2012 Year in Review
GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romey shakes the hands of voters at a picnic luncheon he attended in Bethel Park. His comment about Bethel Bakery cookies being from a convenience store led to CookieGate.
Presidential cookies were a big hit in the general election at Bethel Bakery.
Nina Zetty
Daniel Stropkaj
Nancy Aloi Rose
Michael Daniels
Brandon Thomas
The smokestack at Bethel Park High School was demolished in April.
The front of the new Bethel Park High school which opened in January.
Students at Bethel Park High School make their way to classes through the new school’s lobby.
Maddox Derkosh
Construction continues at Mt. Lebanon High School.
Mt. Lebanon dedicated a new memorial for Vietnam veterans.
Martin Villa was one of 11 LRT stops removed by Port Authority.
The year 2012 was an eventful year filled with a variety of diverse stories, locally and nationally, ranging from school district construction, new school superintendents, a fight about a crematory, Hurricane Sandy, the mass shooting of elementary school students in Newtown, Conn., to a young boy mauled by a pack of wild dogs at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium.
In recent years, stories were ranked in importance. Instead, the following will be a brief summary of the more noteworthy events in no particular order.
One superintendent, Nina Zetty from Peters Township, resigned to take a similar position in the Gateway School District, while another district, Keystone Oaks, hired a superintendent, William P. Stropkaj. A search is currently underway to find Zetty’s replacement with Joseph Dimperio hired as acting superintendent. Nancy Aloi Rose was named superintendent of the Bethel Park School District in January, and Michael Daniels was named superintendent of Canon-McMillan in October.
Schools were at the forefront in 2012 with demolition completed on the former Bethel Park High School and students moved to the new building in January. And while the construction in Bethel Park is complete, the lack of an agreement between the school district and the 390 members of the Bethel Park Federation drags on. The most recent contract expired June 30, 2012. During the 2011-12 school year, there was not a strike and no strike was called by the end of 2012. Mt. Lebanon broke ground for the renovations to its aging high school in January, with the project expected to cost $109 million. Students have continued classes at the school during renovations, and while the project won’t be completed until spring 2015, as areas are finished, students will begin using them.
School district officials sent letters to reassure parents that they are continually reviewing their security plans after a mass shooting Dec. 14 that left 20 young children and six adults dead at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. Adam Lanza killed his mother, then drove to the Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he burst into the school and began shooting kindergarten students and staff members. No motive has been found, but superintendents here urged parents and others to report questionable behavior.
What started as an innocent campaign stop in Bethel Park April 17 blew up into the CookieGate Scandal after GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney made a remark about cookies from Bethel Bakery being from a convenience store. To capitalize on the publicity, the bakery began offering a free half-dozen cookies with the purchase of a dozen and sold them as fast as they made them.
In the fall, the bakery made cookies with the likeness of both Romney and President Obama, and customers could cast their vote by the cookies they purchased. More patrons did purchase the Obama cookie, which may have been an indication of the election outcome. On Nov. 6, Obama was re-elected president of the United States.
Locally, in the race for the 37th Senatorial District, Matt Smith, a legislator based in Mt. Lebanon, defeated D. Raja, a Mt. Lebanon commissioner. When state Sen. John Pippy announced he was not seeking re-election, three candidates, including Raja, rushed to fill the vacancy. Raja came out on top and since no Democrats filed on the Democratic ticket in the primary, it was assumed Raja would be the winner in November. However, a write in candidate dropped out and Matt Smith announced he would run on the Democratic side.
Smith has resigned his seat in the 42nd legislative district and was sworn in yesterday as state senator.
Another local politician, State Rep. John Maher of the 40th Legislative District, fell short in his bid to become state auditor general to Democrat Eugene DePasquale III.
The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium has removed the observation deck from the Painted Dogs exhibit after 2-year-old Maddox Derkosh fell into the exhibit and was mauled to death.
Allegheny County District Attorney Steven Zappala announced he would not seek criminal charges against Maddox’s mother who was holding him on the railing. The investigation surrounding the incident continues.
A Superheroes Day was held recently at the KinderCare in Mt. Lebanon, where Maddox had been a student since infancy. Trucks also were collected in his name at the funeral home.
Despite residents’ pleas to save Port Authority Light Rail Transit (LRT) stops in the South Hills, 11 stops were closed and then demolished in early July. One of those stops was Martin Villa in Castle Shannon, even though residents had petitioned Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald to keep it open. Two stops that were scheduled to be shut down – Smith Road in Castle Shannon and Sandy Creek in Bethel Park – were given a reprieve.
The changes were made to improve the efficiency of the system. The eliminated stops were chosen based on low boarding counts or proximity to other stops.
How to resolve its growing deer population dominated much of the Mt. Lebanon commission meetings this year. Commissioners even sought the advice of an expert from the Humane Society of the United States and listened to her suggestions via conference call, including what to plant in home gardens. There were discussions at subsequent meetings on other possible solutions, including deer culling. While no decisions have been made, the 2013 budget will include $12,000 for a deer study.
