Looking back at Greene County history
A look at some of the headlines gracing the pages of the Observer-Reporter and Waynesburg Republican this week in Greene County history:
Additional mosquito spraying needed
WAYNESBURG – The first attempt to kill mosquitoes that could carry the West Nile Virus was not effective enough, so county and state officials will try again Thursday night.
The state Department of Environmental Protection and the county’s Conservation District sprayed areas of Morgan and Franklin townships on Aug. 21. County officials have been monitoring those areas since then and have determined that the mosquito population only declined slightly.
So, they will attempt another round of spraying, focused on two locations: Morgan Township, including Reesman’s Trailer Park, Greene County Memorial Park and other surrounding areas; and Waynesburg and Franklin Township, including areas near Waynesburg Borough Sewer Treatment Plant and Meadowlark Park.
“We’re going to keep trying until we get the numbers down,” said Dustin Teegarden, West Nile program coordinator for the county.
Workers will use two different techniques to kill the mosquitoes at the two locations. In Waynesburg, they will use thermal fogging, which also was used two weeks ago, and at Reesman’s Trailer Park, an ultra low-volume insecticide will be used. The spraying will take place Thursday between 8:45 and 10:45 p.m. in Morgan Township and from 9:45 p.m. and midnight in Franklin Township.
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School district gets good news
MAPLETOWN – Southeastern Greene School District has received some good news regarding students’ scores on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment.
Both Bobtown Elementary and Mapletown Junior-Senior High schools have achieved the status of making adequate yearly progress, district Superintendent Mike Caruso said.
Students at Bobtown in grades three through six reached the academic targets by achieving a proficiency rate of 65.3 percent in reading and 76.3 percent in math. The current state requirements for reading and math are 63 percent and 56 percent, respectively.
Bobtown has reached the state targets for two consecutive years, making it eligible for the state’s Keystone Achievement Award, Caruso said.
Elementary students also did well in writing. None of the students in last year’s fifth grade, the only elementary grade assessed by the PSSA, achieved a writing score below basic, he said.
Students at Mapletown also made significant progress, achieving a proficiency rate of 56.7 in reading and 46.7 percent in math. The state requirements are 63 percent for reading and 56 percent for math.
Recreation director reports bad year for county’s two pools
WAYNESBURG – The final day of the swimming season at Greene County’s two public pools proved to be indicative of the entire season: It rained and the pools remained closed.
“It was just not a very good year,” said J. Allen Blaker, county director of recreation, who oversees pool operations. “In fact, it was one of the worst years we’ve had. This year, the weather was our biggest opponent,” he said.
Though the county has not yet tallied attendance figures for its two pools, Central Pool in Waynesburg and Eastern Pool in Carmichaels, Blaker estimates attendance was down 40 percent.
On many days, staff would arrive and prepare the pools to open. They then would be forced to keep the pools closed or close early because of rain, thunder and lightning, Blaker said.
“We always tried to give it a chance to clear up, but sometimes that just didn’t happen,” he said. People also would listen to the weather reports and when they heard a forecast that included rain they wouldn’t show up, he said.
It was the same story all season, Blaker said.
The poor weather early in the season cut into the county’s sales of annual pool passes and resulted in fewer parents registering their children for swimming lessons.
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Panel to be formed to make plan for SCI site
WAYNESBURG – If the state Department of Corrections ever decides to unload the “mothballed” state Correctional Institution at Waynesburg, local officials hope to be ready with an alternate plan for the site.
Greene County commissioners voted Thursday to create a bipartisan task force to consider possible future uses for the 75-acre site.
The committee is being formed at the suggestion of state Sen. J. Barry Stout, D-Bentleyville, Commissioner Dave Coder said.
“Sen. Stout wants to be proactive rather than reactive,” Coder said. “Even though the state has said it will mothball the prison, he thought it was important to begin planning for the property’s possible reuse just in case it decided to close the facility,” he said.
DOC began implementing its plan to mothball the minimum-security prison in Morgan Township in July.
DOC Secretary Jeffrey Beard earlier said the prison facilities will be maintained in case the state’s prison population grows larger than projected and the institution again is needed to house inmates.
Duquesne Light to lay off 44 supervisors
GREENSBORO – Duquesne Light Co. announced Aug. 22 that 44 supervisory personnel will be laid off from its Warwick Mine in Greensboro.
Duquesne Light spokesman Ken Service said the supervisory employees were informed about the layoffs.
Service would not say how many supervisors would remain on the job.
“We’ll be keeping enough to do caretaker operations while the mine is idled,” he said.
The company closed the mine on June 13, laying off 225 union employee. A company official said then the idling was necessary because of large stockpiles of surplus coal.
“We still have an excess coal inventory on hand,” Service said.
Ryerson swimming pool still beset by problems
Some of the problems that have beset – and are still besetting -construction of a swimming pool at Ryerson Station State Park have been outlines for Assemblyman Russell H. Headlee by the General State Authority (GSA).
The resume was prepared for the Greene County legislator following his recent charge that there has been “inexcusable delays” in completing the project. He pointed out that although an architect was engaged more than two years ago, plans have still not been completed.
The GSA, which will build the pool for the Department of Forests and Waters, listed some points it considers to be major factors contributing to the delay, including the Department of Forests and Waters has revised the construction scope on two different occasions, and that the architect did not follow the scope and that GSA engineers and architects have questioned the accuracy of his survey.