collapse of the steel industry and the area’s surrounding business district. The area’s largest employer, UPMC Braddock, closed Jan. 31.
When the company found that the town’s revitalization efforts include sustainable development, urban farming, public arts projects and an emphasis on youth outreach programs, executives saw no need to look farther than the Mon Valley for its campaign’s feature town.
“We were just captivated by the idea of a partnership with this town,” Mr. Sweeny said. “If we could help put this town back to work in any small way by forming a partnership, that would be great.”
The multimedia campaign will feature Braddock citizens donning Levi’s Work Wear collection for fall while taking part in a range of everyday activities. Mayor Fetterman is one of the models.
One digital ad shows Braddock Farm director Marshall Hart in a denim Work Wear vest balancing a shovel behind his back on raised shoulders.
A print ad, which shows 6-year-old Jarral People adjusting the button-down shirt of his father, Anthony Price, has made its national debut in a New York Times article about the campaign last Thursday.
The ads will be launched nationally in cinemas and in print on Friday. Television ads will run in the fall.
“[This] is the best time of me and my son’s lives. It can’t get any better,” said Mr. Price, 23, of Washington Street.
An AmeriCorps KEYS Service Corps participant, Mr. Price said he was in the job-search process when Mr. Fetterman stopped him to take test shots during a November casting call. Today, he says the opportunity has opened doors he never imagined.
“This isn’t even about me, it’s about my children and other children in the community,” Mr. Price said. “We’re showing them there’s more out there than what [they] see and what other people tell [them] is out there.”
Deanne Dupree, 23, a former UPMC Braddock housekeeper, said Mr. Fetterman had helped her find jobs before, but nothing like the ad campaign featuring towering billboards with her image. And with a professional portfolio under her belt, she’s hoping to spin the experience into a new career.
“A lot of people told me I should [go into modeling], but I told them I would need a contact and some money first. I never looked into it until this came along, but now I’m so excited about it.”
All participants received compensation for the ads, but the largest payout was reserved for the biggest participant – the town itself.
Levi’s has committed to dedicating more than $1 million toward renovating the Community Center on Library Street and Braddock Carnegie Library and to purchase an additional acre for Braddock Farm.
In addition, every Levi’s retailer in the country will keep posters and postcards detailing Braddock’s story, listing its businesses and mentioning ways to support the community.
“This is going to bring Braddock back,” Mr. Price said. “A lot of people don’t have faith, but I think this can bring their faith back.”
While some may lack faith, Mr. Sweeny said the town’s perseverance was the quality that ultimately drew the company in, and could keep it around for years.
“Levi’s is a brand you put on when you want to get stuff done, to make things happen, and that’s clearly what was going on whenever we got there,” he said.
Ms. Dupree believes it’s about time someone outside the community noticed.
“A lot of people don’t like doing housekeeping, but for me it wasn’t a problem because I just do what I have to do,” she said.
“That’s why I like this theme of hard workers because me and my friends in this community work so hard to take care of our families.”
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Gettysburg Casino Plan Raises Hackles of Historians
Thursday, July 01, 2010By Dante Anthony Fuoco, Pittsburgh Post-GazetteHistorical musings about the bloodiest Civil War battle and concerns over a continuing gambling debate intersected yesterday in a poetically timed proclamation.
On the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg’s 147th anniversary, a group of prominent American historians sent a letter to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board stressing that a proposed casino near Gettysburg battleground will “unavoidably conflict” with the area’s historical significance.
Urging board chairman Gregory Fajt to deny the proposed casino’s application, the letter kindles a modern-day battle between preservationists and casino supporters that opened in 2005, when another application for a casino in the area from the same developer was put forth.
Building a casino close to the battleground “would be an insult to the men who died there,” said James McPherson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era” and professor emeritus of United States history at Princeton University.
Some 160,000 Union and Confederate troops fought and 50,000 died at the Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest and largest of the Civil War. It started on today’s date in 1863 and ended on July 3.
