Pittsburgh City Council

Beltzhoover rec center next in line for Stop the Violence funds.

Written by Amy Whipple

McKinley Recreation Center in Beltzhoover could soon run out-of-schooltime programming with $200,000 from the city's Stop the Violence (STV) fund.

Council agreed to move forward with a request to use the money from the fund for out-of-schooltime services and programming at McKinley Recreation Center in Beltzhoover.

This follows a similar request made by Council Member Barb Warwick of Greenfield earlier this month. She asked council to authorize $200,000 for programming at Glen Hazel’s Burgwin Recreation Center, which received final approval during council’s July 28 general meeting.

“If that’s the vehicle that we’ll be using to fund these programs, I want to make sure that my district, folks at Upper McKinley that do summer and afterschool and senior programming and don’t receive any funding from the city, that they have the opportunity as well,” said Council Member Bob Charland of the South Side.

Council Member Kim Salinetro of Banksville said she is studying using the same funding source for Ream Recreation Center in Mount Washington.

Council President R. Daniel Lavelle of the Upper Hill District reminded council members, “These funds were specifically set aside for violence prevention efforts, specifically to reduce homicides, 80% of which are, unfortunately, due to gun violence,” he said.

He added that, while he has voted in favor of these short-term funding solutions for rec centers, the centers do not attract the youth population most at risk for gun violence. “They’re not going there no matter how much they’ve tried to program,” he said.

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