Paint job to cover damaged wall
REPUBLIC – Watching paint dry is a lot more interesting when it means improvements are being made to your neighborhood. The Redstone Township workers have completed the priming coat on a graffiti-covered wall at the corner of Main Street and Route 166 in Republic and will complete the painting as the weather permits. Ralph Rice, chairman of the supervisors, said other work might also be done to the former Kuznar’s service station property that was donated to the township several years ago.
Republic resident Frances Bowlin and former resident Jean Calvaresi DiNardo contacted the township supervisors recently, offering to take on the beautification project along with other volunteers. Several people offered to pay for the paint.
“She and I both went to the township because we needed help. We weren’t getting up on the ladder,” Bowlin said.
DiNardo said she was surprised at the speed of the response.
“We went one Monday and they came on the following Monday. I thought that was wonderful,” she said.
DiNardo said that although she now lives in Centerville, Republic is still her home.
“This is still my town. My father had a business here for 89 years, Calvaresi Hardware, and my mother still lives in town,” DiNardo said.
According to Rice, the workers put down eight truckloads of gravel to level the lot and start on the painting project.
“There’s a lot of possibilities there,” Rice said.
When the township first acquired the property, the supervisors discussed their options, including selling it to someone interested in building a business there, constructing a veterans memorial and small park with benches or creating more parking spaces.
“If we put in benches and shrubs, we could use parks and recreation money instead of taking money from the general budget,” Rice said.
Rice said the township had torn down an old garage and leveled off the lot when it first acquired the property, but then got involved in larger projects including the Main Street renovation in Republic.
When the garage was torn down several years ago, an old Mail Pouch Tobacco sign was uncovered on the remaining wall. Bowlin said she had wanted the sign saved, but Rice said there were several reasons to paint over it.
“The Mail Pouch sign was barely visible. It had been behind Kuznar’s wall all those years,” Rice said. “If you’re going to be painting a wall going into your community, I don’t think you want to be advocating the use of tobacco products.”
Rice said the wall would be painted gray and maroon, the same as the township building and the parks and recreation building.
Bowlin said that despite the loss of the Mail Pouch sign, she is pleased with the change in the vacant lot.
“We thought it was very nice. We’re trying to clean up our town,” Bowlin said.
DiNardo said more projects might be coming in the future.
“The more you clean up your town, the more positive things become,” DiNardo said.
Neither township nor state officials have any record of the old underground gasoline storage tanks being removed from the property, so future development of the lot could be limited.
Betsy Mallison of the state Department of Environmental Protection said there were Environmental Protection Agency records showing four tanks on the site, but if the tanks were not used after 1988, there is no need to remove them unless they are leaking.
Mallison said an environmental assessment would have to be done before the site is developed.