October 2020 GreeneScene

OCTOBER 2020

• GreeneScene Community Magazine

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FEATURES 4

I LOVE THIS PLACE

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GREENESCENE OF THE PAST

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SHINING THE LIGHT

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GREENE ARTIFACTS

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PUBLIC SERVICE PROFILE

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COUNTY CONVERSATIONS

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SPORTS SHORTS

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INTENTIONAL WALKS

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GOING GREENE

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GOOD NEWS IN GREENE

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MESSAGE BOARD

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COOL AT SCHOOL

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MEET THE TEAM

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BUSINESS SECTION

Ryerson Station State Park Lazear Covered Bridge

Aleppo Brethren Church - Aleppo, PA Haunted artifact at the museum Hunters Sharing the Harvest Drug & Alcohol program

A snapshot of Greene County sports Greene County’s Hometown Heritage A haunting in Greene County Awards & acknowledgements within our community Community announcements and opportunities Jefferson-Morgan’s JROTC instills values in students Get to know the GreeneScene editor Featuring our Business Spotlights

EXTRAS 14

THESE BOOKS ARE THE PICK O’ THE PATCH

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THE LOCKER ROOM LEGACY

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A HAUNTING WE WILL GO...

19

WHAT LIFE WAS LIKE

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GET TO KNOW DIRECT RESULTS

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Local authors and books perfect for the season The history of local icon The Locker Room At the GCHS museum.

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GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020

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OCTOBER 2020

• GreeneScene Community Magazine

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I Love this P l a ce

t’s one of those mornings when the crisp edge of fall is beginning to show on the edges of everything. Bristoria Road is glowing with violet asters and goldenrod and the sun is just beginning to warm the air. It’s almost Equinox and I’m finally on my way to Ryerson Station State Park to meet up with park manager Alan Johnson, to see the work that’s being done on the new pool, its accompanying water park and the big building complex that puts 21st century “State” into the well-used phrase “of the art.”

If there’s a silver lining to COVID-19 it’s that with the pool closed for 2020, the crews at Ryerson had time to work almost nonstop on this biggest first step to creating the most modern state park money and technology can buy.

When Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources sent me a link to zoom in for the Task Force Meeting on August 27, heavy rains had closed the road where the work was being done and my telephone lines were compromised by the wetness and offered spotty Internet connection. Alan invited me to the park to listen in with him and when I got to the office, Friends of Ryerson member Dan Wood was there as well. Others began zooming in - our three commissioners, Richhill Twp. supervisors, Tourism, County Planning, Coalfield Justice and other community members, officials and planning and design personnel who had all the latest news. Task force co-chair Jeff Anna, who fell in love with Ryerson when he was park manager from 1994 - 2005 had the kind of really good news we’ve been waiting 15 years to hear.

“Fix and Create an Extraordinary Experience. Ryerson has not been forgotten!” There was an audible zoom gasp when the budget came up onscreen: 42.477 million dollars (35 million from the Consol Energy settlement) with 19 million spent and 22.6 million left, not including public/private funds to restore feeder streams.

“We’re within budget,” Jeff assured us. We zoom cheered.

The task force formed in 2015 when the state decided not to rebuild the dam because the ground was still unstable from the events of 2005 that caused the dam to crack and 67-acre Duke Lake to be drained. Task force members met with state officials and hammered out plans for going forward. Although five years might seem like a lifetime to a kid who once had a lake to paddle and fish in, the devil is in the details when it comes to doing a project like this right, and dotting every i on every regulatory line.

The timeline for 2021 now looks close enough to touch – remove the rest of the dam, continue to work on stream restorations, get working on the playground and other park amenities such as three new pavilions and new comfort stations, all state approved structures and nicely color coordinated, plus decide the placement of the three acre, 12-footdeep off-stream pond that will be fully lined, with a natural habitat established for bass and blue gill and big enough to fish and paddle. Thanks to community input from coaches, commissioners and kids, the walking trail will have the proper surface for runners to train on and the bridge across the creek from the park office to the other side will allow for vehicles and have a pedestrian lane. The push is also on for broadband because parents now telework from campgrounds and their kids have schoolwork to do.

Alan reported that there are positions open for park staff, including that of environmental specialist and secretary.

(Mary Forsyth retired this year after 26 years of being the

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RYERSON STATION STATE PARK

park’s best cheerleader, organizer and friendly

By Colleen Nelson face. We miss you, Mary!) Workers had also run into seams of “bad soil” aka slippery, unstable clay as the hill was contoured to accommodate the new pool complex. It was removed and replaced with aggregate and the project is still on track for next summer.

These same seams of clay were dug for the two years it took – 1874-1876 - to make enough brick for the Lazear House that park managers and their families call home for their tenure. It took weeks to load each batch in the beehive ovens, fire them from the bottom and let them cool for days, then load up and do it again. It would be another 40 some years before grandson Jesse took over the farm and ushered Park manager Alan Johnson points to where the big water slide will drop swimmers in 20th century living with his Model T faminto the deep end of the pool when the fun begins in 2021. Work has been ongoing ily car, braving rutted country roads to get to since spring and still visible now is the plumbing for the Water Park’s many fun town. Closer to our time, there was “a dearth of features, including a “dance floor” (right corner) that will squirt water when kids run across it. potable water” available at the new park when it opened in 1960, but an early brochure hoped to have sanitary facilities, roads and parking, picnic spots, boat launches and a pool ready for the “1967 recreational season.”

The pool would not open until 1971.

Here at the zoom meeting, time was taking a different tack. Now we’re talking about the mere months it will take to have the pool open for business. Next summer is suddenly a bright possibility, complete with a ribbon cutting. ‘Will we be able to find enough lifeguards?’ is now something to really start thinking about.

When COVID-19 hit, state parks were classified essential and the number of hikers, bikers, campers and anglers coming to the Commonwealth’s 123 parks increased dramatically, Jeff was happy to report. The same is true at Ryerson, Alan tells me The Lazear House is home to park managers and their families when the roads finally dry out in September and he opens the during their tenure. gate so I can see the water world that is replacing the first pavilion. The construction stretches along the hillside to include a spacious parking area and access to trails and the new playground. “We have thirty camp sites in the park and they’re full every weekend.” Alan asks visitors where they are from and gets some startling answers. One couple from Boston came for a week of R & R. “He told me he was a fireman and his wife’s a nurse. They get a week off for every three they work so they came here. He said it’s only a 17 hour drive!”

As we look around, Alan points to where future features will be located. Now everything I heard described at the task force meeting begins falling into place. Work on reestablishing the old streambed has yielded extra soil to be used to reshape the feeder streams from the headwaters down, adding This will soon be a big caterpillar standing in the water park section more flood plain and mitigating the force of floodwaters durof the Ryerson Station State Park Pool Complex with water spilling ing heavy rains and spring melts. There will be a pavilion in from each of its many legs. the old lakebed near where the dam once was and trails will loop from the iron bridge, through what we can see standing here. At Alan’s insistence, the playground and the pool area er visitors and always have a mask on hand. Fires are permitwill have plenty of umbrella inspired shade areas to protect ted but Alan asks that you not bring wood from home, even young skin and pavilions and other buildings will have solar if you live in the county, to keep from spreading destructive panels on the roofs. The electricity generated will be fed back insects and other invasive species. into the grid with zero cost electricity for the park as a goal.

The Friends of Ryerson raised money to buy a wood shed The agenda for fall is familiar to any park-goer – hunt- for the main camp ground and park workers use the wood ing in season, hiking, biking and camping whenever the spirit they clear from trails and fallen trees to stock it. Be safe. Enjoy moves you. Keep social distancing with park officials and oth- the natural world. Greene County has bunches of it.

GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020

OCTOBER 2020

• GreeneScene Community Magazine

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G reen e Sce n e of the Pa st

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his haunting photograph was taken by Richard Morgan and ran in the Observer Reporter in the winter of 1959.

The old Lazear farm had been purchased by the Commonwealth and now 67 acres of bottomland that once grew enough corn to take to market was filling with water behind its brand new dam.

The caption reads, “Too late – already partially submerged in the lake is Lazear Covered Bridge in Richhill Township which was in the path of progress resulting from the

construction of a new state park in western Greene County. A campaign to save the half century-old bridge by having it moved to another location in the park, possibly for use as a bridle crossing and footbridge has supposedly fallen short. A number of local organizations as well as some state and national groups sent petitions to the state several months ago in a last minute bid to preserve the span, which is regarded as one of the few such privately owned landmarks in the nation. As evidenced above, the lake has already

surrounded the bridge and partly inundated it on three sides.”

Thanks to Morgan’s daughter Mary Beth Pastorus, this w e l l - pre s e r v e d original photograph is now part of the history to be found at Cornerstone Genealogical Society.

When I made my appointment to mask up and search the stacks for family histories and read the file of saved newspaper clippings and fliers on Ryerson Station and the state park that borrowed its frontier name, I came to find this photo that I knew existed as a faded newspaper clipping. Instead, I was delighted to learn Mary Beth had recently donated much of her dad’s collection of photos and clippings from his years in the newspaper business.

Now I would learn that this lost bridge that once took Jesse and Ivy Lazaer and their kids across the North Fork of Wheeling Creek to their handsome brick home did not go quietly into the lake. According to another earlier clipping from October 23, 1959, the people of Wind Ridge and beyond had been fighting

By Colleen Nelson

for months to save it.

“Petitions and letters from five to 10 influential organizations and firms are being forwarded to Dr. Maurice K. Goddard, State Secretary of Forest and Waters [now the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources] in expectation the Department will reconsider and see fit to… move it to a suitable site on the 1000 acre recreation park.”

First park superintendent Henry Asel suggested it could be moved to a sugar tree grove near the Lazaer home, “by the proposed swimming beach” and become a footbridge. Community efforts were reported to be underway to raise the money for purchase and transfer. National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges and Pennsylvania Conservatory Society were contacted to help the community “make the new Greene County Park as scenic and as attractive as possible.”

The article continues, “Earlier efforts of the Ross Hill Garden Club and others to preserve the bridge were shelved by the State, which has indicated that if not purchased by some interested organization as a landmark in the park or elsewhere, it will be turned over to the State Department of Supplies. Bids will then be asked for the sale of the structure to the highest bidder.”

But time had already run out by the time this last rallying cry was published that October. Looking at the date, I get a strong hunch that two months would hardly be enough time to open the state bidding process on the old Lazear covered bridge. The actual month and day on the clipping that shows the water rising on this irreplaceable artifact about to become history is missing, but the year – 1959 is still there.

Note to history lovers: If you feel the need to preserve a piece of our past for future generations, make sure you leave yourself enough time.

If you have an interesting old photo from the area you’d like to share, just send it to: GreeneScene of the Past, 185 Wade Street, Waynesburg, PA 15370. Or email to: info@greenescenemagazine.com with GreeneScene Past in subject line.

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GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020

OCTOBER 2020

• GreeneScene Community Magazine

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By Colleen Nelson

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hen writing about the township and village of Aleppo for the GreeneScene Magazine last October, I found this intriguing piece of history from this very rural corner of Greene County: “Lives were greatly improved when gas and oil speculation ushered in the ‘progressive era.’

