Wait a minute, wait a minute!

Hunters provide trees for areas damaged by deer in Mt. Lebanon

Planting sites in Bird Park and Twin Hills Park were chosen by the municipal public works department and by the Mt. Lebanon Nature Conservancy, whose volunteers are planting the trees this month. Municipal manager Keith McGill said the cooperation of the archers, Game Commission and local volunteers will help to keep the community’s green spaces healthy.

Mt. Lebanon was cutting down trees in Twin Hills last fall and late summer. We have goats eating invasives in Bird Park. Why do deer get blamed for everything? They have "attacked humans" according to the Public Information Office, but to date, the PIO writes that coyotes have never attacked humans in the entire state of Pennsylvania. 

Doesn't sound like a deer/car collision

Kids had to step over a dead, bloody deer between 7- 7:45 AM on the way to school. The deer was on the sidewalk in front of the Christ Scientist Church on Washington Road.

No blood was on the street. Blood was on the grass though. It appeared that the deer came from the Bird Park, not the street. "It was really gross." No cops around. No bloody tarp. The deer had been removed before 9:00 AM.

These photos were taken at 12:04 PM.

Does anyone have any additional information?

We don't want to give the wrong impression... Correction and UPDATE

We have goats, donkeys, and deer in Bird Park. This is what is posted along Washington Road:

There are two of these signs posted in the Beadling parking lot:

We're cool and progressive looking on Washington Road, but we're down and dirty on Beadling. I get it.

Correction September 20, 2015 2:36 PM "Elaine—I am sorry if my notes re: the Bird park photos were not clear. There are no signs about hunting or goats on Washington. The only signs on Wash. are the ones that have been there forever. The goat signs are in at one of the entrances to Bird Park in the Beadling Parking Lot. Washington Road remains pure."

Update September 20, 2015 4:34 PM Goats in Bird Park

4 Public Properties Identified

Through my latest Right To Know, I found the list of public properties that are being considered. The four are:

Robb Hollow Park
Golf Course
Bird Park
McNeilly Park

Public properties and maps

This will give parents nightmares. From Steve Felle's September 4, 2015 Administrative report:

Update September 4, 2015 12:35 PM Highlights from the following link of documents include:

With four public properties and ten - fifteen "quality" private properties, White Buffalo would be fortunate to "harvest" 100 deer.

Deer are smart and will avoid public land that is being hunted, so expect fairly rapid diminishing return. Extend the hunting season as long as possible and have as much private property as possible.

If Mt. Lebanon wants to set aside some money to support meat processing costs, it is typically about $70 per deer.

An archery program is difficult to sustain over time and typically has a honeymoon period of 2-3 years.

The density of the homes is problematic, so Jody Maddock wants to be conservative in any estimate.

And from Steve Feller:

"Several emails were not produced that dealt with persons volunteering to donate their time or property to the program either as an archer or property owner. These were not produced under two exceptions:

(1) The Act at Section 708(b)(1) provides as follows:
     (1) A record the disclosure of which:
           ***

(ii) would be reasonably likely to result in a substantial and demonstrable risk of physical harm to or the personal security of an individual.

(2) The Act at Section 708(b)(13) provides as follows: 

         (13) Records that would disclose the identity of an individual who lawfully makes a donation to an agency unless the donation is intended for or restricted to providing remuneration or personal tangible benefit to a named public official or employee of the agency, including lists of potential donors compiled by an agency to pursue donations, donor profile information or personal identifying information relating to a donor."

Would someone like to translate that for me? Is that saying that the people who want to open their yards to killing and put our adults, children, and pets at risk want protection? Isn't that a bit ironic?

By calling the private properties "Donations," the identity of the landowner is protected.  Wow. They have it all figured out.

A Walk in the Park

I don't know why I bothered, but I picked up my latest copy of mtl Magazine. Starting with Susan Morgans' story on her former neighbor's garden, her home & garden guide, and then coming to Steve Silverman's commissioner's report, I had to stop reading.

Theoretically, the deer killing would have still been in progress, had J. Merlin Benner not ended his contract with Mt. Lebanon. What did Steve Silverman write about? How about we take a walk in one of Mt. Lebanon's passive parks? According to Steve, we have three passive parks: Bird Park, Robb Hollow, and Twin Hills. What about McNeilly Park? The Conservation District? I questioned the designation of those two areas during the deer killing. Was anyone harassed by Benner's boys or the corn patrol for being in either of those locations after 9:00 PM? Parks close at 9:00 PM, we were told. According to Commissioner Silverman and the Public Information Office which put together the magazine, we are now being told that there are only three passive parks in Mt. Lebanon. I'm so confused!

