Aldo Coffee Company Baristi Compete Nationally

That person behind the counter at your favorite coffeehouse who so artfully whips steamed milk for your cappuccino might be in training for a competition in the techniques of espresso-based drinks.

There is some serious science behind a good cup of espresso, according to Melanie and Rich Westerfield, co-owners of Aldo Coffee Co. on Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon.

Link: www.postgazette.com/pg/07151/790254-55.stm

MLSD Hires New Superintendent

The new superintendent of Mt. Lebanon schools is an honest, straightforward communicator who understands the district's high expectations and is eager to learn its culture and history, school board President Joseph Rodella said last night.

The board voted 9-0 to give John R. Allison, 43, a four-year contract and a starting salary of $150,000. Mr. Allison, who did not attend the meeting, will begin work July 9.

Link: www.post-gazette.com/pg/07151/790401-55.stm

Group Forming To Help Elderly Stay In Homes

Imagine making one phone call to arrange landscaping services and a trip to the doctor, repair of the air conditioner, curtain hanging and help managing health care, all while signing up for a yoga class and booking a trip to New York City, at discount prices and with your friends screening the providers for you. Now imagine how valuable that service could be to a senior citizen living at home.

A group in Mt. Lebanon wants to do just that by creating the Mt. Lebanon Living-at-Home Alliance, a nonprofit group that would help seniors avoid moving to retirement communities by supporting them as they stay independent. It would give members referrals to services by pre-screening providers and offering discounts. The membership cost has yet to be determined.

Link: www.post-gazette.com/pg/07151/790259-55.stm

Commissioners Favor Two Pool, $10 Million Plan

Mt. Lebanon commissioners appear to be endorsing a nearly $10 million outdoor aquatic center that would include a leisure pool and a 50-meter competitive pool.

In an informal consensus poll at Tuesday's commissioners meeting, municipal Manager Stephen Feller said his administration needed time to hone ideas for the pool, but first wanted to know which of four options the board supported.

Link: www.post-gazette.com/pg/07151/790154-55.stm

Deer Stomps Dog in Lebo Yard

A terrier-mix dog was attacked and stomped by a deer this morning in the back yard of the dog's Mt. Lebanon home.

A neighbor in the 1700 block of Theodan Drive reported the incident to Mt. Lebanon Police at 9:10 a.m. today. The neighbor told police that two dogs were in their own yard, contained by an invisible fence.

A female deer accompanied by fawns entered the yard and went after one of the dogs, said Lt. Ken Truver. "The neighbor said the dogs are older and apparently couldn't maneuver too well. The deer cornered one of the dogs and stomped on it."

Link: www.post-gazette.com/pg/07150/789930-55.stm

Update: www.post-gazette.com/pg/07152/790664-55.stm

First First Friday Coming Up

Friday, June 1, 2007

National City presents First Friday
6 – 9 p.m. Uptown
Country and Bluegrass Night featuring Mac Martin and the Dixie Travelers, nationally-acclaimed Double Shot Vocal Band, Dallas Marks, Magician David Lawrence, and Ben Sota from Zany Umbrella Circus

Denis Theater For Sale

We received the following comment at the previously posted Why Can't Lebo Be More Like Bellevue?:

The Denis Theater is going up for sale! For more information, please call:

Kelly Kuzemchak
Northwood Realty Services
412-367-3200 x 229 (office)
412-303-1708 (cell)

MLHS -- One Of The Best In The USA

Seven local public high schools have been honored as among the best in the nation in a Newsweek magazine rating. The magazine identified more than 1,200 high schools as among the top 5 percent nationwide on the basis of a ratio that emphasizes certain advanced courses.

The local schools and their rankings are: Quaker Valley, 592; Mt. Lebanon, 879; Hampton, 912; Upper St. Clair, 913; Peters, 918; Allderdice in Pittsburgh, 1,183; and Fox Chapel Area, 1,253.

The formula divides the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Cambridge tests taken by all students at the school in 2006 by the number of graduating seniors.

