As his wife Margie looks on, John Talarico (center)  talks  politics with Monessen Mayor Lou Mavrakis in Tallarico&rsquo;s barber shop in the basement of his home in Monessen. Pa.<br />
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Monessen, a third-class city, faces the same problems as th other former steel towns &mdash; declining population and tax revenue after the mills shut down. The city's population has dropped to 7,600 from a high of 20,268 in 1930.