Memorable Birthday 10/15/22

There are many reasons we remember particular birthdays - the people who helped you celebrate, where it was celebrated, a gift, events that happened on the day.... I anticipate I am among the very few who remember a birthday because that was the day the natural gas connector to your house was replaced.

When the State College West College Heights Neighborhood was created in the mid-1930s (from the northwestern quadrant of a large farm first settled by brothers John and Fred Krumrine prior to 1850), water and sewer lines were run down the streets.

On the streets where the first houses were built (including our street) nature gas main lines were run under fire alleys and in easements where utility poles carried electricity and phone line (and today also TV and internet cable lines) across the backs of lots. The age of the gas main in an easement at the back of our lot was the likely reason Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania decided to replace it this fall. A new gas main was run under our street, which meant new laterals to houses needed to be run.

Our new lateral was run on my birthday by the contracted company, Allegheny Construction, under the watchful eye of a Columbia Gas representative. The experienced workers laid the pipe and tracing mechanisms in an 80 ft long trench and resent the meter with great skill. A pneumatic drill was used to created a hole under a crab apple tree, through which the pipe was slid, limiting root damage. I elected to get involved by replacing the border landscape blocks and reseeding the lawn. But enough memories for one birthday - I will let a crew member repaint the meter.