pittsburgh-area news

[stiller fan]

Chauncy's in Station Square shut down as a nuisance bar
District attorney to seek permanent injunction
Wednesday, November 24, 2004

By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



An Allegheny County Common Pleas judge yesterday ordered Chauncy's in Station Square temporarily shut down as a nuisance bar pending a permanent injunction hearing next week.

District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.'s office requested the injunction, citing incidents since July 2003 that included fights, drug dealing, assaults and a November 2003 fatal shooting in a parking garage that Zappala said stemmed from a dispute in the bar.

Chauncy's also was the target of a raid in October by federal agents investigating Vernon Jackson, a Chauncy's manager, for large-scale heroin dealing and money-laundering at the club.

Jackson, 36, of Robinson, is in federal custody on drug charges and will be indicted soon. Federal prosecutors have 30 days to indict someone after an arrest, and Jackson was arrested Oct. 27.

His partner, Duane Moore, also is a target of the investigation but has not been charged.

In addition, the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS is examining the bar's books for evidence that Jackson used drug money to book entertainment acts at the club.

Further details of the federal case aren't available because the file is under seal.

The district attorney's complaint does not mention the federal probe, but it describes more than 80 incidents in the past 16 months in which employees of the security firm at Station Square, Victory Security, or Pittsburgh police were called to Chauncy's.

The nuisance bar task force last raided the club in January and made eight arrests.

"I have made it clear on numerous occasions that when the operators of a drinking establishment cannot control the activity on and around their premises, and when that activity begins to impact public safety and the welfare of a particular area, I will take aggressive action to make sure that the activity is permanently curtailed," Zappala said in a statement.

The temporary injunction closing the bar was signed yesterday by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Robert Horgos. A hearing on a permanent injunction will be held Tuesday at 9:30 a.m.

Determining who is actually responsible for what's been happening at Chauncy's might prove difficult.

The complaint filed by Zappala's office lists the owner as Pozy's of Pittsburgh. According to the court filing, Douglas D. Caplan bought Pozy's from longtime owner Tom Jayson in May 2003.

But Jayson's wife, Margaret Jayson, is still on the liquor license, as is Jayson associate Frank Jerome.

Caplan, according to the complaint, "has failed to correct the license with [the Liquor Control Board] to list himself as the current officer of Pozy's of Pittsburgh Inc."

But Caplan and his lawyer, Robert Felkay, said the deal to buy Pozy's never went through and Caplan is not the owner.

"What happened was the stock was supposed to be transferred to Caplan upon making payments, but the payments were never completed," Felkay said. "The stock is in escrow. It's kind of in limbo."

He said the deal didn't happen because Caplan was expecting other investors to chip in and they never did.

Jayson's lawyer, Michael Fives, said Jayson has nothing to do with the bar anymore and said it was Caplan's responsibility to change the liquor license.

[stillerfanswife]

i heard about this :eek: i think they have been in trouble before.

[stiller fan]

yeah, i think that they have been closed before as well....

[stillerfanswife]

i guess the jerks need to be closed down for good. :censored: :eek:

[stiller fan]

Petite woman eats 6-pound burger
Monday, January 17, 2005

Associated Press

CLEARFIELD, Pa. -- Kate Stelnick may weigh only 100 pounds, but her appetite is remarkable. The college student from Princeton, N.J., is the first to meet a restaurant's challenge by downing its six-pound hamburger - and five pounds of fixin's - within three hours.

Stelnick didn't eat for two days to prepare for the challenge. "I felt very full, but I was too excited that I actually ate it to notice," Stelnick said.

Stelnick, 19, made the five-hour drive to Denny's Beer Barrel Pub with two friends from The College of New Jersey on Wednesday, after they saw pictures of the monster burger, dubbed the Ye Old 96er.

Denny Leigey Jr., the owner of the bar 35 miles northwest of State College, had offered a two-pound burger for years and conceived of the six-pounder after his daughter went to college and phoned him about a bar that sold a four-pounder.

But nobody had finished the big burger in the three-hour time limit since it was introduced on Super Bowl Sunday 1998. In addition to the meat, contestants must eat one large onion, two whole tomatoes, one half head of lettuce, 1 1/4 pounds of cheese, two buns, and a cup each of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, relish, banana peppers and some pickles.

Stelnick did it all in two hours, 54 minutes.

Leigey said he was pretty sure somebody would meet his burger challenge, though he didn't have a petite woman in mind.

"I wouldn't have made it if I didn't think it was possible," Leigey said.

It was not clear whether Stelnick received anything for her efforts other than a full stomach.

