[Full story available at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10063/1040014-55.stm]

The board passed a preliminary budget last week that included a three-mill increase for the 2010-11 school year, which translates to a 14 percent boost from this school year’s budget.

Mark Cherpak, director of operational services for the district, explained following Tuesday night’s regular board meeting that increased costs in staff salary, retirement plans and health benefit payments led to the tax increase.

“Those three factors were the main factors in the increase,” Mr. Cherpak said.

Teachers’ salaries and benefits account for nearly $18 million of the preliminary budget. A little more than $1 million of the budget will be consumed by retirement benefits.

[Full story available at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10056/1038357-55.stm ]

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Getting across West Street is risky for Sue Etters and other patrons of a Homestead center for the blind.

A flashing yellow beacon near the Blind & Vision Rehabilitation Services of Pittsburgh is supposed to warn drivers to slow down as they approach the building at West Street and East 18th Avenue.

But Etters and the center’s officials say drivers routinely ignore it, sometimes coming to within inches of running down visually impaired children and adults and their sighted guides.

[ Full story available at: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_656344.html ]

The abrupt end came after a meeting during which the board, at the recommendation of Superintendent William Kinavey, eliminated three administrative positions and created another without much explanation.

After the board’s actions and during the citizen comments portion at the end of the meeting, resident Sharon Ford had used the three-minute time limit the board has imposed on public comments. She wanted to continue, but board President Joseph Ducar announced her time had expired and immediately gaveled the meeting to a close. Then, he and Dr. Kinavey abruptly walked out of the meeting.

The rest of the board, with the exception of school director Edward McCallister who was absent, remained and continued a discussion with Ms. Ford for approximately 20 more minutes. Several board members explained to Ms. Ford that it is common practice for public bodies to impose time limits on comments.

Ms. Ford has exceeded the time limit during previous addresses to the board and has tried to maintain that it is not legal for the school board to enforce the limit.

In the end, board members encouraged Ms. Ford to prepare and deliver a written report to board secretary Mark Cherpak to be included in the packets that they receive on the Fridays before board meetings. The hope is that would eliminate the need for long presentations by Ms. Ford.

[ Full story available at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09175/979489-100.stm ]

The Carnegie Library of Homestead receives “horrendous” support from government and is seeking more money to combat the effects of the recession on the library’s music hall and fitness center, board president Dan Lloyd said.

“We aren’t in dire straits, but we still need more money,” Lloyd said.

Marilyn Jenkins, executive director of the Allegheny County Library Association, said the four municipalities the library serves gave it about $25,000 last year, far less than the $5 per capita the state requires. Munhall, Homestead, West Homestead and Whitaker have a combined population of about 19,000 people.

The Regional Asset District, funded by an extra 1 percent on the county’s sales tax, supports 44 libraries in Allegheny County and gave $67,000 to the Homestead library last year. The library could get more RAD money by 2010 if the library association approves a funding formula that would lessen emphasis on municipal support, Executive Director David Donahoe said.

[ Full story available at: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_625426.html ]

The cylindrical container made of steel, together with hundreds more, was at one time an indispensable tool in the steel producing days of the Mon Valley. Back when massive steel factories still churned plumes of smoke over much of the region, torpedo cars didn’t sit rusting away.

They were used to treat and transport iron via a hot metal rail bridge that runs across half of the Carrie Furnace site in Rankin and Swissvale, over the Monongahela River, and into Homestead where it was made into steel.

That era is long gone, but Allegheny County, which in 2005 bought the 168-acre land parcel where the Carrie Furnace had operated for 102 years, is in the final stages of environmental cleanup and expects to start marketing the land for redevelopment this year.

[ Full article available at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09138/970906-56.stm ]

Betty Esper spent 36 years working at U.S. Steel's Homestead Works. The mill closed in the 1980s. A few years later, Esper began her second career as Homestead's mayor. Photo (c) David Green/NPR

Some of the hardest-hit communities in this recession are the towns and cities that have lost jobs in the automobile industry — or worse, saw an entire auto plant close.

It’s a predicament the steel towns around Pittsburgh know well. They had to search for new identities after the steel industry buckled in the 1980s.

During a recent visit to the Steel City, I sought out some of the people who brought Pittsburgh through its hardest times to see if there were any lessons to learn.

From Industrial Mill To Waterfront Shopping

In the Pittsburgh suburb of Homestead, I found longtime Mayor Betty Esper. She spent three decades working in U.S. Steel’s massive Homestead Works, a sprawling mill across the Monongahela River from Pittsburgh that shut down in 1986. She was elected mayor several years after the mill closed.

[ Full story available at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102457292 ]

Somebody is targeting an historic West Mifflin cemetery.

Twice in as many months West Mifflin police have been called to investigate overturned headstones at Lebanon Church Cemetery.

It was random vandalism, though usually the culprit or culprits pushed over multiple headstones in a given row.

“Some of the older headstones were pushed over and broken,” cemetery manager Lori Hornfeck said Monday. “Some of the newer ones were just pushed over.”

In all, some 40 have been overturned. The latest incident was reported to borough police Friday.

[ Full story available at: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20276961&BRD=1282&PAG=461&dept_id=182121&rfi=6 ]

So he said he was disappointed when Mr. Curtin, who was fired by the borough a year ago when allegations arose, received only five years probation under a plea agreement when he was sentenced two weeks ago. The probation terms forbid Mr. Curtin from using computers or texting on his cell phone.

He said earlier this week that he planned to write a letter to the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office expressing his disagreement with the way the case was handled.

“With the severity of what the charges were and the fact that he was placed in a position of trust and authority in this town, I think it would be appropriate to see some jail time out of that,” he said.

[ Full story available at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09057/951716-55.stm ]