Link: www.postgazette.com/pg/07144/788718-100.stm

Lebo Commissioners Seek Help On Coping With Sex Offenders

Mt. Lebanon commissioners are looking to an eastern Pennsylvania community for ideas on an ordinance that restricts where convicted sex offenders can move, an official said.

Residents last week told commissioners they are worried about an offender who recently moved into the Sunset Hills area near an elementary school. Commission President David Humphreys said the board will look at an ordinance enacted about a year ago in Doylestown Township, Bucks County.

Link: www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/today/s_508969.html

School Board Approves Budget

The school board approved a $70,890,733 budget Monday that includes no tax increase and holds millage at 23.56 mills.

Link: www.postgazette.com/pg/07144/788433-55.stm

Superintendent Search Down To 3

The superintendent search committee of the Mt. Lebanon school board has narrowed its search to three people who have been visiting the district and meeting board members, school officials and residents. Two of them and their wives visited Mt. Lebanon last week and the third will visit this week, board President Joseph Rodella said.

After the third candidate's visit, the board will consider input from all of the groups that met with the candidates and will make the selection. The district is not releasing the names of the candidates, district spokeswoman Cissy Bowman said. The superintendent will replace George Wilson, who plans to retire at the end of July.

Link: www.postgazette.com/pg/07144/788433-55.stm

PA's First Lady Visits MLHS

Judge Marjorie O. Rendell, First Lady of Pennsylvania, today praised Oliver High School and Mt. Lebanon High School in Pittsburgh for their commitment to civic learning and their continued efforts to ensure students learn and practice civic responsibility.

"I am extremely proud of your school and I am equally proud of each of you for renewing your responsibility to civic learning through the development of innovative programming that promotes civic knowledge, critical-thinking skills, civic engagement and practical democratic deliberation," said Judge Rendell. "Such hard work shows a strong commitment to the key values of leadership, good citizenship, respect for others and a personal civic responsibility."

Link: www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,110778.shtml

Preserving the Harvest

Department of Shameless Family Promotion:

The May 16, 2007 issue of The Almanac features a nicely-written column by Lori Humphreys titled "People Who Cook - 'Preserve the Harvest." The column describes a recipe for Eggplant-Tomato Relish and an interview with (and photograph of) its author, a Mt. Lebanon Master Gardener and cultivator of a broad variety of fruit trees, vegetables, herbs, and flowers, to whom I have the good fortune to be married.

I'll post a link if and when it appears online.

Here we go (but what happened to the photo? ;-( )

Appeal Rejected For Man Who Shot At Lebo Police

The state Superior Court this week denied an appeal of a former Carnegie Mellon University history professor twice convicted of firing on two Mt. Lebanon police officers who were called to a domestic dispute at the man's home five years ago.

Edward Constant, 64, is serving a sentence of 14 1/2 to 29 years at the State Correctional Institution at Graterford after having been twice convicted of trying to kill the officers, Daniel Rieg and Jeffrey Kite, on May 26, 2002.

Link: www.postgazette.com/pg/07137/786830-100.stm

Rogers Hardware To Close

(Note: I have posted this article because even though Rogers Hardware is in Castle Shannon -- not Mt. Lebanon like the author said -- it is a store that has been frequented by many Mt. Lebanon residents.)

Jack Boyd can't count how many times customers have come into his hardware store looking for something they couldn't name or describe -- "a hickey."

"You learn to interpret from people talking with their hands what they're looking for," said Boyd, 57, who has owned Rogers Hardware at Lebanon Shops since 1984. He began working there when he was 16. That personal service will be missed when the store closes May 31, after 43 years.

Link: www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/today/s_507808.html

Two More Platform Tennis Courts

Commissioners unanimously approved two platform tennis courts to be built uphill from the town's two courts at the Main Park on Cedar Boulevard. he $175,000 project is expected to begin this summer.

The Mt. Lebanon Platform Tennis Association raised $75,000 toward the project and grants might also help pay for the courts, Recreation Director David Donnellan said.

