< Previous%Locally SourcedLocally Sourced This still is from the opening of a video produced by Chris Rollinson that has put Coraopolis in the running to appear on an HGTV show. • In February, Coraopolis put its hat in the ring for a unique opportunity with HGTV’s “Home Town Takeover.” The show features Ben and Erin Napier as they travel to a selected town and work on homes and public spaces. Guidelines for the project state that the town must have a population of less than 40,000, homes with great architecture that are in need of a makeover, and a main street that is in need of a face lift. At the time of this writing, Coraopolis is still in the running and, if selected, the town will be featured on a six-episode show that will air in 2021. According to HGTV, over 5,000 submissions were received from across America and an announcement on the winner is expected in March. • Last year, more than 60,000 pounds of food were distributed to local residents through the CCDC’s Food Pantry - a 22 percent increase over the previous year. Nearly 300 area residents received vital assistance twice per month to help feed their families. The launch of the Snack Pack Program in school year 2019-2020 is also helping to increase food security. This program is being run in partnership with local school students. In community-eligible school districts, all students are entitled to breakfast, lunch and dinner on school days. However, the need for sustenance for children over the weekends is palpable. The Snack Pack Program proudly served 47 students so far in this capacity, with the goal of serving 100 families this year. • To build upon the progress made to date on the Coraopolis Train Station Project, additional grant money was needed to move forward with new phases of construction. The CCDC is incredibly grateful to have been awarded grants from the Richard King Mellon Foundation through The Progress Fund; the Allegheny Foundation; the Keystone Communities Program of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development; and the Allegheny County Community Infrastructure and Tourism Fund. Work will move forward in 2020 to completely repair the station’s roof and outside canopy; install permanent utilities; and remove the surrounding chain link fence. • Looking to 2020 and beyond, the need to continue to adapt and evolve is ever present in order to best serve Coraopolis residents and business owners. The CCDC will continue to expand upon its mission of redevelopment and revitalization with a more pointed effort around economic development. As the “downtown” for the surrounding townships and neighborhoods, Coraopolis’ business district is one of the few remaining original main streets in Pittsburgh. Fostering partnerships with those who share the CCDC’s admiration for this community will create more visibility and consumer traffic, adding to the vitality of this special town. The CCDC continues to be humbled and amazed by what the community can accomplish when everyone comes together. Collaboration will be the key to the future as the CCDC looks toward the future. Coraopolis community development update: A possible HGTV appearance, new train station project grants and more BY CARA MASON, DIRECTOR OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, CCDC In 2019, the Coraopolis Community Development Corporation made significant strides in the areas of food security, family assistance, and community revitalization, thanks to the support and hard work of its board, volunteers, donors and staff. With over 700 donors and volunteers, the CCDC continues to grow and gain momentum, with the goal of being in the best possible position to address the needs of residents, business owners and community partners. Formerly known as the Coraopolis Community Development Foundation, the organization is the same one behind efforts such as the Coraopolis Train Station Project, the Coraopolis Food Pantry and others. Besides its recent name change, here are some updates on the organization’s efforts: Imagine your website working as hard for your business as you do. 412.205.8998 | DDSWebDesign.com Websites that get results. Designed in Pittsburgh Contact us for a free website analysis. Affordable Custom Designs Responsive Sites | Content Management SEO | E-commerce | Hosting | Maintenance 10 • Allegheny West Magazine • March/April 2020March/April 2020 • www.awmagazine.com • 1112 • Allegheny West Magazine • March/April 2020y > Learning Curves Learning Curves Michele P. Conti is an estate planning and elder law attorney. Conti attended Allegheny College in Meadville, Oxford University and Duquesne University School of Law. She received her LL.M. in taxation from Villanova University. She can be reached at (724) 784-0239 or michele@contilawpgh.com. BY MICHELE P. CONTI Planning ahead for a blended family It is likely that you or someone you know is on their second, third, or maybe even