“The idea of a gambling casino on or even near [the battleground] is totally incompatible with the nature of that historic site, which is special and unique,” Dr. McPherson said.
“A casino can be put anywhere, but there’s only one Gettysburg,” he added, a message echoed in the letter that he and 271 other historians signed.
Many historians claim the battle was a pivotal part of the Civil War, not just because it was the largest and bloodiest but also since President Abraham Lincoln four months later uttered his famous “Gettysburg Address” there at the dedication of a national cemetery.
If granted a state license, Mason-Dixon Resorts & Casino will be at the existing Eisenhower Hotel & Conference Center in Cumberland Township.
The casino would be a half-mile from the 6,000-acre Gettysburg National Military Park, five miles from the borough of Gettysburg’s center and three miles north of the Mason-Dixon line. The application — asking for a gambling parlor with up to 600 slots — is currently being reviewed by the state’s gaming control board.
Though the casino would not be placed within Gettysburg National Military Park, the letter contends that putting a casino “so close to the Battlefield at Gettysburg is simply incomprehensible.” The casino’s proposed site would be next to where Union cavalry advanced toward the South Cavalry Field, which saw substantial fighting on July 3, according to the Civil War Preservation Trust. Claiming “that history stops where the park ends is a modern idea, and it just isn’t true,” said Mary Koik, spokesperson for the battlefield preservation organization.
The letter alludes to a similar debate in 2005, when David LeVan, a Gettysburg businessman and a developer of the proposed casino, applied for a 5,000-slot casino a few miles northeast of Gettysburg’s town center. The state did not grant that casino a license at the end of 2006, largely because of widespread public opposition, said Richard McGarvey, Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board spokesperson. Historians, including Dr. McPherson, expressed similar opposition over the last application in a debate that lasted 20 months.
Other historians signing yesterday’s letter include Garry Willis, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America”; Carol Reardon, who directs Penn State’s graduate studies in history; and Edwin C. Bearss, chief historian emeritus of the National Park Service.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board hopes to reach a decision by the end of the year, but it first needs to have public meetings — where people can voice concerns and approval — for the proposed casino’s application and the three others that have filed for the same license, Mr. McGarvey said. No more than one license will be granted, and it’s possible that none will be, he added.
So far, though, this proposed casino has gotten support in the region, said David La Torre, spokesperson for the proposed casino. The Gettysburg-Adams Chamber of Commerce last week expressed support for the casino, and the Cumberland Township Board of Supervisors did the same in April, Mr. La Torre said.
Pro-Casino Adams County has backed the proposed casino, claiming that the area has suffered job losses and could benefit from the gambling parlor’s 900 jobs. And 62 percent of those in Adams County support the proposal, according to a study conducted by Franklin & Marshall College that polled 600 county residents.
But others claim that the casino would have a negative impact on the area, namely in pushing away heritage tourists, who are different from typical tourists because “they travel for meaning,” said No Casino Gettysburg spokeswoman Susan Star Paddock.
“Those tourists have told us in droves that they are offended [by] the casino,” she said. “I don’t believe that anyone in this country outside of these investors and their cheerleaders would be OK with a casino at Ground Zero or at Arlington Cemetery or the sight of Pearl Harbor.”
Mr. La Torre said that there wasn’t the same kind of outcry when a Comfort Inn was recently built in a spot close to a cemetery and where Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address, or when a 120-acre parcel of land in the national park was purchased recently by a high-density housing development.
Ms. Paddock said, however, that these points are insignificant in light of bigger issues.
“All the major Civil War historians have come out in opposition. That’s the real story,” she said in response. “The rest is just distraction.”
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Run-Down to Rental, a House At a Time – Sheraden Woman Believes in Saving Her Own Streets
Wednesday, June 30, 2010By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Kelly Carter and Ben Smith work in the kitchen of their latest home remodeling project on Francisco Street in Sheraden. The couple have renovated five homes in eight years in their neighborhood and now rent the properties.
