On Jewelry

Jewelry is stupid. So is clothing, unless, of course, you use it only to protect your body from the harsh elements.

Jewelry doesn’t protect the body from the weather or the briars but in some cases it might protect the soul from evil spirits or something. Garlic can do just as good a job, I guess...

But its perfume is not nearly as enjoyable as that of the rose.

Oh, a silver crucifix! That’s as good as the garlic, I understand. But what if the vampires are atheists?

I never had an engagement ring when I was married. We went together and bought my white gold wedding band at the PX for $21. Seems that tradition requires some kind of ring at the marriage.

When the old boy left our marriage I briefly considered dropping my pearls in the commode for him to find when I moved out of the house; once I'd been rejected I moved out of the state and I left the house behind for him. But I enjoyed wearing those pearls! And, many years later, I’m glad I didn’t leave them behind in the toilet. It would’ve been a silly symbolic gesture. After the heat of anger passed I was able, once again, to remember with fond emotion, the night he came up behind me in the bedroom and fastened the dear-bought pearls around my neck with his trembling hands. We went on to our holiday party where one of his close friends confided that he knew beforehand that I’d be wearing pearls that night. I felt so (dare I say it?) treasured.

Every economic commodity is costing somebody somewhere something. We can get all political about anything if we try. (Don’t get me wrong - I do it, too.)

The fact remains that lightning bugs glimmer in the dark to attract their mates. They always will. Peacocks fan their gorgeous tail feathers for the same reason. Humans have been adding sparkle to their bodies with minerals for many thousands of years. It won’t be stopping anytime soon.

Me? I can’t deny that I love a Cinderella evening out once in a while, sparkling jewels and all. I’m a real animal, I guess!

‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ – VERY CAREFULLY, please!

I have a gas furnace. There’s a good chance that you do, too, if you’re reading my blog centered here in Bellevue, PA.

I confess, I’m not a very technical person. I lean more toward arts and humanities in my interests, rather than science and math. I regret that I didn’t have more academic discipline in studying those “hard” subjects when I was in school. Nonetheless, I’m beginning to connect some dots in my reading about energy issues in our nation these days. I’m realizing the political relevance of this, considering our nation’s imperative to become “energy-independent.”

I’ve been reading about natural gas extraction technology, particularly in our area, and some problems that it may entail. Pennsylvania should enact strong safety regulations regarding gas extraction, and ensure that appropriate inspections take place at drilling sites. According to investigative reports there are serious safety shortfalls in Pennsylvania at present. I assure you, I like heating my home with affordable natural gas. But now I’m beginning to consider the ‘other’ costs. If companies want to profit from our state’s natural resources it’s critical that they do all that they can to ensure our safety! Our government must see to it that they do!

You may remember a story in the local Pittsburgh area news a few years back where some houses suddenly exploded and burned in nearby Bridgeville. (Click here for a Post-Gazette story from Sunday, June 29, 2003.) Now a story appears on the ProPublica website that refers to that 2003 explosion in Bridgeville as one of a series of gas-related serious incidents in Pennsylvania. Some, like the Bridgeville incident, involve old gas wells. Others are caused by newly drilled, active gas wells, such as the terrible case (described below) in Rose Township, Jefferson County, to the northeast of Pittsburgh.

Below is the recent article form Propublica investigative jounalist Abrahm Lustgarten.

(Click here to see the ILLUSTRATED article at ProPublica.) I have taken the liberty of adding all-CAPS and other emphasis, including for familiar locations in Western Pennsylvania where incidents have occurred. Go to the ProPublica site for Lustgarten’s entire investigative series which covers the topic around the nation.

Water Problems From Drilling Are More Frequent Than PA Officials Said

by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica - July 31, 2009 11:29 am EDT

A drill site is seen from the back of Dimock resident Ronald Carter's home. Carter was told the methane coming from his pipes shouldn't be a problem as long as he cracked a window while running the tap.

When methane began bubbling out of kitchen taps near a gas drilling site in Pennsylvania last winter, a state regulator described the problem as "an anomaly." But at the time he made that statement to ProPublica, that same official was investigating a similar case affecting more than a dozen homes near gas wells halfway across the state.

In fact, methane related to the natural gas industry has contaminated water wells in at least seven Pennsylvania counties since 2004 and is common enough that the state hired a full-time inspector dedicated to the issue in 2006. In one case, methane was detected in water sampled over 15 square miles. In another, a methane leak led to an explosion that killed a couple and their 17-month-old grandson [1].

