Stay Tuned for the Credits After the Movie!

by David Croyle

Now that film crews finished their five-day marathon production on the Citizen’s Bridge, perhaps downtown Kittanning can resume a normal school bus commute and retail traffic.

There was nothing normal about the five-day siege that resulted in traffic accidents, angry residents, and frustrated business owners.

PennDOT was sharply criticized during the WTYM Morning Show yesterday for posting directional signs with mis-spellings. In the signs above, the abbreviation for Tuesday is mis-spelled. As the sign changes, it exposes another mis-spelling of the Graff Bridge.

The simple act of walking across the street was halted. Shoppers were not allowed to leave certain businesses once they were inside as camera crews maneuvered up and down the streets like Gestapo agents.  

Kittanning Borough Council woman Cindy Housley claimed members were not properly informed.

“The only thing that I was aware about was the Citizen’s Bridge being shut down. I was not aware that Jefferson, Market, South McKean was going to be involved,” she said. “I never knew how much of the town was going to be used until it happened. I started getting phone calls and all the complaints.”

Many drivers criticized PennDOT for granting permission to the film crew to shut down the Citizen’s Bridge, considering that the only detour route across the Graff Bridge was under renovation, causing traffic to be restricted to single lane only. Traffic backups at times were more than one hour to travel the seven-mile stretch.

According to Housley, the film crew requested to also use Kittanning Hose Company #1’s firehouse to shoot a specific scene in the movie. She said the fire company was compensated for the use of the facility.

“The Borough’s budget is very low. The fire hall had the chance to make some extra money and I didn’t have a problem with that. I definitely had a problem with the way this all was handled, all the street closures, and all the people and merchants who have suffered over this ordeal. It has been horrendous. We have to address this and get this taken care of.”

Housley said she could not comment on exactly who gave the official authorization for street closures.

Meanwhile, officers from Kittanning’s police department performed overtime duties to direct traffic during the filming.

“We [let the film company] use the police officers and they pay the wages, whatever the Borough charges, and then we get reimbursed.” Housley said the Borough is also reimbursed an administrative charge for processing the payroll that also included overtime pay for the officers.

Housley said that officers moonlighting for the movie company did not affect the level of protection available to residents of the borough. “The town was still well protected by the Borough Police officers that put in their regular shifts. We have enough officers.”

Housley said she has personally received approximately 15 telephone calls. “I have spoken with other Council people and know they have gotten calls.”

Housley said she anticipates the issue will be addressed at the next public meeting of Council scheduled for September 13. “The merchants have suffered a great loss this week. I would encourage them to come. We’ve got to get better communication and better communication with these films coming. It is a wonderful thing to have a nice town. We have a lot of good people here. But we have people that live here and work here every day that were very inconvenienced over this, so we gotta get more communication going. Yes I have taken a beaten every time I go outside my house, but that’s okay because Council meeting is coming up and we need to address some issues.”

According to Housley, no one was appointed by Council to be the liaison between the town and the film company.

“The filming company says they like our town. They want to use it again so we just have to have better communication as to when and where.”

Housley did not feel the experience was totally negative. “I want the community to be aware of the advantages of this too. Not just the borough. We have a lot of tremendous merchants who have stuck with us many years while others have come and gone. The merchants are important to me.”

As film star Katherine Heigl leaves Armstrong County today, it’s time to roll the credits on another movie made here in Kittanning.

Traffic was backed up yesterday on Route 422 waiting to get off at the West Kittanning exit.

Shuster Says Kittanning Cottages Will Pay Taxes

Kittanning Borough Council President Gerald Shuster told television viewers last night that new development will have a positive impact on the Borough's budget in the years to come.

At a time when Kittanning Borough is looking for every mill of taxes it can generate, Council President Gerald Shuster said he is optimistic a new development project will help revitalize the borough’s budget.

