The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 90

E2 The Pittsburgh Press Thursday. June 23. 1988 NAMES FACE! Rudnik, 38, of Mount Pleasant was given an Outstanding Achievement Award from the state Liquor Control Board at an awards luncheon last month for his community wort He was one of six LCB employees in Allegheny. Armstrong. Beaver.

Butler, Center, Erie, Fayette, Forest, Indiana. Somerset and Westmoreland counties to be given the award. He was honored because of his work as a fire prevention officer with kindergarten students in the district Rudnik shows the students how to react if fire erupts near them. He also shows films on fire safety and helps youngsters work on fire evacuation plans at their homes. He said the students especially enjoy the "stop, drop and roll" drills he uses to teach them how to react if their clothes catch on fire.

"I touch them and say, 'You're on They cover their eyes and roll back and forth. They like it because it gets them out of class," Rudnik said. How does Rudnik juggle his work with the fire department and children with managing a liquor store? "It's definitely a challenge," he said. Also honored at the luncheon with Service Awards were James Knight of North Braddock, who recently retired after 25 years of service with the LCB and John Steci of East Pittsburgh, who completed 30 years. of Pittsburgh.

He holds a theology degree from Drew University, Madison, and an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Ohio Northern University, Ada. In addition to four years at South Avenue Church, he has served in the churches of Creighton in East Deer, Center Church in Fawn and Baldwin Community. He served as Pittsburgh district superintendent from 1970 to 1972, and was Butler district superintendent prior to his serving at South Avenue. His wife, Lucille, is assistant professor of nursing at Carlow College. Fine arts director The year-old School of Fine Arts at Seton Hill College, Greensburg, has its first director.

He's Ken Jones, who is assistant dean of fine arts and architecture at Montana State University. Jones will be the director of the only school within Seton Hillthat accepts male students. Prior to last year, men who studied music, art communications and theater at Seton Hill enrolled at nearby St. Vincent College in Latrobe, but took classes at Seton Hill. Among Jones' goals is to make the arts available to more people, "To help everyone explore the art that's in them," he said.

That can be done by finding spaces and audiences for art off campus, through shows and displays in public places such as malls and town squares, he sail from the community can use us as a resource. Sometimes people don't know what's available on a college campus." Among those resources are plays, concerts and other types of entertainment, he said. At Montana. Jones helped start the only public TV station in that state, operated on campus through the school of fine arts and architecture, and pitched in as an on-cam-era fund-raiser. He's a supporter of public TV and radio because they provide outlets for the arts.

He particularly loves adult's and children's theater. He's directed plays every year for the past 30, and will give a workshop in October to the Puppeteers of America Northwest Regional Festival. His involvement in children's theater is equally enjoyable as directing adult plays. "I think children should be introduced to the very best in Honored for service Joseph Rudnik leads an interesting life. He fights fires as a captain for the Mount Pleasant Volunteer Fire Department.

He is fire safety instructor for the Mount Pleasant School District and he is manager of the state liquor store in Latrobe. Ready to answer call It came as no surprise to the Rev. Dr. Paul J. Meuschke that he was nominated to be bishop at the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference at Grove City College on June 15.

Meuschke, pastor of South Avenue United Methodist Church in Wilkinsburg, is one of 15 candidates for bishop in the Northeast jurisdictional conference. Although his nomination took place this month, delegates caucused in January and determined they would nominated Meuschke. "I have answered a call at every level of the church, and I am proud to answer this call," he said. The final step in the process is the election July 12-14 at the jurisdictional conference held at West Virginia Wesleyan College, Buckhannon. If elected, Meuschke would serve as bishop of an episcopal area, a much larger area than a Catholic bishop serves.

The election of a bishop is necessary to fill the position of Bishop James Mase Ault of Pittsburgh, who is retiring in September. Meuschke said that if he were elected he would not serve in Pittsburgh, because the church's practice is to assign a bishop outside the area from which he came. Meuschke, 60, is originally from Castle Shannon and is a graduate of the University i V. i A Rev. Dr.

Paul J. Meuschke Nominated to be bishop at annual Methodist conference. New owner from Murrysville instills pride at trailer park "These people are not transients. If you provide them with a nice environment, they'll keep it that way." Myles Sampson By Douglas Heuck The Pittsburgh Press Before Myles Sampson bought the Rich Hill Mobile Estates, a kind of apathy akin to "keeping down with the Joneses" was the apparent rule among residents. "I don't want to really say it was an eyesore," said Indiana Township Manager Mitch Kovel, amending that comment to say that it was "not as nice as it could have been." Sampson, a Murrysville businessman, described the 25-acre Indiana Township mobile home park as "a community in decline" when he bought it in February.