Methane is the largest component of natural gas. Since it evaporates out of drinking water, it is not considered toxic, but in the air it can lead to explosions. When methane is found in water supplies, it can also signal that deeply drilled gas wells are linked with drinking water systems.

In many cases the methane seepage comes from thousands of old abandoned gas wells that riddle Pennsylvania's geology, state inspectors say. But other cases, including several this year and the 2004 disaster that left three people dead, were linked to problems with newly drilled, active natural gas wells.

Dimock resident Norma Fiorentino's drinking water well exploded on New Year's morning. The blast was so strong it tossed aside a several-thousand=pound concrete slab. Click to see more of Dimock's residents' stories.

The issue came to the forefront in January when methane was found in the water at 16 homes in the small town of Dimock [2], in northeastern Pennsylvania. State officials cited Cabot Oil & Gas for several violations they say allowed the gas to seep out of the well structures and into water supplies there. The Department of Environmental Protection asked the company to encase its lower well pipes completely in concrete — a process known in the industry as "cementing" — and assured the public that the contamination in Dimock was rare.

But according to a department spokeswoman, there have been at least 52 separate cases of what the state calls "methane migration" in the past five years. In two of the 2009 cases, regulators responded to complaints from more than 32 households and asked gas companies to supply clean water to at least a dozen homes with contaminated wells.

An undated report from the Pittsburgh Geological Society posted to the DEP's Web site makes it clear that old wells and new drilling can lead to stray gas problems. "Although it rarely makes headlines," the report reads, "damage or threats caused by gas migration is a common problem in WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA."

Craig Lobins, the DEP regional oil and gas manager who initially described the Dimock case as an anomaly in interviews with ProPublica, said he still believes the frequency of contamination incidents is statistically insignificant.

Records show there are roughly 58,000 active gas wells in Pennsylvania. "We are just dealing with a very small percentage," he said in a follow-up interview.

The case Lobins was investigating at the same time as the Dimock case concerned a string of problems in BRADFORD, a rural town 200 miles west of Dimock along the state's northern border. Shortly after a contractor for Schreiner Oil and Gas drilled several dozen wells in the area last spring, residents began complaining of murky and foul-smelling tap water. When the DEP investigated, it found methane in three water wells and metals in six others. It asked Schreiner to supply water to eight homes, and the company has begun installing water treatment systems at each house. While no new gas wells have been drilled in the BRADFORD area, according to the DEP, the existing ones continue to operate.

Michael Schreiner, Schreiner's president, declined to comment for this article.

Lobins said the problems in BRADFORD — as in many of the contamination cases across the state — stem from a bad cementing job around the core of the well. In most gas drilling, the well pipe is encased in layers of concrete [3] to keep it isolated from surrounding groundwater. The concrete also contains the enormous pressure exerted on the system during the process of hydraulic fracturing [4], which pumps water, sand and chemicals to the well bottom to break up rock.

In BRADFORD, Lobins said, concrete was poured into the space around the wells but never filled the space — a sign of a possible leak. Because Pennsylvania does not have regulations that require inspections or testing of the concrete casing, the state didn't notice the problem until methane began showing up in water wells. By then, the suspected concrete error had been repeated in as many as 27 different places, Lobins said.

Controlling the quality of cementing and well casing is widely viewed as the most important factor in protecting water supplies and ensuring the integrity of a well. A recent federally funded study of state regulations across the country [5] (PDF), published by the Ground Water Protection Council, a consortium of state oil and gas regulators, industry representatives, and some environmental consultants, said that proper concrete casing is critical to environmental protection. While 96 percent of states, including Pennsylvania, have standards specifying that concrete be used to protect aquifers, the report found that one in five, also including Pennsylvania, do not require testing to confirm that the concrete used is strong enough for the job. That means that until water problems arose as a result of the casing problems in BRADFORD, the state had little recourse.

"What they are doing is not a violation until the gas is leaving the borehole," Lobins said. "We don't know that until it manifests itself somewhere else."

Lobins said the state is reviewing its regulations and that changes are planned to address both well casing and methane migration issues. But when asked what specific changes were being discussed, Lobins said he did not know. Similar questions went unanswered by Ron Gilius, the DEP's oil and gas director, after they were submitted by ProPublica both in interviews and in writing.

