Dec 7, 2013 5 min read

A look at some of the headlines gracing the pages of the Observer-Reporter and Waynesburg Republican this week in Greene County history:

Sony closure to have little impact on Kyowa Corp.

WAYNESBURG – The closing of Sony Corp.’s Westmoreland County television plant will have little impact on Kyowa America Corp.’s plant in Waynesburg, which once was a major supplier of plastic television cabinets to Sony.

Sony announced Tuesday that it would phase out operations at the Westmoreland County plant during the next 16 months, cutting 560 employees.

The closing of the plant is part of the company’s worldwide layoff plan under which Sony hopes to cut 8,000 of its 185,000 jobs by 2010.

Kyowa America Corp.’s Waynesburg plant produces fabricated plastic parts. For many years, the Kyowa plant was a major supplier of plastic television cabinets to Sony. But not anymore.

The Sony plant closing will have “minimal impact” on the Kyowa plant, said Connie Clark, director of the Waynesburg plant. The plant now mostly fabricates plastic parts for the automotive industry, she said.

Though the automotive industry also is facing problems with the poor economy and plant closings, Clark said the Waynesburg plant so far has not felt any impact.

The Waynesburg plant currently employs about 100 people, Clark said.

Budget places burden on taxpayers

WAYNESBURG – Coal depletion and premium increases in virtually all types of insurance will pressure Greene County’s finances in the coming year. And, county leaders decided Tuesday to pass some of the financial hardship onto taxpayers.

Commissioners voted 2-1 to approve a $26.3 million unified budget that includes a 1-mill property tax increase. The jump from 5.42 mills to 6.42 mills translates to a 20 percent increase.

Republican Commissioner Scott Blair cast the dissenting vote. He wanted more fat to be trimmed from the spending plan before he could support it.

“I think some tweaking of the numbers could be done. Now, I don’t think we could come up with a whole mill, but I think there is waste,” Blair said. “Every row office in this county could tighten its budget.”

Under the proposed tax increase, the owner of a house with an assessed value of $50,000 would pay an extra $50 in county taxes next year. That property owner paid $271 this year but his bill will be $321 in 2004.

“It is regrettable any time elected officials have to raise taxes. We realize that this is a difficult corner of the commonwealth to earn a living and pay this overhead,” said Commissioner Farley Toothman.

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New humane society may be ready in April

WAYNESBURG – Less than six months from now, the newly-constructed Greene County Humane Society shelter should be filled with activity as dozens of homeless pets find refuge in the modern facility.

On Wednesday, though, the shelter site on Jefferson Road was only filled with mud, construction workers, a skeleton of a building and the promise of what should be a strong future for the organization.

“Greene County can be proud of its humane society,” said Leigh Gardner, president of the society’s board. “In a little while they can point to this site as an example of what a little county can do.”

Gardner was addressing a small group of well-wishers gathered at the shelter’s official groundbreaking. Many of those present remember the roadblocks the project encountered during the last two years.

In January 2001, RAG Emerald Resources undermined the humane society’s old shelter on Route 19 south of Waynesburg. Subsidence destroyed the building, and the shelter was moved to a RAG-owned house across the street. Leaders of the organization soon then began planning for a new building, to be partially funded through a settlement with the coal company.

Water problems plague Mather families

People in Mather are up in arms. They have little or no water and they appear to be getting a bureaucratic runaround.

There have been many problems over the years with the more than half-century-old water system owned by Mather Water Co., which is actually William McCormick of Bentleyville.

Most of the four-inch, steel water lines were buried in the 1920s by Mather Colleries, which owned Mather Mine and developed the town. Over the years, the lines have rusted to the point where it takes little to rupture the lines.

The more than 300 customers have long complained about low pressure and occasional leaks. Residents never know when they may have water. Families with children find it especially difficult and must conserve water in bath tubs, buckets and anything else that will hold and appreciative amount of water.

Stray bullet misses 2 men in auto office

Two men were within a few feet of death Monday morning when a bullet slammed into the office of Pat’s Motor Sales, a used car lot on at 795 East High St., Waynesburg.

Sheriff Mark G. Shultz said that from the appearance of the rifle slug it must have ricocheted off the street somewhere in front of the building. He theorized it could have been fired by a deer hunter on one of the hills south of town.

The owner, Lester (Pat) Patterson, and his son, Dave, were in the office at the time. The son had just sat down in a chair in front of his father’s desk when the slug came through the glass of the front door and smashed into the wall paneling two feet or so above his head.