HOMER CITY STACKS ALMOST DEMOLISHED SATURDAY MORNING

A piece of Indiana County history was destroyed this morning as the iconic smokestacks for the Homer City Generating Station were brought down.

The stacks were destroyed on-schedule this morning at 7:30 with crowds lining roadways and watching from various points in Center Township to view the demolition.  Mark Bertig, Renda Media Vice President and General Manager, said he saw the stacks being built when Penelec started construction in the early 1960s.

Crews from Frontier Industrial performed the demolition, but all did not go to plan as a portion of the tallest tower remained standing.  After about ten minutes, the smaller cooling towers were destroyed, leaving more dust and pollutants than the smokestacks did when they went down.

Robin Gorman with Homer City Redevelopment, the property owners, said they do not know why one stack failed to fall completely, but they are looking into it.