By 1887 the township had ten schools, 448 students and the Aleppo Brethren Church brought its old church, along with its bell and organ, down from Fairview ridge and rebuilt it on Aleppo Road within sight of town.”

This snapshot from the nineteenth century makes no mention of when the original church was built, or why the faithful chose to settle here. But an online source tells us that Church of the Brethren is a Protestant offshoot founded in 1708 by Alexander Mack in Schwarzenau, Germany. Historically it is one of the three Peace Churches “alongside the Mennonites and Quakers.” I can certainly imagine Brethrens were welcomed by the Quaker William Penn after they, like Penn, came to the New World to escape the

religious intolerances of Europe. Penn’s Woods was known for its religious tolerance, even by Colonial standards of the day.

Today, Brethren Church headquarters are in Elgin Ill., where its Facebook page has this to say about the tone of online discussions: “Galatians 5:14-15 says “For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment. ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.”

When retired West Greene chemistry teacher Jim Lang invited me to the upcoming October 3 Fall Festival at Aleppo Brethren Church I visited the church’s Facebook page and was delighted to learn that a hayride was one of the highlights of this annual community gathering and so was a train ride. A train ride? I was intrigued!

Church member Rachel Gillespie filled me in when I called. Don Riffle, who lives on Aleppo Road near the township building, will bring his tractor and hay wagon over and load it up with kids and some parents at 4 p.m. After an hour-long meander on never-anything-but-scenic dirt roads it’s back to church to eat and play games and ride the little train that was built by Chris Kisner of Sugar Grove – also called McCracken - just up the road from the church. Every year Chris hauls it over, sets up the track and the kids are thrilled to ride it.

There will be a movie outside at dusk Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin. Oh, and a fire and roasting hotdogs - all the stuff that makes country childhood memories some of the best.

The number to call if you want to know more about the fellowship this congregation has to offer is 724-428-5190. Pastor Lanny Hewitt will let you know what’s going on. And yes, Rachel tells me, they would love to have you and your kids come to the festival!

GreeneScene by Emily Cobaugh

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GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020

Gre e ne Art ifa cts

By Matthew Cumberledge, GCHS Executive Director

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A HAUNTED ARTIFACT

erhaps the most common question asked by visitors to the Greene County Historical Society Museum is, “Is the place haunted?” To that I always give a very certain yes; our museum is remarkably haunted.

Construction on the building began in 1857 and things were largely completed by 1900. In 1861, this facility became the County Home, and as one can imagine, an institution like that has an interesting and occasionally bloody past – circumstances ripe for creating a good haunting.

However, our ghostly presences are not just limited to and attached to the building itself, but particular artifacts carry energy all their own.

Our West Wing, especially the second floor, is and always has been the most active part of the building, at least as far as paranormal activities. Many of the rooms on the second floor in the West Wing are dedicated to storage.

During multiple paranormal investigations, the last room in the West Wing has always drawn a lot of attention.

Temperature fluctuations can be felt and the room suddenly becomes dramatically cooler or warmer than the surrounding areas, feelings of unease are common, and when the door is shut occasionally you can hear rustling around inside and even knocking on the door as if someone would like to be let out.

Some of our investigators have

attributed the activity in this room to a specific artifact that is stored there. What looks to be a typical old wash bucket has been linked to the spirt of a woman named Margaret who apparently inhabits that storage room as her home in the afterlife. Whether or not Margaret was a former resident of the County Home who just attached herself to this item or is the spirit of someone who used this specific wash bucket in her lifetime is unknown. Either scenario is possible; the area of the building this storage room is located in was formerly the female dormitories. For now, at least, our staff and volunteers will continue to respectfully greet Margaret when they are working in that part of the building, enjoying the times when Margaret reminds us of her presence.

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OCTOBER 2020

• GreeneScene Community Magazine

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Public Service Profile

By Rochelle McCracken

GREENE COUNTY UNITED WAY

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hile the pandemic continues to change our lives and the way we do business, the Greene County United Way has found new ways to support the community. Faced with the challenges of social distancing and cancelled events, MaChal Forbes, executive director, and the Greene County United Way team looked to bring fun back to the community and keep non-profit programs operating during COVID-19.

The Greene County United Way (GCUW) was able to help programs in the community by partnering with the Community Foundation of Greene County to distribute an emergency response fund totaling $105,000. This fund helped 24 non-profit agencies keep their programs running during difficult times. Another $40,000 from public donations given to the United Way was used to support 12 local non-profits through their community impact grants. These funds meant the services used to support the public in times of need could continue running their programs through the current financial uncertainties.

Many of these agencies have seen a dramatic increase in the number of community members needing assistance, some for the first times in their lives.

Recognizing the community needs fun ways to connect with each other and still practice the social distancing keeping us safe, new events were created to replace those that were cancelled. A “Selfie Scaven-

ger Hunt” was one of those events; it started on September 6, 2020 and runs through October 3, 2020. Donning their GCUW tshirt, participants decipher a location riddle that leads them to the next destination on the route. Once there, they snap a selfie at the location, earning raffle prize entries for reaching the spot; weekly prizes are awarded. The final celebration for this event will be held on October 3, 2020 via Zoom. Winners will be celebrated, stories shared, and raffle prizes awarded.

“Stuff the Bus” was held again this year.

Loads of school items collected for children were given out in preparation for the new school year. This yearly event makes a difference by providing backpacks, notebooks, pens, pencils and more.

October’s main event is the “Mystery Road Rally” on October 24. Open to all types of road vehicles, at a cost of $50/vehicle, entrants are provided with a set of challenges or clues that leads them from one location on the route to the next. At each site, a new set of challenges or clues provide the steps needed to find the next location.

There are prizes to win, a Chinese auction and 50/50 raffle to add to the fun.

This is our Greene County United Way working to change lives for the better at a time when it is more critical than ever to help those in need. To find out more about the GCUW and their activities log on to www.greenecountyunitedway.org or give them a call at (724)852-1009.

Greene County children were given bookbags full of school supplies to start school this year through the Stuff the Bus program.

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GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020

County Conversations GREENE COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES DRUG & ALCOHOL PROGRAM

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he County of Greene government Program provides administrative case manprovides our community with a va- agement services in the form of screenings, riety of services and care. Each de- American Society of Addiction Medicine partment within our government provides (ASAM Criteria), Level of Care assessments something to our community to make (LOC), referrals to residential treatment Greene County a better place to live and services, intensive case management and grow. Have you ever wondered about the coordination of treatment services to all of programs they provide and how they impact Greene County residents. To gain access to you and those you care these services for a about? Every month, “I am especially proud of substance abuse diswe will sit down for the establishment of relation- order, clients can call a conversation with a (724) 852-5276. ships with all five school disrepresentative from In addition to oftricts’ administrations. These fering drug and alcoone of the county government’s departments wonderful working relation- hol treatment services to keep our readers in- ships allow us to educate and to Greene County formed of the services provide outreach to the Greene residents, the program offered. supplies Narcan to all County youth on an on-going Greene County first October is National Substance Abuse basis. responders who comPrevention month and plete training and the Greene County request Narcan. The Drug & Alcohol Proprogram also provides gram, part of the Hudrug and alcohol preman Services branch, vention to Greene works with area resiCounty schools and dents to provide a throughout the comrange of services remunity. lated to substance “I am especially abuse. These services proud of the establishinclude out-patient, ment of relationships intensive out-patient, with all five school disDrug & Alcohol provides outreach to detoxification, nontricts’ administrations.

Greene County schools. hospital rehabilitation, These wonderful hospital rehabilitation, working relationships long-term in-house treatment, and a half- allow us to educate and provide outreach to way house. These services are provided to the Greene County youth on an on-going Greene County residents through contracts basis,” shares John Fox, the director of the with agencies licensed by the Pa Department Drug & Alcohol Program. of Health.

FMI on the County of Greene’s Drug & The Greene County Drug and Alcohol Alcohol program, call 724-852-5276.

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OCTOBER 2020

• GreeneScene Community Magazine

Masontown, PA 724-583-2680 724-583-2685 amedisys.com

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Spo rt Sh o r t s

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By GreeneSports Staff Writer

ack in late July, the National Basketball Association ended more than four months in this country without competitive professional sports. Roughly a week later, the Pittsburgh Penguins hit the ice at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, bringing sports back to the masses in Southwestern, Pennsylvania.

Earlier this month, the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pitt Panthers and all five Greene County high schools kicked off their respective 2020 football seasons, further scratching the live sports itch that local fans had been suffering with since the COVID-19 outbreak took hold in March. However, not all members of the local athletic scene have been able to get back to business as usual.

Members of Waynesburg’s University’s cross country, football, golf, soccer, tennis and volleyball programs may be practicing and preparing themselves in the school’s athletic facilities as if their next match, game or race was just days away. However, as of now, they won’t get to see live competition until 2021.

On Aug. 27, the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) announced that its Presidents’ Council voted to postpone all fall 2020 intercollegiate athletic competition in response to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic. That decision meant that the 10 full-time members of the league, as well as footballonly associate members Case Western Reserve and Carnegie Mellon, would not be in competition until the start of the next calendar year.

On July 24, there was hope that men’s and women’s golf and men’s and women’s tennis, both of which were classified as “low contact” sports by the NCAA, would be in competition. Other sports, like football, soccer, volleyball and cross country, which were classified as “high contact” and “medium contact,” were officially postponed on that same date.

“To be honest, I was not surprised that the season was cancelled. Our biggest priority needs to be the safety of our student-athletes and the campus community,” said Waynesburg University head men’s and women’s cross country coach and interim head track & field coach Chris Hardie. “This decision, although disappointing, was something that I saw coming and something that I think is in the

best interest of the athletes of our University and our conference.”

Both of Hardie’s cross country squads were considered strong contenders to win PAC gold this fall. The Yellow Jacket women are the four-time defending conference champions and were expecting to have all seven of their all-conference honorees back for a run at a fifth-straight crown. Junior Aubrey Wingeart, a Virginia native, won the 2019 individual PAC title and went on to earn a spot in the NCAA Division III National Championships.

Though Hardie has never coached a men’s team to a league championship, he believed this year’s group of seniors made up a core group of competitors that could claim gold “The team is very disappointed. I share that disappointment, but it’s important to re-focus as a program and set some new goals,” Hardie said. “We have already begun to prepare for the next championship opportunity.”

While Hardie, who is a five-time women’s Coach of the Year, is already well established and respected in the conference head coaching ranks, first-year head women’s volleyball coach Emily Taylor was gearing up for her first match at the head of the Waynesburg bench. The biggest hurdle to be cleared for the former Washington & Jefferson assistant has been getting to know her new squad.

“This is certainly not how I envisioned my first year as a head coach, but I think that having this year as my first is teaching me more than a typical year would have,” Taylor said. “The hardest part of this year for me has been building relationships virtually. I started on March 2, 2020, and had about 10 work days in my office before we went remote.

Strong relationships are such an important part of my coaching philosophy. When you have strong relationships, you have trust.”

If all goes well, Waynesburg University athletics will be back in action in January with the start of the winter sports seasons. Following that will be a jam-packed final few months of the school year featuring both the fall and spring programs.

