Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 3

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Monday, March 23, 1992 CITYAREA AT talks set to resume ers rea "By-Mark Belko riRst-Gazette Staff Writer Negotiations between the Port Authority wid striking bus and trolley operators are set 'to resume today, as the work stoppage enters its second week. new round of talks will be the first since Wednesday, when four hours of negotiations failed to produce a settlement. then negotiators for PAT and Local of the Amalgamated Transit Union have "been reviewing proposals from the other side and preparing counteroffers. The new offers are to be presented today, said William Wiseman, one of two state mediators involved in the talks. Neither the time nor the location of today's meeting have been disclosed.

PAT and the union have agreed that any statements regarding the talks would come from the mediators. Local 85 represents about 2,700 bus and trolley operators, mechanics, maintenance workers, secretaries and some supervisors. They went on strike at 12:01 a.m. last Monday, leaving 285,000 daily transit riders without their usual means of transportation. The strike has created longer than normal traffic jams, forced some commuters to change their driving habits, and has forced others to walk long distances to get to their destinations.

Some people, have turned to taxis, jitneys or even bicycles to get around. Management and the union have been divided over a fact-finder's report recommending wage increases of one and one-half percent in each of the next three years, continuance of quarterly cost of living adjust ments, and better pension benefits. PAT officials say they can't afford the cost of the package, which their auditors calculate at nearly $76 million. Union representatives placed the cost at million. They argue that much of the increases could be offset by concessions that Ronald Talarico, the fact finder, awarded PAT elsewhere in the report.

Local 85 officials also are upset that PAT waited until the last factfinding session to announce that it couldn't afford the package. The authority based its claim on funding cutbacks in Gov. Casey's proposed 1992-93 budget and lower than expected estimates on state dedicated revenue. PAT officials had the information on the budget cuts about a week before the last factfinding session but waited to tell union officials and Talarico because they wanted to make sure the figures were accurate, said Executive Director William W. Millar.

They also wanted to determine from legislators whether there was any chance funding would be increased, and found no sentiment for that, he said. dy as lew oti Joy of retirement curbed by strike Official concerned about elderly Mix'" staft. I 1 grams for the elderly. His department also coordinates programs for the homeless. The Department of Aging has a $3.3 million budget and distributes an additional $5.6 million in state funds to local agencies.

Stowell graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1950 and received a master's degree in public health from Pitt in 1957. He has been an adjunct assistant professor of public health at Pitt since 1973 and has been a licensed nursing' home administrator since 1988. Stowell said he can't explain why he always worked in public health rather than in private industry. He worked for the state Health Department from 1954 to 1966 and for the now-defunct city Health Department from 1951 to 1954. "My colleagues in the private sector! made three times what I made.

But you get a bug. You get involved and interested. The payoffs are not all financial. My job had other rewards." Stowell's salary as director of the Department of Aging was $65,143. As he attended his last commissioners' meeting Thursday, the county commissioners adopted a proclamation honoring and thanking him for his.

40 years of public service. Commisioner Tom Foerster said, "Many of us have been around many years but I have yet to meet a man with the touch of Chuck Stowell. "We thrust new programs for the hungry and homeless on him. You welcomed new programs as long as they helped people," Foerster said. Stowell expects to do some consulting work in his retirement.

He has already been notified that he would be asked to serve on various county committees. County officials jokingly say that the pay for those posts is "a dollar a year, less a dollar." He will continue to serve on the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare's Allegheny County Board of Assistance. Stowell and his wife of 40 years, Dolores, plan to travel. They have four children and three, By Linda Wilson Fuoco Post-Gazette Staff Writer Charles Stowell jokes that he has not yet had a chance to reap the benefits of his recent 65th birthday. "I have been ribbing Bill Millar that I have my Medicare card now, but I haven't had a chance yet to take free PAT rides," he said.

The reference to PAT's executive director and the transit strike is somewhat typical of Stowell's dry, wry sense of humor. The strike by bus drivers and trolley operators weighs heavily on Stowell, director since 1988 of the county Department of Aging, the agency that serves 303,000 residents over 60 years old. Stowell retired Friday after 26 ears with the county and a total of 40 jte'ars in public-health-related jobs. His last working days were even more frantic than usual, as he monitored the effects of the strike on seniors. "Nobody knows what's happening to many of the older residents," Stowell said.

