Holiday displays appear at Westmoreland courthouse despite resolution passed in 1997

A holiday display outside the Westmoreland County Courthouse on Main Street in Greensburg is something passersby may not have seen in years.

A 23-foot Christmas tree and a menorah in a frame were donated and placed last week.

Commissioner Sean Kertes said he asked Public Works Director Greg McCloskey to find someone who could donate a tree.

“I had the idea that with a new courtyard it would be nice to have seasonal items, like a Christmas tree. We wanted to mimic what Allegheny County does,” Kertes said.

A resolution passed by the Westmoreland County commissioners in 1997 forbids unattended temporary displays in the courthouse square.

That resolution was enacted to prevent the Ku Klux Klan from erecting a cross in front of the courthouse, according to Tom Balya, a former county commissioner who voted for it.

“That would have been our intent,” he said.

When asked about the tree and menorah, county Solicitor Melissa Guiddy said: “The resolution was enacted to address third-party applicants who had a desire to erect unattended temporary displays in (the) courthouse square. The resolution would be inapplicable as the present display did not involve a third-party request.”

Balya countered, saying the phrase “third-party request” doesn’t appear in the resolution.

“We just discussed attended or unattended displays,” he said.

In December 1996, klansmen went to the courthouse in an effort to have a 6-foot cross erected in front of the building for the holidays, according to Tribune-Review archives. Their application was rejected because county officials said it wasn’t filed in a timely manner.

Two months later, the resolution was passed. In it, commissioners cited federal court rulings that forced authorities to permit displays, even if they would be repugnant, offensive and/or abhorrent to county officials and the public. In an effort to act uniformly and avoid a legal battle, the commissioners chose to ban unattended displays, the board said at the time.

The resolution also banned a Nativity scene that had been erected annually by a volunteer group of ministers and ice sculptures carved by local students, according to Tribune-Review archives. In the years since, private groups have performed a live Nativity scene during the holidays as a workaround to the resolution.

In Allegheny County, Pittsburgh’s Department of Public Works oversees the traditional placement of a tree near the City-County Building. A tree was placed there in mid-November, continuing a tradition that started in 1914.