Link: www.postgazette.com/pg/07137/786569-55.stm

Chabad Planning To Move By Fall

Chabad of the South Hills will be on the move in a few months. Chabad, which is known as the Jewish Center for Living and Learning, currently rents space on Bower Hill Road at the Bower Hill Swim Club, but has purchased its own building in Mt. Lebanon, with plans to move by fall.

The new site is 1701 Helen Drive at its intersection with McFarland Road, in a building which currently houses an insurance company. The building fronts on McFarland Road.

Link: www.postgazette.com/pg/07137/786544-55.stm

Park Plaza Work Begins

Developers have started clearing the forest and grading a five-acre parcel in Mt. Lebanon, near its border with Castle Shannon. Kossman Development Co. will build an office complex called Park Plaza on land it has owned for more than 50 years.

Attempts to develop the land as townhouses and a drugstore failed after neighbors protested that the area was too congested with traffic and that other plans were too big for the site.

Link: www.postgazette.com/pg/07137/786570-55.stm

Lebo Summer Heats Up with ULTRAparty

Summer is about to heat up in Mt. Lebanon this August, as LEBO (Lifestyles Enriched By Opportunity) has announced ULTRAparty, a street fest for civic minded partiers between the ages of 22-35 that will encompass a three-block section of Washington Road.

ULTRAparty, sponsored by Miller Brewing, will feature one of Pittsburgh's favorite 80's cover bands, Velveeta, and will debut on Friday August 3, 2007 from 8 p.m. to midnight. A three-block area of Washington Road from Cedar Boulevard to Castle Shannon Boulevard will be closed to traffic from 8 p.m. to midnight following Mt. Lebanon's family-oriented First Friday festival.

Link: www.top40-charts.com/news.php?nid=32773

Lebo Election Results

Act 1 loses:

YES . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,790 29.21
NO. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,337 70.79

School Directors (copied from the Allegheny County website):

SCHOOL DIRECTOR MT LEBANON (Democrat) (winners in bold):
(WITH 38 OF 38 Districts COUNTED)
LA VERNE CONLEY 891 / 8.68%
RENE GARSON 1,041 / 10.14%
ZACHARY BENKOVITZ 960 / 9.35 %
JAMES FRAASCH 672 / 6.55 %
SUE ROSE 1,423 / 13.87 %
CAROL J WALTON 1,167 / 11.37 %
ELAINE L CAPPUCCI 1,877 / 18.29 %
EDWARD KUBIT 774 / 7.54 %
FAITH ANN STIPANOVICH 1,448 / 14.11 %
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 10 / .10 %
Total . . . . . . . . . 10,263


SCHOOL DIRECTOR MT LEBANON (Republican) (winners in bold)
(WITH 38 OF 38 Districts COUNTED)
JAMES FRAASCH 1,371 / 14.09 %
CAROL J WALTON 1,418 / 14.57 %
SUE ROSE 1,575 / 16.19 %
FAITH ANN STIPANOVICH 1,031 / 10.60 %
ELAINE L CAPPUCCI 1,499 / 15.40 %
RENE GARSON 1,263 / 12.98 %
EDWARD KUBIT 1,528 / 15.70 %
WRITE-IN 46 / .47 %
Total . . . . . . . . . 9,731

So: Rose (incumbent), Walton (incumbent), Kubit, Frassch, Stipanovich, Cappucci, and Garson (incumbent) move on to the Fall. Seven candidates, five open seats.

Congratulations to the nominees.

And don't miss Dennis Roddy's clever podcast investigation of the one-named Raja, running for Commissioner in the 1st Ward. Dennis, did you read all the way to the end of the comments at this post?

Lebo Residents Raise Issue Over Sexual Offender

A dozen parents from the Sunset Hills neighborhood of Mt. Lebanon asked municipal commissioners last night to write an ordinance that would keep sexual offenders from living near schools and day care centers.

Link: www.post-gazette.com/pg/07135/786050-55.stm

Joe DeIuliis for Commissioner

Joe DeIuliis is a candidate for Mt. Lebanon Commissioner in the 3rd Ward.