He is concerned about those who rely on free PAT transit rides to conduct routine business such as getting to grocery stores and doctor appointments. "We have a priority system in place to see that people with the greatest need get help. About 8,000 of our clients depend on Access for very important trips, including kidney dialysis and chemotherapy or radiation for cancer treatments," Stowell said. He said he had been worried that Access, which provides door-to-door service for elderly and disabled people, would be swamped with calls during the strike and that Access drivers would be deployed to drive regular taxis. "I am real pleased to say that has not happened," he said, of the 16 cab companies that participate in the Access program.

"We have not seen a great drop off in attendance at senior centers and people seem to be getting to their medical appointments." Stowell oversaw more than 80 senior citizen centers, as well as day: care, home-care, volunteer, employment and respite-care pro ffy i N. y. f' xxi New mall may get its own borough By Donald I. Hammonds Post-Gazette Staff Writer Developer Damian Zamias wants to incorporate land for his proposed shopping mall as a borough separate from Frazer. Zamias who plans to name his community the "borough of Frazer Heights" has been trying since 1980 to build a $300 million shopping mall off Route 228.

Any separate incorporation of the borough would require approval from Common Pleas Court. Frazer solicitor Jonathan Robison said yesterday that he would recommend that the township try to prevent Zamias from removing any land from the township. "Frazer already suffers from weird boundaries. Now they're going to carve out another jigsaw puzzle piece," Robison said. He said the incorporation, if approved, would bring "an additional difficulty in organizing, providing for and paying for municipal services of every kind." But Lynda L.

Strate, one of the three township supervisors, said she didn't think a court fight over a separation would be a good idea. "I just don't know if we want to do that. Even though we would not get the tax base from the mall, we won't have to. be burdened with all the municipal services for the mall, and that can be quite costly," she said. Another supervisor, Steve Misera, said he wanted more time to consider Zamias' idea.

The third supervisor, James F. Beacom, could not be reached yesterday. Zamias claimed that the supervisors' actions had left him little choice but to pursue a separate incorporation. "It's our belief that the present board of supervisors is attempting to Stop the project. We believe our rights are being violated and we have been unfortunately pushed into taking this extreme measure," he said.

Five people now live within the boundaries of his proposed borough, Zamias said. The petition to incorporate Frazer Heights was filed earlier this week in Common Pleas Court. If the case goes forward, a judge will appoint a committee to examine the proposal. The five-member committee would be composed of representatives from the area designated for secession, people from other parts of Frazer and another person of the judge's choice, Zamias said. A recommendation on whether to approve the new community would be made by the committee to the judge, who then could either approve it or deny it, Zamias said.

The judge could then order a vote by the residents of the new community. There have been numerous disputes over the project. Some Frazer residents sued in December to block a plan that would finance construction of a Route 28 interchange that Zamias has said was crucial to the mall project. This month, the supervisors voted to recommend that a tonwship-ap-pointed consultant perform an environmental impact study of the site and the proposed highway interchange. And the Deer Lakes school board announced recently that it might sue the supervisors to keep them from jeopardizing the mall project.

The school district wants to preserve a possible source of revenue that could tax rates. Property owners in the school district now pay the highest tax rate in the county at 111 mills. Postcard arrives 47 years later ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) A postcard scribbled four wars and nine presidents ago finally made it to Maria Kohler. The card was mailed 47 years ago from South Carolina and was signed "Anna." Postmarked June 11, 1945, when Harry Truman was in the White House, the card was forwarded last week to Kohler, who now lives in a local retirement home.

Ann Arbor Postmaster James Gibbons said it may never be known where the card spent most of the last half-century. "This type of thing comes up every once in a while all over the country, he said. So many years have passed that (Kohler said she doesn't know who, sent the card. A Shuttle rides to stores Campbell Jr Post-Gazette Unwelcome Robert and Dorothy Simmons of Unity listen in the rain to state Rep. Austin Murphy during a rally yesterday at nearby Mineral Beach against a proposed rehabilitation center.

The state Health Department plans to use 12 homes on the vacant Nike Army missile site in Unity off Route 88 to house families homeless because of drug or alcohol abuse problems. The Simmons, whose property is next to the proposed site, are against the plan. State officials say opposition has stalled the proposal. SHUTTLE FROM PAGE 1 Department. Some Housing Authority complexes weren't chosen for the shuttle service because they are closer to stores or are serviced by a store bus, Young said.

High-rise complexes for the elderly also won't get shuttle service because tenants there are eligible for the Access transit system. Shoppers will be taken to Giant Eagle stores because the chain has large markets near each complex and van drivers can't waste time driving from store to store, he said. St. Clair Village tenants who want to use the shuttle should sign up at the complex complaint center; tenants at the other six complexes should sign up at their rent offices. When authority workers determine the demand for shuttle service, a schedule of runs will be drafted and posted at each complex.

