March 2020 Est. 1985
The Northside Chronicle
Volume 36 Issue 3 - FREE -
The Community Newspaper of Pittsburgh’s Historic Northside
Longtime Elks Club member, bartender turns 92 By Janine Faust George “Mr. Entertainment” Martin, now a nonagenarian, still lives up to his nickname. The weekend bartender at Allegheny Elks Lodge #339 inspired plenty of cheers while serving 92 drinks the night of Jan. 31, two days before he officially turned 92 on Feb. 2. “Service with a smile,” he sang, setting a beer down with a flourish in front of a grinning patron. This was Martin’s third birthday in a row counting up to his age in served drinks at Lodge #339 in Historic Deutschtown. Dozens of lodge members from across the Pittsburgh metropolitan area turned out to
Photo by Ashlee Green
Photo by Ashlee Green
Martin conducts the crowd in a live rendition of "Happy Birthday" at the Elks Lodge #339. celebrate this year, with appearances by local celebrities and officials. Proceeds from the celebration, which was sponsored by the Northside Leadership Conference (NSLC), went to Lodge #339. A lifelong Northside resident, Martin has been a member of Lodge #339 for 70 years. He’s held various positions, including Exalted Master, Chaplain and Entertainment Chairman. “Every time I got on the stage [in the lodge], it was to make people laugh,” he said. Martin has carried this mission over to his most consistent position there — volunteer weekend bartender. He’s believed See George, Page 27
INSIDE
Dr. Cathy Sigmund, second from left, and Executive Director Cindy Loughman, second from right, at the Feb. 7 ribbon cutting and open house for the renovated North Side Christian Health Center in Historic Deutschtown. The center earned a federal grant in the fall of 2018, which went toward turning the third level's open floor plan into offices for psychotherapy sessions.
New behavioral health services in NS By Ashlee Green
One in four people in the U.S. lives with mental illness, according to the Mental Health Association in Pennsylvania (MHAPA). North Side Christian Health Center (NSCHC) Executive Director Cindy Loughman knows it’s a problem, especially with the vulnerable populations that often come through the Center’s doors. “The need is great. The wait for mental health services can be months,” she said. “When you’re dealing with mental health, ‘months’ really isn’t an option.” NSCHC, described on their website as “an anchor in Pittsburgh's economically challenged and socially depressed North Side,” has provided primary care
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health services to patients since its start in 1993. Thanks to a federal grant for “several hundred thousand dollars,” Loughman said, which they received in the fall of 2018, they are now amping up their behavioral health services and will be integrating them
into primary care. They held an open house and ribbon cutting on Feb. 7 to introduce the public to their remodeled space and a few of their providers. “We applied for the grant and got the money and then the real work started,” said Loughman. They hired Dr. Cathy Sigmund, who retired as a professor from Geneva College to take a job as a psychologist at NSCHC, plus three part-time counselors. Leger Construction Inc. renovated the third floor, which previously had an open floor plan, into offices to make them more welcoming for both individual and group psychotherapy sessions. NSCHS also Photo by Ashlee Green began contracting with a company called Grant money will also go toward telepsy- InSight to offer telepsychiatry services chiatry and virtual reality (VR) therapy. See Health, Page 5
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