His website is at www.electjoe2007.com

Last Call for Act 1

I received the following email late today. I'm not sure that I buy the argument, but I'm reproducing it in case it you're still trying to figure out what to make of Act 1:

The Mt Lebanon School Board has threatened us with a tax hike equaling $1.12 per month per $100,000 of assessed valuation if Act 1 passes.

Other Boards told their residents what tax savings they would get under Act 1. Mt Lebanon did not.

Our tax saving information is deep in the district website. All the negative publicity is on page 1.

Our Board didn’t tell us about the REFERENDUM AGAINST LARGE TAX HIKES contained in Act 1, or

the ACT 1 provision that would FORCE LARGE HEALTH CARE CO-PAYS when the union contract extension expires in 2010.

Never has so much been withheld from so many by so few.

I will be voting for the property tax reduction.

If you vote against it don’t complain about school taxes.

Andy Reinhart For Commissioner

I have added Andy Reinhart's web site to the Candidates section of the right-hand column. He is a candidate for commissioner of the 3th Ward of Mt. Lebanon.

Link: www.andyreinhart.com

St. Clair Hospital Could Grow To Meet Demand

Officials at St. Clair Hospital say an anticipated record number of people seeking emergency treatment could lead to a larger emergency room and changes in protocol when patients arrive.

The Mt. Lebanon hospital expects more than 52,000 people will have visited the emergency room by the June 30 fiscal year-end, compared with 49,343 in the fiscal year that ended last June and 48,578 the previous year. To accommodate the volume, hospital officials want to add 21 treatment bays to the 25 existing ones and send patients immediately to a bay so that they aren't stalled in the waiting area.

Link: www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/southwest/s_506616.html

Water Pollutants Concern MLHS Students

Mt. Lebanon High School sophomore Emily Sholder knows how pollution can affect water systems.

She and her parents have lived for six years on property along a private lake. Three municipal sewers empty into Cedar Lake, and the contents often contain trash that the family must sift from the water.

"Sometimes there's just so much garbage," said Emily, 16. "We get a lot of cans, bottles, chip bags and even doggie bags from when people clean up after their dogs, and that's just incredibly gross."

Link: www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/southwest/s_506639.html

Mt. Lebanon Communications Recognized

The May 2007 mtl magazine for Mt. Lebanon contains this piece of news of interest:

GOVERNOR’S AWARD Mt. Lebanon has been awarded a prestigious 2007 Governor’s Award for its diversified communications efforts. Governor’s awards are made in several categories. Mt. Lebanon was honored in the “Information Technology” category. The application for the award, which was prepared by the public information office, recreation department and management of information systems office, detailed Mt. Lebanon’s communication expansion beyond print communication to cyber communication such as an enhanced Web site, e-mail blasts and a municipal blog that provides residents with access to information 24 hours a day. Not only do these effort help keep increasingly mobile residents abreast of issues, but they also reduce costs in printing, postage and staff time. Commission President David Humphreys, Recreation Program Assistant Jackie Strasbaugh, Information Systems Officer Nicholas Schalles and Public Information Officer Susan Morgans accepted the award at a luncheon held in Harrisburg in April.

I put "municipal blog" in bold font because I'm not sure what that refers to. The Press Release for the Governor's Awards says:

Mt. Lebanon Township received an Information Technology Award for making municipal news and information available to its citizens 24 hours a day through the use of its Web site, e-mail, and blog to communicate with its residents. Today's mobile citizens in Mt. Lebanon have the ability to share opinions on community issues without necessarily having to attend public meetings.

Again, I'm not sure what the "blog" part of that announcement refers to. There is the High School Renovation blog maintained by the School District. There is the Aquatic Center blog used by the Municipality, but which is, AFAIK, at the end of its useful life (at least, nothing new has been posted there in months). Did I miss something? Is a general purpose Mt. Lebanon Municipality blog in the works? Or other special purpose blogs? Either or both would be great.

MTLSD Lags In Issuing Emergency Notice

During a school emergency, officials are finding they can't communicate with parents quickly enough.

