Adventist Community Services to open used bookstore

[Key Guy]

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Full text: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06362/749336-57.stm

Quote:

Two new side-by-side stores are coming to the heart of Carnegie's business district with the purpose of enriching lives.

Adventist Community Services of Greater Pittsburgh will open a used bookstore and a computer room with Internet and WI-FI access, food and comfortable furniture in leased quarters at 40 E. Main St.

Its goal is to provide a variety of social services to the community, including job training and home renovation.

The job training, which will be done at the municipal building in conjunction with the chamber of commerce, will include resume writing, job search and interview tips, and aiding couples who are prospective entrepreneurs. The budding businessmen will be able to launch their ventures from the bookstore facility until ready to strike out on their own.

As for home renovation, the Adventists hope to restore dilapidated dwellings with the intent of making them available for sale.

"We're hoping this will lessen the number of landlords who don't take care of their properties," said Pastor Andrew Clark, 31, executive director of Adventist Community Services.

In a community where 40 percent of residential property are rental units, the home renovation program alone should be appealing.

Mr. Clark has met resistance from a few Carnegie council members who, in part, had zoning questions and thought the borough had enough churches.

The Adventists are a humanitarian arm of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

Mr. Clark was relentless in his quest for a home in Carnegie.

"When Adventist Services comes to town, we do not go halfway. I find it very ironic that it's been mentioned to me, 'Why do we need a social services agency when we have no need?' There is a real need," he told Carnegie council Dec. 11.

After clarifying the zoning concern and learning of support from the Carnegie Ministerium and many residents, officials were persuaded last week to grant the required conditional use permit for the bookstore and computer room.

One official who did not need persuading was Dorothy Kelly, who was council president when Hurricane Ivan struck in September 2004 and witnessed firsthand the assistance provided to people in Carnegie by church-affiliated organizations.

"If it were not for the churches, I don't know what this town would have done. You can't count on government. It's groups like these that help," she said, adding later her confidence in the Adventist approach of helping people help themselves.