Pittsburgh poised to stable police horses at North Side's Riverview Park

Pittsburgh is poised to lease the shuttered Riverview Valley Stables in the North Side's Riverview Park for stabling police horses.

City Council on Tuesday introduced legislation that would authorize a five-year contract of up to $81,000 with stables owner Stacey Himmelstein-White. The Himmelstein family operated the stables for generations before closing in recent years.

Police Cmdr. Ed Trapp, who heads the Special Deployment Division, said the city would use the facility as an operations base for its newly established mounted unit. Horses will also be stabled in South Park with Allegheny County Police horses.

“The one drawback to South Park is the travel time back and forth,” Trapp said.

The city has five horses and is in the process of acquiring a sixth. Trapp said officers have been training with their mounts since last year.

“When they're set to be patrolling in town, they'll operate out of Riverview stables,” Trapp said. “For training purposes, there's a good possibility some of them, if not all of them, will be out at South Park on different days.”

He said the city hopes to have horses and officers trained and outfitted for deployment in May.

Council is expected to schedule a preliminary vote on the contract for next week.

Bob Bauder is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-765-2312, bbauder@tribweb.com or via Twitter @bobbauder.