This week, the nonprofit Heritage Community Initiatives celebrated a quarter-century of providing bus service for dozens of eastern Allegheny County communities — and now, its leadership is using a recently completed analysis to make the service better.

Heritage’s bus service currently consists of three main routes covering just over 81 miles, serving several municipalities in the Mon Valley, spanning from Swissvale, Liberty, Wilkins, Monroeville and many places in between. There are 81 stops, and the nonprofit has an annual budget of just over $1 million to operate the system, according to Heritage President and CEO Paula McWilliams.

Of that, 85% is funded through PennDOT, and the other 15% is funded through local sources. The county has funded that remaining gap in recent years, she said.

On Tuesday, Ms. McWilliams, with other Heritage officials and partners, announced service enhancements to the system, along with a recently formed partnership with Pittsburgh Transportation Group, a company that provides the buses and drivers to operate the system. Molly Allwein, vice president of transportation services for Heritage, said during a news conference that some of those enhancements include full service on weekdays, Wi-Fi on all buses, a new data collection system to learn more about ridership patterns, and an app for riders to track where buses are. Heritage officials have also been able to maintain a 25-cent fare for rides.

Along with all the service changes, Ms. McWilliams said that she and others are currently reviewing an analysis completed by Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh Regional Transit, Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission and national consultants on Heritage’s bus system.

That analysis concluded that the nonprofit could do better to improve its brand recognition and that minor route changes and times might be in order — but Ms. McWilliams stressed any discussions of potential changes are preliminary.

She and others said it’s important to consider the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on transit and how people use it to get around. According to data provided by Heritage, there were 87,255 rides provided from July 2019 through June 2020. That dropped to 42,283 rides from July 2023 through June 2024, although officials anticipate that number to rise by roughly 8% in the next 12 months, through marketing and community outreach.

That drop in ridership mirrors a drop in the nonprofit’s financial performance as reported in its IRS 990 forms. It ended fiscal year 2020 with 87,255 rides and $400,000 in the black, but ended last year with a $248,000 loss.

Ms. McWilliams said the recent analysis showed that perhaps there might not be much change in fixed routes but an increased need for microtransit, or meeting people where they are.

“Do you do on-demand only service? Do you run a circulator only within a certain area, so analyzing how that service is delivered? …We are in the midst of [looking at] that right now,” she said.

Public transit is key to economic development, she said, and where companies decide to locate can determine how service might be impacted, at least broadly, she said.

There’s also the challenge of operating a transit system in a post-COVID world. Juan Hernandez, GM of the Pittsburgh Transportation Group — the contractor providing service on Heritage’s routes — said many bus drivers across the region decided to retire during the pandemic. Finding bus drivers with good backgrounds and the proper licensing is now a challenge, he said.

Ms. McWilliams echoed that, noting along with education and nutrition — two other major sectors that Heritage operates in — transportation is a compliance-heavy industry.

“I think we were a little bit spoiled before, and we didn’t even know, didn’t even realize it, as far as having operators and bringing them in whenever we needed them,” Mr. Hernandez said.

He and others said it’s also important to continue marketing Heritage’s new rider app, in order to make riding on the system easier to use.

Ultimately, larger economic forces — how many people return to the office versus working remotely, whether employers require it, and where businesses locate — will determine what changes to service might occur, Ms. McWilliams said.

But in a system where almost 80% of riders don’t have access to a car, figuring out how to improve that service is vital, she said.

“It’s important to always keep your eye on the ball for efficient and effective service, and service delivery,” Ms. McWilliams said.

View the full article at post-gazette.com.

In the event of a major flood, do you know what to do?

That was a question posed at the Extreme Event Workshop led by the Pennsylvania Silver Jackets on Thursday. Community leaders and stakeholders took part in an hour-long game that challenged them to budget for resources and work with other teams to solve hypothetical problems that could appear during a flooding scenario.

The workshop was led by Patricia Usher, community planner and public involvement specialist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pittsburgh District, who previously worked for the Huntingdon Silver Jackets team and completed several workshops with West Virginia groups.

“We’re hoping to do a lot more of these,” she said, “because it’s a great way to get people to learn about the planning process.”

Among the participants was Indiana County Commissioner Sherene Hess.

“(I wanted to gain) some knowledge,” she said, “about what I can do in my role to be the most effective for when these events do occur, and to meet all these partners — local, federal and state — and there’s lots of good opportunities here.”