Marcellus Shale gas drilling continued to make the news, particularly in South Fayette, where residents of the Sterling Ridge plan packed commission chambers Sept. 12. Sterling Ridge is next to the former Campbells Airport property, which is zoned PED and drilling is permitted as a conditional use.
Manager Ryan Eggleston assured residents that the township has not received a formal application from any drilling company.
Meanwhile South Fayette was expected to receive a $2,700 check from the PUC, its share of impact fees from drilling.
Peters Township has yet to make a decision on the proposal to amend the zoning ordinance regulating crematories as a conditional use in the Light Industrial district. Several meetings have been held with overflow crowds and a public hearing is set for Jan. 21.
Currently there are no requests to build a crematory in the township, but officials are attempting to establish guidelines for any future proposal. Council is not permitted by law to completely prohibit crematories.
On May 27, hundreds of Mt. Lebanon residents gathered to see the Veterans Memorial unveiled, the result of a two-year effort to permanently honor Mt. Lebanon men and women who served in the military. The memorial, located on Morgan Drive, is constructed of Pennsylvania sandstone and features an American flag rising from the center of the obelisk.
A fundraising committee chaired by Dan Gigler and former Pittsburgh Steeler and Vietnam veteran Rocky Bleier were instrumental in raising $468,000 to build the memorial. Major donors were Duquesne Light and Range Resources, with students raising $10,000.
A big crowd also turned out a day earlier to mark the opening of the Pirates Charities Miracle Field in Upper St. Clair. The special field, located at Boyce Mayview Park, will allow children of all abilities to play ball. The driving force behind the field were former major league baseball star Sean Casey and his wife, Mandi, who are residents of the township.
Streams Elementary School in Upper St. Clair will become an all International Baccalaureate school by 2014-15. Eighty percent of the students in the school are already in the IB program, with another five percent on a waiting list. At the Feb. 27 meeting, parents opposed to the education program said taxpayers should not be paying for it.
In 2012, it was out with the Pennsylvania State School Assessment and in with the Keystone Exams for standardized testing for high school juniors. But, the test swap was not the only change that students were faced with – Mt. Lebanon School District announced that proficiency on the Keystone Exams would be a graduation requirement, beginning with the 2013-2014 school year, even though the state of Pennsylvania is not making it a requirement until 2017. Upper St. Clair, South Fayette, Keystone Oaks and Peters Township school districts also made the switch from the PSSAs to Keystone Exams, though as of press time they were not slated to be a graduation requirement just yet.
Superstorm Sandy was hailed as the “storm of the century,” and it was poised to hit western Pennsylvania hard. For days in advance, area residents were glued to the news, checking weather updates online and stocking up on supplies, should the meteorologists be correct. Sustained winds of 25-35 mph and gusts up to 70 mph were predicted, and power outages were almost a certainty. Flood warnings were issued, and even a snowstorm was predicted. While New York City and even the mountain region in Pennsylvania weren’t so lucky, western Pennsylvania was, thankfully, spared.
On Oct. 18, a road rage incident turned deadly as 30-year-old Upper St. Clair resident and Afghanistan war veteran Brandon Thomas fatally shot 55-year-old Vaughn Simonelli of Chartiers Township in the Shop ‘n Save parking lot on Beau Street in Washington. Thomas, who suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, was charged with homicide, and claimed self-defense. At Thomas’ Nov. 7 preliminary hearing, District Judge Larry Hopkins ruled that the prosecution presented sufficient evidence to hold Thomas for trial on a general charge of homicide. Judge Hopkins denied a request for bond, and Thomas’ attorney, Frank Walker, planned to appeal the ruling to Washington County Court. A trial date has not yet been announced and Thomas remains in jail.
On Feb. 6, the municipality of Mt. Lebanon kicked off a celebration of its centennial with a champagne reception. It was the first in a series of events to celebrate the milestone. While the area’s history actually dates as far back as 1725, Mt. Lebanon was not officially founded until Feb. 6, 1912. Other events to celebrate the milestone included festivities during Community Day on July 4 and a Centennial Parade on Sept. 8. The Mt. Lebanon Historical Society also hosted an exhibition of a timeline and photos of the municipality, titled “Mt. Lebanon – the First 100 Years.” And, here’s an interesting fact: Mt. Lebanon is said to be one of America’s earliest automobile suburbs, due to the opening of the Liberty Tunnels in 1924.
The Bethel Park Tax Repeal Petition Committee claimed victory and decided to end efforts to collect more signatures for the tax repeal petition slated for the primary, after Bethel Park Council announced that the municipality was able to collect additional earned income taxes, in addition to realized savings in supplies and utilities and therefore, didn’t need to raise property taxes.
Almanac Editor Katie Green and Managing Editor Patty Van Horn also contributed to the Year in Review.