Despite what could be one of the most chaotic times in the history of Yellow Jacket sports, the leaders of this year’s teams are more than ready to face that challenge.

“I am most looking forward to seeing our The Waynesburg University women’s cross country team was primed and work this fall pay off when ready to chase down a fifth-straight PAC title this fall. They are hoping to we finally get to play an still have that opportunity in the spring of 2021. opponent that isn’t ourselves,” Taylor said. “Our team has bought in and is dedicated to changing the culture and making a new name for Yellow Jackets Volleyball. We are excited for a fresh start.”

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GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020

Intentional Walks

By Bret Moore

Our Hometown Heritage

I

f I were to summarize my current passion to chronicle the past 140 years of county athletics, I would first need to define the difference between sports history and sports heritage. Sports history is concerned only with the past, while sports heritage connects our traditions to the present. It reminds us of the shared cultural values and memories that create a community. We all know sports can be vital to developing leadership and team building skills. In addition, the physical, social and emotional benefits of athletic activities are well documented. However, I feel the social cohesion that is created by sports is of equal importance - cohesion that is increasingly missing in a world dominated by self-absorbed screen time. Rather than foster creativity and connection, this digital tsunami has overwhelmed our social institutions because it has been hijacked for monetization and manipulation.

Sports history and trivia can be interesting and fun for many people. Sports heritage, on the other hand, can be nothing short of a spiritual link to our youth, our family and our hometown. Sports history is concerned with dates, wins and statistics. Sports heritage is a visceral brew of history plus folklore, shared experiences, geography and even architecture.

If you wonder how architecture can relate to sports heritage, think about the gymnasium at Margaret Bell Miller. For the past century, county athletes have played and wrestled in that unique structure that was born of a bygone era. The gladiatorial aspects of that gym cannot be duplicated in boring modern-day edifices.

Moreover, during my coaching career, I spent many Friday nights in the gleaming, turfed football stadiums of suburban Pittsburgh. They are absent the soul and character of our intimate fields around the county, where a father can watch his son from a vantage point close enough to actually feel his past on the same

OCTOBER 2020

sidelines. The proximity of the players, cheerleaders and band members to their parents and fans fosters social connections and a sense of belonging that stay with us throughout our lives.

This geographic and cultural identification can be an antidote for the modern alienation caused by technological and economic changes beyond our control. However, the demise of local newspapers and the proliferation of larger regional and national sports platforms has resulted in a dearth of this cultural currency. Youth league, middle school, bowling, dartball, hunting and a myriad of other local results are no longer available to proud parents and grandparents. Those of us old enough to remember the Democrat- Messenger can recall the thrill of seeing our name in a real box score or our team photo in the morning edition. Without this type of lasting communal bulletin board, our accomplishments are as fleeting as the calendar. There will be no written record of the everyday things that make us unique. We will always be able to research the accomplishments of a Cary Kolat or Coleman Scott. However, no matter how proud we are of their accomplishments, they are hardly representative of our daily lives. It will be the goal of Hometown Heritage to re-create a space to convey this information and ensure its committal to our continuing heritage.

We will rely on individuals, coaches, athletic directors and league officials to provide us with the information to fill these pages with the accomplishments of our local athletes and outdoorsmen. This will be an effort to recapture the athletic heartbeat of the community. We understand it is not possible to return to the gentle winds of the past, but we can adjust our sails to move on together in a positive direction during turbulent times.

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These Books are the Pick of the Pumpkin Patch!

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here’s nothing like a good book; it transports you to another world, created by the writer’s and your own imaginations. If you’re looking for a spooky or mysterious mental vacation this October, you don’t have to search far – Greene County has an array of authors providing wonderful books for, and often about, our county and community. These local authors are dishing up accounts of the paranormal, hauntingly fun fiction, and mysterious thrillers perfect for the Halloween season. Many of these books can be found at your local library, for sale through local retailers, or online.

Brad A. Braddock is an award-winning author in Greene County with a taste for classic horror. His published works include fiction and nonfiction based on folklore, history, classic horror and horror. His style – “sometimes serious… sometimes quirky… but always fun!” keeps readers engaged.. In addition to his novels, he has compiled 13 tales of terror into the anthology Chillers: Tales Inspired by Classic Horror Films.

Memoirs of Murder: A prequel to the 1932 classic, White Zombie tells the story of Murder Legendre before the film White Zombie.

Legendre leaves Europe and travels to Haiti where he is drawn into the world of voodoo.

Death Doth Hold Name is set in a haunted Pennsylvania woodland, where the Great Raven and his flock are engaged in a feud

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with the last of the great Owls, who is protected by a loner living in a log cabin with the ghost of John Adams.

The Village of Eben Hollow follows the people of the dark and mysterious Eben Hollow as they fight to save their village from the wicked sorceress Eva Strella and her servant Lord Ganoate when they threaten to unleash the ultimate evil on the land.

In their first joint effort, Kevin Paul and Rosemary Ellen Guiley explore the supernatural side of Greene County and why it may be one of America’s most haunted places. Kevin, a Greene County native, grew up hearing local folklore and stories from his grandparents.

When he was about 10 years old, he read an article about Point Pleasant, West Virginia and the Mothman. The article left a lasting impression and sparked an interest in the paranormal. Kevin says he has frequently experienced the paranormal in his life. Through email, he connected with Rosemary and together they worked on the book.

Rosemary passed away in 2019.

Haunted Hills and Hollows: What Lurks in Greene County, Pennsylvania explores the otherworldly side of Greene County. The book compiles years of research and word-of-mouth narratives organized by topic and covers UFOs, cryptids, ghosts, local folklore, and other paranormal activity.

A second book exploring additional paranormal accounts in Greene County will be released soon.

John Rich Dorean writes books in Greene County, about Greene County and for Greene County. His family moved to Waynesburg in 1963, and after a period of living away from the area, John moved back to the area in 1982 with his wife Merry and two daughters, Emily and Carrie.

Eventually John began ministering at the Jefferson Baptist Church, where he would become the pastor. While in Greene County his daughters Hannah and Bethany were born. In addition to his mystery novels, he has also written Our Girl, chronicling the life and impact of John’s daughter Bethany.

Murder in Greene is the first part of a mystery-thriller trilogy set in Greene County.

Set in peaceful and pastoral Greene County, where a murder rocks the town, leaving a small child orphaned and a wheelchairbound pastor with the only lead.

Witness in Greene returns to Greene County and protagonist Pastor Mark Stewart as tensions between coal miners and developers of natural gas reach a critical level.

Mark and his family are swept up in both tragedy and discovery.

Justice in Greene is the last book in the Mark Stewart trilogy. In this final book, Pastor Mark Stewart is caught up in the war on drugs as some of his church families battle addiction.

Mark’s passion for those he loves may lead him towards vigilante justice to restore

the peace in Greene County.

Kris Hoge was a young adult and adult mystery, romance, and paranormal writer from Morgantown. She published 9 eBooks on Amazon before passing away in September 2014. Two of her books, Spirits Dwell and Whatever Happened to Rose? are based on ghost stories from Greene County.

Spirits Dwell is a book of fictionalized ghost stories based on facts from Greene County. Stories include accounts of a crying baby, a mysterious red light and other spine-tingling stories.

Whatever Happened to Rose? is a fictionalized account based on the author’s ghost hunting and paranormal experiences in Greene County and at the Greene County Historical Society.

Interested in exploring more spooky seasonal reading set in southwestern Pennsylvania or by local authors?

Check out these additional options: The Unexplained Stories, Folklore and Legends of Fayette County Pennsylvania by Viktoria Dutko Leonelli; Hauntings of Pittsburgh & the Laurel Highlands by Marci Lynn McGuinness; Ghosts of Southwestern Pennsylvania by Thomas White; The Witch of the Monongahela by Thomas White; Astonishing Encounters: Penns y l v a n i a’s Unknow n Creatures , Casebook 3 by Stan Gordon; Betty Knox

by Jason Pokopec; and By the Light of the Moon

by Larry C. Kerr.

GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020

OCTOBER 2020

• GreeneScene Community Magazine

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G o in g G re e n e

H

A HAUNTING IN GREENE COUNTY

alloween approaches and the crisp fall air carries with it sights and smells of colorful leaves and ushers in the spirit, or perhaps spirits, of the season. Throughout human history this has been a time of year to wind down from the excitement of the warmer months and gather with friends and family, catch up on gossip and local happenings, and most importantly to tell stories. All regions and cultures have their own unique stories and beliefs that come with the season and Greene County is no exception.

Many of the notable hauntings in Greene County have been written about extensively, from the legend of Stovepipe in Rices Landing, the ghosts of Crow’s Rock and numerous hauntings in and around Waynesburg. These tales though are just a selection of the ghostly happenings that populate the fireside conversations in Greene County, but there are many more to give us chills on quiet autumn evenings.

Hiram was an old farmer who lived not too far from Pine Bank in Gilmore Township. A houndsman, he often spent his evenings with his faithful bluetick hound chasing raccoon throughout the hills of Greene County, but Wayne and Gilmore townships were his favorite haunts. Just north of Brave, Eddy’s Run, Wise Run and Phillips Ridge are a network of roads that are often referred to as ‘The Ridge’ by the locals, and has been a place common to hunters of every variety. ‘The Ridge’ was a place where Hiram could often be found listening to his dogs tracking and waiting for them to tree. In the fall of 1941, Hiram and a girlfriend of his loaded up a hound and went for a chase near Wise Run. It was late fall, probably the early days of November and Hiram recollected that it was cold that night. Hiram and his girlfriend parked along the road, got their old hound, and turned him loose into the woods. The quiet evening had long been dark and the woods were still and, unlike a normal hunt, the silence remained unbroken. It seemed there were not any tracks to run in the area. The couple waited, hoping to hear their hound strike a trail; after some time, Hiram decided it would be best to collect his hound, and find another place to hunt where the tracking might be better.

Hiram set off into the woods, leaving his girlfriend be-

hind in his truck, and called for his hound. He hiked through the woods, crossed a small stream, and started going up the hillside where it was likely the old bluetick hound would be found, and called for his dog even louder. He could hear rustling in the brush, and, hoping it was the hound, he began following the sounds eager to catch him quickly so he could move on and regain something of the night’s hunt.

He continued chasing the sounds but could not find his dog. Suddenly, the quiet night was broken by a woman screaming! It sounded like she was being attacked and her pleas for help echoed through the hills. Forgetting the hound and the hunt, Hiram ran as fast as he could back to the road. It took some time to get through the brush and trees and when he crossed the stream, the screaming stopped abruptly. Fearing the worst, he climbed the bank leading up to the road and found his girlfriend fast asleep with the hound sleeping beside the truck. Hiram shook his girlfriend, still in a panic, and when she woke, he questioned her. “Why were you screaming, you nearly gave me a heart attack!” His confused girlfriend replied, “What are you talking about? I wasn’t screaming.”

Hiram relayed the story to her, telling her how he was nearly on top of the hill and could hear a woman screaming in the general area of where they were parked. She thought he had gone mad and all he could do was wonder - if the dog was at the truck, what was the rustling he chased through the woods before he heard the screams?

