LET IT SNOW! Then get it out of here. An accumulation of snow or ice of one inch or more must be removed from public walkways within 24 hours of the end of the snowfall. Business owners must clear their sidewalks within four hours of accumulation between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays. In addition, in the 24-hour period after a snowfall of one inch or more, there is no on-street parking between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. to allow snowplows the room they need to clear streets.  Violators of the ordinance can expect to pay anywhere from $5 to $1,000 based on how many offenses they have accrued (and each day you are in violation can count as a separate offense).

LEBO BLANKET SALE Looking for a unique gift? The Mt. Lebanon Foundation for Education is selling plush 60-by-80-inch stadium blankets for $65. Proceeds benefit MLFE, which is working  to provide a permanent source of financial support that will enable Mt. Lebanon School District to expand and enhance learning opportunities for its students. Blankets can be picked up in Central Administration at Mt. Lebanon High School. Call 412-325-8201 or visit the MLFE page at www.mtlsd.org to order.

RECYCLE THE RIGHT WAY

So we’re supposed to recycle cardboard, but not cardboard pizza boxes. What do they have against pizza boxes? 

As part of the recycling process, the cardboard is “pulped”—shredded into small pieces and then mixed with water and chemicals to produce a slurry. The pulp is blended with finely ground wood chips and filtered to get rid of impurities such as string or tape. Food grease cannot be filtered out, and since all of the material is mixed together, one pizza box, or any other greasy cardboard, can contaminate an entire load. Please put your pizza boxes in the regular weekly garbage.

STAY ALERTED Sign up for LeboALERT, a web-based notification system, at leboalert.mtlebanon.org. The free service allows you receive information via text or email. Choose from several categories, including public safety, traffic, refuse, cancellations and closures and special events. Sign up for as many alerts as you want, and you can change your preferences regularly. In the case of a life-threatening emergency, Mt. Lebanon’s emergency management team would send a pre-recorded message to every resident’s landline using the list provided by Verizon specifically for that purpose.

SMART MOVES Carnegie Mellon University is helping Mt. Lebanon bring its travel and parking resources into the 21st century using advanced technology in the hopes of making intersections more efficient and maximizing parking revenue. It’s all part of a contest the university conducted, called the Smart Mobility Challenge, where communities in Southwestern Pennsylvania could apply for a share of a $400,000 grant from the USDOT National University Transportation Center for Mobility, Mobility 21.

For our project, CMU will help Mt. Lebanon and Dormont improve traffic flow and parking. CMU faculty and students will help design parking management software, likely through an app, that will help officials decide what parking should cost in different locations and at different times. For example, drivers may pay more where demand for parking is greater and less where it’s least sought.

The project also will study how to upgrade signalization at intersections to improve traffic movement.

Commercial districts manager Eric Milliron, the liaison to the project, says there’s no timeline yet.

The project is one of several that won the University’s Smart Mobility Challenge. The contest and subsequent grant award were meant to demonstrate how innovative technology can improve mobility. Only towns in the 10-county Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission region were eligible to apply. Bethel Park won the opportunity to study pedestrian, cyclist and driver counts using an Intelligent Mobility Meter, a portable counting device.

The City of Pittsburgh has been a leader in such pilot projects, and has tested such technology as autonomous vehicles.

WHERE THE MONEY GOES The Mt. Lebanon Finance Department’s transparency portal, OpenLebo, covers municipal money matters such as year-to-date budgeting information, debt service, annual reports, balance sheets and more at mtlebanonpa.opengov.com/transparency. You can also get there by going to www.mtlebanon.org and clicking on the OpenLebo icon on the middle of the screen. The manager’s recommended budget, also available at www.mtlebanon.org, contains links to pertinent sections of OpenLebo.

CATCH A MEETING You can view all of the meetings of the commission, and the parks, sports advisory, traffic, environmental sustainability, parking facility and historic preservation boards, and read agendas and minutes of those and other Mt. Lebanon boards and authorities by clicking on the “Meeting Videos” link on Mt. Lebanon’s home page, www.mtlebanon.org. Videos typically are indexed and posted the day after the meeting. If you don’t want to watch the entire meeting, you can click on the portion you want to view.

MEDICAL RESCUE MEMBERSHIP Medical Rescue Team South’s annual membership drive is getting under way next month. An annual fee of just $47 per individual and $75 per household covers any co-pay, deductible or balance related to ambulance billing. A household subscription covers anyone who needs an ambulance while residing in or visiting your house. You can also purchase a business subscription for $70, plus $5 for each employee. If you did not receive a membership packet in the mail, visit www.mrtsa.com and join online or call 412-343-5111. Membership is good from January 1 through December 31, 2018.

DO SOME GOOD Global Links, a Pittsburgh-based humanitarian aid organization, is looking for families with children of all ages to work together sorting and preparing medical equipment for donation. Shifts are available on Saturday, December 9 and 16, from 10 to noon and from 1 to 3, at Global Links headquarters, 700 Trumbull Drive in Green Tree. Registration is required, as space is limited. To register, log on to www.globallinks.org/volunteer/family-volunteer-days. Questions, call Stacy Bodow, community engagement manager, at 412-361-3424, ext. 205.