Looking back
A look at some of the headlines gracing the pages of the Observer-Reporter and Waynesburg Republican this week in Greene County history:
County courthouse floods
WAYNESBURG – While it was snowing outside, water was pouring like rain inside Greene County Courthouse Saturday.
A 2-inch pipe in the sprinkler system in the attic of the 158-year-old building broke Saturday afternoon, flooding the rooms below.
Water streamed through the ceiling of a small room at the rear of the main courtroom on the second floor and drenched the entire first-floor register and recorder’s office and the recorder’s office basement.
The register and recorder’s office will be closed today to allow time to survey the damage and clean up, said Tom Headlee, register and recorder.
The judges also may have to adjust their court schedules because of the cleanup needed in the main courtroom. Water soaked some of the carpeting and may have damaged the courtroom’s public address system, said Kevin Gray, county maintenance director.
Servpro, a company that specializes in fire and water cleanup, worked at the courthouse Sunday and Monday, drying out carpets and walls.
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What a drag: No more racing at airport
WAYNESBURG – Greene County commissioners are not happy the state’s Bureau of Aviation has put a stop to drag racing events at the county airport.
The bureau apparently is responding to concerns from the Federal Aviation Administration about safety and liability because of recent mishaps at other drag racing events, and that agency has decided there will be no racing or other nonaviation related activities at small municipal airports, like the one in Greene County.
“We do not agree with that, but we don’t have any choice but to follow the Bureau of Aviation,” Commissioner Pam Snyder said.
Nonetheless, the commissioners Thursday authorized Chief Clerk Gene Lee and Jake Blaker, director of the county’s parks and recreation department, to write a letter to the bureau requesting that the county airport be permitted to host drag racing events.
“We are putting our request in writing to cover all the bases, just in case there is an appeal procedure we need to follow,” Snyder said.
“Our spectators are so far away, there really isn’t much danger at all,” said Commissioner Archie Trader. “It’s probably more dangerous on Route 21.”
‘Post-civil rights generation’ celebrates King era
WAYNESBURG – Plenty of young faces filed into Waynesburg College’s Alumni Hall for the school’s Martin Luther King Day services Monday.
Most were too young to remember the civil rights leader, who was assassinated 35 years ago. It made the Rev. Ronald C. Potter’s task a bit more challenging when he tried to explain King’s legacy as the event’s speaker.
The Jackson (Miss.) State University professor described younger Americans as members of the “post-civil rights generation.”
These people “have a hard time remembering who Dr. Martin Luther King was,” Potter said. “They have a hard time remembering what the civil rights movement was. And, they have a hard time remembering America during the King era.”
King lived in a time when blacks had to contend with segregation and laws of white supremacy in the South and blatant racial discrimination in the North.
“The South was a much different place than it is now,” Potter said. “It was an American dilemma and a contradiction of our founding principals.”
King drew from his Christian faith to form ideas on how to eliminate that contradiction, according to Potter. King believed that the country had to shape a completely new value system.
And certain values, such as the notion of white supremacy, had to be rejected, even if some Americans held those ideas sacred for centuries, Potter said.
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Vo-tech accepts Ohler’s retirement, appoints replacement
WAYNESBURG – Greene County Vocational-Technical School’s joint operating committee made the departure of the school’s longtime director official Wednesday.
Members accepted Richard Ohler’s retirement, made retroactive to Dec. 18, and appointed Janice Quailey as his replacement. Quailey, the new acting director, previously served as principal and coordinator at the school. She will be paid $64,000 a year.
“I want to thank Janice for the work she has done in the past few weeks,” said Ron Jesso, who represents Central Greene School Board. The school “seems to have made a good transition here.”
Ohler, 58, was the head administrator since 1992. The Carmichaels man cited health problems as one reason behind his retirement. Ohler is expected to use accumulated sick days until Sept. 10.
Apartment complex to be built for elderly
WAYNESBURG – The Presbyterian Association on Aging hopes to bring construction of new housing facility for the elderly in Waynesburg area by September of this year.
The three-story building, containing 31 units, is to be built in Franklin Township, virtually on the Waynesburg Borough line at the northern end of Bridge Street.
Evelyn Vandever, executive vice president of the Presbyterian association, said the Waynesburg facility will be similar to an apartment complex the agency has operated in Ellsworth since 1984, and to a new one that will open in Houston by April 1.
“The timetable for the Waynesburg facility is still not firm, but if we begin construction in September we should be able to open eight or nine months later,” she said.
Super Bowl prediction wins $20,000
“He didn’t say anything. His face just turned white.”
Willis (Pete) Bircher, 48, of Taylortown, had ample reason for his reaction when he received a telephone call Wednesday night. He was being informed he was one of five winners of a $100,000 prize for having the correct outcome of Sunday’s 16-7 victory by the New York Jets over the Baltimore Colts in the Super Bowl.
His wife, Helen Halfin Bircher, said her husband and an area representative of an oil company left by plane Thursday for Chicago, where he will receive his $20,000.
Bircher, who is employed as a mechanic at the Paw Paw Coal Company mine in Dilliner, had submitted a number of entries in the contest, his wife said.
“He knew he had entered some with the Jests as winners, but he hadn’t realized he had any with the exact score.”