Firing Range Approved UPDATED 121517

Plan approved for new firing range in Mt. Lebanon

Despite concerns raised by Castle Shannon and Mt. Lebanon residents, the Commission approved plans for the firing range at the golf course. In a 3-1 vote, with Kelly Fraasch opposed and John Bendel absent, the firing range, which has been located at Public Works for forty years, will be built at the golf course.

The Castle Shannon line is on three sides of the golf course. Residents from Pine Avenue, as well as those concerned with the close proximity to Myrtle Avenue School attended several public hearings, but we all know that public hearings have never influenced commissioners when their minds are made up. 

The firing range will be built on the sloped area next to the golf course's lower parking lot, which will be expanded by seven spaces. The building will not interfere with golf course operations, parking or the garden plots. (Map data ©2017 Google)

“It is no secret that I am not supporting this particular part of our renovations for public works. I think that we should have had full consideration and location on Cedar Boulevard,” Fraasch said about the street that runs parallel to the public works facility property, “not putting in a new structure over at a place that’s going to be impacting that neighborhood.”

Update December 15, 2017 4:02 PM From Keith McGill's Administrative Report today:

Yes! Timmy has new goals! UPDATED 121417

Mike Riemer has been president for two weeks now and already, the board has set Timmy's goals for 2017-2018. This should have been done months and months ago under Mary Birks' administration. Timmy has been working with no goals even though he received a 5.5% increase effective July 1.

During his Board President's Report, Mike Riemer spoke from the heart and talked about respect and meeting decorum. He also brought up academic excellence and announced that the Superintendent's Goals for 2017-2018 were going to be posted on the District's website today. I think that Mike's report was one of the best I have ever heard. To see the meeting, please watch the meeting here.

Update December 12, 2017 10:58 PM It was during Mary Birks' last days in office when I emailed the school board about the November Century of Excellence Capital Campaign. I never got an answer as to when the November Financial Report was going to be posted. Not only did Mike get Timmy's goals on the website, I see that the November Financial Report for the Capital Campaign has been posted. It is available here.

Update December 14, 2017 10:23 AM This is what was posted on the District website during the December 11, 2017 school board meeting. Superintendent Goals 2016-2017 

Financea. Conduct Negotiations for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement with our Clerical Union (Contract expires June 2017.)

During the meeting, Timmy had no idea what the Clerical Union Collective Bargaining Agreement start date or expiration date was when it was approved at the December 11, 2017 school board meeting. That is pathetic. He had these goals for almost a year and a half.

Will he only serve Democrats? UPDATED 121317

I am getting pretty fed up with Craig Grella, the soon to be Ward 4 commissioner. Craig is Digital Operations Director, a paid staffer, for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. I have been getting "anonymous" comments under the December 5, 2017 post What an embarrassment, Ward 4 that have a common theme. All the comments show distain for Republicans and continue to get more and more hurtful. I have deleted several comments, including the one where he answered with, "Your dead husband?" when I posed the question, "Let's see. Who would be the most upset with this post?"

How can Craig Grella serve as Ward 4 commissioner, while he is a paid director of the PA Democratic Party? How can he fairly govern Mt. Lebanon residents, when he is constantly attacking Republicans? The MLDC chair "accidentally" omitted this conflict of interest when she was campaigning for Grella.

I have raised this point about Craig's conflict of interest, but the Mt. Lebanon Republican Committee continues to sit on their hands and do nothing. Meanwhile, his docket sheets continue to remain active.

Now you have a new thread where you can bash Republicans, Craig.

Update December 13, 2017 7:19 PM A summons was issued on 12/04/17. Craig Grella accepted the certified summons yesterday, December 12, 2017. The summary trial is scheduled for 12/27/17. The assigned judge is Blaise Larotonda, Craig's next door neighbor. Public Court Summary

Loaded for bear?

The agenda for tomorrow evening's Joint Discussion/Regular Meeting appears to be pretty innocuous. Will Larry, Elaine, and Bill show up loaded for bear, like last week, or will they be amiable and cooperative?

Last week's meeting was embarrassing. It was ironic to hear a resident make a reference to Robert's Rules of Order, when his own wife was not observing Robert's Rules. Personal attacks were made toward other board members. Speaking without being recognized by the president seems to be the norm now. This includes the superintendent! When residents or taxpayers go up to speak, they are often met with interruptions. Hostility and bullying have no place at a school board meeting.

I am extremely optimistic that good things will happen this year. I believe the school board is headed in the right direction. Even Pantone's Color of the Year is encouraging. Here is to 2018!