For their part, BRADFORD residents were surprised to learn that their problems were not unique.

"They didn't say that there were other problems similar to this," said Lori Trumbull, who complained about her water but later found that it was OK. "They said that the odds of having water contamination from drilling operations is very rare."

Fred Baldassare, the state's dedicated methane migration investigator, said he has investigated water contaminated with drilling-related methane in numerous places across the state in recent years. In BRIDGEVILLE, two homes exploded when a well casing failed and methane seeped into their basements, he said. In Dayton, he said, residents were evacuated after a well casing failed and methane migrated into an adjacent abandoned well, blowing out its casing and travelling a third of a mile underground.

In VANDERGRIFT, drillers stumbled across an old gas well that no one knew was there. Baldassare said that when the new well was hydraulically fractured, the intense pressure forced gas into the adjacent wells. It then percolated up through water and mud until it surfaced just feet from homes in a heavily populated neighborhood.

The most tragic Pennsylvania methane case began on March 5, 2004, in JEFFERSON COUNTY, about 80 miles northeast of PITTSBURGH. According to Baldassare, gas seeped into the home of 64-year-old Charles Harper and his 53-year-old wife, Dorothy, from one of several adjacent wells being drilled by Snyder Brothers. The gas collected until it exploded and, according to court records and news reports at the time, reduced the home to "a pile of rubble." Debris was found across the road, and insulation hung from trees 30 feet in the air. The bodies of the Harpers and their grandson, Baelee, were found buried in the debris.

Executives from Snyder Brothers did not return calls for comment. The company was sued in state court in JEFFERSON COUNTY and reached an undisclosed settlement with the Harper family.

State officials traced the methane's geochemical fingerprint and determined it had come from one of three Snyder wells nearby. The investigation, however, remains open in part because Snyder has yet to comply with state orders to conduct pressure tests on the wells — orders delivered in 2005, according to Baldassare. But that doesn't mean state officials aren't sure about what happened.

According to Baldassare, the Snyder methane caused the explosion.

"In my view," he said, "there was no uncertainty."

© Copyright 2009 Pro Publica Inc. FREE REPRINTS

"You can republish our articles for free, if you credit us, link to us, and don't edit our material or sell it separately."

What Is Hydraulic Fracturing?

(See graphic at ProPublica) Hydraulic fracturing is a process used in nine out of 10 natural gas wells in the United States, where millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to break apart the rock and release the gas.

Scientists are worried that the chemicals used in fracturing may pose a threat either underground or when waste fluids are handled and sometimes spilled on the surface.

ProPublica's Abrahm Lustgarten: “…the Marcellus Shale, a prized deposit of natural gas that is increasingly touted as one of the country's most abundant and cleanest alternatives to oil. The drilling here -- as in other parts of the nation -- is supposed to be a boon, bringing much-needed jobs and millions of dollars in royalties to cash-strapped homeowners.

But a string of documented cases of gas escaping into drinking water -- not just in Pennsylvania but across North America -- is raising new concerns about the hidden costs of this economic tide and strengthening arguments across the country that drilling can put drinking water at risk.”

“The MARCELLUS SHALE, also referred to as the Marcellus Formation, is a Middle Devonian-age black, low density, carbonaceous (organic rich) shale that occurs in the subsurface beneath much of Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York. Small areas of Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia are also underlain by the Marcellus Shale.” - Geology.com See a map

*****

In other words: OUR NEIGHBORHOOD. Pay attention and you’ll be picking up that Marcellus Shale name in local business and industry news. Hydraulic Fracturing technology is being used here. Adequate governmental regulation and faithful inspections are necessary for our public safety!

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin Resigns

Even at this point in time it's probably premature to assess the political phenomenon that is/(was?) Sarah Palin. Nonetheless, I'm thinking it may be the beginning of the end of that phenomenon and I'll go on with the thought...

I think the old guy, McCain, felt desperate last summer since his party was in disarray and he had to figure out a way to beat the young, charismatic and intellectual Obama. The running mates McCain might've preferred weren't acceptable to the social conservative base so in frustration he figured what the hell, threw a Hail Mary pass with Palin, then went on to lose in the fall anyway.

