May 6, 2013 3 min read

MONONGAHELA – Monongahela Councilwoman Claudia Williams couldn’t see spending nearly $2 million in tax dollars to restore the city’s riverfront stage and then have it continue to serve mostly as a place to fish and feed ducks.

Supporters of the Noble J. Dick Aquatorium, recognizing its potential, stepped forward to form a nonprofit corporation to run the stage, knowing the city couldn’t seek grants from private foundations to fund low-cost concerts there.

“I saw that as a sinfully underused asset,” Williams said, adding the new group, Aquatorium Innovations, has lined up a full schedule of concerts for the stage this summer season for the first time since in opened. The aquatorium was built in 1969.

The series will begin June 8 with a performance by a local band, The Hillbilly Way. Pittsburgh favorites Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers and The Billy Price Band also are in the lineup. A Las Vegas act paying tribute to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, featuring Ringgold High School graduate George Solomon, will take the stage June 29. The Journey/Bon Jovi cover band known as Bon Journey will perform July 6, and Blackfoot will close out the season Aug. 31.

Williams said she is optimistic the concert series will be a success at the stage that seats 3,700 people on rows of benches that, from a distance, take the shape of a U.S. flag.

“Come on, you don’t go up and down the river and see a riverfront stage in every community,” she said. “This is such a beautiful pool in the Monongahela River.”

The city has used federal, state and its own money to rebuild the seating area, money that also qualified it for generous grants for the project from the local share of the pot from The Meadows Racetrack & Casino in North Strabane Township. Work is under way to construct a welcome center with public restrooms on part of the aquatorium’s parking lot and install boat docks around the stage.

“The mayor wanted this fixed up,” Williams said, referring to Monongahela Mayor Bob Kepics.

The concerts will begin at 8 p.m. most Saturdays through the end of August. Hog Father’s Old Fashioned BBQ restaurant in Monongahela also has agreed to serve food Friday nights and during breakfast Saturday and Sunday at the attraction at the Second Street boat ramp to the river. The aquatorium group also is seeking vendors for the concert series.

For more information, visit monaquatorium.org