the week in review
A BRIEF ROUNDUP OF THE LOCAL NEWS OF THE WEEK
The baseball season — such as it is — started last week, and Pittsburgh lost two games plus an entire team.
Staff writer Jason Mackey — who hits to all fields when it comes to covering news, sports, features, etc. — was all over the Toronto Blue Jays’ intention to play their “home” games this coronavirus-clouded summer at PNC Park, right up till Wednesday afternoon, when Gov. Tom Wolf and the state Department of Health pulled the tarp over the plan.
“In recent weeks, we have seen a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in southwestern Pennsylvania,” Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said in a statement. “To add travelers to this region for any reason, including for professional sports events, risks residents, visitors and members of both teams.
“We know that this virus does not discriminate, and can even make professional athletes very sick. We are committed to protecting the health and well-being of all Pennsylvanians.”
The Blue Jays have been looking for a place to play in the United States since their own government expressed concern about all the players and team personnel that would be bopping back and forth across the border. They finally settled on playing their games at their minor league facility in Buffalo, N.Y.
“It would have been nice,” Mayor Bill Peduto said of having the Jays and their opponents boosting Pittsburgh business — and image. “It would have had a feel of normalcy that we all want. But we also realize the Department of Health looked at it from their perspective, and their decision and their authority reign.”
Don’t pitch a fit when you can pitch a tent
They’ve been doing the math at the University of Pittsburgh, and they’ve come to the conclusion that they just don’t have all the space they need to conduct classes while maintaining the social distancing this pandemic requires.
But a university is nothing if not a place for ideas, and they’ve come up with erecting semipermanent outdoor structures to boost classroom and study space.
Staff writer Bill Schackner learned late Thursday a 5,000-square-foot tent geared to music and theater instruction will be set up on the lawn below the 42-story Cathedral of Learning. It will have a floor and stage, along with heating, ventilation and air conditioning that will utilize outdoor air exclusively.
“At a minimum, the tent will be used for choir, ensembles, theater and other classes,” Pitt spokesman Kevin Zwick said.
Pitt has 34,000 students on five campuses, most of them in Oakland. It has hundreds of classrooms and a student population that will arrive in a few weeks from nearly every state and scores of nations, each with infection rates that are shifting by the month. Classes begin Aug. 19.
“The fact is we have only 16% of the normal capacity for classrooms, when you count up all the spaces in all the classes,” Provost Ann Cudd said. “It’s a very difficult optimization problem.”
Crews are inspecting classrooms, marking off required spacing for occupants, and testing heating and ventilation systems to ensure they are working properly. Technology is being added — from video to microphones for professors — so each class can accommodate remote instruction, even in rooms where at least some students choose to be present.
Working so hard to keep it as it is
The Allegheny Land Trust is hoping to keep 155 acres between Millvale, Reserve and Shaler in the green phase — as in preserved and protected.
Staff writer Bob Batz Jr. last week detailed how the public is being invited to help buy the land known as Girty’s Run as part of a nonprofit conservation project. A virtual public information session about the project will be presented at 5 p.m. Monday via Zoom and Facebook.
Trails criss-cross these steep woods, which are home to a diverse variety of animals and plants as well as a family of cellphone towers. The undeveloped forest is important for absorbing rainwater that would overrun Girty’s Run, which flows through Millvale’s business district to the Allegheny River and has caused epic flooding there.
People already have donated more than half of the $40,000the trust wants to raise from the community to encourage other donations and grants.
The Millvale Community Development Corp. is working with the landowner, C&S Management, to preserve the parcel, which the trust has agreed to purchase for $600,000, pending a site assessment and fundraising. The trust aims to raise $725,000 to cover other costs. Its deadline is March 2021.
New rules mean new enforcement
Thursday marked the first round of COVID-19 safety inspections in Allegheny County restaurants. The 10-member Field Response Team visited 69 restaurants and found 14 with at least one violation.
The fouls included the lack of informational signs, employees not properly wearing masks, tables too close together, too many customers and a take-out line that was too close to the building.
As PennDOT says, ‘Sorry for the wait’
You may not be able to do anything to improve your driver’s license photo, but at least you can now selfcertify a nonbinary gender designation if you choose.
Staff writer Mike Pesarchick reported that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation on Thursday announced that options on state photo IDs will now provide for “F” for female, “M” for male and “X” for nonbinary.
“It became clear that only offering drivers ID with male and female was not meeting the needs of our customers. We have always been focused on providing inclusive services,” PennDOT Secretary Yassmin Gramian said.
To date, the state database has 10.4 million licenses and ID cards, and 273 cards with the “X” designation have been issued.
Pennsylvania is the 17th state to offer a nonbinary gender designation. You can change your gender designation by filling out form DL-32 and submitting it in person to a PennDOT license center.
Like a consent order over troubled water
Staff writer Don Hopey came in Friday with news of a consent order between the State Department of Environmental Protection, CNX Gas Co. LLC and CNX Midstream Partners LP, in which the companies agreed to pay a $310,000 penalty for spills, leaks and poor erosion and sediment controls along natural gas pipelines and waste fluid pipelines in East Finley Township, Washington County, and Morris Township, Greene County.
