Home >  Local News >  Neighborhoods

Monday, November 04, 2002

By Jan Ackerman, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The Three Rivers Rowing Association will hold the grand opening Saturday of its second boathouse, this one at a new riverfront park in Millvale, a North Hills community that is hoping to become a link in the region's riverfront redevelopment.

	Three Rivers Rowing Association's new boathouse under construction at Riverfront Park in Millvale. (Martha Rial, Post-Gazette)

With the opening of the $1 million boathouse, Millvale officials hope that their somewhat-secluded riverfront park, located under the 40th Street Bridge, will become a regional center for rowing and skateboarding.

If outsiders can find it, that is.

The directional signs for Millvale Riverfront Park are small and the entrance to the park off Route 28 is easy to miss.

"We have to work on that," said Millvale Mayor James Burn, one of the community leaders who are trying to capitalize on the borough's assets -- its convenient location, inexpensive housing stock and somewhat offbeat business district.

The ribbon cutting for the boathouse will be at 10 a.m., followed by a reception and tours of the new facility.

Mike Lambert, executive director of Three Rivers Rowing Association, said his organization selected Millvale's new park as the site for the boathouse and a training facility because of its location on a back waterway of the Allegheny River and because of the cooperative spirit of Millvale officials.

	Mike Lambert, executive director of Three Rivers Rowing Association, said the Millvale site was chosen because of its location along the Allegheny River and because of the cooperative spirit of Millvale officials. (Martha Rial, Post-Gazette)

"The docks for this new boathouse are in the back channel," said Lambert. "When we think about situating a boathouse on these major rivers, which are big and working, we look for a 'safe harbor' in a back channel. That is critical when you think of the number of novices and beginners we put on the water every year."

He said the rowing association, which opened its first boathouse in 1989, offers programs in rowing, kayaking and dragon-boat racing for youths and adults, including beginners and persons with physical or visual disabilities. It has outgrown its boathouse at Washington's Landing at Herrs Island, also on the back channel, and has been looking for a suitable place to expand for several years.

Current membership is about 1,560, including rowers from 15 high schools, four colleges and 21 corporate rowing programs. By 2004, enrollment is projected to increase to 2,550.

In about two years, the rowing association hopes to build a third facility at Neville Island.

In Millvale, the new boathouse is actually two buildings, one for storing boats and the other for training.

The training center has two indoor rowing tanks that allow 16 people to simulate rowing with sliding seats and pools of circulating water. It also has a weight room, space for indoor rowing machines, lockers, showers and rooms to house equipment.

Plans call for converting an abandoned railroad bridge, currently owned by CSX Railroad, into a pedestrian walkway that will link the new boathouse to the older one at Washington's Landing.

"It would allow pedestrian access from the trails on Washington's Landing and upstream," Lambert said.

Millvale is working to develop a bicycle trail that will link the community to Washington's Landing and to the river trail along the north shore of the Allegheny to the Point in Pittsburgh. Future plans call for taking the trail north through Shaler.

Lambert said Pittsburgh foundations provided about 85 percent of the funding for the new boathouse. The remainder came from corporate and individual donors.

Burn, a vocal booster of Millvale, is delighted that Millvale Riverfront Park, which had its grand opening in July, is housing a regional recreational facility.

The new park was created after the borough bought 13 acres of riverfront property beneath the 40th Street Bridge for $1 in 1999. The borough obtained state and federal grants to develop it into a park and to build a gazebo, a covered picnic pavilion and a portion of a bicycle trail.

This year, Mike Speranzo, owner of a Millvale recording studio, is operating Mr. Small's Waterfront Skate Park inside the riverfront park. The skate park has a snack shop, a retail skate shop and half-pipes, along with other ramps and obstacles for skateboarding.

Speranzo, a former band member and highly ranked amateur skateboarder, also has a recording studio called Mr. Small's Funhouse and Mr. Small's Funhouse Theatre in a former church in Millvale.

For a brief time in 2001, Millvale even had a water taxi service to carry passengers down the Allegheny to Downtown. That business didn't make it, although the directional water taxi signs still are around.

"We are hoping it will come back," Burn said.

Millvale, which has a population of about 4,028, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, sits in a valley between the cliffs in neighboring Reserve and Shaler. Its business district boasts of several reasons for non-residents to stop, including a French bakery on North Avenue, owned by French-born Jean-Marc Chatellier, and several candy makers, Regis Steedle Candies at 1149 Evergreen Ave. and Yetter's Candies at 504 Grant Ave.

Fred Bohn, owner of the Attic Record Store at 513 Grant Ave., said people come from all over the world to his store, which specializes in new and used records, and unusual items that are not easy to find.

"Millvale is kind of like the old Jenkins Arcade," Bohn said, referring to a former Downtown shopping mall that was torn down to make way for Fifth Avenue Place.

Burn said some grant money was recently used to hire Jeff Schaffer as a Main Street manager. Schaffer is trying to attract new businesses, keep track of real estate and do some studies on Millvale's economic strengths and weaknesses.

Soon the borough's riverfront park will be teeming with rowers from all over the area. Burn hopes that the community of Millvale can capture some of that energy.