Through the years, many tales of strange happenings have been shared about this general area. There are some who refuse to even drive on the road, citing experiences in the woods that they decline to discuss.

Many years ago, I had my own personal experience at those woods and a site nearby. It was in the late ‘90s and I was on a competition hunt being held at the Greene County Coon Hunters Association Club in Brave. It was a fairly small hunt that night with very few dogs entered and I found myself hunting with just one other gentleman and his dog. We drove up the ridge and parked on Eddy’s Run Road which runs parallel to and east of Wise Run. Our dogs quickly struck a track and worked down the hillside to Wise Run. We lis-

The new section of Phillips Cemetery in Spraggs.

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By Matthew Cumberledge

tened, and when it became apparent that they were going to cross the road and go up the hillside west of Wise Run, we got in our truck, drove down to Wise Run and saved ourselves a lot of walking. We got down there and found the dogs in a panic. They were running in circles on the road, looking visibly frightened, and barking aggressively towards the woods, but they would not leave the surface of the road. As soon as we stopped, both dogs ran to the tailgate waiting anxiously to be put back in their box. Being a competition with time rules and other formalities, we continued our hunt. We drove back to a different location along Eddy’s Run to resume our hunt.

Again, we cut our hounds in the woods, but this time no track was struck. With time running short, we waited, but the dogs never barked.

Once time had run out and the hunt was over, we pulled out our tracking systems so that we could get an idea of where the dogs may have gone. Getting a strong signal, we followed it, and we were led directly to the new section of Phillips Cemetery, a fair distance away from where the Phillips Church once stood. The tracking systems were pointing right to the center of the cemetery, but there were no dogs to be found.

We drove around trying to get a different angle on the situation, but no matter where we went, our trackers led us back to the cemetery. Giving up on technology, we began looking for our hounds the old-fashioned way, by searching areas and calling for them. Eventually, we found the dogs, just as we had before, running in circles on Wise Run, seemingly scared out of their minds.

We collected our hounds, ruminated on our experiences of the night, and went home. Could it have been a bobcat, or even a rogue mountain lion that Hiram heard so many years ago? Often times the cries of a bobcat or mountain lion can be confused with the sound of a woman screaming; or was it something else going on that has the ability to confuse GPS and radio tracking systems? We may never know, but, like many aspects of the oral history of our region, tales like this will often stick around and withstand the test of time.

The seemingly serene Wise Run Road during autumn.

GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020

OCTOBER 2020

• GreeneScene Community Magazine

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The Locker Room Legacy

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he team-issued, red Converse ‘Chucks’ never made it out of the box my senior basketball season at Waynesburg Central. Instead, my teammates and I coaxed our parents into giving us money for a new brand of basketball shoes called Adidas. What was even cooler was the fact we could now buy the prized beauties in town. It was 1977, and we no longer had to make the trip to Weber’s in Washington for all things athletic. A new store called Ron’s Locker Room had appeared in the Hillcrest Shops (Now Victoria’s Square). After entering the building, we made our way past McCall’s Men’s Store, Jean Jungle, Barnhart’s Shoes, and The Lettuce Patch Restaurant to reach our new sports Mecca.

Ron Lohr, a former star athlete at West Greene, opened the store with his wife Daunice. In addition to Adidas, The Locker Room offered a new product line by a company named Nike. After three successful years at that location, a fire in one of the neighboring stores damaged a great deal of the couple’s merchandise. At that time, they decided to sell the business to two of Ron’s softball buddies.

Rick Joseph, was an accountant at Cumberland mine, and Don Chappel was a roofbolter at Emerald mine. The two had played football together at Waynesburg College. In October of 1980, they purchased the business and moved the store to 8 West High Street, which was the front of the Fort Jackson Hotel.

They replaced Mickey’s Men’s Store after that historic business relocated across the street to its current location. Initially, they did not give up their day jobs and split time at the store.

However, by 1984, business was thriving to such an extent, they decided to open a second store in Morgantown. They had even selected a location in the original Boston Beanery plaza. However, the second location never materialized due to the fact that Joseph’s job was eliminated after Cumberland was bought out and restructured. The two decided he would purchase Chappel’s half of the business and concentrate on the Waynesburg location fulltime.

During this time, the store was also the unofficial headquarters of the legendary Toilet Bowl that featured alumni of Waynesburg High School and College in a Christmas Day battle of once and never athletes. The wellattended series was waged for over a decade from the early 70s to the late 80s. The tradition started when the Joseph brothers (Rick and T.J.) and the Morgan brothers (Dan, Mark and Matt) gathered their friends to compete in a touch football game. The kickoff occurred immediately after everyone’s

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family holiday responsibilities had been met. One of the best parts of the tradition was naming the teams and designing the uniforms. The sartorial trash talking would begin around Thanksgiving. Each year the “old guys” (They were in their 20’s and 30’s) would create hilariously irreverent designs for their Ancient Orange and Golden Oldies squads. The collegeage youngsters would try to match the humor of their elders with clever shirts for the Blue Ewes and Raging Swine. To this day, some local septuagenarians have those jerseys proudly tucked away in the back of their closets. Believe it or not, these games were actually reported in the local newspapers with all the tongue in cheek reverence such a spectacle deserved. For a generation of men (including myself), the Toilet Bowl, the Fourth of July softball team parties, the road trips to away Steeler games, and other such traditions were a cornerstone of our younger years. All of those memories were created, sponsored and run

by The Locker Room.

The business continued to thrive and eventually moved to its current location at 121 East High Street in 1995. The move was necessitated after the county purchased the Fort Jackson Building for government operations.

The store’s new location had previously been the district magistrate’s office. For almost two decades, Joseph and his wife Barb continued to provide the area with all its athletic needs.

In 2014, another Waynesburg College alum took over the store upon Joseph’s retirement.

T.R. Mahle had also taken on a career change after Gabriel Brothers was purchased by a competitor. Mahle had worked as a Human Resources manager for the company for 19 years. Although the ownership changed, the commitment to personal attention and community involvement remained the same. The retail world at large had expanded to include massive sports box stores and online behemoths; however, The Locker Room nimbly adjusted its product line to remain relevant.

Moreover, the personal aspects of the store allowed it to remain a cornerstone in the local economy. As Mahle puts it, “Neither of those two entities can duplicate the feeling of walking into The Locker Room and talk-

By Bret Moore

ing to someone who knows exactly what you need because we played on those same fields and courts.” He continues, “With very limited coverage of Greene County sports by the local media, the ritual of hanging out at our store and reviewing and dissecting last night’s game over a cup of coffee is important for a lot of people. It’s also the only way they Rick Joseph and Don Chappel bought The Locker Room from can exaggerate their accomplishthe original owners. ments when they played,” he says with a chuckle. one of the last vestiges of a real communityEvery small town in America has a lobased business in the downtown area. cal establishment that serves a dual role as a As of this month, Direct Results has business and a cultural hub, where the real decided to carry on this tradition and shepcurrency is information and civic pride. In herd it into the 21st century. Pam and Kent Greene County, that role has been filled by Marisa and their staff have embraced a misThe Locker Room for over 40 years. During sion to return the county’s sports heritage to those decades, coaches, parents, and students its halcyon days by merging the spirit of the gathered there to find the gear and apparel past with the technology of today. The plan that created life-long memories. Is there a is to create a holistic venture designed to inbigger rite of passage for a young athlete than corporate print, digital and retail aspects into slipping on his or her letter jacket? In addition an entity that is both traditional and modern. to those milestone transactions, the store has The journey has begun with a deeply disbeen a perennial sponsor of charity golf tourcounted sale of The Locker Room’s current naments and multiple youth teams. Perhaps inventory to make way for a new line of prodmore importantly, it has served as a comucts. However, they vow to continue to offer munity cheerleader and conduit of athletic the specialized merchandise and service that knowledge. In the age of impersonal e-comcustomers have grown to love. merce, The Locker Room’s legacy endures as GreeneScene Community Magazine •

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OCTOBER 2020

• GreeneScene Community Magazine

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GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020

OCTOBER 2020

• GreeneScene Community Magazine

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A Haunting We Will Go

By Danielle Nyland

at the Greene County Historical Society Museum

A

lthough not quite autumn, the September nights have a chill in the air and that fall feeling has returned to Greene County. People are thinking about colorful leaves, cozy sweaters, warm bonfires – and spooky stories.

Greene County is rich with folklore and seems to have its share of haunted places. No place seems to have such a tragic and haunted history than the Greene County Historical Society Museum.

The building that now houses the museum once served as the county’s poor farm and records indicate that at least 1000 people died there during its century of serving Greene County’s poor, mentally impaired, and aged population.

A large portion of its time as the poorhouse was under the stewardship of William B. Cage. Sadistic and cruel, reports of Cage’s actions can be found in local newspapers published during the later decades of the 19th century. During his years as steward, multiple poorhouse inmates disappeared from the records and their fates remain unknown.

Matt Cumberledge, director of the museum, welcomes our group into the main hall of the museum and shares that “the museum has been very active, they knew you were coming.” Matt, a confirmed skeptic when starting at the museum has completed a turnaround during his time as director. Within his first month as director, he began experiencing unusual sounds, including incredibly loud footsteps upstairs while he worked in his office below. He shares these stories and other fragments of the museum’s darker history with everyone. Outsider Paranormal, a group of paranormal investigators from Greene County, has agreed to lead a private investigation through the museum for the GreeneScene. Readers may recall that we visited the museum two years ago for an investigation with T.J. Porfeli and we’ve returned for a second investigation into Greene County’s most haunted location.

After a quick, lighted tour through the museum to see the renovations Matt and his dedicated crew of volunteers have brought to the museum over the past year, the group assembles in the main hall and prepares our equipment. Since we worked with Outsider Paranormal last year, they’ve added new gear to their collection. Fred Tennant shows me some of their additional acquisitions and some modifications. “I like to take the technology that we have and find a way to put it together to make it better,” he says. “It’s always best to have more than one way to have proof of activity. It adds credibility to the evidence.” One of the recent updates is the mobile computer/ SLS camera they’re using that’s been modified to be portable.

An SLS camera uses an IR light projector and CMOS sensor to map out human forms. Last year during a tour, the camera was used to pick up a small human form that appeared to be crawling out of a stove – something that actually falls in line with one of the museum’s darkest recorded moments.

During preparations, the group shares experiences of their own that they’ve had at the museum and other haunted locations in the tri-state area. In addition to visiting some well-known haunted locations, the group has investigated several residential homes. “We’ve tried to stay busy, but the pandemic has effected paranormal investigations like it has everything else,” Damon Keys shares. “The biggest thing that we’ve done over the past year is repackaged ourselves. I felt

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like I was getting a little lost for a while, so I took a step back to look and readjust. We still want to help people.”

Once the team is equipped and ready to start, it’s time to go dark. Matt turns the museum’s lights out building-wide, and the group – consisting of myself, Damon and Fred, team members Adam and Mark, my husband Daytona, and Matt head for the notorious upper west wing. The upper west wing is known to be an energetic source of activity, often leaving visitors and investigators feeling ill or anxious.

