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:
Recovery on minds
of officials
WAYNESBURG – State and municipal workers continued to clear roads Monday throughout Greene County as Allegheny Power crews worked to restore service to areas some of which have been without power since late Friday.
“Hopefully, we’re past the emergency side of it and we’re working on the recovery,” said Jeff Marshall, director of the Greene County Emergency Management Agency. “If we get power back up that will solve a lot of our problems,” he said.
Efforts being made Monday to get things somewhat back to normal, however, might be impacted by another winter storm expected to pass through the county Tuesday afternoon.
Marshall said the county could receive another 4 to 8 inches of snow this afternoon through Wednesday night. That will fall on top of the about two feet of snow the county received Friday night.
The county will have to deal with it the best it can, Marshall said. “We’ll just have to continue doing what we’re doing now,” he said. Allegheny Power crews have worked around the clock to restore service to customers, company spokesman Doug Colafella said.
At one point following the storm, the company had 12,800 customers, more than half its customers, in Greene County without service.
West Greene
negotiations continue
West Greene School District’s contract with its teachers’ union expired nearly eight months ago. Nevertheless, classes and school activities have taken place as usual.
Members of West Greene Education Association agreed to work under the terms of the previous contract while negotiations continue. That contract expired at the end of June 2004.
“We’re exchanging proposals back and forth,” said Thelma Szarell, acting superintendent at West Greene. “We have held negotiations all year long and to be honest, I think we have maintained a very good working relationship with the teachers.”
Szarell said she is optimistic that a new labor pact would be reached soon, but she declined to comment on specific issues being discussed at the bargaining table.
A mediator has been participating in the contract talks.
Terms of that four-year contract, which ran from July 1, 1999, to June 30, 2004, called for annual raises averaging $1,420. The contract also cut teachers’ starting salaries from $35,625 to $24,500 and reduced the number of steps on the salary scale.
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Cumberland conducting
survey
CARMICHAELS – Cumberland Township is currently surveying residents of Nemacolin to determine whether their household incomes qualify the community for an “areawide” project under the Community Development Block Grant program.
At a township meeting Monday, the supervisors announced that the township would be completing a second mailing to residents of the community who had failed to respond to the survey on the first mailing.
Marcia Sonneborn, the township’s Community Development Block Grant coordinator, explained later that in order for the community to be eligible for an “areawide” project at least 51 percent of the households have to be determined to be either low or moderate income.
The community previously was eligible for the funding. However, information from the 2000 census indicated the percentage of low and moderate income households in Nemacolin had dropped below 51 percent, Sonneborn said.
“We feel that is not an accurate representation of the community,” she said. The township decided to conduct the survey to receive an accurate count, Sonneborn said.
The township first mailed out survey forms in November and of the 363 households in Nemacolin it received responses from about 190, Sonneborn said. The township will do the second mailing this week to those who didn’t respond the first time.
The information requested in the survey includes the number of people in the household and household income. All information requested by the survey will remain confidential, Sonneborn said.
New Freeport fire company getting off the ground
Two years ago the New Freeport Volunteer Fire Company, suffering from a lack of manpower and financial support, was about ready to close its doors.
The company had some 15 members on its roster and only six to eight of them were active. A company official said then if more people didn’t become involved, the company might have to disband.
Since that time, the fire company’s fortune appears to have changed – new volunteers have joined the force and members are planning to build a new fire hall.
“I don’t know,” said company Secretary Bob Hull. “I guess it was just the fact that the community realized how important it was to have a fire service almost right in their backyard.”
Champion cow produces
25,050 pound of milk
A Holstein cow on the Pevarnik Brothers Farm near Carmichaels recently completed a 305-day milking program during which she gave more than 16 times her weight in milk.
The 25,050 pounds produced (about 2,947 gallons) would equal the weight of about seven automobiles.
It’s also 3,000 pounds more than the he 22,068 pounds of milk produced by another Pevarnik cow during the 1969 testing year, which was the top production record in the country.
According to the Dairy Herd Improvement Association, which keeps records on herds enrolled in its program, Tom and John Pevarnik milk an average of 78.2 cows each day during 1969. They produced an average of 13,999 pounds of milk and 530 pounds of butter fat.