The VP selection wasn't really fair to Sarah nor, more importantly, to her family. Sarah, however, blinded by ambition, wasn't astute enough to comprehend the ramifications of agreeing to run. Yes, she had stars in her eyes and she wore that "sassy conservative" mantle with gusto. No matter what the wardrobe cost, or how it was paid for, sexy Sarah was a campaign-stumping sensation! C'mon, now folks, if she had not been a former beauty queen she would never have gotten the attention of the McCain campaign in the first place. They cynically figured they just MIGHT be able to harness her sex appeal and ride her into the White House. That's why it's a laughable crying shame that some have declared her a "feminist" candidate. DOH! One tragedy was that even Sarah Palin didn't seem to understand how she was being used for her superficial below-the-belt appeal. I think she believed it was legitimate for the handlers of her myth to twist it into a mavericky marketable commodity. As others have said, she believed her own press.

I think Sarah Palin and the ARC audience she addressed in New York (the recent visit when the notorious Letterman joke erupted) might well be horrified to know that no-less-a-Republican-political-mastermind than Lee Atwater himself was known to refer to the conservative religious base as "the extra chromosome crowd." He and Papa Bush were happy to harness the passion of that base and ride it into the White House two decades ago - no complicated intellectual appeal needed. This was while Ralph Reed and the so-called "Moral Majority" were talking about "stealth candidates" being slid into the offices of government from the grassroots level to propagate their conservative Christian agenda.

Yep, I'm feeling kind of sorry for Sarah right now. On a personal level I hate to see anybody's spirit broken, particularly when they're no longer a realistic political threat. I especially hate to see innocent children suffering from the hubris of the parent, even if dangerous naivete was a big part of said hubris.

So I'm feeling sorry for Sarah today, but that will change quickly if she willfully reenters public life to the further detriment of her family. She is now painfully aware of the cost. And the whole country knows she's aware. The Victim Card has no further value. As far as I'm concerned, it should be and it will be no-holds-barred if she doesn't keep her ill-educated narrow-minded self out of the national political arena from now on.

*****

You may want to visit the much talked about Todd Purdum article in August’s issue of Vanity Fair magazine. Despite the publication date it was written prior to Sarah’s resignation. As they say, “politics ain’t bean-bag.” (You’ll see that I borrowed a picture from that article: By Paul J. Richards/Getty Images.)

Support Iranian Protesters this Sunday near Hillman Library

http://iran.whyweprotest.net/pictures/816-exclusive-people-gathering-emam-khomeini-square-18-6-2009-a.html




Pittsburghers held a vigil in Market Square on Tuesday. There will be another gathering on

Sunday, June 28, 2009
3-5 PM
Schenley Drive near Hillman Library in Oakland.

Location mapped:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?client=firefox-a&hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=100348082717851082687.00046d18d94e250c7d3cb



More information:
http://iran.whyweprotest.net/usa-east-coast/1437-pittsburgh-pa-3.html

Neda: “She wanted to be free.”

A Yinzer’s Fathers Day Paean

OK, OK! I just switched off the Craig’s List page where my dad found the Ford Ranger pickup truck of his, well, not exactly of his dreams - more like of his willingness to settle. He’s willing to pay the price asked for the used truck offered in this ad. He went out to see the thing last night. The point is, he found this vehicle on Craig’s List, on my computer, with some assistance from me. That’s the least I could do for my old man.

You weren’t here to hear the yelling and bickering that went into the process that led up to this online discovery. Tonight it was my fault that he couldn’t get to yesterday’s ad list fast enough. It was my fault that I haven’t spent enough time on Craig’s List to know that yesterday’s ads will be listed after the more recent ones that went up today. It was my fault that the task I was involved in accomplishing, before he came over to see his chosen truck again, took me a couple of minutes to wrap up before I could assist him with his search. I haven’t used Craig’s List so I couldn’t hurry up fast enough for the old man to get that truck image up again so my cousin Frank could appreciate his find before he had to leave for the night. Frank works very early daylight hours and needed to go home and get to bed.

Family codependence! Interdependence? Codependence? Whatever.

Frank, before he left, agreed to clean out my clogged gutters. “All you had to do was say so!” he said. We’ll borrow the neighbor’s ladder, my dad or I will help throw the thing up there, and I’ll hold it steady at the bottom while Frank scoops. We have a plan for one of the next dry evenings.