We begin the session in the west wing with introductions and Damon follows with an invitation for anyone listening to talk, while Adam and Fred record video with different equipment. Almost immediately, a stick figure is caught on the SLS camera computer that Fred carries, leaning on the case housing former steward Cage’s infamous cane. The K-II unit also shows some activity near the same case, lighting up. After a period of quiet, Matt unlocks the doors for the west wing, saying, “they usually get more active once all the doors are open.”

Shortly after this, we all begin hearing a strange sound echoing through the museum’s hallways. The deep, heavy breathing sound fills the halls and each person hears the sound as though it’s coming from a different direction. We all listen quietly as the sound continues intermittently and Matt shares, “I’ve never heard that sound before.” We spread out to investigate the bellows-like sound but can’t pinpoint it to one location. Some team members even seem to feel reverberations through the floor. Careful not to get too excited, we discuss what outside influences could be causing this before declaring it legitimately paranormal. After some talk, we consider the possibilities of gas wells in the area and how well sound can carry on a clear Greene County night, and head outside to see if we can still hear the sound – and we do. More discussion leads to consensus that what we’re hearing is related to a gas well in the distance – much to everyone’s relief. “That’s an important part of investigation,” says Damon. “Some investigators may have recorded the sound and ran with it as proof, without working all the possibilities out as to what it could be.”

After that excitement, we take a short break and then head back upstairs to the front bedrooms, where Matt says that the beds have appeared almost slept in each morning when staff arrives. We take our places along the walls in one bedroom and begin our session. Damon again leads off with questions asking for interactions from anything that might be there. After getting some reactions with the mag light and K-II meters, Fred begins working with the spirit box. In the room we continue to get some temperature changes, flickering lights, and possibly a woman’s voice from the spirit box. We move to the second bedroom where we seem to get a lot more activity, especially with the K-II meters. The intermittently light up all the way into the red zone, especially when talk turns to the jail cells and the dungeon. During our time investigating this room, multiple group members report feeling or seeing the same thing including strange shadows outside in the hallway, shirt tugging, sudden temperature changes, and a ringing sensation in their ears that ends abruptly.

Since we seemed to hit on something with talk of the dungeon, the group heads down into the basement, known as ‘the dungeon,’ due to its history while it was part of the

The team members of Outsider Paranormal prepare and test equipment before our investigation.

Blue eyes appear in a photo from a previous tour.

The group investigates strange noises along the upper west wing.

poorhouse. Remnants of the hooks used to restrain prisoners still remain in one room, and a strange bricked-up room has recently been reopened as part of the building’s renovations.

We seem to get a little bit of activity, but for the most part the basement stays pretty quiet – though it isn’t always that way.

During a previous public tour around the museum last fall, the group did pick up some strange photographic evidence of what appears to be two blue eyes. We wrap up our session and head back up to the main room to pack up the equipment and talk. Another interesting night at the never-disappointing museum is in the books.

Whether you’re a believer of the paranormal or a skeptic, visit the Greene County Historical Society. You won’t be disappointed. During their week-long Harvest Festival in October, there will be paranormal lectures and other activities that are sure to inspire some curiosity - and the museum will be open to visitors.

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OCTOBER IS PENNSYLVANIA ARCHAEOLOGY MONTH!

What Life was Like – The Monongahela Culture

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rehistory is the term used to describe the time periods and cultures that existed before the advent of writing and the written record. In many cases, all that we know about these ancient predecessors is what can be gleamed from the material evidence left behind in the archaeological record.

Little is known about the prehistoric people who inhabited the Monongahela and Upper Ohio valleys over the last 10 to 15 thousand years; few artifacts remain, and lot of guess work is involved in putting together the limited pieces of a very large puzzle. As the annals of time progress, an interesting culture appears in the archaeological record about a thousand years ago.

The Monongahela Culture is believed to have originated in the Upper Ohio and Monongahela River valleys in the early 11th Century, roughly about the same time as the Norman Conquest of England. The Monongahela Culture is just beyond the reach of recorded history, with a few sporadic references in early accounts that may be referring to them; these accounts cannot be definitively proved.

Most of these early written accounts by early explorers and Jesuit missionaries in the late 16th and very early 17th centuries date to the last phases of the Monongahela Culture’s time in southwestern Pennsylvania. They are vague in their references, leaving us with little concrete data to work from but giving us enough clues that we can relate them to other cultures in the greater region such as the Susquehannocks from eastern Pennsylvania and the Iroquois Nation to the north in New York.

With these vague glimpses and the existing archaeological evidence, we get a good idea of what life was like for these people who lived here so very long ago. Works Progress Administration digs and excavations during and after the Great Depression have probably given us our best look into the lives of these mysterious people.

Frank B. Jones and Paul R. “Prexy” Stewart, both founding members of the Greene County Historical Society, led the charge on the WPA digs in Greene County in the 1930s. Their work was thorough and well documented, and the Greene County Historical Society Museum retains the bulk of their work. This collection played an important role in the early research into the Monongahela Culture.

It has been established that the Monongahela Culture represents the first wave of true agriculturists in this region; the Adena Culture that preceded them were the first to begin domesticating plants, but the Monongahela had expanded on these developments and practices to the point where they were able to permanently settle in villages, and were no longer nomadic people in search of food sources. In the middle and late 11th century, the first indications of permanent settlement come in the form of open circular villages, with houses surrounding a central plaza, or open area, that would have most likely been used for community and religious functions.

These earliest villages, such as the one discovered in the 1960s by the Fisher family on their farm near Enlow Fork of Wheeling Creek in Richhill Township, were often found in low bottoms near a convenient water source and show no signs of defensive structures like walls or palisades.

The lack of defensive structures shows that there was little threat from other groups during this early phase of the

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Monongahela Culture; however, by the late 12th and early 13th centuries these villages moved from bottom land to easily defensible upland sites, and palisade walls became common place. Serving as homes for extended family groups, each Monongahela Village could have supported as many as one hundred people, all depending on the resources made available by the surrounding land. As populations expanded and settlements became denser, the need for natural resources grew, and populations needed to protect and defend their resources and supplies. When resources became exhausted or were limited by drought or other factors, conflicts would arise.

This is evident in some of Frank B. Jones work and notes.

In 1936, he excavated a ridge top village site in Jefferson Township, likely dating to the 15th or early 16th century. In many ways, it was a typical Monongahela Village site, containing the normal houses, rubbish pits and graves but it did have one unusual feature.

A set of adult male remains were discovered showing extreme signs of violence. The individual was buried laying on his back, with human teeth scattered over his remains; the head and legs had been removed and an antler spear point was found lodged in the pelvis. Approximately ten feet away in a smaller pit, the burned remains of a human skull were discovered. Nearly ninety years after the discovery, the only information is a few photos and Mr. Jones notes and records, but this individual certainly has a story to tell. Was he a warrior who fell defending his family and his village, the victim of an attack, or did something else lead to his violent death? We may never know.

Archaeological methods have changed dramatically since Frank Jones and Prexy Stewart worked in and around the county learning about this region’s prehistory in the 1930s. Current methods are less intrusive, and there is considerably more sensitivity to the people who once lived in these early cultures and their descendants. Methods using ground penetrating radar, magnetometry, lidar and other techniques can now give us a great deal of information.

If you have an interest in archaeology and learning about the people who came before us there are many places to start. If you’re looking for a more hands-off learn-

By Matthew Cumberledge

ing experience, visit the Greene County Historical Society Museum to see their extensive archaeological collection. If you are interested in a hands-on archaeological experience, check out the MonYough Chapter of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology.

The Mon-Yough Chapter works all throughout southwestern Pennsylvania, specifically in Greene, Washington and Fayette counties and is currently working on an excavation at the Abel Colley Tavern, now the site of the Fayette County Historical Society. No experience or education is required to volunteer to help the Mon-Yough in their work – all you need is a passion for our past! FMI, visit the Mon-Yough website at https://myarcheology.org/ or on Facebook under Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology - Mon/Yough Chapter 3. The Mon-Yough Chapter 3 is based out of the campus at California University and holds monthly meetings on the third Thursday of each month. All are invited to attend.

The History of Greene County didn’t begin on February 9, 1796 when the county was established, nor did in begin in the early 1760s when the first European families settled on this side of the Monongahela River. This has been a busy and populated area for thousands of years, long before Europeans discovered this continent. Check out the Mon-Yough Chapter 3 of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology and perhaps you can help discover more of our amazing history.

Model of a Monongahela Culture village.

Monongahela artifacts discovered by Frank Jones.

GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020

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Subject to availability. Windstream cannot guarantee speeds or uninterrupted, error-free service. Service availability, capabilities and provisioning vary depending on network and terrain conditions, Internet, website, or network congestion, and customer geographical location. Windstream Terms and Conditions (windstream.com/terms), and Windstream Acceptable Use Policy (www2.windstream.net/customersupport/usersguide/accept/accept.html). OfficeSuite UC: Requires 24-month contract. OfficeSuite UC requires 25 Mbps or greater internet connection. Always On: Windstream Internet connection required. Subject to wireless coverage availability and the Terms and Conditions and Acceptable Use Policy at www.windstream. com/Terms-and-Conditions/; if you have a written agreement with Windstream, those terms will control. Taxes, fees and other charges, equipment rentals, and one-time installation fee of $150 may apply. Requires 24-month commitment. Early termination fees apply. Windstream cannot guarantee speeds or uninterrupted, error-free service. Speed availability, actual performance, and provisioning may vary depending on customer location, terrain, Internet and network conditions, website traffic, and quality of customer equipment. This product does not support Static IPs while in 4G Failover mode. Windstream equipment required. Equipment must be returned upon termination, and if not, Windstream reserves the right to charge for unreturned equipment. Raydiant: Raydiant is an unaffiliated third party service provider of Windstream; to the fullest extent allowed by law, Windstream disclaims any and all liability for any services provided by Raydiant, regardless of whether the services are ordered through Windstream or directly with Raydiant. Please visit https://www.raydiant.com/termsof-service/ to view the terms and conditions applicable to this service. © 2020 Windstream Services, LLC. All rights reserved. Kinetic and Windstream are registered service marks or trademarks of Windstream Services, LLC and/or its affiliates. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.

OCTOBER 2020

• GreeneScene Community Magazine

028493WaynesburgGreenSceneAd95x975.indd 1

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Blueprints Launches Career Development Program for Those in Recovery Rolling Meadows Nursing & Rehabilitation Receives National Award In August 2020, Rolling Meadows was successful in achieving the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) at the Bronze – Commitment to Quality Award level.

The AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Program is a progressive, three-step process that encourages the continuous learning, development, and execution of integrated quality systems to achieve performance excellence. Rolling Meadows is honored to receive this award as they are dedicated to being the preferred health care provider, delivering high quality service and satisfaction for their residents, families, staff and surrounding communities.

The AHCA/NCAL represents more than

14,000 non-profit and proprietary skilled nursing centers, assisted living communities, sub-acute centers and homes for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In the state of Pennsylvania only 17 facilities were awarded at the Bronze level and Rolling Meadows is proud to have been selected as one of those chosen recipients.

Rolling Meadow’s goal is to assist their residents in achieving their lifestyle goals by providing the care that they need in a safe, pleasant and comfortable environment. Rolling Meadows looks forward to celebrating this award with the community and seeing all visitors and families at the facility again soon.

