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A look back at Greene County history

3 min read

A look at some of the headlines gracing the pages of the Observer-Reporter and Waynesburg Republican this week in Greene County history:

Planned mine a $400M investment

Foundation Coal Corp. plans to invest $400 million to build a new coal mine in Center Township that will initially provide jobs to 400 to 500 people.

The company has submitted a permit application for the new mine, which will be called the Foundation Mine, to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Construction of the mine will begin once the proper permits are issued, Foundation spokeswoman Samantha Davison said.

The company hopes to begin coal production in 2013 and initially mine 7 million tons of coal a year by the longwall method, she said.

The new mine will be constructed near Holbrook. Plans show the mine being developed on the west side of Route 18, centering on an area between Hoge Run Road and Bristoria Road.

While the mine will initially provide jobs for 400 to 500 people, it has the potential to employ up to 1,000.

Local Guardsmen get emotional boost

WAYNESBURG – Lisa Keller used to be confident her husband’s absences would be brief, because he was just a part-time serviceman with the Pennsylvania National Guard unit in Waynesburg.

Family members of 99 other Guardsmen might have held the same beliefs as the Waynesburg woman because being in the Guard, as opposed to other military branches, reduces the chance of a long-term deployment. But that was before members of Company C, 1st 110th Infantry, were ordered to Kosovo as part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission.

“He went away for training and for his two weeks in the summer, but we never had to go through anything like this,” an emotional Keller said after Tuesday’s patriotic ceremony honoring the unit on the steps on Greene County Courthouse.

Keller’s husband, Spc. Erik Keller, and other soldiers from armories in Waynesburg and Canonsburg will leave Friday for training in Fort Stewart, Ga. Eventually, the unit will make its way to Europe. The soldiers could be away for as long as a year.

Clothing manufacturer get approval for plant

WAYNESBURG The Waynesburg Zoning Hearing Board granted the variance a clothing manufacturer will need to establish a plant in the vacant building in West High Street, formerly occupied by the Franklin variety store and G.C. Murphy Co.

The action formalized a decision the zoning board made at a hearing in February to grant the variance to Edwin Patterson, president of E.J. Specialities of North Huntingdon.

The company manufactures sports jackets and other sport clothing under the Action label.

Wounded trooper slays bank robber

A young state police trooper on routine assignment blocked the getaway of three person believed to have robbed a bank at Marianna last Friday, killing one of them in a blazing gun battle near Ruff Creek.

The two others, one a woman dressed as a man, were captured with $10,000 being recovered from a paper bag in the bandits’ car.

Trooper Vernon Blystone, 23, who is stationed at Waynesburg, escaped probable death when a bullet smashed into his left hand as he held it in front of the his heart while drawing his revolver.

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