Trek Development plans to erect single dwelling homes in a new development on the property formerly occupied by Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Kittanning campus. “Kittanning Cottages” will consist of 24 units available to low to moderate residents over age 55.

“They will pay taxes,” Shuster said last night on Family-Life TV’s Talk of the Town television show. “This project will begin to pay taxes the very first year it’s in operation.”

Shuster said the project is under a LERTA (Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance Act), and it will take 10 years before the developer will be paying the full amount. Each year, the amount of taxes increases in ten percent increments until the full rate is paid on the tenth year, and each year thereafter.

That is one of the major ways we attracted them to the project,” Shuster said. “That’s just one of the few things that Kittanning Borough can do (to entice development in the area). Other groups have taken advantage of that, I am happy to say. It is one of the few things we can do to make it attractive for people to stay here and renovate.”

Shuster said at this time Council has not speculated on the amount of income that may be derived from the new Kittanning Cottages project. “We will be able to do that once the project is actually in place and we know what the actual cost is. Then the county assessment would have to play a role in that. Anything is going to be better than zero. Given the amount of money that is going to be put into the project, you are probably talking in excess of a million dollars. We are looking at something very positive over the next ten years. Each year it grows.”

Monday night was a preliminary informational meeting held at Council’s request. “We held the meeting and made members of the general public aware of it by actually delivering notices to the doors and to the homes of those individuals so that they would be aware of it. We had Trek Development, the architect, the engineer… not all the members of Council were there, but many of them were. It was a very productive meeting. It didn’t develop into a debate. People have learned that we are actually soliciting ideas. There were some good ideas that came as a result of the interaction.”

Shuster said he is hoping the project begins sometime this fall.

Kittanning Borough and Sewage Authority Ask Senator for Help

Kittanning Borough Council President Gerald Shuster voiced his support of a letter that was recently sent to Senator Don White by Kittanning Sewage Authority Chairman Peter Graff asking the Senator to intervene in a recent DEP decision.

by Nathan Lasher

Following in the footsteps of the Kittanning Sewage Authority, Kittanning Borough Council voted, during a meeting held Monday evening, to send a letter to Senator Don White requesting him to intervene in a recent decision made by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

“The Sewage Authority is being very proactive on trying to protect the community by requesting the closure clamps or ‘duck bills’ at the end of where storm sewer water goes into the river from some of the huge piping or sewers,” said Council President Gerald Shuster. “Basically, there is some money left over from the recent project that’s ongoing in the community. They made a request to allow that money to be spent to cap those pipes. Unfortunately, DEP prohibited them from expending the funds to do that, and we’re at a loss to understand why because it would have protected people especially in key areas like Vine Street, Mulberry Street, and a couple of other areas that are targeted every time the river rises to a certain level. Those pipes have no shut-off valves on them.”

According to Shuster, Chairman of the Sewage Authority, Peter Graff, sent a letter to Senator White asking him to use his influence to get the DEP to allow the Sewage Authority to expend the available funds.

“We’re concerned, as I’m sure the residents and property owners are on all of those streets that continually get backflow water, that there are no caps on there,” said Shuster. “So, we’re hopeful that Senator White is able to influence DEP to allow us to do that because that could occur within the next six weeks and would be a dramatic safety device and prevention system for Kittanning Borough all the way up and down the river bank. So, I know that from time to time we have had residents from Vine Street, in particular, come here to Council and petition us to do that, and we really weren’t in a position to do that because of the expense; it’s about $135,000 for each of those cap systems. If the Sewage Authority is willing to do that, it certainly is a dramatic savings for the Borough. So, we are very happy that the Sewage Authority is doing it, number one, but we are particularly happy that Peter Graff took the initiative to write that letter then we did the follow-up.”

After a short discussion, Council Member Ange Turco made a motion that was seconded by Council Member Cindy Housley to concur with Peter Graff in the Council’s own letter to show support for what the Sewage Authority is trying to carry out. The motion was carried.