PUC Clears Way For 211

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has handed over operation of the phone number “211” statewide to the nonprofit group PA211. The approval comes on the symbolic date, 2/11. Pennsylvania is one of three states that does not offer 211 service. In other states a call to 211 links people to social and community services as well as volunteer opportunities. Nancy Kukovich chairs the PA 211 board and is also the CEO of the Westmorland County United Way. She says the group built a business plan to operate 211 in 2007 and has been working to make it a reality ever since. She says the business model calls for the state to be divided into 7 regions with a coordinating office in Harrisburg. To fund the operation, Kukovich says it would take about 60-cents per Pennsylvanian per year. In other states the 211 centers are funded with a mix of state, municipal, foundation and private dollars. “One thing we will not do is add a fee to phone bills. Phone companies have told us they are willing to help but they will not support another charge tacked on,” says Kukovich. Kukovich says they are moving forward despite not having support from the state legislature. She says, “We could not wait 5 years for [state funding.]” Kukovich says the funds will come from grants, United Ways throughout the state and fundraising efforts. The goal is to have the first of the regions up and running in a few months and all seven regions on line by 2/11 2011. Along with trying to scrape together the needed funding, PA211 is also working to build the database needed to make the system work. Kukovich says some counties have very complete directories of social service providers and community organizations but others are in disarray. Once the database is built callers from any part of the state can be plugged into services anywhere in Pennsylvania. Kukovich says, “A son or daughter living in Philadelphia worried about an elderly parent here in Greensburg can call 211 out there and then 211 in Philadelphia will be able to access to the database we have here in Greensburg.” A needs assessment conducted by the Westmorland County United Way found that most people have to make six or seven calls to get the services they need. The goal is allow the same person to call 211 and get the correct number right away.

Bats Given Anti-Fungal Treatment

Researchers who are trying to stop a disease that has killed over a million bats in the Northeastern part of the United States are testing an anti-fungal solution in hibernation caves in New York State.

Al Hicks, a Mammal Specialist for NY State Department of Environmental Conservation in the Endangered Species Unit said they will visit mines to see if their solution works.

White Nose Syndrome is a disease that is infecting and killing the bat population in large quantities. It first appeared in 2005/2006 and appears to be an invasive disease from Europe. Its named after the white fungal-looking smudge on their noses. It was first seen in New York but has spread throughout New England, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

When the bats are infected they die of starvation. During the summer months, bats typically eat about half their weight in insects. Then they either migrate south to warm weather where they can continue to do so or they overeat in the fall to prepare for the winter. With the disease, they are starving to death in the middle of the winter.

Bats live in caves and mines of which there are many in Pennsylvania.

"How's My Street?"

During the strain and stress of trying to get around snow-packed roads in the Pittsburgh region, residents started helping each other. That led to a "crowdsourcing" device to help people work together to find the best way to get into and out of the city. Carnegie Mellon Associate professor Priya Narasimhan is the president of YinzCam and iBurgh. She told WDUQ News that Monday she noticed a lot of action on Twitter with people seeking advice on road conditions. Narasimhan says people were sharing information but there was "no one stop shop" to access or input information and observations about area streets and roads.
She says Councilman Bill Peduto asked Monday night if her company could quickly create a citizen web based program to find the best routes around the city.
Narasimhan says she and Professor Rajeev Gandhi and and three CMU students developed the program and it was up and running by 3 p.m. Wednesday. Within the first 9 hours, more than 500 citizen eyewitness reports had been entered...
"We are doing a time lapsed tab so people can go back and say 'show me the last 3 hours of reports, or the last 6 hours' ...because the more recent the information, the more valuable it is."
Narasimhan says the "How's My Street" (cityzenmobile.net) program is simple to use...you select a pushpin for the street, red, yellow or green, depending on severity of conditions, and you categorize the streets as not passable, passable and clear.
Narasimhan says even after the snow emergency is over, they will keep the site "live" to help city officials..."so they can go back and see the time lapse of when people reported what...and we'd like to add things like could we have scheduled snow trucks at the right places based on the real time information inputted by people in the city."

