Archive for December, 2008

By Michael Divittorio
Daily News Staff Writer

“Bill was always Bill.”

That’s how Munhall council President Bernie Shields began his comments about the late William Davis after a moment of silence at Wednesday night’s council meeting.

Davis, who served for 25 years on Munhall council, died Monday.

“Two months ago he was here,” Shields said. “He told me about something that was on his mind. On the way out the door, he wasn’t feeling real well but he grabbed me by the hand. Sometimes he called me Bernie, sometimes he called me Barney. He gave me the nicest compliment.”

“Bill’s been around longer than I have, or as long as (Mayor Raymond Bodnar),” Councilman John Tichon said. “We came to be good friends … we exchanged pleasantries. We’d have spirited debates on issues that we weren’t always in agreement on.

“One thing about Bill is when the discussion was over, we were still friends. We respected each other’s position, and we continued to be friends.”

[ Full story available at: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20224048&BRD=1282&PAG=461&dept_id=182121&rfi=6 ]

Families come in all shapes and sizes, face numerous challenges and, in the end, sometimes the people who love you the most don’t share any DNA.

Those were the sentiments expressed by some students in the Steel Valley School District in the essays they wrote for a contest sponsored by Green’s Funeral Home in Munhall, “What Family Means to Me.”

One student winner was chosen from each of the district’s four schools, Barrett and Park elementaries and the middle and high schools. Winners had their essays read at a recent school board meeting.

The younger students received $50 Barnes & Noble gift cards, while Ashley Wolford received a $100 check and the chance to have her essay entered into a national competition sponsored by Aurora Casket Co.

When senior Ashley, 17, — who was the winner from the high school — heard about the contest she knew it was her opportunity to pay tribute to her stepmother, Gina Wolford.

“The first thing that came to my mind was that I wanted to tell her how much she means to me,” Ashley said.

[ Full story available at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08353/935734-55.stm ]

The General Motors metal stamping plant in West Mifflin closed yesterday, idling all but a handful of workers.

GM spokesman Chris Lee said the plant produced its last part on Nov. 20 and finished its processing work yesterday. All workers were laid off except for a small number of skilled craftspeople, who will remain on the job until mid-January, when GM will auction the plant’s equipment.

The automaker had announced in April that the plant’s days were numbered, following the collapse of a deal to sell it to Allegheny Holdings, one of whose leaders was retired GM executive Thomas Brady.

The plant’s roughly 350 maintenance and production workers, who are represented by United Auto Workers Local 544, have been through a series of ups and downs that began in November 2006, when the automaker announced that the West Mifflin facility would be closing in 2007. That closing was postponed while talks were under way on selling the plant to Allegheny Holdings.

[ Full story available at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08348/935037-28.stm ]

Robin Rombach
The Post-Gazette

Mon Valley residents can experience the area’s historic past while looking out upon present-day developments from the new adult reading room at the Carnegie Library of Homestead.

The room, which has been restored to what library officials believe is its original design, sits in the front of the 110-year-old library and overlooks what was once the massive U.S. Steel Homestead Works, now the site of the sprawling retail and entertainment complex, The Waterfront.

That room design was taken from a black-and-white photo of the room that library officials believe dates to about 1920.

The project was completed and dedicated last month and was financed by grants from the Donald A. Abraham Memorial committee and former Homestead native William Campbell.

[ Full story available at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08346/934272-55.stm ]

By Mary Niederberger
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

New school board officers were elected throughout the area last week, with many of the votes taking just a few minutes and involving little discussion.

But in the Steel Valley and Mt. Lebanon school districts, some unusual discussion and comments preceeded the votes.

In Steel Valley, school Director Edward McCallister said he felt compelled to disclose to the public that board members received e-mails that discussed whether or not the district’s benefactor William Campbell, chairman of Intuit Inc., was trying to influence the election by supporting a particular candidate.

In Mt. Lebanon, school Director Sue Rose read a statement in support of Alan Silhol, who was elected the new board president. But the statement was also highly critical of outgoing president Mark Hart.

In Steel Valley, school Director Pamela Terrick responded to Mr. McCallister’s disclosure by saying that she had heard that school directors Vince Natale and Thomas Olson were lobbied by Mr. Campbell to vote for school Director Joseph Ducar for president. She said if that were true, she thought Mr. Campbell’s involvement to be inappropriate.

[ Full story available at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08346/934223-55.stm ]