Dec. 10—At 3 p.m. Tuesday, the atmosphere in Monday’s Union Restaurant in Unity was positively serene compared with the same hour last week.
A handful of customers chatted at the bar while two others sat in the restaurant waiting for one of Monday’s popular pizzas.
The previous Tuesday, the main downstairs area was abuzz with constant activity as state troopers, first responders and mine safety officials began gearing up for what would be four days of search-and-rescue work.
The restaurant is mere feet from where 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard of Unity fell through a sinkhole on the evening of Dec. 2 as she was searching for a family cat. Pollard’s remains were found Friday.
As the excavation and search for Pollard carried on through last week, Monday’s owner Anita Iannuzzo was a regular sight on the property, in the same neon pink sweatshirt she was wearing when the restaurant reopened Tuesday afternoon.
“It changed our whole lifestyle all last week,” Iannuzzo said of the restaurant and its six employees. “Each day, we were trying to figure out what the situation was going to be.”
Iannuzzo offered the restaurant as a home base for emergency workers and media during the course of the search for Pollard. To keep them fed, local businesses provided so much food that Ianuzzo ended up giving most of it away.
“We donated most of it to all the first responders, the fire companies and state police,” she said.
Trooper Steve Limani, a Pennsylvania State Police spokesman, said the Iannuzzos’ generosity was a critical part of the operation.
“They were there from the beginning to offer us food and keep us warm,” Limani said. “And, as we got into several days of operation, they essentially turned the building over to us so we could host meetings and have a media staging area.”
Two mobile command posts were set up on the property during the course of the search, but Limani said they can fit only so many people.
“Those are great for the immediate command, but for a large-scale incident, they can get to be pretty tight,” he said. “And with subfreezing temperatures part of the time, having that place open was vital. They didn’t have to give us access, but they offered it up right away.”
Returning to normal
Hundreds of tons of dirt and coal had been cleared from the parking lot by Tuesday as workers from Ligonier Construction continue to deposit it back into the former Marguerite coal mine.
Much of the late-week digging took place beneath a one-story garage behind the restaurant, where Ianuzzo stored a tractor and a few other things.
“They’re telling us that they’re going to have to tear the garage down,” Iannuzzo said. “They filled the hole in on Friday, and when we came back yesterday, it had sunk a little.”
Iannuzzo said she was told the restaurant — a separate building from the garage — is not in danger from the mine.
Inside, Monday’s checkered floor was nearly spotless after a cleaning crew came in over the weekend to remove a week’s worth of muddy boot prints.
At the bar, 27-year-old Shawn Clark of Unity was trying to decide between pizza and another of Monday’s popular orders, chicken wings.
Iannuzzo said she was expecting a full house around dinnertime, now that the restaurant is open again.
“We have a lot of regulars,” she said.
Patrick Varine is a TribLive reporter covering Delmont, Export and Murrysville. He is a Western Pennsylvania native and joined the Trib in 2010 after working as a reporter and editor with the former Dover Post Co. in Delaware. He can be reached at pvarine@triblive.com.