*****

I took the pictures below from my bathroom window earlier this evening, before the Craig’s List argument. My dear old dad, 79, bought the little old block house just across the alley from mine not quite two years ago. It’s a common sight for me to see him out there in the street, working on something or other with my brother or one of my cousins. This evening Frank was over there helping him to do something with the back seats in his blue station wagon.





Please take note of Kit, the watch cat. She oversees every job that my dad has going. She has been known to dash from across the street and jump at the neighbor’s dog for daring to approach my dad for a petting. She’s the old guy’s pride and joy and she’s very possessive. Don’t mess with her!


*****


The following post began a discussion thread yesterday on one of my favorite online social networking sites:

Any plumbers here?

Sorry to put this here, and I'll remove it in a few days, but I'm kinda desperate, here...

My sewage line is broken and needs replaced between my clean-out pipe and the main line. A plumber friend of mine was gonna help me with this, but isn't gonna be available anytime soon. And with a dog who's gonna need over $1,000 in medical care over the next several weeks (possibly WELL over $1,000), I can't be dropping a couple grand on a plumber to do this for me.

I can do the digging (or maybe have a digging party where I pay people with beer and pizza), but would love to find a plumber who's experienced with this to replace the pipes. Of course, I'd pay for all materials and pay whatever is fair. But doing it this way would surely save me some bucks, as well as throwing some money towards a fellow MI person.

Anyone out there interested in helping me out with this, gimme a buzz. Thanks!


*****

After reading that post I couldn’t help but start thinking about all the practical knowledge that my dad has been in the process of passing along to my brothers and my cousins. Cars? The old guy knows about them, resurrects the old ones, and keeps the thriftier members of the clan on wheels. Home wiring? Yup. Almost fifty years ago he went to the library in the West End when we were first living in our house there, got the books, did the job, and let there be new lights. And lowered ceilings. And refinished hardwood floors. Put in a new kitchen. Rebuilt stone walls. Plumbing? Yup. Two months ago I was out there laying on my fat belly across the alley, steadying a wrench on a pipe down in the hole while my dad was there laying inside the ditch, twisting against me, tightening the seal on a newly replaced incoming water line. Building a wall? Yup. See pics below from last summer, disagreement and cooperation duly documented, participation of family cats fondly captured.








OK, the price one has to pay for my dad’s help is, at minimum, putting up with a goodly amount of bickering, delay and teasing. (No, I didn’t entertain the thought for very long of offering my dad’s expertise to my online friend who posted above.) You have to get in line to get on his schedule, behave yourself in the way that he expects on that given day (don’t ask!), and maybe you’ll have to jump through some other kind of perverse emotional hoops along the way. With him, you just never know. Be prepared to kiss butt if it’s something you only want rather than something you truly need. In a real emergency, however, I know that my dad will be there to help me if he can. I guess that’s part of why I feel lucky to have him living across the street from me now. I guess that’s why I’ll do what I can to help him out in ways that I’m able. Split pea soup from that hambone? Sure. Transplant periwinkle from the back hillside to your front yard? OK. Pull a tick off the bad cat? Just give me a minute. Get you started on Craig’s List? Here, scroll down with this mouse. Like this! My old man’s sure smart enough to learn how to use a computer by himself but he says to me, “That’s what daughters are for.” This old guy’s my one and only dad and I’m wishing the old fart another Happy Father’s Day this year and many more to come! Even if I could, I wouldn’t trade him in on a new model. (Old fart!)

Pittsburgh’s “New Muslim Cool” on WQED-TV

Depending on which route you take, four to five miles from Bellevue is the Light of the Age Mosque on Pittsburgh’s North Side. A couple of weeks ago I went to a screening of “New Muslim Cool,” a documentary film about the local mosque and some of its people. Present for the screening was the main film subject, Hamza Perez, “former drug dealer turned politically outspoken hip-hop artist, anti-drug counselor, community activist, family man and devout convert to Islam.” California filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor was at the screening, too. This event at Pittsburgh Filmmakers included an interfaith panel discussion featuring Amir Luqmon Abdus-salaam, director of Light of the Age Mosque, Christian minister Reverend Cornell Jones, Rabbi James A. Gibson, as well as Mr. Perez and other local community activists and educators.

