Feb 22, 2014 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:

‘Rare and unique’ machine shop to change owners

A nonprofit corporation that manages the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area will assume ownership of the historic W.A. Young and Sons Foundry and Machine Shop in Rices Landing.

The Greene County Historical Society, which has owned the building since 1985, has agreed to transfer the deed to the property at no cost to the Steel Industry Heritage Corp.

“It’s a beautiful resource,” said Gretchen Graham, vice president of the society board. “But we just don’t have the ability to get funding to the magnitude needed to properly restore it,” she said.

The corporation, which was formed to preserve the industrial heritage of Southwestern Pennsylvania, does have the resources necessary to oversee the restoration, she said.

The machine shop was built in 1900 by William A. Young and expanded to include a foundry in 1908. The shop has remained pretty much unchanged since the days it served the then-thriving riverboat, railroad and mining industries.

The original machinery inside is powered by an intricate system of leather belts and wooden pulleys mounted to the ceiling. The foundry includes the original coke furnace, metal ladles and wooden forms once used to make molds.

Greene again denied disaster declaration

WAYNESBURG – The federal Emergency Management Agency has again concluded damage resulting from the Nov. 19 flood was not severe enough to warrant a federal disaster declaration.

The news came in a letter from FEMA Under Secretary Michael Brown to Gov. Ed Rendell, who had asked the agency to reverse its initial determination denying the major disaster declaration.

FEMA based its decision to deny the state’s appeal on the two initial damage assessments conducted following the flood and on the lack of any new information regarding the flood’s impact, Brown said.

“Our review confirms the original findings that the impact of this event is not of a severity and magnitude that warrants a major disaster declaration,” Brown said. “Therefore, I must inform you that your appeal is denied.”

County Commissioner Pam Snyder said she was disappointed with the news. She admitted that being denied the declaration twice obviously was not good. However, the county will continue to push for reconsideration, she said.

“We are the only county in Pennsylvania affected by the flood, but I look at what happened in West Virginia on the same day. They received a disaster declaration, but we didn’t,” Snyder said. “We should be included, too,” she said .

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SE Greene raises GPA for participants

MAPLETOWN – Southeastern Greene School Board voted Thursday to raise the bar in regard to grades students must maintain in order to participate in extra-curricular activities.

The board voted to require students in grades seven through 12 to maintain at least a 1.6 grade-point average to play sports or participate in other extracurricular activities. The policy will take effect next school year.

Board member Jeff Duranko, who introduced the motion, said the 1.6 GPA amounts to about a C- or D+ grade average. He said he would have preferred raising the GPA to 2.0 but was concerned too many students might be excluded from school activities.

Most districts the size of Southeastern Greene follow standards set by the state Interscholastic Athletic Association, which require a student to pass at least four full-credit courses.

Southeastern Greene’s policy is slightly more stringent, requiring students to pass at least four full-credit courses and to receive not more than one F.

West Greene board nixes raises for administrators

ROGERSVILLE – The West Greene School Board voted down a motion Thursday that would have granted raises to district administrators.

William Throckmorton, chairman of the board’s personnel committee, introduced a motion that included raises for this year and next year for the district’s three administrators and maintenance superintendent.

The motion, which failed in a 4-4 vote, called for increasing the two principals’ salaries by $900 this school year plus an additional $500 for extra work they performed during the strike.

For the 1989-90 school year, principals would receive a $900 raise plus an amount based on one half the consumer price index times their salaries.

Area funeral directors quit ambulance service

Four funeral homes which have furnished ambulance service to the Waynesburg area and western Greene County for many years are discontinuing the service, effective May 1.

They are the William W. Garrison Funeral Home, Samuel P. Weaver Funeral Home, and Marriner and Milliken Funeral Home, all of Waynesburg, and the Robert L. Lantz Funeral Hone at Rogersville.

Increasing state and federal regulations, exorbitant operating costs, unalterable low rates, uncollectable bills, and low volume are cited as the reasons which have forced them to make the decision.

The funeral directors pointed out that the transition of ambulance service from funeral directors to a public agency has already been accomplished in most communities in Pennsylvania and throughout the United States.