FirstEnergy and Allegheny Energy Merge

Akron, Ohio based FirstEnergy is buying Greensburg based Allegheny Energy, Inc. The boards of directors of both companies have unanimously approved a stock-for-stock transaction. Allegheny shareholders would receive 0.667 shares of FirstEnergy common stock in exchange for each share of Allegheny they own. Based on yesterday’s closing price that is more than a 30% premium per share and it puts a value on Allegheny Energy of $4.7 billion. Allegheny shareholders would own approximately 27% of the combined company. FirstEnergy spokesperson Scott Surgeoner says the deal is expected to take 12-14 months to complete. It is pending regulatory approval from all of the states involved and a few federal entities. The combined company will be headquartered at FirstEnergy’s home base of Akron and Surgeoner says it is unclear at this time what will happen to Allegheny Energy’s Greensburg office. He says a team of top management from both companies will be gathered to guide the transition and answer those types of questions. Surgeoner says the new company will have approximately $16 billion in annual revenues, operate ten electric distribution companies servicing more than six million customers, and nearly 20,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines. The production assets have approximately 24,000 megawatts of generating capacity. Surgeoner says the companies have contiguous service areas and fit well together in other ways. He says for customers, the merger should be seamless.


Service area images (Allegheny Energy left, FirstEnergy right) from company websites.

Homeless in Winter

Homeless people already have it rough, but they especially do in the winter. That’s where the Allegheny County Department of Human Services comes in to help. Rich Venezia, administrator of the Bureau of Hunger and Housing Services, says their emergency weather shelter located downtown is utilized between Nov. 15 and March 15. Venezia says the guidelines of when it is used are when it’s below 25 degrees, or when there is very windy, or unusually snowy weather. The number of people who go there fluctuates; there have been between 50 to 60 staying the last few nights, and last week, between 100 and 110 stayed during cold weather. Venezia says it’s a collaborative effort, with many different groups pitching in to help out.

Zoo Animals Deal with the Snow

Animals at the Pittsburgh Zoo are meeting the snow with a variety of responses. Henry Kacprzyk is the curator of Kid’s Kingdom and Reptiles. He says animals such as the Komodo dragon and the crocodiles are never out in the cold but many of the animals seem to love the snow. The otters popped out of their burrows through 4-inch holes in the snow and then “frolicked” about in their exhibit. Kacprzyk says the sea lions that normally like the cold weather seemed a bit “freaked out” by the volume of the snow but still went out into their heated pool. The Siberian tigers are genetically prepared for the snow but Kacprzyk says they seemed to have to explore their outdoor enclosure as though it were new before becoming comfortable. He says they seemed to know where some of their landmarks, such as tree stumps or rocks, should be but could not find them under 21 inches of snow. Other animals simply “hunkered down” according to Kacprzyk. The elephants can venture out in the snow for short periods of time. Kacprzyk says on very cold and windy days, handlers need to be careful about frostbite but, “If the elephants can get a good footing they enjoy it.” The zoo has been keeping the lions inside but under normal winter conditions they are allowed outside. Kacprzyk says it is like sending your kids out to play, “You just let them out for 45 minutes to an hour.” The lion’s exhibit includes a rock that is always heated to 95 degrees and they like to relax on that from time to time. Many of the bears at the zoo slow down in the winter, much like they would in the wild, but the polar bears are ready for the winter weather. In fact, the cold seems to bring out the wild animal in the captive bred polar bears. Kacprzyk says they love to jump on the ice that forms on their pond to break it up. “They can have an open area in their pond but they seem to want to break through an area. Perhaps it is a way for them open up a spot in the wild where a seal will pop its head up through and that could be their diner.” The zoo expects to reopen Saturday.

Rendell Closes Some Interstates

Governor Ed Rendell has shut down most major highways in south-central and southeast portions Pennsylvania.
Travel on all of I-83, I-78 and I-81 from the Maryland border up to I-80 is banned until further notice, due to hazardous driving conditions.
Rendell has also shut down the Schuylkill Expressway, I-476 and I-676 in the Philadelphia area, and I-176 between Morgantown and Reading.

"These road closures were necessitated by the high winds, which created a real lack of visibility. Something that despite the intensity of the storm over the weekend, we didn’t have to deal with."

Rendell says he doesn’t know when the highways will reopen.

"That depends on the weather conditions and when the snow abates. And also, we’re going to want to give our crews a chance to have a clear shot at clearing the roads quickly, because temperatures are supposed to dip. So it may not be – let’s say the snow gets out of the central part of the state, as it’s predicted, at six and seven. It may not be at seven o’clock. It may be later. It may be tomorrow morning."

The Turnpike remains open, but the speed limit has been reduced to 45 miles per hour, and certain types of vehicles are banned from driving on it.
I-95 is still open, as well.
11-hundred members of the Pennsylvania National Guard have been mobilized to help state police and PennDOT workers patrol the roads and assist stranded motorists.

Midwest Mayors to Pgh. for City Planning Session

Carnegie Mellon University’s Remaking Cities Institute hosts the Mayors Institute on City Design Thursday and Friday.

