CEASRA 37th anniversary celebration
GROVE CITY — The founders of the Citizens Environmental Association of Slippery Rock Area didn’t know 37 years ago where their work would lead.
Several of the association’s founders gathered at Grove City Memorial Park on Thursday, Aug. 1, for an evening of commemoration and conversation, while also raising awareness about key environmental issues facing area communities.
Among the founders and past presidents who attended the anniversary celebration were Tony Consbruck and Ted Kneupper, both of whom helped write the bylaws of the original CEASRA charter in 1987, which started over the issue of sewer sludge in Butler County.
“A group of concerned citizens got together, and Ted Kneupper was instrumental in putting it together,” said Consbruck, former president of the association. “We formed CEASRA, and we did indeed dissuade Butler Area Sewage Authority from putting in the landfill.”
One attendee, Judy Hines, brought a cookbook CEASRA produced as a fundraiser to help stop an incinerator from being built where the Grove City Outlets now stand.
“We fought really hard and it’s kind of coincidental, because we lived there and made homemade signs saying ‘no toxic incinerator,’” Hines said.
Attendees listened to the band Treebeard Brown, which played at 5 p.m. prior to the 6 p.m. award ceremony with brief introductions for past and current CEASRA contributing members.
“This is nice,” said Jim Highland, Grove City Chairman of Grants and Social Outreach. “We’re getting a good turnout here, so I’m happy about that.”
Following the awards ceremony, live music continued as Sunny Day Treats provided ice cream. On the lawn, games of cornhole and croquet were played.
CEASRA’s activities encompass a broad spectrum of projects to help protect the health, air and water of the greater Grove City area. Currently, the group’s primary focus centers on the ongoing appeals of the Tri-County landfill fracking waste, garbage permits in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court and the PA-EPA Environmental Hearing Board.
“I am humbled to see that this still has maintained itself doing what it needs to do,” Consbruck said.
“We heard about this through our family and we wanted to come out and support them,” Charlottesville, Va., resident Darlene VanEvery said. She and her husband, Henry VanEvery, said they face the same issues regarding landfill fracking waste. “We have two little granddaughters, and we don’t want things like that in the ground or in the air.”
The VanEverys said they came to “listen to some music, get some ice cream, spend time with family and support the cause.”