During the three year period of filmmaking in Pittsburgh the Light of the Age Mosque was raided by FBI agents, in July of 2006. You may recall news coverage of this incident. The raid is featured as part of the story of Hamza Perez in the film. You will also get to know a lot more about Mr. Perez in his family life as well as in his anti-drug and chaplaincy work in the Allegheny County Jail.

I write about this now not because I was able to attend a screening in May but because you, too, will be able to watch this film of local public interest on public television. While viewing, you’ll want to look for distinctive Pittsburgh landmarks, including our famous Heinz 57 towers. “New Muslim Cool” premieres on the POV documentary films program on June 23, 2009 at 10 pm on WQED. The Tuesday night show follows Frontline, another of my personal favorites.

Note: As I write this, in a few hours WQED will be broadcasting the final film in the America at a Crossroads series, “The Mosque in Morgantown.” Not as close as the North Side, nonetheless, Morgantown, WV is not very far away from Bellevue. This film’s premiere broadcast will be tonight, June 15, 2009 at 10 pm.

*****


Watching Online

Jennifer Maytorena Taylor, who made “New Muslim Cool,” told me that the public will be able to view her entire film online at the PBS/POV website after the June 23^rd television premiere. I made it a point to ask her since some of the POV films are viewable online while others show only trailers and accompanying materials (which are valuable in their own right, to be sure).

EDIT: (July 7, 2009) Visiting the PBS website today, it may be that online viewing will be available only temporarily (?). At least until July 24th it can be accessed here.

It does not look like “The Mosque in Morgantown” film will be viewable in its entirety online.

Correction of Fact

Correction:

I have learned since my June 4^th post that the engineering company working on the Jacks Run Bridge #1 project is not the one that I named. The company that I mistakenly named, Eckles Engineering, is handling the renovation project for the Borough Building in Bellevue. In attendance at the March 4th, 2009 coordination meeting regarding the Jacks Run Bridge project were Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, Inc. (HRG) and MS Consultants, Inc. - not Eckles.

We’ll have use of the Jacks Run Bridge for another few months before it closes for the work in the fall of this year. The bridge deck reconstruction is an Allegheny County Department of Public Works job, not Bellevue municipal.

Jacks Run Bridge (“High Bridge”) Project - 2009

1967 Formal Reopening of the Jacks Run Bridge #1 (photo from Bellevue Borough website)

It’s raining today as I write. It puts me in mind of another damp spring day some seven or eight years ago. I remember I was wearing my purple nylon raincoat that day as I got off the 16B bus at the last stop on Winhurst Street in Brighton Heights. I’ve always enjoyed getting off there and walking the last stretch across the Jacks Run Bridge toward my house just inside Bellevue.

Fast forward to last summer, 2008. I stuck my nose out in the street one afternoon when I noticed some unfamiliar guys were outside poking around at the end of our alley, near the city steps. The steps lead up to the bridge and the beginning of Lincoln Avenue. Turned out the men were with Eckles Engineering, the company that will be reconstructing the badly deteriorated bridge deck this year. They said they were doing some preliminary observations and measurements. A few other neighbors and I took the opportunity to yak with them. My neighbor Dutch and I asked them to do whatever they could to see that both sides of the bridge will be fenced-in this time, instead of just the one side.

A few weeks after the Eckles site visit everybody in the neighborhood received a survey to complete and mail back. The company was asking about our personal usage of the bridge and the city steps. I filled out the paper front and back, even though the questions only covered the front.

Go back with me to that early evening seven or eight years ago when I got off the bus. I can’t remember if it was still drizzling or not, but it was dreary and grey as I walked toward home and my supper. Strangely enough, a man, about sixty, began to call out to me from the sidewalk on the other side of the bridge. “Hey lady!” he said until he caught my attention. “I’m gonna jump!” As he turned away from me, stepped across the sidewalk and proceeded to throw his leg over the railing I frantically flagged down a couple of people passing by in cars. With my right hand I signaled with my pinky and thumb to my face, that universal telephone gesture, indicating that they should “call” regarding the man to whom I emphatically pointed with my left hand. I determined not to escalate the drama with any shouting. Imagine how glad I was that one of the vehicles pulled over and stopped at the end of the bridge. Imagine how relieved I was that the people had, indeed, taken my gestures seriously. A woman stepped out of her car and I could see that she was holding a cell phone in her hand.

