The five persons elected to three-year terms on the Montour Trail Council board at November's annual meeting are all familiar names to the MTC and its supporters.

Three of the five--Bill Capp of Bethel Park, Hoyt Hall of Cecil, and Jesse Forquer of Robinson Township, Allegheny County--will be serving their second successive three-year term. Capp is active with the Bethel Park Friends of the Montour Trail and on various construction projects; Hall has been a stalwart with the Cecil Friends for a decade; and Forquer has directed the MTC trail monitor program and the Montour Trail/IKEA race.

Rejoining the board is Judy Thompson, former MTC treasurer who took a one-year hiatus in 2002 as required by the organization's by-laws. Thompson has served on Thornburg Borough's council for 10 years and is also board president of the YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh. She and her husband, Tom, have four grown children. "I have continued with the Montour Trail Council because it is a wonderful group of selfless, devoted, and determined people," she says.

The one truly new face on the MTC board is not a new name for readers of this publication: Astrid Cook, our newsletter editor. Cook is currently on leave from a marketing communications position while awaiting the birth of her second child (due at press time). Cook and her husband, tax attorney Alex Loshilov, live in Bethel Park and also have an 8-year-old daughter.

"I became involved with the MTC because I appreciate our country's green spaces and also appreciate that this all-volunteer organization has been so productive in helping to beautify southwestern Pennsylvania," Cook says.

Peter Kohnke has agreed to serve as MTC president for a third year during 2003.

- Bruce Barron