fourth marriage. Though they have found happiness more than once in their life, there are many legal complications that exist with a blended family. One such difficulty is determining who receives that person’s assets upon passing. Is it the spouse, the children from a prior relationship, the spouse’s kids or someone else? The idea of “yours, mine and ours” can fracture families. When we work with clients who have a blended family, we stress the fact that deciding who receives their wealth upon their death is essential. The challenge is satisfying everyone involved. If they do not plan correctly and view the whole picture - including retirement accounts and life insurance policies - they may unknowingly disinherit someone, whether they meant to do so or not. All too often, a former spouse also remains as the named beneficiary on an account. Regardless of what a will or trust says, the beneficiary designations trump all others. Therefore, we must be proactive when reviewing a person’s assets or else everyone, except the former spouse, will be unhappy. Another error that sometimes occurs is when a spouse names their current spouse as the primary beneficiary and their children as equal contingent beneficiaries. This is often done so that everyone will receive something. However, in this situation the spouse receives all of the assets and is free to act as they wish. The spouse can spend all of the assets or even change the contingent beneficiaries upon receipt of the money. When a retirement account is involved, the surviving spouse inherits the account of the deceased while the contingent beneficiaries go by the wayside, even upon the surviving spouse’s death. Oftentimes, people also assume that their spouse receives everything upon their death simply because they are married. Others assume that their children receive the bulk of their estate because they are related by blood. Each of these assumptions is wrong. In Pennsylvania, when there is no will or beneficiary designation, the commonwealth provides us with the following chart to determine which beneficiary receives what percent: An easy remedy is to name both the spouse and children as beneficiaries on such an account and dole out percentages rather than an outright distribution to one person. Remarried couples often use a trust as the vehicle to spell out their wishes. If the intention is to provide income for the life of the surviving spouse, we can name the children as beneficiaries. The tricky part is naming a successor trustee. Without proper planning, the plan could fail, which is why oftentimes a corporate fiduciary is involved so that the assets remain consistent and continue to grow. What can you do if you have blended family? We can discuss your particular situation and determine the best option for you and the families involved. This may include a postnuptial agreement, a spendthrift trust or even a bloodline trust, depending on your overall wishes. There is no right answer, but there are a lot of options. We spend so much time and money planning for things like weddings, holidays and vacations, but let’s take some time to also plan for your loved ones’ futures. Doing so will ensure that the family will not be fractured upon your passing. March/April 2020 • www.awmagazine.com • 13y > Learning Curves Learning Curves SUBMITTED BY GEORGE G. HESS, D.P.T, C.O.M.T What is sciatica? Sciatica is a condition resulting in back pain due to irritation or compression of the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in the body. It runs from the back of the pelvis, through the buttocks and all the way down both legs, ending at the feet. Compression of the sciatic nerve can cause pain that radiates out from the lower back, travels down the leg and into the calf. Sciatic pain can range from mild to very painful. What are the common symptoms of the condition? Sciatica is different from general back pain. Sciatica pain hardly affects the entire back. It radiates from the lower back, down to the buttocks and into one or both of the legs, right down to the calf. Some patients even complain about shooting pain while sneezing, coughing, laughing, standing or sitting for a long period of time. Patients who have long periods of numbness in their bottom, lower back and leg - or those who experience loss of bladder or bowel control and often feel weakness in their leg and foot - must visit a doctor immediately. Who is most likely to suffer from this condition? Sedentary lifestyle is one of the major reasons people suffer from sciatica pain. People who have to perform work involving frequent bending, twisting or lifting heavy weights are more likely to suffer from the condition. Being overweight is also a risk factor. It can put extra strain and pressure on the back, leading to sciatica. What are the complications if the condition is left untreated? Complications from sciatica can lead to partial immobility