Does Mr. Silverman realize that residents were stopped by police for walking on the outskirts of Bird Park? During daylight hours! Yet, in his commissioner's report, Steve is encouraging us to visit one of our passive parks. Really, Steve? Are you in denial? How about you, PIO? Weren't you making residents out to be vandals, while they were being questioned by police and then asked for photo ID just for walking on sidewalks or in parking lots?

Is this part of the cooling off period? Is pretending nothing horrible happened in the parks part of your plan? Do you think we are stupid and will forget? Enough with the brainwashing! Thought reform in the People's Republic of China was a campaign by the Communists in the early 50's. In present day, thought reform can be found right here in Mt. Lebanon. Seriously, Susan, retire. Steve, very poor timing.

They ARE in Bird Park

Those dirty bastards would never answer our questions. None of them! Not Benner. Not Feller. Not McDonough. None of the commissioners.

I hope you rot in Hell. Not Kelly Fraasch.

All of these photos were taken this afternoon, March 7, 2015.

How many feet is this from the nursery school at St. Paul's? From the Children's Room at Christ Scientist?

GPS Coordinates at Bird Park

GPS Coordinates for Children's Room Christ Scientist

GPS Coordinates for Playground at St. Paul's

GPS Coordinates at St. Paul's Nursery School

St. Paul's Episcopal Nursery School 

Children's Room at Christ Scientist Church

The gate is up!!! There is a camera behind the corral, up quite high in a tree. There is a lot of brush towards the trap.

Would someone calculate how many feet Mushroom at Sunnyhill Unitarian Church is from Bird Park?

Update March 7, 2015 6:32 PM Buried Gas Line on Connor Road. I told you!

03.07.15 Connor Road

Does Columbia Gas know that Benner will be firing explosives? What about People's Gas? 800.764.0111. This is where Benner will be shooting his bullets, some or many of which will hit and penetrate the ground. All hell will break loose if he even scrapes one of those gas lines. Sounds like an emergency call to me!

Corrected label

About the Golf Course, sent by a Lebo Citizens reader:

Here are 3 photos taken at the "Golf Course" corral today. I thought originally this was actually in the boundary of the golf course fencing but it is not. (You can see in the one photo titled "downhill side.2" the golf course fence in the background. Very close.

The site is very easily accessible from the Shop N Save parking lot (off of Castle Shannon Blvd).

Accessing this is very simple and the depth of the woods it sits in is not wide at all. Legally access it via a well-worn, flat path. Directions: Park in the Shop N Save lot on Castle Shannon Blvd, using the driveway on the left (if facing the store). Park as soon as you get into the lot, as close to the left side as possible. Look toward the far left corner of the lot, and you will see very visibly a flat path leading away from the lot across a relatively open expanse, before entering just a small bit of woods. Walk ~2 min or so on the flat path and you'll see it on your right. Path seems fairly well-travelled (2 people were walking dogs through in the 15 min I was there.)

Golf Course Downhill Side 2

Golf Course Downhill side 

Golf Course Uphill Side

And it never floods...UPDATED 2X

Don't miss the never-before-seen Bird Park runoff area with some serious raging rapids and a collapsing hillside.

May 28, 2014

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Here are photos of flooding on Wildcat Field today.

Wildcat Field Flooding 052814

Wildcat Field Flooding 052814

Wildcat Field Flooding 052814

Wildcat Field Flooding 052814

Wildcat Field Flooding 052814

Wildcat Field Flooding 052814

Wildcat Field Flooding 052814

Wildcat Field Flooding 052814

Wildcat Field Flooding 052814

Update May29, 2014 10:12 AM Please be aware that the official Pittsburgh rainfall for Tuesday 5/27/14 (I believe from 12:01 AM - 12:00 Midnight) was only 0.02 inches, and for Wednesday, 5/28/2014 it was only 1.38 inches, or a total of only 1.40 inches according to AccuWeather.com and the Tribune-Review. This is even below the 2-Year Storm Frequency standard of 2.3 inches of rainfall in a 24 hour period.

Mt. Lebanon's SALDO Section 809.4.6 requires that Municipal stormwater sewer systems be designed to handle the peak runoff from a 25-Year storm, or 4.4 inches of rainfall over a 24-hour period. Please read and become familiar with SALDO Part 8 Design Standards, Section 809 Stormwater Conveyance and Management, and Section 810 Storm Sewers and Drainage Facilities and all sub-sections. We're obviously failing to comply with our own Ordinances.

SALDO is Chapter XVI of the Mt. Lebanon Code, and has a direct link on the Public Documents page of the Municipal website. Or click here and start on page 75 of the pdf.

Update June 1, 2014 9:10 AM This was in the Trib last summer. Southmoreland tackles flood-damaged turf

Sean Stipp | Tribune-Review

Roughly one-third of the artificial turf at Russ Grimm Field at Southmoreland Senior High School was pushed into ripples by the force of flood waters.