"It will be trial and error at first and we expect to have some glitches for a couple of days," Young said. "People will have to understand that we can't wait all day while they look over every label or go through their coupons." NEWS DIGEST Gas-ridden lake subject to tests Business and Civic Association. Drs. Philip Cichon and George Sestric also received an award for their renovation of a commercial complex at 4301-09 Butler St. in Lawrenceville.

Fort Ligonier Days permits issued The Ligonier Valley Chamber of Commerce will proceed with plans to stage the annual Fort Ligonier Days in October after Mayor Richard Campbell agreed to sign five permits needed for the event. Another organization, Fort Ligonier Days Committee had sought control of the festival, and Campbell at first had some reservations about signing the permits for the chamber. He changed his mind about delaying the permits late last week after speaking with both sides in the dispute, said Susan Din, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce. Salvadoran archbishop saluted with night vigil Local religious and student groups will hold a candlelight vigil tonight to commemorate the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador and to call for peace in that country. The vigil, scheduled for 9 p.m.

outside the Federal Building, Downtown, marks the death of Romero, who was shot by a military death squad while saying Mass March 24, 1980. Spokesmen for groups planning the vigil, which include Students for Peace and the Religious Task Force on Central America, said they wanted to show support for recent peace accords signed in El Salvador and to oppose continued U.S. military aid to the Salvadoran government. 6 revitalization groups honored The city has honored six neighborhood groups and two physicians for their efforts to revitalize business districts in their communities. Mayor Masloff presented awards from the city's Neighborhood Business District Revitalization program at ceremonies last week.

The program provides advice and redevelopment financing for 25 business districts in the city. South Side Local Development Corporation received two awards. Others honored were Business in Greenfield, East Allegheny Revitalization Homewood-Brushton Revitalization and Development the Lawrenceville Business Association and the Oakland landslide stirred Lake Nyos, pushing some of the gas-laden bottom water upward. What happened next is clear. As the trapped gas rose, the water pressure lessened.

The gas expanded and rose faster until it exploded through the surface of the lake, much like what happens when a carbonated soda is shaken and the bdttle cap removed. The escaping carbon dioxide filled the crater and poured over the sides and down the valleys toward the sleeping villages below. Fonji said the gas hugged the terrain and traveled the water courses, suffocating people 12 miles away. What the French and Cameroon scientists plan to do over the next two weeks is to suck some of the water and gas from the bottom of the lakes in an attempt to reduce the pressure there. They will test the concept at Lake Monoun first, then at Lake Nyos.

They plan to drop a plastic pipe to the bottom, which will be connected to pumps at the surface to pull the water up. NOTED Gannon University will present David M. Roderick, director and former chairman and chief executive officer of USX with its Distinguished Pennsylvanian Award at a dinner today in Erie. Waynesburg College has appointed Kathleen Ann Davis vice president for academic affairs. Davis, who joined Waynesburg in 1979, formerly headed the school's education department and was interim vice president at the time of her latest appointment.

She replaces Arthur Action, who left Waynesburg to become vice president for academic affairs at Ohio Northern University. YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) French and Cameroon scientists will begin an experiment this week aimed at extracting gas from volcanic Lake Nyos in hopes of preventing another blast like the one that killed 1,746 people in 1986. The scientists want to see if pumping water laden with carbon dioxide from the bottom of the 600-foot-deep lake would reduce the possibility of another massive gas release. This could eventually allow the 4,000 people relocated after the disaster five years ago to return to their villages and fields along the slopes of the extinct volcano in Cameroon's mountainous northwest. "If the gas is left to accumulate, it could build up to the point where it could erupt again," said John Fonji, a senior geologist with the Cameroon Ministry of Mines, Water and Power.

Carbon dioxide seeps into the bottom of the lake through the porous volcanic rocks beneath the crater. The gas is trapped in the water and creates immense pressure, about 20 times that of the lake surface. As the pressure increases, so does the temperature and the tendency of the gas to rise. Scientists are still unclear about what triggered the gas release at Lake Nyos in August 1986, or a similar one in smaller Lake Monoun, 60 miles southwest of Nyos, in 1984 that killed 37 people. Both lakes are in the craters of extinct volcanos.

One theory is that an underwater Tom Hritz i) on vacation. In Press Post-Gazette classifieds today SOLD) tomorrow! Call 263-1201 Wednesday in the Post-Gazette Ron Cook in Spoils Food Microwave column.