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Tuesday, May 14, 2002

CITYWIDE: Bottle clubs targeted

Mayor Tom Murphy stumped yesterday in favor of a citywide referendum increasing penalties against illegal bottle clubs.

Typically the unlicensed clubs open after 2 a.m., have a door charge and provide liquor for free. A question on next week's primary ballot would prohibit the already illegal clubs, and increase penalties from a $300 summary offense to a misdemeanor carrying up to $2,500 in fines and a year in jail.

Murphy and others, including four council members and Hill District Police Cmdr. William Valenta, said the increased penalties would help police stamp out the clubs, which they said are incubators of crime.

Murphy said the clubs "have a significant impact on the quality of neighborhoods in our city" and are "centers for crime."

Opponents of the ballot question have said stamping out the clubs -- which are different from licensed social clubs that can legally stay open until 3 a.m. -- would stifle underground social life in the city, especially that of young people, gays and lesbians.

Crash jams Parkway East

	Motorists make their way past a truck accident yesterday. (John Beale, Post-Gazette)

Traffic was delayed for nearly two hours yesterday after a tractor-trailer collided with two other vehicles on the Parkway East, inbound.

State police said no one was injured in the accident, which occurred near the Boulevard of the Allies ramp at 2:57 p.m.

Police said traffic returned to normal just before 5 p.m.

NORTH SIDE:Crash kills driver

A North Versailles man died yesterday morning after a two-vehicle collision on the North Side.

Michael Bahr, 39, was driving south on the wrong side of Chestnut Street when he hit another car that was getting off the Veterans Memorial Bridge at East Ohio Street, according to the Allegheny County coroner's office.

The accident occurred at 2:36 a.m. Bahr was pronounced dead at 5:37 a.m. at Allegheny General Hospital.

Pittsburgh police said the crash was Bahr's fault.

911 SYSTEM:Funding considered

The Murphy administration will start the ball rolling on getting a new city 911 telecommunications system today by introducing several funding bills to City Council.

The bills would earmark money for the estimated $1.6 million system by dipping into unused capital budget funds going back to 1999. Competitive bidding to provide the 911 system will likely start next month, communications chief John Rowntree said.

Council is likely to question the need for the new system when the city could share Allegheny County's existing 911 system in North Point Breeze.

But city officials are concerned because emergency service in Pittsburgh and Lawrence County was interrupted for nearly four hours April 28 when a call-routing switch for the 911 system crashed.

Officials from Verizon, which owns the equipment and contracts with the city and Lawrence County for switching service, said a hardware problem in a component of a Rockwell switch, the computer that controls the switching, caused the system to fail.

Rowntree said the new system would have dual switches to prevent that problem from occurring again.

OAKLAND: Falcon hatched

Peregrine falcons nesting on the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning in Oakland had successfully hatched one chick as of Sunday afternoon and were sitting on three more eggs.

Charles Bier, director of the Natural Heritage Program at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, ventured out onto a south facing ledge near the top of the cathedral for a quick check on the nest, which cannot be seen from inside the building.

"This is the first documented successful reproduction at the site. The chick was only hours old," he said.

Peregrines have been in the Oakland area since 1996 but never successfully mated, and at least one of the birds there now is a newer bird.

LAWRENCEVILLE: Bodack leaving party post

State Sen. Leonard Bodack, D-Lawrenceville, will not run for re-election as the Allegheny County Democratic Party chairman.

Bodack announced five months ago he would not run for a seventh term in the state senate, after nearly a quarter-century in office. At the time, Bodack said he wanted to remain the party's chairman, a job he has held since 1997.

But in a May 7 letter to Democratic committee members, Bodack said when his term ends in June, he will not run for re-election. His age, 69, was part of the decision.

"My decision is entirely a personal one. I believe that our future prospects are excellent and I expect to continue to work hard on Democratic campaigns. However, I have decided that it is time for a younger person to take on this job," he wrote.

Party officials will choose a new chairman next month.