Published Tuesday, January 1, 2003
top local stories in '02
Greenville's woes
By Larissa Theodore
Herald Staff Writer
The possible consolidation of Shenango Valley communities and a house fire in which five Amish children died were The Herald's top news stories for 2002.
Fourteen Herald editors and reporters voted for the year's top stories for their long-term significance and their headline value. Each story could garner up to 140 points.
Topping the list for headline value with 124 points was the Dec. 3 house fire in Pulaski Township that killed 14-year-old Katie Wengerd, and her brothers Levi, 12, Neil, 11, John, 4 and Jonathon, who had just turned 2.
Six fire departments battled the blaze at the home of Rudy and Lizzie Wengerd. At least two of the couple's nine children jumped from a second-story window to escape the flames. One of them, 15-year-old Gideon, broke his leg.
The Amish and non-Amish communities quickly pulled together to help the family recoup. Mercer Livestock Auction, which employs Rudy Wengerd, raised $7,000 for the family and held a memorial service for the children.
More than 250 people jammed the Hermitage fire station for a benefit auction for the family. The Amish community also built a new home for the Wengerds and a farmer who lost a child donated a cow that fetched $1,000 in an auction.
The Shenango Valley consolidation study made top newsroom choice with 126 points for long-term significance.
In 2002, members of the Shenango Valley Intergovernmental Study Committee continued gathering information and examining the pros and cons of turning Farrell, Sharon, Hermitage, Sharpsville and Wheatland into a single city.
By fall, members of some of the towns' governing bodies proposed dropping out of the study, saying many of their taxpayers oppose the idea. But by year's end, no one had dropped out.
Second-place for long-term significance, with 109 points, was the loss of a $7 million grant to develop the Westinghouse Electric Corp. site in Sharon and the Winner/Mercer County Industrial Development Authority fight.
On Feb. 28, James E. Winner Jr., chairman of Sharon-based Winner International which owns the Westinghouse site, announced he was pulling out of attempts to get the grant, but said he would forge ahead with plans for turning it into a multi-tenant industrial complex.
Winner squabbled with the Mercer County Industrial Development Authority board over the grant. MCIDA insisted that Winner wasn't supplying documents the state required and Winner said MCIDA stymied the project.
On Sept. 19, local development officials learned that the state had rescinded the grant when Winner Development LLC didn't supply necessary paperwork by the March 6 deadline. That paperwork included engineering drawings and proof of financing for the $77 million project.
Not far behind the $7 million loss of the grant, at 103 points for long-term significance was Greenville's fiscal collapse and distressed community status.
On New Year's Eve 2001, Greenville council passed a 2002 spending plan that called for a 4.6-percent real estate tax hike but estimated expenses would exceed revenue for 2002 by $90,000.
Council reopened the $3 million-plus plan on Jan. 7 and said it would make cuts needed to balance the budget by Feb. 15.
Several days after the budget was reopened, the public learned that about $500,000 of a $3.5 million bond, floated by the borough to support a multi-million dollar recreation and revitalization project, had been used in 2000 to keep the town afloat financially.
Greenville council voted Feb. 12 to seek help under the Municipalities Financial Recovery Act, a state program for financially distressed communities. Rather than $90,000, the borough had entered 2002 with a $1,062,000 deficit -- more than one-third the size of its $3.06 million budget.
In 2002, Greenville became Pennsylvania's 18th "distressed community" and received $660,000 in emergency funding to pay the bills through the end of the year.
Coupled with the distressed status was controversy with new Borough Manager Kenneth Weaver, whose contract was not renewed after the first year; the appointment of three new council members at the beginning of the year and the resignations of three members in December; and the nearly yearlong delay in appointing a police chief.
Other stories that made the top 10 for long-term significance were:
4. An audit finds Sharon $239,261 in the red, 73 points
5. The nixing of a proposed merging of the Sharon and Southwest Mercer County police departments, 72 points
6. Greenville's water woes, 63 points. Early in the year, the idea of selling the Greenville Municipal Authority to solve the borough's financial woes was discussed and a lawyer retained to study the feasibility of such a sale. In October, the treatment pump failed bringing about a lengthy conservation request and a weeklong boil-water mandate from the state Department of Environmental Protection. The pump problem continues.
7. The state-mandated $13 million sewer upgrade in Hermitage and rate hikes to pay for it, 56 points
8. The state Route 18 widening in Hermitage, 39 points
9. Wheatland Tube's purchase of Sawhill from AK Steel, 36 points
10. The still unfinished Oakland Avenue viaduct in Sharon, 16 points.
For headline value, the fatal Amish house fire edged out -- by 2 points -- the April 28 and Nov. 10 tornadoes that swept through Mercer County.
The spring storm hit the Sandy Lake, Stoneboro and Jackson Center areas; the late fall twister damaged homes in South Pymatuning and Delaware townships and Clark.
In a draw for third place for headline value were the saga of Greenville's fiscal collapse and the money drop from the top of The Winner in downtown Sharon. They tied with 92 points each.
Several people were injured when a sales promotion staged by Winner properties took an ugly turn. Almost 1,000 people crowded into a block of downtown Sharon on Oct. 5, pushing and shoving each other and bystanders while they tried to scoop up $2 bills and coupons.
At least three people were hurt.
Also making the top 10 list for headline value were:
5. The Sharon-Farrell basketball brawl, 89 points. The fight resulted in the arrest of Jesse J. Wilson, 20, of 709 Sherman Ave., Sharon, on charges of two counts of aggravated assault on a policeman, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, resisting arrest, rioting and disorderly conduct.
Police estimate between 70 and 100 young people were involved.
6. Greenville's water woes, 59 points
7. The loss of the $7 million grant to develop the Westinghouse site, 45 points.
8. The Oakland Avenue viaduct, 41 points.
9. The seven-day Hermitage teachers strike, 39 points.
10. The Shenango Valley consolidation study, 36 points.