Ford City Memorial Day Eve Service Continuing

by Jonathan Weaver

An unforeseen electrical problem will not short circuit plans for an annual Ford City tradition later this month.

State Representative Jeff Pyle and Senator Don White said last week that First Energy crews have offered to fix the problem that arose during an upgrade in the re-wiring of electric utility infrastructure.

Ford City Lions King Lion Brad Baillie was grateful that the 50-plus year tradition will continue.

“For more than 50 years, the Ford City Lions Club has conducted our Memorial Day service on the Sunday night prior,” Baillie said. “When faced last week with the possibility that we could not darken the park for the Memorial Service, West Penn Power recognized the importance to our town and really stepped up.

The Lions Club is very grateful for their deeds.”

Representative Pyle said he understood that when large projects involving lots of different players such as the borough re-wiring is undertaken, small details sometimes get overlooked.

“When the Lions contacted me about the problem, I called West Penn and was really surprised by how ‘on the ball’ they were,” Pyle said. “Due to the recent re-wiring of the entire Borough, complications arose requiring large engineering design changes to the park’s electrical service and West Penn Power made this happen. The memorial service will continue in the park Sunday night (May 29) as it always has.”

As part of the agreement with West Penn Power, the company will replace 21 lights in Ford City Park three years ahead of their normal replacement schedule at no financial cost. The lights will also reduce the Borough’s electric bill by nearly 30 percent each month.

Representative Pyle will donate a 200-amp electrical service box for the event and will pay Master Electrician/Ford City resident David Kaczor for wiring.

“When this is all done, the Borough will have, for the first time, the ability to control the lights in the Park for whenever events like this arise,” Representative Pyle said. “In prior practice, it was necessary to call West Penn Power each time to perform the needed actions to make the park dark.”

Senator White was also glad the issue was resolved after he received calls from worried residents.

“This was a great project (Pyle) and I had to pull together very quickly to allow the Memorial Service in the park to continue in the proud tradition as Ford City has come to expect,” White said in a news release. “It would be a travesty to allow this unique display of gratitude for our veterans, past and present, to become a thing lost to history - (Pyle) and I were not going to allow that to happen.”

Ford City Council President Carol Fenyes said she and other Borough Council members are also grateful of First Energy/West Penn Power’s extra efforts.