2017-2018 Weather Closures and Delays

Now there is no set temperature or wind chill used for closings or delays. 

"and make first hand observations in some of our neighborhoods" is code for "What I see when I go out for my run at 4:30AM."

---

From: Dr. Timothy Steinhauer <noreply@mtlsd.net>
Sent: Thursday, December 7, 2017 12:01 PM
To: Mt. Lebanon Families
Subject: 2017-2018 Weather Closures and Delays

 

December, 2017
Dear Mt. Lebanon Families,
Now that the cold weather has arrived, I’d like to remind you about our emergency weather procedures. When I make the decision to delay or cancel school it is always with student safety as my primary concern. Unfortunately, weather is very unpredictable and conditions may vary throughout our community. There is no exact amount of snow, temperature, wind chill or weather condition that dictates when to delay or cancel school. Many resources are used to gather information. Generally I carefully review multiple weather forecasts, may consult with the Mt. Lebanon Police and Fire Departments, gather reports from our plowing crews and make first hand observations in some of our neighborhoods. When conditions require the delay or closing of school, you will receive a call from our Phone Alert System. Delay or closing information is also announced on the website at www.mtlsd.org, District Social Media, and on local cable, and TV stations.  Typically, when school is canceled, after-school and evening activities will also be canceled. School cancellations will be made up at the end of the school year as noted on the District calendar.
Phone Alert System
In the event of a school delay or closing, you will receive an automated phone call from the District's Phone Alert System to the primary phone number you have listed with the school. Only one call per family is made. Calls are typically made no later than 10:00 p.m. and no earlier than 6:00 a.m. On rare occasions, I may need to delay or cancel school after 6:00 a.m. or change a delay to a cancellation when there is a question about road conditions or extreme cold. Your caller ID will display “Mt. Lebanon School District” and the District’s main number of 412-344-2000. The success of this system depends on accurate contact information obtained from school records. If your information has changed, please update your contact information in the Dashboard or ask the building secretary to update your files.
Information Sources for a Delay or Closing: 

• MTLSD website: www.mtlsd.org ;
• School District Cable Channels 19 (Comcast) and 33 (Verizon)
• Mt. Lebanon Public Access Channels 17(Comcast) and 34 (Verizon)
• KDKA TV and www.kdka.com; WPXI TV and www.wpxi.com; WTAE TV and www.thepittsburghchannel.com ;
• KDKA Radio 1020 AM
• Twitter:  @MTLSD ; @MTLSDSUPER
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/MTLSD ;
• Push notifications through the MTL APP

There is always going to be snow, cold and inclement weather in Western Pennsylvania. There may be days when school will be in session when the roads may be snow covered and the temperature is cold. On those days we all need to walk and drive with caution and make sure that our children are appropriately dressed for the cold weather. As always, please use your best judgment regarding the weather conditions in your own neighborhood.
Thank you for your help and patience during this winter season.
Sincerely,

Timothy J. Steinhauer, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools

Robocall at 12:41 AM

Did anyone else receive a robocall from Oradell, NJ at 12:41 AM this morning? The phone number is 1.201.267.3323. I thought it was an emergency. When I answered it, I think it was about a credit card or something. I reported it to Whitepages.com, but I don't think that will do any good.

Mt. Lebanon Magazine article causing quite a stir on Nextdoor

Recently, Mt. Lebanon Magazine's Laura Pace Lilley wrote an article about overnight parking in Mt. Lebanon.  Overnight Parking Rules Could Ease Links to it also appeared on Facebook yesterday.


There is quite a discussion on Nextdoor about this "improvement." The initial post was:

As if we do not already pay exceptional property taxes, there may be a new rule that will require a nightly fee for a request to leave a vehicle on the street overnight if that particular vehicle has exceeded 10 nights in a given year. There are merits to the current ordinance, but is this next step warranted?

There are comments such as

• ...this is another example of how MTL is not really as 'rich' as they pretend to be and often must perform financial circus tricks to find the money to pay for ridiculous projects like killing deer at $80K/year and pursuing 'fields of turfed dreams' at $500K+ a pop. Nice to see the taxpayers waking up.
• I think mt. Lebanon is over reaching ag-ain! They will create any excuse to squeeze more money from home owners and the hard working class!!!
• ...if the article appeared in MTL Magazine -- which I believe it did -- you can count on a total white-washing of the facts. That magazine is published by the MTL Public (Mis)information Office - which, by the way is very expensive to run and if the expenses were even just cut in half would create many more resources for MTL than this additional burdensome tax.
• Yes, when I had pointed out the facts in their page I was told I was spreading out misinformation. I was also given a police officers nane and number and told to call him. I was treated rudely. I’ll never read another of their publications again.
• What next? Taxation on household animals?