[princess]

As a kid we had a local buger place that was called "Jolly Burgers". They sold the same size as the small McDonald burgers. My family used to buy them by the dozens.... anyway, when I was in 7th or 8th grade my sister's hubby (ex-Navy, 6'2") bet me about how many I could eat...


I was 4'9" & weighed 90 lb. I ate 12, plus fries & a shake! He ate 10!! I won!

Unfortuanately, that led me to life of bulemia.... I only ate on Sundays through my teens....:( I think I enjoyed the attention eating big got me.... so I saved up for those church potlucks & socials! People marveled at how much I could put away, never knowing that's ALL I ate.....

In my senior year I was 4'11" & 93 lb.!

[stiller fan]

Robber in dog mask laughed out of store

Wednesday, March 09, 2005
By Rachael Conway, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A convenience store clerk in Cranberry foiled an armed robbery last night when he burst into laughter after a man wearing a Pluto-the-dog mask pulled out what looked like a gun and demanded money.

Cranberry police Sgt. Dave Kovach said the masked robber entered Gordon's Mini Market on Rochester Road at 9:45 p.m., shortly before closing time.

The robber walked up to the counter, pulled out what appeared to be a black, semi-automatic weapon and demanded money from the register.

That's when the clerk, who was alone in the store, started laughing.

"He didn't comply with the request and the frustrated Pluto robber then left the store," Kovach said.

Kovach wants to make clear the clerk's response, while understandable, is not recommended.

"I don't want to give the impression that that's an advisable thing to do," he said. "Pluto could have been a strung-out heroin addict. You never know."

To his knowledge, Kovach said, Cranberry police have never dealt with a robbery quite like this one.

"This is our first encounter with the Pluto robber," he said.

Kovach said an unidentified customer saw the suspect leave the store and drive away in a car.

[stiller fan]

Pa. Turnpike adopts one-way tolling at Gateway Plaza

Sunday, July 31, 2005
By Joe Grata, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Drivers heading west on the Pennsylvania Turnpike will be able to pass through Gateway Toll Plaza and cross the Ohio line for free starting Dec. 31.

If you want to save money, don't come back the same way. Tolls going eastbound will be doubled -- probably to $3 for cars, motorcycles and two-axle trucks -- so revenues will balance out at the state's exit-entry point.

The changes are in step with what other toll agencies have done, such as charging $2.50 to cross the Peace Bridge in Buffalo, N.Y., into Canada but allowing travelers to come back for free.

Other places with one-way toll programs include the Garden State (N.J.) Parkway, a half-dozen bridges and tunnels in New York City, and part of Interstate 95 in New Hampshire. They've been popular with users and financially successful.

"The major benefit, obviously, is convenience," Pennsylvania Turnpike Executive Director Joe Brimmeier said. "At peak periods in summer and around holidays, backups will be eliminated" at the Ohio line.

More than 22,000 vehicles pass through Gateway on an average weekday -- more during the vacation season.

The one-way-tolling concept will enable the turnpike to establish two high-speed "Express E- ZPass" lanes at Gateway (Milepost 2) by fall of 2007, when a new toll plaza will be finished. It also will have six regular eastbound lanes for E-ZPass, cash and correct-change travelers.

In the meantime, the turnpike will use the existing eastbound Gateway facilities, along with several converted westbound booths, to implement the one-way-toll system Dec. 31.

Once the Express E-ZPass lanes are established, eastbound turnpike users enrolled in the electronic toll-collection program will be able to pass through at 55 mph instead of 5 mph, as they have been able to do at Warrendale Toll Plaza north of Pittsburgh since June 2004.

Converting Gateway Toll Plaza and rebuilding and widening the first 2.2 miles of the toll road east of the Ohio line, including an overpass that carries turnpike traffic over a local road, will cost an estimated $21 million.

Brimmeier said the turnpike was landlocked at Gateway, another consideration for choosing the one-way-toll concept rather than widening the plaza and expanding the number of toll lanes.

Although the one-way-toll plan goes into effect Dec. 31, the phased-in, two-year construction program will not get under way until then.

With tolls eliminated at the Ohio line, westbound traffic will continue uninterrupted. Uninterrupted, that is, until drivers must stop two miles later at the first Ohio Turnpike toll plaza and pick up a ticket. Ohio is not an E-ZPass program participant.

"That's their problem," Brimmeier said. "We have enough problems of our own."

Class 1 passenger vehicles now pay a $1.50 flat toll westbound and $1.50 flat toll eastbound to use the first 30 miles of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, so paying a one-time $3 toll won't represent a change for users making a round trip.