of the leg and partial or complete loss of feeling (sensation) in the affected leg. It could lead to severe functional disabilities like limitations on sitting, standing, walking and sleeping. If a person is susceptible to suffer from the condition, what precautions should they take? Though it is not always possible to prevent sciatica, there are several things that can be done to prevent a slipped disc or other back injuries that can lead to sciatica. Here are some general precautions to help prevent sciatica: • Maintain a better posture at work • Avoid sustained periods of sitting • Be careful while lifting anything • Maintain correct posture while lifting • Always stretch before and after exercise • Exercise regularly to improve your strength and flexibility This information provided courtesy of George Hess DPT, COMT. He is the owner of and a physical therapist at Hess Physical Therapy. He is also the author of the book “Back To Normal.” He can be reached at his Kennedy or Crafton offices (see phone numbers at right), or by email at George@hesspt.com. Sciatica pain Many people who complain about lower back pain that travels down the legs suffer from a condition called sciatica pain. Sciatica pain can interfere with simple daily activities like walking, standing and sleeping. Therefore, a better understanding about the condition is needed. 14 • Allegheny West Magazine • March/April 2020y > Learning Curves Learning Curves Do you feel like a tin man or woman in need of an oilcan so you can lubricate every joint and jump in the Fountain of Youth? That was me a year ago, before I started micro-circulation therapy. Every day my legs were as tight as tree trunks and I had severe discomfort, including cold hands and feet, along with a bundle of other symptoms. I am always working to improve my health and learning more about health and wellness. I believe it’s a constant journey to find out what works for both me and my clients. In my case, I was getting massages every other week and a regular chiropractic session. I even changed my diet. These all helped with some of the issues I was experiencing but I still felt like something deeper was going on inside my body. “If only I could get a full body scan of some kind,” I thought, and that’s when I remembered a test I had undergone years ago called thermography. Thermography is a physiologic test, which demonstrates thermal patterns in skin temperature. Results may either be normal or indicate disease or another abnormality. Thermography provides you with an image you can see in real time and can indicate areas that are afflicted or have improved. This knowledge enabled me to know what was working for me and to make changes to my personal health goals and treatments. On March 10 of last year, I had a full-body thermography session and learned that I had a peripheral vascular insufficiency - in other words, poor blood flow. A registered nurse encouraged me to learn about microcirculation, a type of therapy that enhances blood flow and encourages the body to heal itself. The sessions are done fully clothed and while lying or sitting on a mat that enhances microcirculation. Movement of blood at the capillary level brings oxygen and nutrients to the cells and tissues. At the same time, toxins and wastes (like carbon dioxide) are removed. I thought, “Why not give it a few months, it sounds like what I need.” On April 20, I started to use the microcirculation device at home before introducing it to my clients. After two months and a lot of research, I felt I had increased energy. The cold feeling in feet and hands seemed to decrease, along with the numbness in my fingers. I no longer felt like a tin woman in need of an oilcan. From July to August, I started to feel phenomenal, with increased endurance, more energy and less discomfort. I began to be more active, too, especially with my family. Now I‘m riding a bike and hiking with them, which I had never done prior. I felt so phenomenal that, on Aug. 22, I had another thermography session on my legs to see if my results would show up visually. They did! Thinking back to the microcirculation training class I attended last year, I wanted to share this story. At that training session, I felt like I was in the movie “Cocoon,” watching older attendees demonstrate how they felt younger as they did squats, jumps and stretches. It made me smile. Now I realize that I feel younger, too. Do your joints need oiled? Do you want to feel like you’ve found the Fountain of Youth? Register to attend one of our upcoming educational meetings and find out if microcirculation is for you! BY RENEE SWASEY, OWNER, ALLEGHENY MUSCLE AND MASSAGE THERAPY Is microcirculation the key to the feeling younger? Renee Swasey owns and operates Allegheny Muscle Therapy and Massage in Imperial. For more on their upcoming events, see below, or visit www.alleghenymuscle.massagetherapy.com. Call them at (724) 695-5300. The above photo shows Renee Swasey’s thermagrophy prior to microcirculation and the below photo shows her results after trying microcirculation for five months. 