Laurel: To hidden beauty. The relationship between art and houses of worship is well-documented. Throughout history, many of our most enduring works of art have been sacred expressions.
These masterworks do not just show up at the Vatican or in a famed cathedral or museum. Sometimes they are as close as a neighborhood parish.
On Sunday, St. Nicholas Church in Millvale was the site of an annual block party, welcoming people to view its painted treasures — the murals of Croatian immigrant Maxo Vanka.
The artworks are explosions of meticulous color acting as a counterpoint to the church’s stained-glass windows.
The event was held by the Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka, a nonprofit that has supported work at the church such as roof repairs, heating and cooling.
It is proof that what a community chooses to preserve can become a treasure worth sharing.
Lance: To hidden dangers. Western Pennsylvania is used to thinking about what’s underground. The region’s coal mining past means sinkholes and subsidence are part of the landscape people understand — even expect.
But not every hidden danger is a relic of the distant past. Some are far more recent and far more preventable.
In Harrison, the smell of gasoline led to the discovery of 10 underground fuel tanks dating to 1929, unregistered, structurally compromised and at least partially leaking into groundwater.
The tanks predate modern oversight, and, because of that, they slipped through the cracks — literally and figuratively — until they became a threat.
Pennsylvania has more than 21,000 registered underground tanks. The number of older, unaccounted-for ones is unknown.
That uncertainty is the problem. What we cannot see still carries consequences, and what we have not tracked cannot be trusted to stay contained.
