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Wednesday, May 22, 2002

Fred Reginella was refreshingly candid about the long-awaited re-opening of the walkway over Cape May Avenue in Beechview.

	Erin Wilson walks her son, Tommy, 2, across a walkway over Cape May Avenue in Beechview yesterday. Beechview residents have waited three years and two months for the 450-foot-long concrete and steel walkway to reopen. (Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette)

"It sometimes takes us longer to design something than to construct it," said Reginella, the city's director of engineering and construction.

His words on Monday evening were met with a unanimous nodding of heads by Beechview residents, especially by officers and members of Beechview Area Concerned Citizens and the Beechview Merchants Association. They have waited three years and two months for the 450-foot-long concrete and steel walkway to reopen.

The walkway took about three months to repair.

It is used, especially by older residents who don't have cars, to get to churches, doctors, dentists, banks, ATMs and a variety of shops and stores.

The residents and business owners were gathered on the platform of the inbound stop at the Fallowfield T station with Reginella, Mayor Tom Murphy, Councilman Jim Motznik and Henry Nutbrown, the assistant general manager for engineering and construction for the Port Authority.

The Port Authority owns the bridge to which the walkway is attached. Although the authority allowed residents to ride free between the Fallowfield and Westfield stops that bookend the bridge, the residents said the trolleys often didn't have room for them during rush hours and were few and far between on weekends.

Residents who were able to navigate the extremely hilly detour found it took them four to five times longer to walk to the business district from their homes on the other side of the walkway.

"I had to walk up three hills just to go shopping," said Ann Falvo, 68. "It was very inconvenient for people who live on the [Westfield] side of the walkway."

Sue Pfeuffer of the citizens organization said reopening the walkway will make it easier for children to reach Beechwood School and Beechwood Pool.

Bill "B.J." Rafaloski, president of the merchants association, said the closing of the walkway had an immediate impact on business owners. Too many residents who used to walk to the business district got into their cars and drove elsewhere.

"The walkway is the gateway to our community," Rafaloski said.

Money was the major reason the project took so long. When the city closed the walkway for safety reasons on March 18, 1999, the residents and businesses linked by the span expected it would reopen within a year.

But city officials said there wasn't enough money in the city's $28 million capital improvement budget for 2000. And, when the money -- $240,000 -- was set aside in the 2001 capital budget, Reginella's staff didn't like the design.

Motznik praised the citizens organization and the business community for "staying on all of us to get this walkway reopened. They deserve a lot of credit."

Phyllis DiDiano, president of the citizens organization, said it was "good to see people coming together for a common goal. We encourage that."

Meredith Gray, who contacted me about the walkway in the summer of 2000, pointed out that users will notice they are walking on "the same old sidewalk. All the work was done underneath."

That's right, Reginella said.

Salt used to clear the walkway of snow and ice found its way under the sidewalk and corroded the metal brackets that connect the sidewalk to the bridge. "The walkway started to pull away from the bridge," Reginella said. "Fortunately, we were able to fix it without replacing the walkway itself."

Very fortunate.

That would have required more money and might have meant more delays.

Clean up or pay up

John Calhoun of the North Side opted to clean up rather than pay a $1,052.50 fine when the city's Bureau of Environmental Services presented that offer in Housing Court yesterday.

Calhoun, 78, dumped an old furnace and discarded heating, ventilation and air conditioning materials on a lot he and his wife, Elizabeth, own on Holyoke Street in Perry Hilltop. He also left the red pickup truck he used to haul the debris to the lot. Although the Calhouns own the property, they didn't have a dumping permit.

The truck and its discarded load were photographed by a neighbor, Lamar Barnes, who is assistant director of the environmental services bureau. Barnes turned the photos over to Rick Quigley, a bureau inspector, and assistant city solicitor Craig M. Straw, who prepared the case.

Calhoun also had pictures to show Housing Court Magistrate Irene McLaughlin. His pictures showed he had cleaned up most of the debris. If he cleans up the rest by June 4, his fine will be reduced to $87.50.

"We're serious about cleaning up this city," said Mayor Tom Murphy, a Perry Hilltop resident who spoke with Calhoun outside the courtroom in the Municipal Courts Building. "If he doesn't clean up the rest of that stuff, he'll be back in front of the judge."

Lawrence Walsh can be reached at 412-263-1895. His e-mail address is lwalsh@post-gazette.com.