That's what Mt. Lebanon administrators discovered last week during a 13-minute lockdown of the high school that was enacted after a student who had been involved in a fight with another student in the cafeteria left the school and threatened to return, making a reference to the Columbine School incident.

Link: www.postgazette.com/pg/07130/784683-55.stm

Bower Hill Road Walgreens OK'd

Despite pleas from a small group of people in Mt. Lebanon, Scott commissioners have granted approval for a Walgreens drugstore at Bower Hill Road and North Wren Drive, on the border of the two neighboring communities.

The unanimous approval, made April 24, didn't come without conditions: securing a variance from the township zoning hearing board for an 11-spot parking shortage, having adequate sewer availability from Mt. Lebanon and an executed copy of an easement agreement between St. Clair Hospital and developer Bowen Development Co., completing a satisfactory developer's agreement and addressing a minor slope issue at the site.

Link: www.postgazette.com/pg/07130/784629-55.stm

June 1 Kicks Off For Summer Activities

Mt. Lebanon is gearing up for another summer of outdoor entertainment with First Fridays and Sidewalk Saturdays, a series of music, shopping and food events on Washington Road, the town's main street.

New this year will be Ultra Party, a fund-raiser and outdoor festival for everyone, with emphasis on the 22- to 35-year-old set, scheduled for Aug. 3.

Link: www.postgazette.com/pg/07130/784627-55.stm

Golf Course Is Local Historic Landmark

Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation has designated the Mt. Lebanon municipal golf course on Pine Avenue as a local historic landmark.

The course will celebrate its 100th anniversary July 7. A morning nine-hole Family and Friends golf event, which will include lunch and entertainment by the Center for Theater Arts and the Organ Grinder Man, costs $200 for a foursome.

An afternoon 18-hole event concludes with a cocktail reception, entertainment from Uptown Rhythm and Brass and a chance to meet Steelers great Rocky Bleier and his wife, Jan, who are chairpersons for the event. The afternoon event costs $400 per foursome, including the reception.

Admission to the reception only is $50 per person. Throughout the day, Mt. Lebanon's golf pro, Matt Kluck, will offer free clinics and sponsor Cleveland Golf will have a demonstration tent.

Community chairpersons for the event are Steve and Amelia Dean.

To register online, go to www.mtlebanon.org and click on "recreation" or pick up a form at the golf course, Mt. Lebanon Recreation Center, library or municipal building.

Link: www.postgazette.com/pg/07130/784638-55.stm

Mother-Daughter Businesses Make Wash. Road Home

They are business partners who love and trust one another, and who are, in many cases, best friends who live a stone's throw apart. Open and honest, they engage in vibrant, disagreements without threat of damaging their strong bond.

Some of these business partners even vacation together. But perhaps the biggest selling item: "I get to spend time with my child," said Nancy Rohm, who co-owns Zipper Blues with her daughter, Jamie Rohm.

"I don't know what I would do without my mom," said Donna Deguilio, who operates Moda Donnatella with her mother, Vienna Vizzoca. "I couldn't have picked a better partner," said Tamiko Sampson of daughter Tami Sampson. The pair co-own The Fabric Place.

They are three of a number of mother-daughter duos who are in business together in the 1600--1700 block of Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon.

Link: www.postgazette.com/pg/07130/784665-55.stm

Bradley Closing Brings Uncertainty

Eileen, a Mt. Lebanon mom, knows what it's like to have a child be hundreds of miles away at a residential treatment center and fears that fate for the former residents of the Bradley Center's Mt. Lebanon campus.

Link: www.postgazette.com/pg/07130/784699-55.stm

Dan Miller for Commissioner

I have added Dan Miller's web site to the Candidates section of the right-hand column. He is a candidate for commissioner of the 5th Ward of Mt. Lebanon.

Link: www.danmiller2007.com

A Lebo Puzzle

What do these people have in common?