FMI visit www.rollingmeadowsnursing.com/

$73K State Grant Awarded to W.A. Young & Sons Foundry and Machine Shop A $73,000 state grant has been awarded to preserve a historic steel foundry in Rices Landing, Greene County.

Rivers of Steel Heritage Corporation, which is overseeing the historic restoration of the W.A. Young and Sons Foundry and Machine Shop, will use the funds to complete ongoing work on the structure, which includes the replacement of windows and frames and clapboard siding.

“This shop has a rich history, producing parts for everything from steamboats to railroads, coal mines and local businesses, and it’s also the site of the annual Hammer-In Festival, showcasing artwork and demonstrations of blacksmithing experts from around the region,” Pam Snyder said. “It’s vital to support and invest in historic sites like this and preserve it for generations to come.”

This grant is part of $2.6 million awarded by the PHMC to help historical and heritage organizations, museums and local governments in 24 counties. Keystone Historic Preservation grants receive funding from the

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Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund, which is supported annually from a portion of state realty transfer tax revenue.

The grants support projects that identify, preserve, promote and protect historic resources in Pennsylvania. Funding also supports municipal planning that focuses on historic resources or may be used to meet building or community specific planning goals, and construction activities at resources listed in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. A total of 52 grants were selected from 94 eligible applications. All grants require a 50/50 cash match and were awarded through a competitive selection process.

Blueprints has received a grant through the Pennsylvania Department of Drug & Alcohol Programs to launch its Career Development Recovery Program designed to provide employment support services in Washington & Greene Counties to individuals in Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) recovery seeking to enter the workforce.

“The effects of the Opioid Crisis in Washington & Greene Counties is far reaching,” said Blueprints Chief Executive Officer Darlene Bigler. “We believe our new program will not only help residents in Opioid Use Disorder Recovery but it will also help to positively mitigate some of the effects the crisis has had on our community.”

Participants interested in the program will partner with a Career Coach who will help them determine employment goals, develop a resume, apply for jobs, practice interviewing skills, secure interview attire and coordinate transportation. Participants with criminal records will be linked to Southwest-

ern Pennsylvania Legal Services to explore any expungement opportunities.

Career Coaches will reach out to existing employment partners and establish new partnerships with employers to meet the recovery phase, skills and interests of participants. Currently, Blueprints has an established network of more than 100 area employers interested in hiring program participants.

Participants will also be linked to Blueprints 35+ programs designed to provide whole families with the options needed to attain and maintain economic self-sufficiency.

Blueprints offers programs in the areas of early childhood education, nutrition supports, foster care, adoption, truancy intervention, financial literacy, income tax filing services, rental housing assistance, home purchase counseling, family literacy and reentry programming. FMI visit www.myblueprints.org or contact Blueprints at 877-814-0788 ext.

406, 724-225-9550 ext. 406, or at info@myblueprints.org.

Greene County Investing in Broadband Greene County Commissioners are planning to invest between $1 million and $1.6 million toward increased broadband capabilities. Due to planning, a recently completed feasibility study and availability of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) funding, the county is positioned to significantly increase broadband availability and capability by December 30, 2020. Greene County Commissioner Betsy McClure stated, “Just like water, electricity and sewer services, we view internet access, speed and reliability of service an infrastructure requirement. It is required not only to serve our current residents and businesses, but also to provide opportunities for future growth and economic development in Greene County.”

A feasibility study conducted by industry experts established current services available, as well as opportunities throughout large portions of the county. The study consisted of an on-line speed survey, a survey mailed to select geographic areas and an in-depth analysis of known equipment, technology and hardware associated with current capabilities. Examination of accumulated data will provide an opportunity to apply the most effective technology in the most efficient manner increasing broadband availability to the largest population of users.

The Commissioners are considering installation of new services or upgrades to cur-

rent available services in and around Brave, Graysville, Rogersville and Waynesburg affecting available service, speed and reliability to more than 1,550 homes in 9 of 26 municipalities, geographically representing 35 percent of the county. Working with industry partners to increase availability and service in Monongahela, Dunkard, and Perry Townships in the near future will bring the total of municipalities gaining improved broadband service to 50 percent in the short-term.

Greene County has also applied for an additional $5 million through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) to continue broadband improvements into the most rural areas.

Mike Belding, Chairman of the Greene County Commissioners said, “The importance of internet availability and reliability has been highlighted by the pandemic from the requirement to homeschool to telemedicine services, but we have known for years that internet is now a requirement for all households and businesses.”

Armed with the analysis from the feasibility study, a comprehensive plan, established relationships with industry experts, currently available funding and planned future investments in broadband, the Commissioners are committed to significant increases in broadband availability FMI, visit the Greene County Commissioner’s Facebook page or call (724) 852-5210.

GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020

VISIT US AT 955 W. CHESTNUT ST - #5, WASHINGTON, PA 15301

OCTOBER 2020

• GreeneScene Community Magazine

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Another Successful Victory 5K! The Victory 5K 2020 was a great success! The event, held on Saturday, August 8, 2020 at Rolling Meadows Church of God, was a joint venture between the Church of God, Bethlehem Baptist Church of Ruff Creek and Waynesburg First Assembly.

The event supports community services through funds raised and an annual food drive. The event raised $3,792.58 to benefit the Crisis Pregnancy Center of Greene County and the food drive collected 398 pounds of food for Corner Cupboard Food Bank. The 118 timed participants at the event included 5K runners, walkers and children in the Children’s Challenge Mile Run. The event showcased live music by Lucien Schroyer of

LPS Guitar. Also included at the event was a new-this-year kids carnival-style gaming tent provided by Waynesburg First Assembly, raffle prizes and a chicken roast by the VFW Post 4793. Event photos were provided by David Gifford Photography. It was a very festive and fun atmosphere!

The Victory 5K 2020 wishes to thank all sponsors, volunteers and participants for making this year special and a success!

50’s Fest Stayed on Track for 2020 With a warm but possibly rainy day predicted, the 19th Annual 50s Fest & Car Cruise presented, as always, on the 2nd Saturday of September in downtown Waynesburg. Around 100 classic or hot rod vehicles were present and over the six-hour timeframe, hundreds of spectators turned out for the event, which is coordinated by Waynesburg Prosperous & Beautiful, Inc. Each year the committee honors the driver of the vehicle that traveled the most miles to get to the cruise with a prize supplied by sponsors WANB Radio & GreeneScene Community Magazine. Robert Headlee won the furthest traveled award this year - traveling 450 miles from Elizabethtown, Kentucky in his 2016 Dodge Challenger Hellcat.

Another champion for the

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day, Ed from Pittsburgh was the winner of the 50/50 drawing, taking home $172 cash.

“It was a great day for the event,” Danielle Nyland, Co-Chairperson of WP&B’s 50’s Fest Committee. “Rain was a possibility, but it held off and it was a beautiful day to be outside. The committee took a lot of precautions this year to ensure a safe and fun time could happen for our participants.

We’re so glad to see everyone enjoying a little bit of entertainment during this rough year!”

Invasive Species Traps Placed Around Greene County The Spotted Lanternfly is an invasive species originally from Asia. While Greene County has currently had no sightings, they have crossed over the mountains from southeastern Pennsylvania and have been found in Allegheny and Beaver counties; previously only fourteen counties in the southeastern side of Pennsylvania were part of the quarantine. Neighboring states also have reports in the invasive insect. As of March 2020, the Pa. Dept. of Agriculture has expanded the quarantine to 26 counties across the state. The quarantine is to keep the hitchhiking insects from spreading by traveling on vehicles. The Pa. Dept. of Agriculture does vehicle inspections and works in cooperation with the State Police. Businesses working in the quarantined counties are required to obtain a permit and receive training on spotting and killing these insects.

The Spotted Lanternfly does not sting or bite humans. It doesn’t nest in homes. It is a risk to our crops. Tree of Heaven is its favorite host; however, it also likes grapes, black walnut, silver/red maples, willows, and small seedlings. They seem to feed on fruit trees for a short period then move on. They weaken plants by feeding on sap and then excreting a sticky substance on the plants that encourages the growth of black sooty mold. Because other things can cause the mold, it is important to identify the Spotted Lanternfly. The sticky discharge will also be anywhere the insect goes and the substance coats anything it encounters.

These insects are hoppers and fast.

The egg mass looks like a muddy mass. The

insects then grow into their nymph stage and are black with white spots from April through June; the spots turn red around July. The adults can be found from late July through December. A heavy frost will end their one-year life cycle. Spotted Lanternflies tend to seek height and jump when touched. They tend to congregate and cluster near tree trunk unions. They lay their eggs during winter, on any surface under protection and hatch in spring.

The Greene County Master Gardeners are participating in statewide initiative by the Penn State Extension Master Gardeners to assist in confirming cases in Pennsylvania. They have created traps for the insect and placed them in locations throughout the county. One trap is a sticky band trap and the other is a circular band trap. The traps are located in Wana B Park, Center Twp. Community Park, Thistlewaite Winery, Yoskovich Funeral Home, Ritchie Park, and the Greene River Trail. The traps will be monitored weekly. FMI about Spotted Lanternfly, visit extension.psu.edu/spottedlanternfly.

Greene County Mystery Road Rally Join Greene County United Way and the Greene County Tourist Promotion Agency on Saturday, October 24, to follow the destination clues, overcome “Road

Blocks” and try to be the first one at the finish line all while taking a scenic drive across our community. Cost is $50/vehicle.

Join the Birthday Parade!

The friends of Margaret Pearl Petitt will be celebrating her 99th birthday on Sunday, September 27 with a birthday parade past her house. Participants will meet at the Mt. Morris Twp. barn at 1:45pm and will drive their vehicles past her house,

where Margaret will be waiting outside. Those with cards can give them to organizer Jenny Nicholson or mail them to Margaret at Box 880, Big Shannon Run Rd, Mt Morris, Pa 15349.

GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020

Circle the hidden snake!

OCTOBER 2020

• GreeneScene Community Magazine

29

J

ROTC is a prestigious program that is usually only offered at large school districts,” shares Jim McGrath, the JROTC liaison at Jefferson-Morgan High School. Because it is a smaller school, Jefferson-Morgan normally would not have the ability to offer the program; the school’s superintendent, Joe Orr, initiated the program at J-M by integrating with Albert Gallatin’s established program and it was added to J-M during the 2017-18 school year.

The Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) uses a military setting to teach students about life skills and character traits. In studies about the importance of the JROTC, researchers agree students, faculty and the surrounding community all benefit from the existence of these programs.

A common misconception about the JROTC is that only students planning to join the military will benefit from the program.

“Some students may be looking to find their niche, because they are not involved in athletics, music, or other school activities. For these students, JROTC can provide an outlet for them to strive,” says Jim. If a student does join the military after high school, the JROTC gives them the opportunity to be sworn in at

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Co o l at Sc h oo l a higher rank. This head start can lead to increased pay and quicker promotions.

One of the fundamental goals of the JROTC is to motivate students to be better citizens. Being in the JROTC can help build character and strengthen leadership skills.