Kelly Carter had no idea what she was getting into. She just knew that the apartment building beside her childhood home was in disrepair and that a slumlord had his eye on it.When it came up for sale in 2001, she grabbed it. She was 29.
“I paid $30,000 and put $30,000 into it,” she said. “The person I bought it from told me I would never get quality renters.”
Today, she and her partner, Ben Smith, are renovating the fifth house Ms. Carter has bought on Canopolis and Francisco, two parallel streets in Sheraden. She has filled four with tenants she said she has either recruited or found online.
Sheraden has taken its lumps in recent years. Besides the nine arson fires that bedeviled Merwyn Avenue last summer, the neighborhood has watched itself lose more and more control of properties that fall into the hands of individuals who rent carelessly or speculating corporations that buy properties and sit on them.
“What we want is for houses that look haunted to be houses you’d be proud to live beside,” Ms. Carter said. “You have to recruit good tenants.”
Ms. Carter’s philosophy is that, block by block, street by street, neighbors can hold onto or enhance the livability of the entire neighborhood.
“If 50 people each did one [house per neighborhood], it would have a huge impact,” she said.
Buying and renovating houses has become her full-time job. She was the owner of Milk Records, a business she opened in 1999 and operated first Downtown and then in the Strip. She now runs the business online and spends most of her days refinishing floors, cleaning walls and talking to electrical contractors.
“Some people have given her a hard time, like, ‘why bother, etc. etc,’ ” said her neighbor, Janine Berard. “But she’s a wonderful person with such a great cause, especially for someone in her age bracket to have an interest in preserving a neighborhood.”
“There are naysayers,” said neighbor John Roell, “but there are naysayers everywhere. Kelly is an asset to the neighborhood.”
Ms. Carter said that Sheraden doesn’t have the commercial or entertainment draws like some of the other city neighborhoods, so they have to promote the community on its housing stock.
“And it’s great housing stock,” she added.
“Neighborhoods like ours are diamonds in rough,” said Ms. Berard. “They just need a little elbow grease and TLC. Who wouldn’t want to have that over houses that are boarded up? On our block, there is one vacant house and it has been vandalized twice. The only vacant house on our block has turned into exactly what we feared it would.”
Ms. Berard said that one family got six letters from companies looking to buy their property after the occupant died.
“Many properties in our neighborhood are owned by holding companies that owe back taxes two, three, four years.”
Neighbor Shirley Johnson has lived for 16 years in the house beside Ms. Carter’s childhood home and has teamed up with her on several projects, including writing a successful proposal to get a Sprout Fund mural in Sheraden.
“Somebody had approached me concerned about property values going down,” said Ms. Johnson, “and one day Kelly and I had a conversation in my driveway. I said, ‘That’s me and you and this third person, so maybe we can get more people involved.’ We started a group that didn’t really have a name.
“At a meeting when we were generating ideas, she said, ‘Maybe I can help people do what I’m doing.’
“She’s finding people who are able to pay the rent and do their part in our little community,” said Ms. Johnson. “There’s no trouble on the street.”
Ms. Carter said that is her intention, to begin “training people who want to do this on their block.”
With her first homes, she said, “I was saving and scrimping along as I could. This fifth one is the first one that’s backed by a bank.”
The house she grew up in she rented to an attorney who she said has decided he wants to buy it. The house next door that was in disrepair — and had a big hole in the roof — has two tenants, including Ms. Carter’s mother.
“The one I am doing now I got it for $15,000, but I joke that what I paid for was the stained glass windows and the garage,” said Ms. Carter. “It needed a new roof and new everything.
“This will be a rental. It’s been easier to find good renters than owners at this point, but I can sell properties as the neighborhood improves.”