• Walter Bennis
• Aristotle
• Harold Geneen
• Lee Iacocca
• John Sculley
• Winston Churchill
• Indira Gandhi
• Tom Cruise

More on Act 1

The Mt. Lebanon PTA has produced the following statement on Act 1:

ACT 1

On May 15th, the referendum question below will be placed on the ballot:

"Do you favor your school district imposing an additional .9% earned income tax? The revenue generated from the tax increase will be used to reduce taxes to qualified owner occupied residential properties by approximately $640 the first year and increasing to approximately $914 in succeeding years. The current school district earned income and net profits tax rate is .5% and the current combined municipal/school district rate is 1.3%."

According to the Mt. Lebanon School District Local Tax Study Commission, "members were generally surprised and disappointed that they lacked the ability or opportunity to make significant proposals to improve our current system of local taxation, and were uncomfortable with the thought that their recommendation, if accepted by the Board and approved by the electorate, would do nothing more than shift tax burden from one member of the population to another, without any clear relationship to issues of fairness and equity."

Mt. Lebanon School Board unanimously passed a resolution on Act 1 at the April 16th board meeting. The resolution states: "Members of the School Board of the Mt. Lebanon School District hereby express their opposition to Act 1 as it fails to enact any meaningful or genuine tax relief, but rather only provides for a tax 'shift.'" (Go to www.mtlsd.org and read the resolution.)

What does this mean for our community? Everyone in the community will pay tax of .9% on earnings.

• Residents with no earned income tax will not see their taxes go up, and will see a first year savings on real estate taxes of $640 (estimate only).



• Renters (25% of our population) receive no relief at all, nor do properties owned by businesses.



• Renters could opt to live elsewhere, and then purchase in those communities instead. Many of our home owners in this community began as renters.



• We have many seniors who rent. They will not see any relief with this tax shift.

If surrounding communities do not pass Act 1, this could greatly affect the property values of Mt. Lebanon homes, as well as affecting our ability to attract new residents. We could see families and dual-income residents exiting this community for surrounding areas without this tax on earned income.

Increased earnings do not offset the immediate loss of $400,000 in investment earnings from the change in timing of the tax receipts. We pay property taxes once a year; EIT is collected over the year, in 4 different installments. When the property taxes are collected, the money is invested so that it works for the District.

If Act 1 passes, the School Board must consider the need for .13 of a mill increase.

Gambling revenues will not be distributed until the 2008-09 school year, and even then will not benefit Districts until many other entities, the gaming board, communities where the slots are located, even the Penguins, are paid. We get what's left.

The savings are just that: savings. You don't see the money—you just do not pay it on your tax bill.

What can we do?

• Talk to your neighbors, your friends, and local business owners about this referendum question. Be open to and respectful of their opinions.



• Discuss the long-term consequences for our community and our school district if it passes.

This information was compiled by Mt. Lebanon PTA Council at the request of PTA members.

PTA does not support referendum with a resolution, but we do not have a position on Act 1 itself.

Tax Increases in Mt. Lebanon?

The point of the post title is to get your attention.

There is a primary election scheduled for Tuesday, May 15. Several School Board and Commissioner seats are being contested. The most important question on the ballot, however, doesn't have to do with your elected representatives. It doesn't have to do with the TIF, or with deer. It has to do with your taxes, and specifically with the thing known as "Act 1."

"Act 1" is shorthand for the Special Session Act 1 of 2006, the Taxpayer Relief Act, which was passed by the state legislature and signed by the Governor on June 27, 2006. The purpose of the Act is to provide property owners with property tax relief -- by shifting some of their property tax burden onto those who pay Earned Income Tax.

Act 1 is implemented voluntarily, via referendum, on a school district-by-school district basis. Mt. Lebanon will vote on Act 1 on May 15. Vote "yes" if you want to approve Act 1; vote "no" otherwise.

The basic proposition behind Act 1 is that overall funding for schools will remain the same. The source of that funding, however, is supposed to shift: Real estate taxes go down; local income taxes go up.

As a matter of general purpose tax policy, Act 1 has a lot to recommend it. Inequities in public education funding between wealthy towns such as Mt. Lebanon and poor towns such as (take your pick; there are lots of candidates nearby) can be pretty striking. Reducing school districts' reliance on real estate taxes as a principal source of funds is designed to reduce those inequities over the long run. For example, this was the theory behind California's property tax reform in 1978.