According to the Jefferson-Morgan website there is “an emphasis on character education, student achievement, wellness, leadership and diversity. It is a cooperative effort on the part of the military services and host institutions to produce successful students and citizens, while fostering in each school a more constructive and disciplined learning environment.” JROTC cadets are involved in community projects such as placing American flags on veterans’ graves for Veterans Day and Memorial Day; the JROTC also does bell ringing for the Salvation Army.

Students must have good grades and principled discipline in order to join. They need to fill out an application with a written statement of 250 words minimum explaining why they want to be part of the JROTC and what serving their country means to them.

The Department of the Army lists some goals for the JROTC cadet training as developing citizenship and patriotism, self-reliance and

responsiveness to authority, respect for the role of the U.S. Armed Forces, team building skills, and ranking higher if they choose to pursue a military career.

The JROTC program has dealt with the challenges of COVID-19 by adjusting to requirements and changes. “Currently, Albert Gallatin is on a cyber-learning schedule and J-M is on a hybrid s c h e d u l e ,” Jim says.

“The J-M JROTC students have been logging in every day and receiving instruction via Zoom and Canvass.”

Joining the JROTC is free of charge, and the uniforms,

By Michelle Church equipment and supplies are all issued by the U.S. Army. JROTC benefits the future of anyone who joins. Those who choose to go to the military are accelerating towards their goals and students who choose to go on to college have many leadership and character scholarships for which they are qualified.

The JROTC honoring those that died on Patriot Day, September 11.

GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020

WINNERS WINNERS GreeneScene Contest - Joseph GreeneScene Contest Petros knew that the Purple MarJoseph Petro tin Sign is found in Mason-Dixon Historical Park.

Haunted Hills Estate Kimberly Hamm Haunted Hills Scream Park Kathleen Tix - DebbieBalchak Brown, Kathleen Dan Foster Balchak, Dan Foster, and KimDebbie Brown berly Hamm.

Our lottery winners Lottery ticket winners will will be published be listed in next month’s in the next issue issue - along with a newalongscratch-off with a NEW lottery givelottery contest! away!

E

Meet our Tea m

very month, our enthusiastic team of editors, writers, designers, and advertising specialists work behind the scenes to create each issue of GreeneScene Community Magazine. This passionate team is dedicated to creating a fascinating, optimistic, and relevant magazine that our readers love. Each month, we’ll be introducing you to our team, member by member, so that you can get to know the devoted crew that brings you the GreeneScene.

This month, we’d like to introduce you to one of our contributors, Zack Zeigler. Zack is a 25-year-old native of West Mifflin, Pennsyl-

OCTOBER 2020

vania. He came down to Greene County for college when he attended Waynesburg University and fell in love with the small town feel. Zeigler currently works as a Promotions Coordinator at Steel City Media, which owns 96.9 BOB FM and Q92.9 FM while also writing for the GreeneScene Magazine.

In his spare time, Zeigler is a huge baseball fan and loves his Pittsburgh Pirates, no matter how bad they are sometimes. He is also a fan of musical theater and loves going to plays and musicals with his soon-to-be

• GreeneScene Community Magazine

wife Michelle Frye. He enjoys covering sports in the Greene County area because he likes to give the athletes the recognition they deserve for all the hard work they put in day in and day out.

“These student-athletes put in a lot of work both on the field and in the classroom,” said Zeigler. “To be able to see that hard work come to fruition on the field is one of the best feelings ever. I want to make sure that all Greene County student-athletes know that their hard work is appreciated by all.”

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Duda’s Farm

D

uda’s Farm is a family owned and operated farm located in Brownsville, PA that has been providing homegrown produce for approximately 35 years. In addition to their numerous roadside stands – now including a stand in Greene County at the airport – their farm has a farm store, greenhouses, and during the fall, hayrides and corn mazes.

Duda’s grows over 25 different kinds of vegetables and fruits, all of which are available at their roadside stands. Their famous Super Sweet Corn is one of their top products and continues to be a shopper favorite. Duda’s produce market at the farm generally opens around the beginning of May and stays open until the day before Thanksgiving.

“Pumpkin’ Pick’n Hayrides” at Duda’s Farm start in late September and last until October 31st.

Hayrides are open from 11am to dusk on weekends (weekdays available by appointment only). Admis-

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sion includes: hayride to the pumpkin patch, choice of pumpkin in the patch, corn maze, walk through animal barn, double barrel shotgun slides, bonfires, and more. Hayrides will be limited in number of people per ride to maintain social distancing and the total number of people on the property allowed at one time will be 250. Attendees must wear a mask on the hayride at any time when they are unable to maintain social distancing. Reservations are preferred but walk-ins will be accepted unless at capacity. Hand sanitation stations will be available throughout the farm.

GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020

D

id you know that Direct Results has a full-service print shop located within our 10,000 sq. ft. facility at 185 Wade street Waynesburg, PA? Direct Results is a one-stop-shop for all your printing, design, mailing and marketing solutions. Think of us as a part of your marketing team.

Direct Results in-house print shop provides the marketing materials needed to stand out and literally make a statement.

Many companies are finding that creative print marketing remains solid as a striking and distinctive medium. Often, the tactile experience of holding a printed item provides a deeper connection with the material than viewing it on a screen. Printed material gives your customer something to hold onto that won’t get lost in the vastness of the Internet.

At Direct Results, we can provide all the printed materials that make your business or event a success. Our print shop product line ranges from typical marketing materials like business cards, envelopes, door hangers, menus, rack cards, brochures, letterhead,

OCTOBER 2020

posters and flyers to greeting cards, copies, invitations, event tickets, books and programs, yard signs, carbonless forms and even tags produced on permanent paper.

People place certainty and confidence in printed material, and printed material used along with digital content provides credibility to any marketing plan. Create an impact with current and potential customers by allowing Direct Results to create printed marketing material for your brand!

Our team of talented graphic designers work efficiently and

• GreeneScene Community Magazine

strategically to create visual concepts that can inspire, inform, or captivate a particular audience. They are proficient in all areas of design, including brand identity, multiple print publications, and logo design. Simply stated, we have the most amazing team of incredibly gifted individuals that work together and share their creativity and innovation to make magic happen!

Stop in and see us at 185 Wade Street Waynesburg or give us a call at 724-627-2040 for a free quote!

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First Federal Savings & Loan of Greene County

First Federal of Greene County honors retired President/CEO

F

or Judi Goodwin Tanner, her association with First Federal of Greene County has spanned her entire lifetime.

“My grandfather opened a savings account for me when I was just a few weeks old,” Tanner recalls. “First Federal was my first bank and is still my bank.”

That fateful first visit sparked a journey that took Tanner from a newborn customer of First Federal in the 1960s all the way to the Association’s President and CEO in 2012. And it’s a journey that recently culminated in Tanner’s retirement this past spring, after nearly 38 years of service to her childhood bank.

After graduating with an accounting degree from West Virginia University in 1982, Tanner applied for a position at First Federal’s Waynesburg main office. She was hired by and worked directly for John E. Mariner as his secretary in the mortgage department. Tanner also became the Education Loan Coordinator and began picking up other work throughout the Association, from bookkeeping to internal auditing.

“My advice is to always keep all doors open, pick up everything you can, keep asking questions and always learn new things,” Tanner says.

“I learned something new every day at First Federal, whether it was about the business or the people, from our customers to fellow employees. I’d like to thank the many people I’ve worked with over the years for sharing their friendship and knowledge with me.”

Her willingness to learn a little bit of everything started her on a career path that saw her appointed a corporate officer in January 1991, serving as Treasurer at a time when the Association’s leadership changed from President/CEO James L. Brewer to Scott S. O’Neil.

During the next two decades, Tanner continued in various capacities with the Association, working in accounting, serving as the Chief Financial Officer and being named a Vice President. In the meantime, First Federal’s leadership changed twice more. After O’Neil retired in 2008, Mariner was named President/CEO and, four years later, was himself set to retire.

He handed over the reins to Tanner – that young WVU graduate he had personally hired 30 years prior – and she officially became President/CEO and a member of the Board of Directors in 2012.

Her tenure as President/CEO saw continued growth and expansion for First Federal – the opening of a new office in Mt. Morris, the introduction of a mobile app and the construction of an addition to the main office in Waynesburg that

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Judi Goodwin Tanner and her husband, Terry, on a September 2019 trip to Pikes Peak, Colorado

paid tribute to the town holiday of Rain Day. As the years passed, Tanner’s own retirement loomed on the horizon, and a succession plan was developed to pass the torch to Charles W. Trump, Jr. Tanner set her official retirement date for April 3, 2020, not knowing that her final few weeks in office would be marred by the coronavirus pandemic. Still, she remained firm with the changes that had been in the works for several years.

“The plan had been in place for so long, we saw no reason to change it,” Tanner said. “We knew First Federal would be in good hands.”

Although her full-time employment with First Federal is now over, Tanner continues to serve on the 7-member Board of Directors, alongside Trump and Mariner, the chairman.

(O’Neil remains as a director emeritus; Brewer passed away in 2019.)

One retirement plan that COVID-19 did change, however, was Tanner’s goal to travel more with her husband, Terry, a retired West Greene High School teacher.

“We had several trips we talked about, but thankfully we never booked anything,” said Tanner, adding Banff, Canada, is

on the travel destination wishlist.

With dreams of Canada on the back burner for now, Tanner and her husband have instead turned their focus closer to home. The two are looking forward to taking more motorcycle rides, visiting their extended family and appreciating life on her family farm in Center Township.

“We want to spend more time with family and friends,” Tanner said of their shared retirement. “We have been taking more walks on the farm, and just enjoying more sunrises and sunsets.”

GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020

Giving you all the tools you need

Don’t fall behind on your home improvement projects! Let First Federal of Greene County help you with the heavy lifting before winter with our variety of loans. We offer:

• Home Improvement Loans (FHA Title I) • Home Equity Loans • Construction Loans • Owner-Builder Loans

With offices in Greene, Washington and Fayette counties, your loan stays here. Visit with a Loan Officer, or apply anytime online!

OCTOBER 2020

• GreeneScene Community Magazine

NMLS#458729

www.firstfederalofgreene.com 35

Cashland Pawn

C

ashland Pawn has been providing convenient solutions to customers in need of short-term, cash solutions since 1996. They are committed to providing their customers with quality merchandise, low prices and great service.

With over two decades of experience, the family owned and operated Cashland Pawn is the leading pawn shop in the Morgantown and Clarksburg areas. With a large following of repeat customers, they pride themselves on serving your needs. If you are unloading some unwanted items, in a tight spot or just need to purchase that one great item, they will do their best to work with you. Cashland Pawn specializes in fine jewelry, musical instruments, electronics, firearms, and quality tools. They also offer an interest-free layaway program on every item they sell so you can hold onto that special item.

If you need a short-term loan, their collateral-based loan system makes it easy. Bring your item in and they will assess an arbitrary loan value on that item. You can pick up your loan collateral within the 30-day loan

time frame for the amount loaned plus a 20% finance charge. Loans may be extended for an additional 30 days by paying your finance fee, for as many times as needed. Remember to bring your I.D. to your visit to Cashland Pawn – they will not loan or buy anything with a proper form of identification such as driver’s license or photo I.D. So come down and visit Cashland Pawn if you have more month left at the end of your money or you’re looking for an interesting shopping experience and want to see what a pawn shop is all about! Store hours are Monday – Wednesday 9am – 5pm, Thursday 9am – 6pm, Friday 9am – 5pm, and Saturday 9am – 3pm at both locations. Or visit cashlandpawnshop.com to shop online.