Since then, however, he has held his own sort of "Remaking Cities Conference" and, with the residents, has achieved the kind of success that Prince Charles might envy. "In a way, it is like having your own municipality," Sampson said. "The tenants pay rent, and we pro- vide the services that a township or borough would provide," including enforcement of traffic laws, keeping the peace and maintaining the infrastructure. When Sampson took ownership, 22 of the 122 pads were vacant and about 30 percent of the tenants were more than two months behind in their rent. Now, 11 pads are vacant and, Sampson said, "We now have about 1 percent of the people one month behind in rent." A physical-improvements campaign includes repaying the park's 1.5 miles of roads, cleaning the provide them with a nice environment, they'll keep it that way.

"People were concerned about speeding and enforcement of rules. And they wanted security. If there are disruptive elements, they want us to take action. And we have. We've evicted several people." Sampson has cut the rent from $140 a month to $120, and he now provides, free of charge, a pine tree and bushes to any family that wants to plant them around their mobile home.

"That pine tree right there, he gave me that," said Dennis Angelo, a two-year resident. "He didn't have to do that, and that cost a pretty penny." Angelo applauds most of the changes like bringing in Dump-sters for garbage removal and re-paving streets and patches for parking cars but, like many of his neighbors, he regrets losing the swimming pool. "That's the only thing I didn't like, getting rid of the pool." Sampson said the pool was expensive to operate so he decided to pave it over to make a basketball court. He also is adding a playing field to give youngsters somewhere to go. Sampson has refunded to residents most of their $320 'security deposits so that they can put the money into their trailers if they choose.

Linda Hernandez has lived at the park for 4V4 years. "There's definitely improvement," she said. "It used to be a lot messier," she said. "Now you see people planting shrubs and trees. It's changed.

People never really cared before." Resident Karen Morrison said she is happy with her six-year stay at the park. "As it is now, it's very peaceful out here, very, very quiet. There are woods in the back for the kids to hike in, and they can catch trout down in the stream. It was a big change moving here from Mount Washington, but I like it better here." Index PRESS EAST grounds, inspecting trailers, and building a basketball court and playing field. The improvements are half complete.

"Before, the biggest hallmark was a lot of litter," said Sampson, 42. "Here, an old refrigerator that no longer worked. There, spare tires stacked up outside. Stuff that was too big for the garbage man." And then there were dogs. "You saw dogs everywhere," he said, "like 20 to 30 dogs running uncontrolled." Sampson brought with him to Rich Hill 20 years of experience in mobile home management in Westmoreland County.

The first thing he did after buying the park was put out a questionnaire asking residents what they wanted from management. The answers came back, and in March, Sampson and about 195 residents discussed them at a banquet he paid for at the Holiday Inn in Harmarville. The conference his version of the "Remaking Cities" get-together brought out what he had suspected: "These people are not transients. They are Indiana residents, and they want the same things people want in any single-family community. If you Memorable meteor According to one author, if a 1938 meteor had entered the atmosphere at a slightly different angle, it could have destroyed Pittsburgh.

Page E8. Careers E7 College Collage E7 Deed Transfers E19 Police Blotter E5 Sports E13-15 Town Meetings STYLE Braddock cautiously optimistic over being 'distressed By Edwina L. Kaikai The Pittsburgh Press Braddock officials are feeling cautiously optimistic over word that the borough has been granted a distressed community designation by the state Department of Community Affairs. "I think it's something that is good for the borough in future years in regards to getting out of the deficit it is in," said council President Jesse Brown. "We are concerned as councilmen and women and residents as to what the state will have us do to try to bring in enough revenue to get on a solid fiscal basis." DCA Secretary Karen Miller announced her approval of the borough's request for the designation on Friday, noting that the once prosperous mill town could end the year with a $270,000 deficit.

Braddock is the third municipality in Western Pennsylvania to be declared financially distressed. The designation qualifies the borough to receive technical advice on fiscal management and to apply for grants and loans under the state's Financially Distressed Municipalities Act, also known as Act 47. A coordinator will be appointed by the state to draft a recovery plan for the town. Fred Reddig, chief of municipal programs for DCA, said the appointment will be made within 30 days. Other distressed communities in the county are Wilkinsburg and Clairton.