I went over to the would-be jumper. He was by then standing on the few inches of ledge on the wrong side of the railing. I did my best to come across as cool and calm as I began to engage him in conversation. Of course I asked him his name, which I’ll relate here as “Fred.” When I asked Fred why he wanted to jump he told me he just couldn’t stand the voices anymore. He said, yes, he had been taking medication for years but it did him no good. The voices just wouldn’t leave him alone.

I had been working in the public mental health system in a non-professional capacity for a number of years when Fred called out to me that day. I was reasonably comfortable, given the circumstances, conversing with Fred about the clinic he attended and the doctor he saw. We talked about his particular medications and his ongoing distress. He told me he lived in a personal care home on the North Side. As we spoke face to face like this I held onto his hand over the railing. I comforted him as best I could, buying time for the police to come. I tried to be encouraging to Fred about some of the newer medications that might possibly do a better job of alleviating his symptoms.

While I talked and held Fred’s hand the traffic ceased to flow across the bridge. Police arrived pretty quickly, I think. One jaunty athletic civilian, in the meantime, was approaching Fred and me in a zigzag kind of step from the middle of the bridge behind me. I could see him over my shoulder. I anticipated this guy was figuring he’d sneak up and grab Fred by force and save the day by yanking him to safety. This disturbed me quite a lot, as Farragut Street below is a long, long drop off the narrow ledge where Fred was perched. This would-be hero ultimately respected my desperate left-hand gesture to PLEASE STOP! My right hand stayed right where it was, never letting go of Fred’s.

At some point a young dark-haired Bellevue police officer approached on the sidewalk quite near to Fred and me, say within eight or ten feet. He was very good about not rushing in. One of the first things I recall that the officer said was, “It’s a sin.” I can’t tell you how long this scene had been unfolding to that point. I’d lost any realistic sense of time. When I looked aside I saw that the bridge had been taped off at both ends and vehicles and people were gathered. At any rate, I felt like I’d had a pretty good long conversation with Fred by this time. I was running out of new things to say. I continued to hold his gaze and I asked him if there was anything he’d like for me to do for him. He thought a minute, then he asked me to pray for him.

Uh-oh.

I hesitated. Then I felt obliged to tell him, “I’m sorry, Fred, but I can’t do that. I don’t pray. I don’t believe. But the police officer here,” and I turned to the officer, “is a believer and I’m sure he’ll pray for you.” Fred’s eyes got really big, staring at me after I said that. The young police officer, in an almost surreal action, pulled out a very large crucifix from under his shirt and held it out on its chain toward Fred. He called out, sounding nervous but nonetheless reassuring, “I’ll pray for you! I’m a member of the Knights of Columbus! Fifth degree!” (Or some degree!) He reminded Fred again, “It’s a sin! Suicide’s a sin!”

Fred continued to look into my eyes, then to my amazement his expression changed and he said to me, “Oh, I guess you’re right.” He held onto my arm and to the railing and he started to climb back over to the safe side.

Never mind, now, that I wasn’t “right” about anything: no matter how badly I wanted Fred to change his mind about jumping off that bridge, throughout the ordeal I’d never told him what I thought was right or wrong; I never tried telling Fred what he should do or should not do. I left the power and the choice entirely with Fred. After all, HE was the guy hanging over the precipice.

Once Fred started back over the railing the crucifix-bearing police officer and somebody else (I think – or was that me?) helped Fred get his leg all the way over and there he was, standing on the solid sidewalk once again. Whew. Of his own volition the would-be jumper walked over to the stretcher that was waiting for him beside the ambulance at the end of the bridge. He laid himself down and the EMS guys strapped him in.

Did Fred know this drill from prior experience? Did he really intend to jump that day? Did he call out to me just to have a witness to his one last desperate act? Did my actions make a difference? Did the police officer and his crucifix make a difference? I’ll never know for sure, but I believe the respectful rapport between one human and another was of ultimate importance in allowing him to make his own choice.

I asked the police if they needed any further information from me, then I left. I walked away from the crowd with my jitters and climbed down the city steps toward my nice warm kitchen. No, I no longer felt like eating supper right then, I assure you. I sat down in a chair and my emotions came rolling out of me in great wails and cries.