Mt. Lebanon voters, however, may want to skip the lesson on theory. Most people want to know how this will affect them personally. And how Act 1 would affect you, the individual taxpayer, depends on a number of things. First, it depends on whether you pay real estate taxes at all. If you're a renter, property tax relief via Act 1 doesn't do you much good. Second, it depends on whether you have much earned income. If you don't (i.e., if you live on passive or government income), then Act 1 is great. Third, as I understand it, when you trade off the average amount of real estate tax reduction involved against the increase in Earned Income Tax, your overall tax bill will go down if your household income is below a certain threshold, or it may go up, if your household income is above that threshold. And that threshold is, apparently, somewhere just north of $100,000.

Finally, the tax tradeoff that Act 1 represents may be only a one-time thing. Even if you vote "yes" and Act 1 passes, your real estate tax reduction may be only temporary. Mt. Lebanon is not among the districts that committed to capping increases in its real estate tax rate, which Act 1 encouraged. Real estate taxes may go down this year -- but they may head upward again, a year from now.

The Mt. Lebanon School Board recently passed a resolution opposing Act 1.

A report from a Mt. Lebanon School District Local Tax Study Commission has some helpful detail.

The Post-Gazette ran this feature on the mechanics of the legislation and what it might mean for certain school districts.

I haven't had time to collect a lot of information about this. If you have corrections to what I've written or more specifics, particularly as to how Act 1 would impact Mt. Lebanon, please post it in the Comments, or email me for posting in the blog. Thanks.

UPDATED 7:50 p.m. 5/03/07:

From the School District:

For additional information on Act 1 and its impact on the District, including the investment income shortfall the District will experience with its passage:

http://www.mtlsd.org/district/stuff/07-08budgetreport.pdf

Additional information on Act 1’s impact on renters and homeowners in Mt. Lebanon:

http://www.mtlsd.org/district/stuff/act1%20mt%20%20lebanon%20sd%2010-27.pdf

Mt. Lebanon High School Suffers Scare -- All Clear Now

As a Mt. Lebanon High School parent, I received the following message in my In Box this afternoon. I am reproducing it in full.

Today, May 2, 2007 at 12:45 p.m. Mt. Lebanon Police were called to the Mt Lebanon High School regarding a fight between two students. Prior to police arrival, a 16 year old male student involved in the fight fled the school premises after biting the other student.

As the responding officer gathered information regarding the incident from school personnel, it was learned that the suspect threatened to return to the school and commit acts of violence and that he referenced the Columbine School incident. At this time school security reported that the suspect may have returned to the high school at 1:25 pm. As a precautionary measure and at the direction of the Mt. Lebanon Police, an immediate lock-down of the school facility was ordered and police began establishing containment and a security perimeter. The school’s Critical Incident Plan was enacted.

With the assistance of school personnel, the police located and arrested the suspect in the swimming pool locker area without incident at 1:31 pm. No weapons were found.

The police department and school administration unlocked the facility after it was determined that it was safe at 1:38 pm.

The suspect was transported to MLPD and arrangements were made for a 302 mental commitment at St Clair Hospital based on the suspect’s actions and comments.

The other student involved in the fight sustained minor injuries.

Cooperation between school officials and the Mt. Lebanon Police Department was excellent and previously planned emergency response procedures worked well.

Lebo Golf Course Anniversary Coming

[T]here is a celebration going on this summer at Mt. Lebanon Municipal Golf Course, and it shares a slice of history with another local club planning a big summer celebration -- Oakmont.

Mt. Lebanon will celebrate its 100th anniversary July 7, commemorating the history and origin of a course that began as a private 18-hole layout known as Castle Shannon Golf Club and was built by an erudite Scotsman named George Ormiston, one of the original members at Oakmont. What's more, eight of the original greens remain at the municipal course -- greens that appear to have been influenced by the great Scottish designer, Donald Ross.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07121/782361-55.stm