It was another sad day in Southwestern Pennsylvania with the passing of Cranberry Supervisor and SPC Commissioner Richard Hadley,” said Vincent Valdes, SPC Executive Director. Commissioner Hadley represented Butler County on the Commission since 2015. He was dedicated to real-world planning and championed mixed use and complete streets policies for Cranberry Township as a long-time township supervisor. He brought his passion for planning to SPC’s regional forum and we will miss his expertise on how to plan for growing communities. Every day, the residents of Cranberry Township are witness to and of his life-long, dedicated public service.

Vincent Valdes

https://www.butlereagle.com/20220825/longtime-cranberry-supervisor-chairman-dies-2/

The State Senate Transportation Committee met with PennDOT officials Wednesday in Pittsburgh to discuss different ideas to fix bridges across Pennsylvania, now that tolling is off the table.

PennDOT planned to implement tolling on at least nine major bridges across the state, including the I-79 bridge in Bridgeville, in order to pay for their repair or replacement, but lawsuits stopped that from happening.

Now, alternative ideas are being considered.

One option is an electric vehicle fee potentially based on mileage.

“It’s a priority of the committee to get something to the finish line for mileage-based user fees for electric vehicles,” said State Sen. Wayne Langerholc. “Those are users that are using our roads just the same as we are when we fill up our pumps.”

Another issue the committee looked at is how to deal with out-of-state drivers who only use highways, like the turnpike, and fill up with gas where it’s cheaper before crossing state lines.

The committee also heard from members of the construction industry about whether the projects can be done more affordably and with Pennsylvania companies as the lead contractors.

Read the full story at WTAE.com

A big part of having a job is getting to the job.

And that was a big part of the hiring fair that Amazon held at Steel Valley Transit in Steubenville on Tuesday.

More than two-dozen job seekers filed through the Robert J. Cutri Multi-Modal Center downtown, hoping to hear back on a job offer from the Imperial, Pa. Amazon Warehouse.

The job fair is the brainchild of Amy Kirlangitis, a Weirton woman who took a positive approach to being unemployed during the pandemic.

She found bringing a large Pittsburgh-area employer in drew job seekers. She went to work in the Amazon Warehouse.

“The recruiting office hired me, and I work there full-time ,and they said you can feed your passion. You can help the Ohio Valley come work for us,” said Kirlangitis, who is now Amazon Pittsburgh’s staffing coordinator.

Kirlangitis said with help from Ronda Craig, public involvement coordinator, Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, and Tim Turner of SVRTA, the issues of transportation were handled.

“There’s no blanket statement that says we’re on welfare, we don’t want to work. They can’t get out. They can’t get out of their dysfunction, they want to work, they just need a way,” Kirlangitis said.

“We definitely team up with (Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson MPC) here in Steubenville, and we have seen over the last five years that I’ve been with the SPC that people are trying to commute from down here,” Craig said.

SPC and BHJ coordinated a rideshare and vanpooling system, with the bus routes being the next step.

Read the full article at wtov9.com