RCI Executive Director Don Carter says the conference gathers the mayors with eight local and national experts in fields like preservation architecture and urban design. He says the idea is for the mayors to ask questions specific to their city’s problems of blighted properties and vacant land.

He says the mayors hail from smaller Midwestern cities that are losing population and jobs, and they could learn something from Pittsburgh.

“They go back with a great understanding of the design issues and a direction for the project they’ve brought to the table,” says Carter.

“It’s almost universally widely accepted as a way for mayors to jumpstart projects or at least gain a better understanding of what the issues are.”

Carter says his institute will use information gleaned from this symposium to support its ongoing research of city redevelopment.

Snow Battles Continue

Pennsylvania Turnpike officials have implemented a “winter-weather ban” for the entire Turnpike system. The following vehicles will be prohibited from driving on the Turnpike:
• Class-9 vehicles (overweight and over-dimensional trucks)
• Large Combination Vehicles (tandem trailers and doubles)
• Motorcycles
• Recreational vehicles
• Tractors hauling empty trailers
• Trailers pulled by passenger vehicles (cars, pick-ups, SUVs and vans)
The speed limit has also been lowered to 45 MPH

The Turnpike has called in extra tollbooth operators to notify motorists of the ban before they enter the turnpike. It is unclear when the ban will be lifted but Turnpike spokesperson Carl Defebo says anyone planning to use the turnpike should first hit the Turnpike website or the travel advisory hotline, 1-866-976-8747, to check conditions before you leave. When they get close to the turnpike entrance you can listen to the Highway Advisory Radio station 1640AM. PennDOT has put a similar ban in place for the highways in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The speed limit on all interstates in Pennsylvania is now 45 mph.

Defebo says crews are working to keep the highway clear but the snow is falling very fast in some areas. He says “snowplow trains” are making passes but when they finish their 25 mile run the snow has already built up on the road and another pass is needed. Defebo says, “In some instances it is not safe to travel at 45 miles per hour.” He asks that you not pass a snowplow train if you approach one from behind.

Defebo says the turnpike was able to replenish its salt stores in the lull between the two storms. He says they also have the ability to shuffle salt among more than 20 salt sheds and the authority is moving salt from areas less hard hit to those that need the extra salt.

With blizzard conditions causing impassible road conditions, Governor Ed Rendell has ordered the closing of Interstates 83, 78, and part of Interstate 81 and is expecting to close additional roads as conditions deteriorate. Interstate 81 is closed from the Maryland line to Interstate 80.
With hazardous weather conditions in much of the state, the Governor said it is too dangerous for any motorist to be driving.

“For your safety, do not drive,” Governor Rendell said. “You will risk your life and, potentially, the lives of others if you get stuck on highways or any road."

Allegheny County Public Works Director Joe Olczak says their primary goal is keeping main roads passable today. Since midnight, he says they’ve salted all of those roads at least two or three times, with 52 salt trucks on the roads. He’s not sure about much salt remains in supply for Public Works, but they placed an order for more on Monday.

Duquesne Light still has 2,000 customers without power. The company has pushed back estimates for having every one back on line and now Projects that customers in the North Hills and eastern Allegheny County will be restored by tonight. Customers in the city of Pittsburgh and the South Hills should see restoration by Thursday night. Western Allegheny county and Beaver county should be restored by Friday night. Allegheny Power still has 2,700 customers in Allegheny County without power; about 4,000 in Fayette County; nearly 7,000 in Greene County; 2,100 in Westmoreland County; and, 13,000 in Washington County.

The Port Authority of Allegheny County says nearly all of its routes are operating this afternoon but some are holding to the main roads or are taking other detours. PAT spokesperson Jim Ritchie says riders should get to those primary streets to catch a bus. However, buses are running 30-45 minutes behind. The “T” continues to run with the exception of the 52 Allentown line.

Small Business Owners Downtown Report Slow Business

Most of the city is shut down today. The streets are empty of people but full of snow. Some small business owners in downtown Pittsburgh were open and reporting slow business. Rex Streno, owner of Ulrich Shoe Repair said business has been very slow. He had a few customers Monday and Tuesday and expected fewer today. He said most people were staying out of downtown.

The week before Valentines Day should be busy at jewelry stores but not at Pittsburgh Gold Marketplace. Owner Joshua Ifrah said he has lived in many US cities but has never seen streets as unplowed as Pittsburgh's. He said the neglect is almost criminal. He had one customer Tuesday.

John Vazquez, owner of Pittsburgh Black and Gold forever, said he's had some business - he sells hats and gloves, things people need in a pinch.

A lone employee at a Quiznos sandwich shop said he didn't mind the lack of traffic. He said it was almost like having a day off.