On my street, there are homes which do not have driveways. Now what? Someone asked about the cost of the software. This reminds me of the parking app and parking space sensors, which cost taxpayers $25,000(?), along Uptown Washington Road. How many parking tickets are needed to justify the cost of that expenditure? 

Since the commissioners are willing to spend $771.10 per deer, they have to raise the money somehow. They are already double charging condominium owners for garbage collection. 

You voted for them, Mt. Lebanon.

New school board president is...UPDATED

Mike Riemer.

The new vice president is Sarah Olbrich.

Update December 5, 2017 6:12 PM The meeting video of last night's reorganization meeting has been uploaded and is available here.

MTL responsible for plaintiff's accident and subsequent injuries, suit says

Mount Lebanon Township responsible for plaintiff's accident and subsequent injuries, suit says

For counts of negligence and loss of consortium, the plaintiffs are seeking damages in excess of $35,000 and demand a jury trial. 

The plaintiffs are represented by John Linkosky and Sara Linkosky of John Linkosky & Associates, in Carnegie.

Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas case GD-17-011938

This is how we are paying Tony $771.10 per deer

We were originally told that Tony was going to charge us $250 per deer. By filing a Right To Know, I was able to get an unexecuted copy* of the Sharpshooting RFP and the 2017-2018 Sharpshooting Contract.

I think there is some fuzzy math going on with the travel expenses or I just don't understand. In any case, we shouldn't be paying $771.10 per deer to be killed. Even the blood thirsty gardeners should agree that is too much. They thought that $500 per deer to be sterilized was outrageous. But then again, they thought that paying Sandy Baker less than $5000 was excessive. That was for almost a week's worth of work. When you want deer killed that much, I guess nothing is too high.

*Bonnie Cross, the Open Records Officer, will be sending executed copies to me when she receives them.

What an embarrassment, Ward 4

https://ujsportal.pacourts.us/DocketSheets/MDJReport.ashx?docketNumber=MJ-05219-TR-0003661-2017

https://ujsportal.pacourts.us/DocketSheets/MDJReport.ashx?docketNumber=MJ-05219-TR-0003662-2017

https://ujsportal.pacourts.us/DocketSheets/MDJReport.ashx?docketNumber=MJ-05219-TR-0003319-2017

https://ujsportal.pacourts.us/DocketSheets/MDJReport.ashx?docketNumber=MJ-05217-NT-0000326-2017

Jack is home.UPDATED 12/05/17

From his aunt: UPDATE JACK HAS BEEN FOUND HOME SAFE WITH PARENT WANNA THANK MT LEBO DETECTIVE AND POLICE FORCE FOR DOING EVERYTHING TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN.

Update December 5, 2017 6:29 AM Per MLPD: **UPDATE** - Both juvenile males (15 yr old & 17 yr old) have been tracked down by our Detectives and Officers. We are happy to report that they are both safe.

Another Pittsburgh area school district sues FieldTurf

New Castle School District v FieldTurf

School board reorganization meeting on Monday

I have been waiting for this day. The Reign of Terror will be over, according to the Reorganization meeting agenda.

Also on the agenda is the appointment of the solicitor, that Thomas P. Peterson be appointed School Board Solicitor for one year. Remember, he didn't see a conflict of interest with a former school board director approving contracts with her employer. I hope the school board keeps that in mind when they appoint Peterson again.

I am hoping for some big changes with the reorganization. We're long overdue.

December 2017 Behind the Bubble | Leaving Mt. Lebanon

This is Jason's final Behind the Bubble submission. Thank you for a whole year of this unique perspective of life in Mt. Lebanon, Jason. Your series was edgy, thought provoking, and always popular. I'm sad that it is coming to an end. 

December 2017 Behind the Bubble

by Jason Margolis

The genre came to me – I did not choose it.  My final BtB is a poem called

Leaving Mt. Lebanon

There is little to say,

when it’s over.

It’s

just

over.

The sparkled streets

are now strange.

The meetings of the warlocks

a distant, bad dream.

Only through small keyholes

is there light.

There are three I hold dear.

And a park.

And a teacher.

And a solitary newsroom

with a dire story few want to hear.

We are all in a bubble

but not all bubbles are the same.

Some float out, others crash down,

many just implode.

And then

it’s

over.