Maybe a year and a half after my experience with Fred I was running late for work one morning. I pulled my car onto Lincoln Avenue and was starting over the bridge when a young woman ran across the road ahead of me. I knew she was going for the railing. In my rearview mirror I watched her throw one leg over as I pulled up beside the bus stop at the end of the bridge. There were some commuters standing there waiting. I jumped out of my car and asked if anybody had a cell phone. One young man’s eyes got big as he said, “She just jumped! I saw her go over!” An instant later we heard the sound of her body slamming onto Farragut Street below. That sound is an incredibly loud BLAM! It’s like no other sound you can imagine. I’ll never forget it.

The commuters and I flagged down another driver. We used her cell phone to call 9-1-1. The dispatcher kept asking which side of the bridge the woman had jumped from, the Pittsburgh side or the Bellevue side. Exasperated, I grabbed the phone and yelled at her, “The middle! She jumped from the MIDDLE of the bridge!”

I attended the next Bellevue Borough Council meeting to ask if there wasn’t something we could do to have the other side of that bridge fenced! My neighbor Dutch told me she tried several times to find somebody in government to get a fence put up during her decades of living in the house next to the High Bridge. Dutch has a whole collection of jumper tales and excuses officials have given her to explain why they couldn’t fence both sides. Undeterred, I pleaded my case at the council meeting. Then-Mayor Paul Cusick seemed sympathetic. Then-Councilman Ron Deer assured me he would “look into it,”—for some reason name-dropping Jack Wagner—“once things settle down after this election.” Then-Police Chief Mike Bookser told me people would “just find another bridge.”

A few weeks later, when I tried to follow up with him ‘after the election,’ I found that Deer’s cell phone number had been changed. I hadn’t been calling him so I’m sure this was a coincidence. Like everybody else, I went back to my daily routines.

May 2009

Just a few weeks ago, in April 2009, there was another jumper. I only learned of this one when I saw Dutch and a few other neighbors out in the street. Some kids were running up and down the city steps with updates. It was another woman this time. The kids said they heard she lived in the apartments up on Lincoln Avenue. Dutch told me I could walk out under the bridge a little ways and look down onto Farragut to see the sheet covering the body. I didn’t. We stood in the street for a little while, going over the old stories again. Each one of these stories tells the tragic end or near-end of a human life. How I hope this most recent will be the last!

May 2009

Do I have to tell you how much I’m looking forward to this year’s bridge deck reconstruction project? Of course this work will go to rectify much more than just the need for a fence. The railings are rusted and crumbling away. The ‘jumper side’ sidewalk has been damaged and closed to foot traffic for quite some time, now – never mind that people can easily go around the barriers, as our most recent jumper just did. This Jacks Run “High” Bridge is in dire need of repair!

May 2009

I was thrilled last year when the representatives from Eckles Engineering, Allegheny County, Port Authority, and PennDOT all made their presentations at the Bellevue Borough Building. I went up there with my notes ready to fight for fencing BOTH sides of the bridge. I’m happy to tell you that I didn’t even have to argue the point! There on the display easels were gorgeous drawings of a new bridge deck with graceful vintage-style street lamps and tall curved-in fencing on both sides! Hallelujah! All I could say at that meeting was, “THANK YOU!”

Dutch told me the other day that she relishes the thought of never again hearing a body slam onto Farragut Street behind her house. She looks forward to never again hearing the screams of a person who has apparently changed her mind on the way down. When Dutch was twelve years old, growing up on our otherwise quiet little street, she observed the bodily remains of a bridge suicide jumper for the first time. Dutch tells me she suffered nightmares about it for years. She has waited for decades, literally, for this bridge to be fenced on two sides!

Sure, the upcoming months of construction will necessitate closure and the inconvenience of having to drive the long way around. Several buses will need to be rerouted. But please consider that the people in charge of the project are going to considerable extra trouble for themselves in order to leave a sidewalk open for pedestrian crossing throughout the construction period. They really are trying to accommodate the needs of our community. Yes, (Councilman Walter), some streets probably will be damaged by the temporary rerouting of buses. Unavoidably, the Borough will probably need to pay for some street-repair costs as a result. But all in all, with all the other funding already in place and all the promising design plans laid, what I have to say again to everyone involved in getting this project underway is “THANK YOU!” After a time the historic Jacks Run Bridge will be reopened, once again functional, much safer and more beautiful than ever!

*****

(Note: I'm new at this. I'm frustrated that the typeface/font control seems pretty weird. As much as I try to correct the preview display the fonts won't seem to correct. If the post looks weird, it's not because I haven't tried to fix it! - Belle)