16 • Allegheny West Magazine • March/April 2020CAround Your Town Around Your Town On a cold winter morning in February, a group of about a half dozen people milled about next to the bus stop outside of IKEA in Robinson Town Centre. After taking the bus there, they now needed to get to work at places like The Mall at Robinson and Comcast’s corporate offices on the other side of The Pointe at North Fayette. Without a vehicle, though, the only way for them to get to those places was to walk upwards of a mile or two along busy roads, many of which do not have sidewalks. Before long, however, a shuttle pulled up alongside them and opened its doors. Each climbed on board and dropped a quarter in a collection box. Soon, they were off and just minutes from being dropped off outside of their workplace. So, what would they do if this service didn’t exist? “Walk, or Uber,” says driver Adrian Washington as he pilots the bus toward The Mall at Robinson. “They were walking along the street.” Washington drives a shuttle for RideACTA, a service operated by the Airport Corridor Transportation Association. The service shuttles people from the bus stop outside of IKEA and another in Carnegie to their workplaces. Previously, Washington drove a school bus. Now, he shuttles upwards of 40 people each day on the final leg of their daily commute to work and back. From the bus stop outside of IKEA, he ferries passengers to stops as far away as the Community College of Allegheny County’s West Hills campus and Alorica on Campbell’s Run Road. Having the service, he estimates, has made a big difference in peoples’ lives. “Like two miles from IKEA, that’s a big situation change,” he says. The Airport Corridor Transportation Association - or ACTA - is nothing new in the area. The organization was started 30 years ago. Ten years ago, it started RideACTA under the federal Job Access/Reverse Commute program. The service is now largely funded by PennDOT. Lynn Manion, ACTA’s director, says that the service started out utilizing a traditional bus that traveled on a fixed route. That didn’t go well. “We got very little ridership,” she says. “So we learned quickly that wasn’t going to work.” RideACTA then switched to using a call-in system with smaller shuttles and the service eventually became a success. About five years ago, ACTA secured the necessary funds from PennDOT to construct the bus stop outside of IKEA on property donated by the furniture company. Gov. Tom Corbett even stopped in for the ribbon cutting. Then a couple of years ago, businesses in the area requested that ACTA establish a second hub in Carnegie, largely to service employees heading to work along Campbell’s Run Road. Between the two hubs, RideACTA now provides about 85,000 rides per year. “Over the past few years, ridership has really grown,” says Manion RideACTA operates from 6 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Friday, and during certain hours on Saturdays. Rather than call in, many riders now use an app that allows them to request a ride. A RideACTA driver receives the request, along with the rider’s location, on a tablet. Over the past few months, ACTA has also been working with Carnegie Mellon University to analyze its shuttle service’s travel data in an effort to make it as efficient as possible. Later this year, ACTA will be expanding RideACTA with a third hub along University Boulevard in Moon Township. Shuttles will ferry riders from a bus stop to places like Robert Morris University and various hotels and retail centers along the busy artery. Since buses only run during rush hour, Manion says the service will probably start out operating during those hours as well. Still, she’s hoping it will make the same kind of difference for people there that it has in the communities where RideACTA currently operates. For instance, after dropping off one rider, Washington got a message on his tablet just as he was heading back to the bus stop outside of IKEA. After pulling up outside of Walmart, he found his passenger. Looking tired, the woman, who was about retirement age, climbed on the bus and commented how she’d just gotten off her midnight shift at the store. She was now heading back into Pittsburgh to work the concession stand at a college basketball game. For another passenger who gave his name as Bryant, the service isn’t just a convenience - it’s an alternative to driving. Before moving back to Pittsburgh, Bryant lived in Miami Beach and Los Angeles, where he grew accustomed to taking public transportation. Even though he lives nearby and could drive, he prefers to avoid the traffic. That, in turn, helps curtail not only traffic but also air pollution, which is another goal of RideACTA. “It’s a wonderful service,” says