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Heidelberg Offers Help With Spacious, Affordable Homes
Thursday, June 24, 2010Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- Heidelberg Mayor Kenneth LaSota, at podium, and Richard Ranii, Allegheny County Economic Development Housing manager, speak during the dedication of two new homes in Heidelberg. Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette
Tom Wiater, senior construction manager for Action Housing, had the proud look of a new parent Monday afternoon as visitors toured his nearly 2,000-square-foot “baby” at 478 Grant Ave. in Heidelberg.
The guests nodded approvingly at the spacious rooms, walk-in closet and outdoor wooden deck of the newly completed house.
It and its “sister” house, an almost identical home built next door, didn’t follow the typical pattern of being constructed by a private developer who would sell the home on the open market.
They are among four single-family homes built on Grant Avenue as part of a redevelopment program that allows municipalities that suffered flood damage during Hurricane Ivan in 2004 to identify sites outside of the 100-year flood plain that were in need of redevelopment.
They were built through a cooperative effort by Allegheny County, Heidelberg and Action Housing, an agency that works with the county to make housing options available for people with household incomes at or below 80 percent of local median income.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating completion of the last two homes was attended by county and borough officials and by local residents, who toured the homes and listened to speakers who extolled the virtues of the joint housing program.
All four homes have been sold.
Dennis Davin, director of the county Department of Economic Development, said the program to build the new homes would not have come about without the cooperation of Heidelberg.
“These will help to revitalize the community,” Mr. Davin said.
The main commitment Heidelberg made to the project, he said, was a no-interest loan to Action Housing.
The agency then contracted with Jad Contracting Inc. of Findlay to build the homes. When the closings on all the properties are completed, Action Housing will pay back the borough’s loan. The houses were built on vacant lots that were not generating real-estate tax revenues.
The homes dedicated on Monday sold for $110,000 each. Each home features three bedrooms, one-and-a-half baths, a full basement, one-car garage, a fully equipped kitchen with energy saving appliances and an energy-efficient heating and air-conditioning system.
The homes also were built with double-pane windows and adequate insulation to meet energy conservation guidelines for new construction, Mr. Wiater said.
“It’s a nice program. It’s good to see young families able to afford to buy a home,” he said.
Mark and Beth Zyra are in the process of buying the house at 478 Grant Ave., while Brianne Kinney is purchasing the house next door. The houses sold quickly, said borough manager Joe Kauer. Both buyers were on the waiting list from the previous sale of the homes at 602 and 604 Grant Ave., Mr. Kauer said.
Heidelberg Mayor Kenneth LaSota touted the program as a way to rejuvenate the housing stock in Heidelberg, which this year marks its 108th year as a borough and has some houses that are even older than the borough.
He said Heidelberg does have one big advantage over development in newer communities, though.
“The infrastructure is already available,” he said.
The mayor added that by filling and reusing lots in older communities like Heidelberg, there is no need to consume farmland or to promote urban sprawl.
“Heidelberg is a developer’s dream,” he said.
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McKeesport Invests in Itself
Thursday, June 24, 2010The mayor calls it a renaissance. The school superintendent calls it a revitalization. Both agree that more than $80 million worth of construction and upgrades will make Mc-Keesport a more attractive city.
The school district is expected to break ground this summer on its $46.4 million plan to build two new elementary/intermediate schools and renovate a third. The first of three public hearings for that plan began yesterday.
“It’s going to revitalize the entire community,” said Michael Brinkos, superintendent of the McKeesport Area School District.
Mayor James Brewster said having new schools would help with retention.
“When most people go buy a home, they look at the school district first,” he said. “We want our schools to be attractive for someone who is considering a move to our city.”
With upwards of $40 million in infrastructure upgrades throughout Downtown Mc-Keesport, Mr. Brewster said he hoped more businesses would be attracted to the city. “I’m … trying to sell this city to businesses,” said Mr. Brewster, who worked as vice president of retail operations at Mellon Bank for 27 years before entering public service.