IN A PINCH? TRY OUR COLLATERAL-BASED LOAN SYSTEM. IT’S DISCRETE. IT’S QUICK. NO CREDIT CHECK. CASHLAND MORGANTOWN 530 Brockway Ave Morgantown, WV 26501 304-296-3970

CASHLAND CLARKSBURG 701 E Pike St Clarksburg, WV 26301 304-626-3330

CASHLANDPAWNSHOP.COM

Rumbaugh Back in Action

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t Rumbaugh Back In Action Chiropractic, we are passionate about helping as many people as possible achieve true health and wellness. We know that chiropractic care cannot only help alleviate physical pain, but also helps a person maintain wellness. Chiropractic is the beginning of true health care - not just sick care.

Dr. Rumbaugh has been serving Greene County and your surrounding areas for over 32 years. Dr. Jones joined our practice in May 2019 and has become a vital part of the practice.

We are a community-based practice that understands your needs with a friendly staff and convenient office hours to accommodate your busy schedule.

Dr. Rumbaugh is a 2nd generation chiropractor. In addition to his father, he has three siblings, one nephew and five cousins/uncles that are chiropractors. “I grew up with chiropractic and experienced firsthand the many benefits that could be achieved by chiropractic care. I knew I wanted to be a hands-on health care provider and chiropractic fit the mold/or me. It provided me the oppor-

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tunity to treat patients naturally, to help them feel better and return to their normal activities. I enjoy the diversity of treating patients of all ability levels and helping them achieve their goals.”

Dr. T. Curtis Jones grew up in Rogersville, Pa attending West Greene High School. After high school, he attended Slippery Rock University obtaining his bachelors in biology. Dr. Jones attended Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa where he received his doctor of chiropractic degree. “I am excited to be back in Greene County and l look forward to the opportunity to help serve the community that I grew up in.”

Our office is also FMCSA certified to do CDL Exams, DOT and NonDOT drug screens, breath alcohol tests, learner’s permits and school bus physicals.

Rumbaugh Back in Action Chiropractic is open Monday, Friday and Saturday from 8:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m; Tuesday and Thursday from 8:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m. Phone 724-852-1624 for an appointment. Find us on the web at rumbaughbackinaction. com.

Business Section • GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020

HealthWorks Rehab & Fitness

H

ealthWorks Rehab & Fitness is proud to be approaching the one year anniversary of the grand opening of our newest outpatient physical therapy clinic in Waynesburg.

For over 40 years, HealthWorks has provided physical therapy for the Morgantown area and has expanded to meet the needs of the surrounding areas. We work closely with physician groups affiliated with WVU Medicine and Mon Health System.

Our clinic director, Sara (Stepp) Ryan, is a native to Greene County Area and a proud Jefferson-Morgan graduate. Sara earned her doctor of physical therapy degree from The University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences and her bachelor of science in athletic training from West Virginia University. Her background in these areas has given her the expertise and experience to treat a wide range of conditions in this outpatient physical therapy clinic.

Sara has clinical expertise in both orthopedic and neuromuscular conditions with an emphasis in the treatment of patients with Parkinson’s disease utilizing the clinically proven LSVT BIG technique.

Sara is also a certified ASTYM therapist which is an excellent tool for patients suffering from tennis elbow, jumper’s knee, and plantar fasciitis as well as other orthopedic ailments.

HealthWorks is also a proud affiliate of Waynesburg University allowing Sara to work closely with local athletic training students as a clinical instructor. Please stop by and check out our

new clinic and meet Sara and our staff. Whatever your physical therapy needs, Sara can provide an individualized treatment plan to help you achieve your goals.

Toothman Dental Center

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long East Greene Street in Waynesburg, a picturesque brick cottage sits guarded by its landmark cement dairy cow. This charming building has been an enjoyable home for Toothman Dental practice for more than 30 years, welcoming new and current patients of all ages. The Dental Center tucked away in this delightful cottage provides care for all phases of general dentistry using the latest technology, including digital x-rays.

The captivating building was built by Donald Stewart in 1926; Stewart was a local blacksmith and carpenter. The arching doorways, art, and antiques that bring life to the space and visitors may feel as though they’ve entered an enchanted storybook.

Adding to the enchantment, the upstairs is home to a very special grandfather clock with a very special – and very famous – guest. Since January 2000, the Tooth Fairy has taken up residence in the grandfather clock where she spends the day sleeping, when young children get to – very quietly – take a quick peek as she slumbers. Every night, she takes flight and leaves through the balcony door, returning home in the morning after her work is done.

Dr. Toothman began her career in dentistry early, working alongside her father at his dental lab in Pittsburgh. Upon graduating The University of Pittsburgh Dental School in

OCTOBER 2020

• GreeneScene Community Magazine • Business Section

1982, Dr. Toothman then moved to Greene County after being assigned to the Bobtown Community Health Center. She worked there until she opened her own practice. Shortly after moving here, Dr. Toothman met her future husband and she went from being ‘Dr. Schmidt’ to Dr. Toothman – a perfect name for a dentist, we must say.

Toothman Dental Center has always been dedicated to providing a safe atmosphere for patients at all times and has taken extra precautions to ensure this safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The office has always performed the meticulous standard cleaning processes required in Dentistry, and is following all current and ever-changing policies and recommendations made by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. All patients are screened twice prior to be being treated. Patients who are COVID-19 positive, symptomatic, exposed, or have traveled to hot spots, would be rescheduled. Temperatures are taken and hands are cleaned before leaving the waiting room. Air quality in the dental office is treated by Hepa Filtration, negative air pressure, and upper room UVGI. If you’re looking for a dentist for you or your family, you won’t find better service, a friendlier staff, and as charming an atmosphere anywhere else. To schedule a visit, call 724-627-5399.

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Action Equipment Center

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elebrating its fifth year of business, Action Equipment Center is a fastgrowing small business that has gained great success in those first five years.

Owned by local farmers Debbie and Mike Vigus, Action Equipment Center is a local source for residential and commercial lawn equipment and agricultural equipment. With leading products lines from Cub Cadet, Mahindra, DeWalt and Husqvarna, they have everything small and large that is needed for all your lawn, chore, and farm care needs.

The dealer experience is the best experience with a full-service shop and parts counter, they service all makes and models of tractors, chainsaws, and handhelds and strive to provide the fastest turnaround time for all repairs. They have a fully stocked parts department and quick order system for anything not on hand. With a growing business, it’s their goal to keep the customer happy and get their equipment back to them in a timely manner.

Offering the full line of Cub Cadet and Mahindra tractors and the handheld line for Husqvarna and DeWalt, Action Equipment Center has all lawn care covered. Anything from riding tractors, zero turns, farm tractors, UTVs, weed trimmers and chainsaws, they can find the right match for any customer. A demo program is available for customers to test drive the equipment on their own property so they can ensure their new purchase is the right fit for them.

There are new and innovative products that were released in 2020 that Action Equipment Center is excited to offer. Cub Cadet has teamed up with DeWalt to offer a dealer line of DeWalt power tools, batteries, and chargers to fit the needs of every customer. Newly released for 2020 from Cub Cadet Pro line is the Pro Stand-on Mower, available in 48”, 54” and 60”. It’s a commercial stand-on mower to maximize your productivity and comfort. Also, newly stocked for 2020 is the highly soughtafter Cub Cadet Ultima ZTX. Independently tested to deliver Best in Class Cut. With a

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fully stocked showroom of Cub Cadet mowers both Commercial and Residential, Action Equipment Center has all their customer needs covered.

Action Equipment Center gained great success with Cub Cadet and Mahindra in 2019. They were honored with the Dealer of the Year award in both their region and nationally out of 1600 dealerships across the country! They were also honored with the Top 100 Club with Cub Cadet with a ranking of 23 in the nation and exceeded their sales goals set in 2019. They also received honors from Mahindra with the High HP Dealer of the Year award and the Club 50 award for being a top 50 dealer in the United States.

Action Equipment Center is grateful for their customers and looks forward to serving Washington and Greene County for many years to come.

Action Equipment Center, your leading destination for lawn and farm equipment in Washington and Greene County. Located at 1045 Jefferson Avenue in Washington. Their hours are Monday-Friday, 8am to 5pm and Saturdays, 8am to noon. For more information, call 724-503-4223 or visit actionequipmentcenter.com.

GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020

Lifespan Family Services

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e’ve always believed empathy, hope, and respect for faith should be the main priority in providing culturally competent foster care and adoption services. As a faith-focused, non-profit agency, we embrace a strength-based perspective that leads to positive outcomes and healthier relationships with our partners and families.

The Lifespan Family Services Mission...

Since its inception in 2009, Founder and Executive Director, Patrick Shea, has made It the mission of LifeSpan Family Services of PA to be a premier social service agency committed to providing exceptional foster care and adoption services to counties throughout Pennsylvania.

Stories Throughout Our Communities...

Our stories take place in small towns throughout central and western Pennsylvania. For example, the family in Westmoreland County, PA that provided a foster child with the experience of a Disney World vacation in Orlando, Florida or the single woman in Dubois, PA that became a foster parent as a result of mentoring a young girl at the local YMCA. We boast about families that open

OCTOBER 2020

their hearts and homes to children in need of a safe and nurturing environment. These stories are plentiful and the families that star in these roles are extraordinary people. Some may call them heroes and we believe that is true, but the superheroes are undoubtedly the children we provide services for.

The Who Behind Our Why...

Children in foster care are special people that develop a unique set of characteristics as a result of their experience. They are tough, resilient, intelligent and resourceful in their growth and development. They thrive in a favorable environment and are active, fun and engaging. We currently work with over 25 county agencies in the state of Pennsylvania to provide quality foster homes that give children a chance to succeed. It’s our way of doing our part.

It Takes A Village...

We believe it takes a strong support network to successfully reunify a child with their biological family. The network consists of county agencies, resource parents, Lifespan staff and many others who play an integral part in the daily care and well-being of a child in foster care. We believe when successful reunification happens, everyone wins.

• GreeneScene Community Magazine

You Can Make A Difference...

Do you have the desire, interest and motivation to do more? By becoming a foster parent, you can positively impact the life of a child and potentially the entire generation of a family. It’s worth the conversation to learn how you can become a licensed foster parent

through Lifespan Family Services of Pennsylvania. If you can’t be a foster parent but still want to help, simply share our cause with your friends and family. To get more information contact us at (724)498-4961 or visit us online at www.lifespanfamilyservices.com.

You can make a difference.

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GREENE COUNTY

MYSTERY

ROAD RALLY

Saturday, October 24, 2020 $50 Per Vehicle www.GreeneCountyUnitedWay.org 724-852-1009 or 724-627-8687 Greene County United Way

Event Sponsor

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PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID Pittsburgh, PA Permit No. 1219

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GreeneScene Community Magazine •

OCTOBER 2020