Set in the hypothetical River City — complete with all the right conditions for a major flood, including recent snow melt and incoming heavy rain — participants were split amongst six sectors: First Responders, Households, Businesses, Community Groups, Federal Officials and Local/State Officials.

Their first task was to take 24 cards, representing hypothetical manpower, equipment and other important resources typically allocated by different sectors, and asked to budget for 12. Participants had no additional details other than basic facts about River City and the knowledge of an incoming flood emergency.

With a crack of thunder and steady rainfall, the flood waters came and presented a new challenge to the participants. Now split amongst six different neighborhoods within River City, they had to work together to allocate as many resources to different issues as possible.

In one neighborhood, the hydroelectric power station was damaged, forcing responders to choose to divert power to the local hospital or nursing homes and emergency shelters. Another had to choose to flood the historic district or allow rising waters to consume the local research laboratories.

The room was just as chaotic as an actual disaster, with participants bartering amongst a loud and busy room for resources to solve their unique issues.

In the end, only the Meadowland residents, who faced a decision to transfer inmates in the local prison to neighboring towns or to set up a temporary shelter in the city, was able to allocate enough resources to successfully transfer these imaginary inmates to other regional prisons.

“We were unaware of a (secure shelter) may be,” Planning Section Deputy Director of the Indiana County Planning and Development Office Josh Krug said, “and knew that there were other communities, and we were hopeful that we could come to some agreement to be able to transfer some of the inmates.”

Many noted challenges in the planning process and communication. One team discarded their warm clothing and heaters “resources” as they noted the warm weather and determined those wouldn’t be as important, but for many scenarios, that was the key element that was missing.

“One of the things that was noticeable, if we were able to talk to each other across sectors — picking our resources — we would have picked differently, and that is kind of the point. We’re not talking to each other. We’re working in our own little vacuums to prepare for things, so that when it happens, you wouldn’t know what’s going on.”

When discussion solutions to these communications and planning issues, FEMA Region 3 Interagency Recover Coordination Branch Chief Wynne Kwan said that it is important to identify resources across all partners.

“One of the things we constantly talk about and really promote,” she said, “is really get to know your partners because everybody in a community has some resource.”

Tammy Collazzo, Indiana Borough council member, advocated getting to know the people you live next to and how they could possibly help in the event of a disaster — a personal motto she practices, including sharing extra food with her neighbors.

“I know it may never happen,” she said, “but in the event of an emergency, how many of your neighbors do you know? How many children do you recognize? None of them.

“What matters is, can you walk to your neighbors, feel welcome, give help and enjoy life?”

The workshop concluded with a Q&A session where participants asked about available resources for disaster prevention and preparation, including about preventing flooding that occurred in Clymer back in April.

“I learned that communication is so important,” Hess said. “It’s clear to me that being prepared is one things and being able to communicate is another. Thank you to all of the first responders that put their lives on the line to protect our lives and property.”

View the full article at indianagazette.com.

Indiana County’s board of commissioners voted Wednesday to approve a grant agreement and resolution dealing with the future of the Indiana County-Jimmy Stewart Airport in White Township.

The resolution will start the process of turning up to 50 vacant acres into an “Airport Land Development Zone,” while the grant agreement opens up state funding for what Airport Authority Manager Rick Fuellner described as “a big hangar out there (that is) going to attract a lot of business.”

Indiana County Office of Planning & Development Executive Director Byron G. Stauffer Jr. said the grant is for $1.5 million from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s Aviation Development Program.

The grant requires a 25% local match commitment, or $500,000, but Stauffer said the funding will leverage an additional $4.95 million in federal and state funding.

Board Chairman R. Michael Keith concurred, saying “there is opportunity, there is growth happening,” and the 12,000-square-foot corporate hangar facility and related infrastructure approved Wednesday are expected to bring in larger aircraft — such as one Keith saw three weeks ago on the tarmac of the airport also known as Stewart Field.

“There are companies that are actually wanting to use them,” Keith said.

Meanwhile, ICOPD, in collaboration with the airport authority, is planning an application to the state Department of Community & Economic Development, requesting designation of up to 50 acres for a zone meant “to encourage and promote the creation of new jobs on land and buildings at and around airports within this Commonwealth, while accelerating economic activity at and around airports on undeveloped land or vacant buildings owned by airports, that can provide new revenue sources for airports.”