The city’s projects are funded mostly by state and federal dollars, according to city clerk Patricia Williams, and include:
• $1.1 million face-lift to West Fifth Avenue
• $1.3 million Streetscape Project
• $540,000 improvement to the walking trail
• $700,000 Marshall Drive Extension
• $33 million Mansfield Bridge renewal.
Improvements to the walking trail and the Marshall Drive Extension were completed in May, the W. Fifth Avenue and Streetscape efforts are under way, and work on the Mansfield Bridge will begin in 2011.
City Controller Ray Malinchak agrees “those things need attention. … We have to make the city more attractive.”
The work being done along West Fifth Avenue involves the removal of old streetcar tracks and resurfacing the Tenth Ward between Rebecca and John streets. Donegal Construction Corp. is assigned to the job.
The Streetscape project is designed to renew Fifth Avenue throughout the city’s business district and seeks to make the avenue a two-way street between the Palisades and Coursin Street. The street will be widened, the curb lines will be moved back, new asphalt will be poured, and a new sidewalk will be added as needed.
New lighting, benches, planters, signs, handicap ramps, catch basins and gas lines also are included in the work, which is being done by Power Contracting Co. of Carnegie. Traffic signals also are being added at Market and Walnut streets.
Finished last month, the Marshall Drive Extension adds a traffic signal and links Haler Heights to Route 48, providing a safer passage for Serra Catholic High School students and patrons of Tom Clark Chevrolet.
The work was done by 12th Congressional Regional Equipment Co. Inc., a Blairsville nonprofit created by the late U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, who wanted to use excess military equipment for local government projects.
Upgrades to the walking trail include improved parking areas, signs, lane striping and the completion of a trail cul-de-sac at the point where the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers meet. The trail is part of the Great Allegheny Passage, a network of hiking and biking trails spanning 150 miles from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Md.
The trail improvements could be McKeesport’s greatest draw, according to Hannah Hardy, vice president at Allegheny Trail Alliance, a partnership of seven trail organizations based throughout southwestern Pennsylvania and western Maryland.
“We’re seeing huge development in trail towns already and expect to see more,” she said.
Small businesses like ice cream shops and delis have been popping up as part of that growth, she said.
“We’re providing opportunities for businesses and making McKeesport a safer, more beautiful place to live,” Mr. Brewster said. “We see this as our renaissance.”
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Facade Improvements, Parking Lot Planned in McDonald
Thursday, June 24, 2010By Andrea IglarIn the early 1900s, tax revenues from booming oil and coal industries funded construction of the buildings that make up McDonald’s business district to this day.
In more recent years, however, the advent of malls and other factors drew many customers away from town, but borough leaders are taking action to build on McDonald’s rich architectural heritage to attract more businesses and shoppers.
The borough is kicking off two revitalization efforts — a program to help downtown property owners improve their building facades and construction of a public parking lot for patrons of local businesses.
“There’s a big opportunity for the downtown area to thrive again, and that’s why we’re doing this,” said Tim Thomassy, head of borough council’s community development committee.
McDonald will offer $45,000 in matching grants to help owners and tenants of historically significant buildings make aesthetic storefront improvements, such as painting, pressure washing, adding awnings and replacing damaged structural materials. The amount of each grant will depend on the type of project and the total number of applications, Mr. Thomassy said.
Details of the grant program will be discussed at a public meeting at 7 p.m. today in the borough building, 151 School St.
The borough has invited the eligible owners of businesses and commercial properties that front North and South McDonald streets, between Robinson Run and the intersection with North Street, and also those that front East and West Lincoln avenues, between Station and Arabella streets.
To build a public parking lot, the borough this month is purchasing a $65,000 vacant parcel between East Barr and East O’Hara streets.
Once constructed in the fall, the parking lot will provide at least 50 spaces for shoppers, Mr. Thomassy said.