Reddig said Braddock qualified for the program because it met three of the 1 1 criteria set by the state. It had failed to meet a payroll for 30 days or more, failed to send withholding taxes to the Internal Revenue Service and has been unable to meet the terms of judgments lodged against the borough. In addition, Reddig said, Ms. Miller also took into account several other factors that came to light as part of DCA's investigation of the borough's fiscal operation. She found that over the last 12 years, the assessed value of property in the borough has decreased from $14.9 million to $8.4 million, caused in large part by the reduced assessment of USX facilities.

At the same time, Braddock's tax rate climbed from 28 mills to 42 mills. About 55 percent of the borough's property is tax exempt. Population information uncovered during the investigation showed that the number of residents in the borough dropped from a 1970 figure of 8,795 to an estimated 4,680 now living there. And 30 percent of that number is living at or below the poverty line, Reddig said. "The tax burden has been on the shoulders of fewer and fewer taxpayers who are not able to pay the taxes," he said.

That has been directly felt in the level of services the borough is able to offer. Eight years ago 44 people worked for the borough; now there is a staff of 16. And the police department has gone from 28 in 1980 to six who are now augmented by the state police. Reddig said DCA is in the process of developing the job outline the coordinator will follow in putting together Braddock's recovery plan. Once selected, the coordinator will be introduced to borough officials and residents.

A recovery plan will be presented to the borough for approval within 90 days. If it isn't accepted by council, those officials must come up with an alternative plan in 15 days that is acceptable to DCA. The borough would be at risk of losing the state money it already receives and that which it would qualify for if DCA does not accept its plan. Joining forces Two Jewish day schools threatened by declining enrollment and funds have merged, the result of a unique cooperation between lay people and rabbis of different philosophies of Judaism. Page E9.

Births E9 Coming Up E10 Marching On E10 Religion E9 Weddings E10 OUR READERS WRITE STAfHIDA RD SAVINGS, We would like to publicly thank the staff of Penn-Hebron Elementary School, Penn Hills. Our children have gone to Penn-Hebron ever since the fire at old Hebron. eck Out Our Rates! to school. Bill's homeroom teacher, Roland Sparrow, made a special trip to the hospital and has gone out of his way to be supportive. Valerie Mastan-drea, a learning disability teacher, has been helpful and kind to Bill for years and, of course, during his time she was extra good.

The entire staff of Penn-Hebron School should be proud of their professional handling of Bill's situation. Dr. Edward Bitler, the principal; Lore Snyder, the secretary; and William Potter, the guindance counselor, were all especially kind and helful. At a time when people are so quick to criticize the school district, we found excellent support. In this large school, Bill certainly wasn't lost in the shuffle.

Once more, thanks to the staff at Penn-Hebron Elementary School, MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM DAVIDSON Penn Hills This past winter, our son, Bill, was hospitalized for two weeks. The staff at Penn-Hebron was extremely sup- portive. Donna Kos, the school nurse, is the person who discovered Bill had a problem.

She was so helpful with medication, when Bill returned SKOA Interest on Money Market Accounts Compounded Daily $2500 Minimum Annual Yield 5.50 7tyg Interest on udL3 6 Month Certificates Annual Yield 7.43 $1000 Minimum 7IS(fOA Interest on vW 1 Year Certificates Per Annum $500 Minimum 81 0 Interest on 1U 3 Year Certificates Per Annum $500 Minimum Rates effective June 2 1 through June 27. Substantial penalties for premature withdrawal from certificates. STANDARD HARVEY M. BLOCK D.M.D. ANNOUNCES the opening of his new practice specializing in Comprehensive Family Dentistry for Adults Children Free Consultation Prompt Emergency Treatment Special Care For Apprehensive Patients Located in THE FACTORY 7501 Penn Ave.

Point Breeze Office Hours by Appointment with evening weekend hfuirs available. AVINGS SCOTTDALE 100 Pittsburgh Street 887-7900 LIQONIER 211 West Main Street 238-6655 WILKINSBURQ 730 Penn Avenue 243-1400 MOUNT PLEASANT Corner Main Church 547-751 MONROEVILLE 2640 Monroevllle Blvd. 858-0350 MURRYSVILLE 3875 Old William Penn Hwy. 327-0010 fsttt.