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Riders need protection from trash at T stop
Eric Heyl is a Tribune-Review staff writer. He can be reached via e-mail or 412-320-7857.
Marcie Weaver doesn't expect her light-rail vehicle stop to be spotless.
But neither did she expect to be ignored after informing the Port Authority of Allegheny County that the Killarney Station in Castle Shannon was in less-than-pristine condition.
It isn't the leftover rock salt, the dozens of cigarette butts or the lollipop wrappers littering the bottom of the inbound platform shelter where she and others wait for the T that has her disgusted.
It's the used condoms.
"Don't you think that's filthy, just leaving them there like that?" a justifiably irate Weaver, 53, of Whitehall asked Tuesday. "You'd think (the authority) would want to take care of something like that immediately."
You would think so, but that obviously is not the case. Weaver, a retirement plan administrator, first noticed the residual trysting components about two weeks ago.
At the time, she had no reason to suspect their presence would become part of her daily commuting routine.
As the days passed, Weaver began to realize that they threatened to become as permanent a fixture at the stop as the no-smoking sign that -- judging from the prevalence of cigarette butts -- riders obviously ignore.
Weaver said she filed a complaint using a form on the authority's Web site on June 2. A day later, she received an automated replay saying her concerns would be forwarded to the appropriate party, someone apparently with the surname "Nobody."
"I thought maybe someone would take care of it over the weekend, but they were still there when I went to the stop on Monday," said Weaver. "I did notice that someone had emptied the trash cans, so it's not as if a maintenance person wasn't out there."
As of Tuesday afternoon, Weaver said she had yet to receive a response to a follow-up e-mail she sent to the authority.
The sources of Weaver's ire remained clearly visible yesterday under the shelter bench, where two Keystone Oaks High School juniors were on their way to the Penguins' rally Downtown.
"That's gross," Shea Daughtery, 17, of Dormont, said as Samantha Smith, 17, of Castle Shannon nodded in agreement.
Daniel Cusick, 61, a mediator from Mt. Lebanon waiting to catch the T, said he wasn't surprised to hear the authority has been lax in removing the offending items.
"You're telling me a government agency isn't getting something done?" he said. "That's not exactly a news flash, is it?"
Authority spokesman Jim Ritchie had no immediate explanation as to how the agency dropped the ball.
"We obviously apologize for the vandalism at the Killarney Station and for not tending to the problem more quickly," he said. "I can't tell you why this was missed, but we're certainly looking into it now."
Better look fast. Weaver said her next e-mail could go to the county health department.