Between Aug. 26, 2016, and Aug. 16, 2018, the wastewater pipeline project included spills of 43 gallons of drilling mud into Boothe Run, 630 gallons of salty brine wastewater, and an estimated 2,100 gallons of brine into a tributary of the Enlow Fork stream.
DEP’s compliance staff observed stressed and dead vegetation in spill areas and elevated salts and dissolved solids in a groundwater seepage into the tributary.
The 16-page consent order further requires CNX to submit to an independent audit of its activities within six months, and to resubmit pollution, prevention and contingency plans to prevent future environmental impacts from its shale gas development activities statewide within two months.
“For DEP, enforcing environmental laws goes beyond correcting violations and collecting civil penalties,” said DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell. “The department successfully uses these agreements to gather data used to improve our industry oversight and drive operational changes beyond what the law requires to strengthen environmental safeguards more broadly.”
Don was determined to find some good news, and here it is: CNX’s sampling of 10 residential water wells near the site found no material change in water quality. Three groundwater monitoring wells also showed no impairment of water quality.
PWSA working to get the lead out
Don found some more good news when the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer
Authority announced recent tests show water lead levels have declined to the lowest level in 20 years and are well within safe drinking water standards.
The testing done on water samples collected from 158 homes with lead service lines or plumbing measured lead at 5.1 parts per billion, about 10 parts per billion below the federal and state action level of 15 parts per billion.
According to the PWSA, that’s the lowest lead test result in more than 20 years and the second consecutive round of test results below the action level.
High lead water levels have been a concern for the PWSA service area since 2016 and have exceeded federal lead action levels in five of the last eight sixmonth testing periods.
Since June 2016, the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority has replaced more than 7,400 public lead service lines and 4,700 private lead service lines throughout Pittsburgh.
Developer gets what he aims for
Meet me under Kaufmann’s clock sometime next year, and we’ll go into the new Target that’s going to be there.
Staff writer Mark Belko learned Thursday the Minneapolis-based discount retailer will open an urban format store on the first floor of the old Kaufmann’s/ Macy’s building at Smithfield Street and Fifth Avenue.
“It is exciting news that Target is official, signed and sealed,” said Michael Samschick, president and CEO of Core Realty, which has been working to reel in the highprofile tenant as part of a complete redevelopment of the iconic Downtown landmark. “We’re very lucky. There were other cities slated as well. We were so fortunate to have them come to the plate.”
The type of store Target plans to open typically ranges from 12,000 to 80,000 square feet. That’s a lot smaller than the 145,000square-foot East Liberty Target. Inventory at the smaller-format stores can include apparel, food, home goods, beauty products and other items.
Target has been moving to the smaller formats in recent years, particularly in urban locations and near college campuses.
Some good news closer to home
Staff writer Kate Giammarise reported Thursday that the Pittsburgh Housing Authority will offer incentives to attract new landlords who will accept subsidized housing vouchers.
Housing authority board members approved the idea of using federal funds to cover a portion of tenant security deposits for voucher holders, as well as providing bonuses to new landlords and for new units. The vote was unanimous.
The aid will come from the roughly $9.1 million the housing authority received in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds.
The Housing Choice Voucher Program gives tenants vouchers that subsidize their rent in a privately owned unit. Tenants typically pay about a third of their income in rent. Tenants who have housing vouchers, commonly called Section 8 vouchers, often struggle to find housing because many Pittsburgh landlords do not accept the vouchers.
The move aims to increase the city’s supply of affordable housing units. The bonuses will range from $500-$1,000, depending on unit size.
Board members also separately approved $285,000 for eviction prevention services. Evictions are on hold due to a statewide moratorium that expires at the end of August.
City Council backs police reform bills
Pittsburgh City Council members on Wednesday voted to recommend four major police reform bills, which will likely get a vote before council members’ summer recess starts Wednesday.
Staff writer Lauren Lee wrote that the bills, introduced by Councilman Ricky Burgess, include prohibiting the city’s acquisition of military equipment and weaponry; requiring a “duty to intervene” on behalf of police officers witnessing “inappropriate” force; moving $250,000 from police salaries to a gun violence prevention fund while creating a budgetary obligation for the fund; and banning chokeholds.
During the meeting, Mr. Burgess introduced amendments to the bills for more clarification after working with the law, police and public safety departments.
For example, Shawn Carter, special assistant to the office of Mr. Burgess, told how an armored personnel carrier was used to end the standoff in the 2009 shooting that killed three police officers in Stanton Heights and to extract victims from and get police officers inside the building during the 2018 Tree of Life massacre.
In the end, all four police reform bills were affirmatively recommended, with the amendments added.
It tolls for thee
This state is so beautiful, we know you’re happy to pay to see it.
And so it is that the Pennsylvania Turnpike is offering to let travelers pay higher tolls — a 6% increase — beginning Jan. 3.
Staff writer Ed Blazina informs us that turnpike officials last week also decided to add a 45% surcharge for most motorists who don’t have E-ZPass and use the Toll By Plate system. It’s part of a push to get more drivers signed up for the prepaid E-ZPass.
This will mark the 13th straight year the turnpike has raised tolls. A crossstate trip from east to west with E-ZPass will go to $47 from $44.20 and Toll By Plate will rise to $95.30 from $61.80.