Bryant. “This is great for me.” For more on RideACTA, and to download the service’s app, visit actapgh.org. STORY AND PHOTOS BY DOUG HUGHEY RideACTA to start new service in Moon as ridership grows ABOVE: A RideACTA shuttle leaves from the stop in Robinson Town Centre. BELOW: The service’s drivers now get ride requests on a tablet mounted in their cab. BOTTOM: Driver Adrian Washington used to drive kids to school. Now he provides people with much-needed rides to work. March/April 2020 • www.awmagazine.com • 17CAround Your Town Around Your Town A look at Clever Park’s new playground Robinson residents said “goodbye” to Clever Park’s old playground at the beginning of this year. The 20-year-old wooden structure, which had originally been built by volunteers, was torn down to make way for a new playground that should be up and running by the end of May. The new play area will feature all-new equipment, including new swings, slides, rock-climbing walls, monkey bars, tubes and more. The ADA-accessible play area will also have a separate section for younger children, wheelchair-accessible ramps and a rubber surface throughout. “The playground will be considered an inclusive playground,” says Curtis Bischof, the playground’s designer, of General Recreation. “This means children of all ages and abilities can play there.” He says both the main play structure and a feature called a sway fun glider will have ADA-accessible ramps for wheelchairs. The sway fun glider is a kind of big rocking seat that can accommodate eight or more children. Other features include a merry-go-round called an omnispin that’s made out of durable molded plastic rather than metal like the merry-go-rounds found on older play areas. Adjacent to the main play area, there will be a separate play structure for children ages 5 and under. Each play area will have its own set of swing sets, for a total of 10 swings. Four of those swings will be ADA- accessible and another two will be tot swings. Bischof says the equipment is manufactured by Landscape Structures, which has also supplied equipment for playgrounds in Pittsburgh’s Blue Slide Park, Frick Park, Marshall Township and elsewhere. The $350,000 project is being funded in part by a $125,000 Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources grant that was matched with township funds. Though the playground could have been constructed with just those funds, Robinson manager Frank Piccolino says that the township opted to also install the three-inch thick soft rubber surface because it offered a number of advantages. “We realized we wanted to add the rubber surface which is less maintenance than mulch and could help with safety and accessibility, which is big,” he says. The new surface will also help with drainage, which had become an issue at the old playground, particularly where ruts had formed and allowed puddles to form. Picconlino says he expects the necessary paperwork to be finished in March and for the install to occur over the course of two weeks in April. The rubber surface will then be poured sometime in May, which should mean the playground will be open by the end of that month. Its large footprint will stay the same and the play area will have room to grow in the future. The new playground is just one of a number of recreation projects the township has undertaken in recent years. Two years ago, Robinson renovated the Clever Park Pool. In addition to creating a zero-depth wading area, Robinson also installed new slides, water features and play equipment at the pool. The township also renovated the Bicentennial Pavilion in Clever Park. This fall, Robinson will be taking on another big project when ground breaks on the township’s new police station. The $4.8 million project entails constructing a free-standing, 9,600 square-foot single-level building adjacent to the current station. Piccolino says the department, which now has 30 officers, had outgrown its current space. Though the project is still in the design and development stage, Piccolino says he believes the project should be under roof by next winter. In the coming months, Robinson will also be undertaking $1 million worth of road projects. Part of that work will entail repaving the Station Street Bridge and adding storm water runoff infrastructure to Glass Road and Elliot Drive. ABOVE: These digital renderings by General Recreation provide a preview of Robinson’s new Clever Park playground. The top picture shows how the entire new play area will look. The picture in the middle shows the main play area and the one at the bottom shows the play area for children ages 5 and under. BOTTOM: One of the features in the new playground will be a molded plastic merry-go-round. This picture from General Recreation shows the merry-go-round at another playground. STORY BY DOUG HUGHEY 18 • Allegheny West Magazine • March/April 2020March/April 2020 • www.awmagazine.com • 19Next >