Because drivers of 80,000-pound Class 7 tractor-trailer trucks who now pay $8.25 each way will be charged by the axle, not by the current gross vehicle weight, they will see a small savings. A five-axle rig will pay a $12 one-way toll; a six-axle rig, $15.

Because there are no good alternate routes eastbound around Gateway, turnpike officials don't believe many drivers will try to beat the system. "With the price of fuel, who's going to go an hour out of their way?" Brimmeier said.

The new toll structure has yet to be formalized by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, but the five members are expected to adopt management's recommendations.

Pending changes at the Ohio line represent the third milestone in the turnpike's toll system in Western Pennsylvania in as many years.

In May 2003, the Gateway Toll Plaza was converted to the flat-rate, ticketless system; tolls were eliminated and a 30-mile "free ride zone" was established within the New Castle, Beaver Valley and Cranberry (Interstate 79) interchanges; and new mainline toll facilities were opened near Warrendale, relocating the turnpike's traditional ticketing and fare collections there.

In June 2004, the turnpike opened its first (and still only) Express E-ZPass lanes at Warrendale, where car and truck drivers pass under a gantry equipped with high-tech devices at 55 mph to measure distance traveled, determine vehicle weight class, calculate the toll and bill users electronically.

"The trip westbound will be on regular, open road," turnpike spokesman Carl DeFebo said.

Turnpike officials said while the change will be "revenue neutral," it expects savings from the need for fewer toll collectors, the elimination and maintenance of toll-collection equipment, and, over the long term, the growing popularity of E-ZPass.

Twelve toll collectors will become "floaters" filling in for personnel at other locations. Their jobs will be eliminated through attrition, a fate that befell 23 other fare-collection workers effective July 23 as a result of the growing use of E-ZPass.

Within two years, the turnpike will add E-ZPass Express lanes at the Norristown and Mid-County interchanges in the Philadelphia area. "So some people will make their whole trip without stopping," said Brimmeier.

[stiller fan]

Getting Around: Drivers confused over state of our road system

Sunday, July 31, 2005
By Joe Grata, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Audrey Waldock, of Edgewood, asked what seemed to be an easy question: "Who 'owns' Penn Avenue in the Point Breeze-Wilkinsburg area?"

She explained how it changes from two lanes to what appear to be four lanes for several blocks, although road markings disappear, then back to two or three lanes; how traffic signals confuse drivers; how a lack of signs doesn't help the situation, etc.

Where Penn Avenue approaches a Norfolk Southern Railways trestle, "the road is a wee bit too narrow for two lanes but wide enough that a lot of people make it two lanes to the detriment of tempers and side mirrors," she e-mailed. "It gets pretty crazy going through there."

There are far too many similar situations throughout Western Pennsylvania, which is why PennDOT's official response to Waldock's query is as worrisome as it is entertaining, to me, at least.

Excerpts from PennDOT's response speak for themselves:

"Penn Avenue in this area is owned and maintained by PennDOT but maintenance responsibilities vary. In the city part, we are responsible for the pavement surface. They are responsible for other features, including signing, pavement markings and traffic signals.

"On the portion in Wilkinsburg, we are responsible for the signing and pavement markings.

"South of Braddock Avenue, Penn Avenue is two lanes wide, a lane in each direction. The section changes from four lanes to two at East End Avenue. From there, it remains two lanes into Wilkinsburg. As you continue south, they have left-turn lanes at some intersections but it basically remains two lanes.

"Some traffic signals have two indications in each direction because, as they are updated, they're installed to current standards. The two indications do not indicate the number of lanes in each direction but increase visibility and improve safety. If a bulb burns out on one signal, the other is a backup."

Ask PennDOT a simple question, get a convoluted answer, although it is not the responder's fault.

One of my favorite examples of bureaucratic ineptitude has always been the Glenwood Bridge. PennDOT owns the top 1 inch of the four-lane bridge deck. Allegheny County owns the superstructure, piers and everything "below deck." The city is responsible for the sidewalks, bridge lighting and river navigation lights.

Multiple ownership and divided, confusing, uncoordinated maintenance and traffic responsibilities of roads and bridges don't make sense.

The mishmash on Penn Avenue and the Glenwood Bridge helps explain why Western Pennsylvania's transportation infrastructure is such a mess.

Everybody knows it; nobody does anything about it.

[anysia]

:lmao: very very true.

pa road systems are screwy. west liberty ave does the same screwy stuff. is it 2 lanes or 4 and at what poitn is it what??? :lmao:

so many weird things about roads around here...... :nuts: