Upper St. Clair Commissioners honor swim team, approve bids
The May 4 Upper St. Clair Board of Commissioners meeting started with a splash and ended with a mini-tidal wave of projects.
The board presented a certificate of achievement to coach David Schraven and his powerhouse USC High School swim team: Martin Bacik, Ole Minuth, Jake Johnsen, Tomos Williams, Fynn Minuth, Kevin Liu, Braedon Wong, Patrick Lersch and Ryan Dudzinski.
“This is getting to be a fortunate annual event, it’s a tremendous program,” said board president Robert Orchowski.
Indeed, Schraven’s team has finished first or second in the WPIAL the last six years. Last year’s team came in third in the state and this year’s swimmers made USC the second-fastest school in the state.
“Normally, if you have two or three kids qualify for the state meet you consider that a banner year. We had nine qualify this year,” said Schraven.
“This is a national caliber swim team,” the coach said. “For our school size, we are the top swim team in the country.
He added that USC has WPIAL records in six of 11 categories.
Applause from the audience sealed the board’s award, which few in the community would debate. Not the case for a proposed 20,000-square foot CVS Pharmacy in the 1700 block of Washington Road.
Even though attorneys did not present plans, and instead asked for a continuance of the public hearing that began May 4, one resident jumped at the chance to voice his concerns.
Wayne Herrod, a vocal and frequent critic of the existing commercial buildings around the corner from his home, asked the commissioners to “forbid the developers from building a wall” and remove trees he called ugly.
“Ugly is relative,” replied commissioner Russell Del Re. He and the rest of the board granted the CVS request to continue the public hearing on June 1.
The commissioners also approved several fee increases. If your pet is impounded, it will now cost you $35 per day – up from the previous $10 daily fee. Subdivision and land development fees increased from $3,000 to $4,000. Fees for fingerprinting (required for some jobs) was bumped from $15 to $20.
In other business, the board approved a bid of $351,000 for a new roof on the municipal building by Liokareas Construction. Orchowski and Del Re noted the bid was 25 percent lower than the next-lowest bid. The $351,000 includes a 50-year warranty.
The board also approved Boyce Mayview Park lighting improvements, which will cost $1.2 million.
But, noted Mark S. Mansfield, the assistant township manager, more than one-third of the project costs will be covered by grants.