I could have worked in the mill and made good money but by time I was out of school in 77 I saw the writing on the wall several entry gates at J&L south side and 2nd ave works had been permanently closed when they closed down certain shops. When my dad started at J&L in the 50's there where 10,000 workers that same type of mill today can be run with 500 or less So after J&L became LTV it was only 10 years and it was gone. thats why I was going to trade school so I would always find work with several skill sets.
My first assignment was watching an old abandoned mill building and equipment parked around it off of 2nd ave in Hazelwood you went thru a portal under the B&O Railroad tracks now a bike path . The joint Venture Electric company had the contract and I sat in a trailer and once an hour walked around not bad but one night a electric Boss sneaked into the site when there was over a foot of snow on the ground and accused me of sleeping yea right . He pulled up thru gate no lights and when I went to find out what the noise was when his car hit a bump he called the office trailer from the trailer next door as I was getting ready to walk out the door.
He was an arrogant ass hole found out he pulled it on other guards too so Burns no longer put up with his antics and refused to change out any more guards because this ass wipe thought it was a game . Both Joint venture Company's would go bankrupt and bought out in the intervening years. The building was torn down and UPMC now uses the upper and lower lots for employee parking for there Oakland Hospitals . After this incident I moved across the river to a site off Jane Street extension where at one time was an old Glass factory which was cut into hills and closed in the Depression and sat empty since 30's Duquesne Light company now known as DQE Was building a gigantic substation on the 2 tiered lot. Which had to be expanded and reinforced .
So back I go to my first days assignment first a couple blocks away they have me watching cars of workers in a lot for couple hours then at end of there shift I walk back up to the site to the guards trailer. there is a fenced gate at entrance but property is not fully fenced there is all kinds of trailers and equipment on site several acres in all. Working the site was pretty easy walking around and checking things and except for the occasional dog walker no issues. That is till one afternoon I get to the site and there are 2 off duty Zone 7# Pittsburgh Police officers from the Jane Street Station in the trailer. the 7# zone was reconfigured as Zone 3# the station now in Allentown . They have been hired to ride around in a pick up truck after Marsulla Contracting From Uniontown pa. equipment further down on the property line where they where installing the footers for the power line towers was damaged by vandals.Shame they where a great outfit thats no more .
After all we sat below the Arlington Heights and St Clair Village Projects a notorious group of section 8 apartment buildings originally built for steel workers family s during WWII My uncle and his family where one of the last white family's to move out do to all the violence in late 60's . Both projects have almost all been torn down now a couple of the nicer buildings now serve as college housing. Those who lived there are now dispersed to homes thru Carrick,Knoxville and Mt Oliver area and crime rates have sky rocketed its a shame because there are many nice black family's who lived in Arlington Heights and I went to Carrick High School with there children , but its always that 10-20% who cause the problems be it Bad Blacks or White Trash. Who live in section 8 housing.
Well after the officers came on duty for over nights from 3PM to 7AM I just patrolled the 2 terraces and they did the perimeter in the 4x4 pickup truck to get around in the mud and climb the steep inclined hill.
Needless to say I felt pretty safe having 2 cops around and things pretty much settled down except for few times where kids where caught drinking on the property after stealing some cases of beer from a local distributor and some vandals where caught I also got to know some great cops like Adam Mcnair and his K9 Rocky and Ray Lenigg and Sgt Red . I believe they have all passed on at this pint
This was an active construction site and there was mud everywhere but they used gravel and such to keep it under control. Everyday it was exciting to see what had been done the day before and some times I got to see workers working over doing there thing.
It took a little over 2 years to complete the project and J&L then LTV turned on the furnaces and used them for less than 2 years and totally shut down the south side works and most of 2nd ave furnaces except for byproducts where thankfully my father was able to transfer to.
DQE spent all that money 54 million at the time to get power there and got screwed by LTV . Luckily they tore down and completely rebuilt almost all of both sites so the power eventually was used from the sub station.
To be continued
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