Canonsburg, PA: Chocolate Magnates Sweeten Library Pot

Link to January 14 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report, "Ground broken for long-awaited public library in Canonsburg".

Excerpt: Warm hearts bested freezing temperatures and a half-foot of snow as two dozen braved the elements Friday to attend the groundbreaking for a $5 million Canonsburg library, slated to open in early 2011.

The proposed two-story building at Jefferson Avenue and Murdock Street has been on the planning board for at least 10 years, after the library board decided a new facility was needed to replace the crowded one in the borough building on East Pike Street.

But it wasn't until Canonsburg chocolate magnates Frank and Athena Sarris [OMG, a peanut butter meltaway pie!] donated $1.5 million for the library's construction that the project picked up steam. Another $1 million earmarked by the state for construction plus an additional $100,000 in state money for land acquisition boosted the momentum to realizing the library board's long-sought goal.

Statler is ‘dead building,’ city panel told

Link to February 2 Buffalo News report.

Excerpt: The Statler Towers is a “dead building” that has a negative market value, a lawyer told Buffalo’s assessment review panel at a hearing Monday in City Hall.

Attorney Peter Allen Weinmann warned that if the city refuses to dramatically slash the assessed value of the Delaware Avenue building, it could further hinder efforts to develop the empty complex that towers over Niagara Square.

“The building is a shell — a ghost of its . . . past,” Weinmann told the Board of Assessment Review, a five-member panel of citizen volunteers that considers assessment challenges.

The Wolfgang & Weinmann law firm submitted documents urging the city to assign a negative value of nearly $12.2 million to the Statler. The 18-story landmark is currently assessed at $3.5 million.

Banco Popular North America agrees to make repairs to apartment block at 65 Belmont Ave., Springfield

Link to January 21 Springfield Republican article.

Excerpt: An Illinois-based bank has agreed to make repairs and correct code violations at an apartment block on Belmont Avenue, replacing a landlord who is accused of abandoning the building and leaving tenants without heat and hot water the day before Christmas.

Civic leaders see lower State Street corridor in Springfield turning corner

Link to January 10 Springfield Republican article.

Excerpt: Not that long ago, economic development along the lower State Street corridor was measured in mini-marts, video stores and fast food franchises.

Not anymore.

Not with a $70 million federal courthouse already open at 300 State St., and groundbreaking for a $110 million state data storage center on Elliot Street set to begin this spring.

The data center represents a potential boom for the Elliot Street neighborhood, where a well-known landmark is the abandoned hulk of the Technical High School building. As detailed on Tuesday by U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, the 115,000-square-foot facility will rise from the site of the old high school site.

To residents, the project will do more than just create 70 full-time jobs and restore the blighted school property that has been a fire hazard for more than 20 years.

“It’s a good sign for Springfield’s future, and it also shows that we are able to preserve the past,” said Carol A. Costa, past president of the Armoury Quadrangle Civic Association and resident of the nearby Classical Condominiums.

No one suggests that the data center will turn back the clock to the 1950s and 1960s, when lower State Street bustled with shops, restaurants and a movie theater.

Auld lang syne for beloved Statler?

Link to December 31 Buffalo News article.

Excerpt: Closing the 20-story structure on Niagara Square would continue a decline that started four decades after its opening on May 19, 1923, as the 1,100-room Hotel Statler, flagship of the high-end chain developed by Buffalo’s Ellsworth M. Statler.

By the time ownership passed to the newer Hilton chain in the 1960s the landmark was showing its age, and the conversion of several floors to office space could not stop the slide into disrepair.

A ceiling leak that disrupted a 1976 Chamber of Commerce luncheon in the Golden Ballroom, chasing businessmen from their tables, symbolized the decline.

At least for a night — Jan. 28, 1977 — it seemed like old times in the grande dame of Buffalo hotels as office workers, businessmen and women, lawyers and government officials stranded downtown packed the lobby, mezzanine and any other standing or sitting space to wait out the monster Blizzard of '77.

Traditional barber shops cling to a male tradition

Link to December 29 Warren Times Observer article.

Excerpt: Barber shops may be fewer in number now, but those who work there still have pride in their job.

Frailey's Barber Shop owner Jeff Frailey said in the 1960s there were 23 such shops within the city limits, but now only his and two others remain.

Trawick's Barber Shop owner Ronald Trawick said on average 18 of his customers pass away every year with few new ones replacing them.

"Most hair I cut is grey," he said.

Obittuary: James Connolly

James Michael Connolly, 55, of 471 Jackson Run Rd., Warren, PA., passed away on Saturday morning, December 26, 2009 at his residence surrounded by his loving family.

James was born February 3, 1954, in Warren, the son of Helen Gronick Connolly of Warren and the late James B. Connolly. Jim was a lifelong area resident and a graduate of Warren Area High School. He attended Jamestown Business College and then owned and operated Connolly Beer Distributor with his father for many years. He was a member of the Elks Lodge #223, the Eagles Club, the Clarendon VFW, and the Struthers Hose Co. Jim truly enjoyed hunting and fishing, especially with his boys, was a Cleveland Browns fan, and enjoyed his Genesee beer. He will be missed by all who knew him, especially his family for whom he cared deeply.

In addition to his mother, he is survived by his wife, Margaret "Peggy" Connolly, Warren, whom he married on May 31, 1980; two daughters, Jennifer Marie Malone and her husband Roger, Pittsburgh, PA., and Kellie Anne Connolly, Ashland, OR., three sons, Michael James Connolly and fiance Ericka Dominick, Warren, Lonny J. Connolly, Sheffield, and James L. Connolly and wife Sarah, Clarendon; five sisters, Cynthia Rock and husband Steven, Erie, PA., Kathleen Teconchuk and husband Robert, also of Erie, Suzanne Sillato and husband Albert, Buffalo, N.Y. Michele Ressler and husband Timothy, Fla., and Amy Swanson and husband James, Warren; his best friend and fishing buddy Bill Acklin; and many nieces and nephews.