Hits and Misses
MISS: From Monday to Thursday, the whole region was in a deep freeze, with high temperatures struggling to get into the teens during the day and low temperatures sliding below zero at night. Fortunately, for most of us, we were able to ride out the arctic blast in the warmth of our homes and the safety of vehicles that can warm up fairly quickly. And the reality also is that we will be firing up our air conditioners again before we know it. Consider that 2024 was the hottest year on record for the Pittsburgh region, according to the National Weather Service. The average temperature was 56.4 degrees, a degree warmer than the previous record, which was 55.4 degrees in 1921. There were three days when the thermometer hit 94 degrees in 2024, and the year served up the hottest Halloween on record, with a high of 80 degrees on Oct. 31. It was also the hottest year ever for the entire planet. Meteorologists say this is all due to climate change, and though those warmer temperatures seem sweet now, they’re not good for us in the long run.
MISS: According to the National Children’s Alliance, about 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys experiences child abuse. The organization also reports that in 2022, more than 500,000 American children were known to have been abused. Closer to home, Washington and Fayette counties have recently seen some disturbing cases of abuse, including one that has left a young boy in UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh weeks after the alleged abuse occurred. In an article by Jon Andreassi that appeared this week, there were six fatal or near-fatal cases of child abuse in Washington County last year. Officials note that some signs of potential child abuse include withdrawn behavior, or signs of aggression, anxiety or fear. Younger children might display unusual marks or injuries that don’t look like they are the product of typical childhood mishaps. Good advice for anyone to follow is that if you see something, say something.
HIT: Washington County property owners endured no small amount of tsuris in 2016 when there was a countywide reassessment, the first in 35 years. The same scenario unfolded in Allegheny County when it had a reassessment in 2012. The last time there was a reassessment in Fayette County was 2003. Pennsylvania does not mandate that its 67 counties carry out property reassessments on any kind of set schedule, the only state of the 50 that does not. This has resulted in a handful of counties not doing reassessments in more than 40 years. That’s crazy, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported this week that state Sen. Wayne Fontana of Brookline plans on introducing a measure that would mandate property reassessments every five years. Fontana told the Post-Gazette that he thinks property owners will accept having reassessments more frequently if they are done consistently. He said, “Nobody’s calling me to say it’s the wrong thing to do. Voters get it, appraisers get it. It doesn’t play well for the state having every county doing something different. There has to be some consistency.” Mike Suley, chairman of Allegheny County’s board of property assessment appeals, told the P-G, “It’s about time. Cyclical reassessments will bring stability to the tax base.”