“The location is ideal because, with the façade program and other things we have going on, we’re trying to improve the downtown area so we can make it more enticing to bring new businesses into town, as well as improve the climate for existing businesses,” Mr. Thomassy said.
Both redevelopment programs are being funded partly by grants from Washington County’s share of gambling revenues.
The façade improvement program is financed with $30,000 from the gambling revenues, $13,000 from the borough and $2,000 from the McDonald Area Redevelopment Association, a nonprofit citizens group.
Purchase and construction of the parking lot will be covered by a $130,000 grant from the gambling revenues, plus $30,000 from the borough, $1,000 from MARA and a $105,000 grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development.
A 2006 study of McDonald’s business climate, conducted by Pittsburgh consulting firm Mullin & Lonergan Associates Inc., recommended refurbishing buildings and creating a municipal parking lot.
McDonald’s business district has great potential to provide an alternative to malls and big-box stores for shoppers to come from North Fayette, South Fayette, Cecil and Mount Pleasant Township, Mr. Thomassy said.
He said McDonald’s location is attractive because it includes part of the Panhandle Trail and Route 980.
“We have a neat little town that needs sprucing up,” Mr. Thomassy said. “And if we do that, with the things that are going on around us — with the trail and the highway and all of that — we think we can really revive the downtown area.”
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Arena Will Lose Mellon Name in August
Thursday, June 24, 2010By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-GazetteSay goodbye to Mellon Arena.
The iconic silver-domed venue will lose its name when the Penguins officially move into the Consol Energy Center on Aug. 1.
That’s when a naming rights agreement between BNY Mellon and the Penguins will expire. At that point, the Igloo most likely will reclaim the name it had for much of the first 38 years of its life: the Civic Arena.
“There hasn’t been a lot of discussion but I imagine we’ll begin referring to it again as the Civic Arena,” said Mary Conturo, executive director of the city-Allegheny County Sports & Exhibition Authority, the building’s owner.
The arena has carried Mellon’s name since 1999, when the former Mellon Financial Corp., which merged with Bank of New York in 2007, reached a 10-year naming rights deal with the Penguins.
That agreement expired after the 2008-2009 season. The two sides worked out a one-year extension to keep the Mellon name on the arena until the Consol Energy Center opened.
Lane Cigna, a BNY Mellon spokeswoman, acknowledged in an e-mail that the arena without Mellon “will take some getting used to,” even if the building might be in its last days.
“We’re really proud of the long history we had and the very positive relationship we had with the team,” she said in an interview. “This is also an exciting time for the city. There’s going to be a brand-new facility.”
As part of the agreement, Mellon employees passed out programs before Penguins games – 8.5 million over 534 games, to be exact. That, too, will end with the move to Consol. In exchange for the employees’ work, the team donated more than $250,000 to charity.
Penguins spokesman Tom McMillan noted that it isn’t unusual for arenas or stadiums to change names as one sponsorship ends and another begins.
“When you step back, it’s more of a common sense [move to replace the Mellon name]. The building won’t be operated. The naming rights agreement is with us. We won’t be there anymore,” he said.
Like some Soviet-style purge, with the agreement’s expiration, all traces of the Mellon name will be erased from the building. Ms. Cigna said some Mellon signs will be donated to the Senator John Heinz History Center for posterity.
Ms. Conturo said she doubted the SEA would seek another naming rights partner for the 48-year-old building with a leaky roof and perhaps a date with the wrecking ball. If Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, county Executive Dan Onorato and the Penguins get their way, the Igloo, as it is known informally, will be demolished to make way for redevelopment.
“I think the sense is that it’s not likely that someone would pay significant money for naming rights at this point,” Ms. Conturo said. “I think we’ll continue to explore all revenue opportunities. But at this point, that doesn’t seem like a likely one.”
As for whether the SEA will formally identify the building as the Civic Arena come August, well, that depends. “I don’t know if there’s any old signage around or not,” Ms. Conturo said.