Hits and misses
A quick look at some of the key issues making headlines recently in the Observer-Reporter:
HIT: If you build it, they will come. When officials with the Greene County Memorial Hospital Foundation opened the doors to the new EQT REC Center in November, they hoped to get around a thousand people to sign up for memberships in the first year. But just six months after it opened, the rec center near the Greene County Airport has 2,500 new members. That’s a testament to the foundation’s hard work and perseverance over many years to build the $8 million, 60,000-square-foot facility. It also shows there’s a need for such an amenity in Greene County.
MISS: Though it didn’t come as a huge surprise, it was still disappointing to hear this week that the Bon-Ton department store at Washington Crown Center, along with all the other stores in the chain, will be liquidating stock and closing. Like Toys R Us before it, Bon-Ton fell victim to a changing retail landscape and the trend toward online shopping. Bon-Ton has been a fixture at the mall for many years, and a lot of folks in these parts certainly will miss it.
HIT: Starbucks is to be commended for reacting swiftly to address the uproar over the arrest of two black men who were waiting for a friend at one of the chain’s downtown Philadelphia stores and asked to leave because they hadn’t made a purchase. The incident led to protests and allegations that Starbucks is “anti-black.” The company will close more than 8,000 stores for several hours May 29 to provide racial-bias training for its baristas.
MISS: What a shame it is that the old Rhodes Cemetery, a family plot that contains eight to 12 graves behind the Econo Lodge in Franklin Township, Greene County, is now inaccessible to descendants of those buried there and caught in a legal battle. Nikita Lodging, which planned to build a new motel behind the existing Econo Lodge, conducted extensive excavation several years ago that left the cemetery as an isolated mound of earth. Efforts to resolve the dispute over properly shoring up the site and providing access have thus far proven unsuccessful. We hope the latest lawsuit filed in this matter will bear fruit.
HIT: The rustically beautiful stone chapel in Monongahela Cemetery still stands after 124 years. But it is bit wobbly at the knees, in serious need of an upgrade. Directors of the cemetery board want to do more than renovate some features; they are striving to restore the structure, to return it to its original character. This is an ambitious and expensive endeavor, estimated at $150,000, but since launching a fundraising effort last June, the directors have gotten at least $68,000, nearly half of their goal.