And, Keith hopes, new revenue sources that can further relieve the burden on property owners of paying real estate taxes.

As Stouffer put it, “the ALDZ program is an incentive-based tax credit program to foster development on this vacant land.”

County Commissioner Robin A. Gorman said an airport is an economic asset in any community, and said the local airport was lauded by Gov. Josh Shapiro and three members of his cabinet.

Gorman had a chance to talk about Indiana County’s assets earlier in the day, joining Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission Executive Director Rich Fitzgerald as part of his weekly hour on the KDKA-1020 “Big K Morning Show.”

A commissioner from Lawrence County also was featured. SPC covers Indiana as well as nine other counties around Pittsburgh in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and Gorman is Indiana County’s representative on SPC’s executive committee, while the other commissioners, Stouffer and Indiana County Chamber of Commerce President Mark Hilliard represent the county on the SPC board of directors.

It also wasn’t the first time recently that Indiana County was noticed in Fitzgerald’s weekly appearances on KDKA. On June 24, he was joined by Westmoreland County-based syndicated columnist Salena Zito, to recap a recent series of Interagency Working Group on Coal & Power Plant Communities & Economic Revitalization hearings, one of which was held recently at the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex.

Elsewhere in White Township, with the encouragement of ICOPD and Indiana County Community Action Program Inc., the commissioners entered into an Option to Purchase Agreement with Mystic Brooke Development LP of Indiana to secure a parcel of vacant ground for a HOME-ARP (American Rescue Plan) Non-Congregate Shelter that would temporarily house homeless individuals and/or families while working with them to secure permanent housing solutions.

“The facility will include administrative offices for the case management staff of ICCAP,” ICOPD Assistant Director LuAnn Zak told the commissioners. “The proposed project … is in the development and application phase. The requested option is for a nine-month time frame and will cost $1 (one dollar).”

The application is being aired today at a public hearing scheduled for 10 a.m. in the commissioners’ meeting room on the second floor of the courthouse.

Also Wednesday, the commissioners agreed with ICOPD, the YMCA of Indiana County and Thomas R. Harley Architects LLC to enter into a $123,400 contract agreement with Davis Brothers Heating & Air Conditioning of Indiana to install five new boilers and two new hot water heaters as part of a replacement project at the YMCA, along West Pike and Ben Franklin Road North in White Township.

“A total of four proposals were submitted ranging from (the) low bid by Davis Brothers … to a high bid of $265,000,” ICOPD Deputy Director for Community Development & Housing David Morrow told the commissioners. “This project is being funded with (state) Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program and YMCA funds.”

View the full article at indianagazette.com.

In a continuation of last year’s “Link Up Lawrence” broadband study, Lawrence County is spending $8,400 for a regional funding application with Pennsylvania’s Northwestern Commission.

Federal American Rescue Plan Act funds totaling $244,750 were also previously spent by the county to continue the partnership with Michael Baker International, the engineering firm responsible for “Link Up Lawrence.”

The study was started following the rollout of the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program (BEAD) worth $42 billion, part of President Joe Biden’s “Internet for All” initiative.

The study was needed to help secure a slice of Pennsylvania’s $1.2 billion in federal funding for broadband improvements.

Plain Grove Township, an early action area designated by the study, is the first area earmarked by the county to receive infrastructure improvements for its broadband signal.

The engineering firm responsible for the study, Michael Baker International, found 47 percent of Lawrence County’s population is either underserved or unserved in internet connection

According to the FCC, underserved access is defined by download speeds of under 100 Mbps and upload speeds of 20 Mbps. Unserved access is defined as no access at all, download speeds under 25 Mbps and upload speeds under 3 Mbps.

“We are just in the beginning of this process and securing funding is the next step,” said Amy McKinney, director and fair housing officer of the Lawrence County Department of Planning and Community Development. “We can’t move forward until the funds are in place.”

Gov. Josh Shapiro laid out plans for the $1.16 billion of BEAD funding at the state level to disburse throughout Pennsylvania in October 2023. The funding will be distributed over a five-year plan, with statewide surveys and applications taking place.

According to Pennsylvania’s Broadband Development Authority, applications will be evaluated based on “the size and scope of the unserved or underserved Pennsylvania community…the experience and ability of the applicant to successfully deploy high-speed broadband service, affordability standards that include a low-cost option, criteria to support Pennsylvania’s workforce, a plan to ensure high adoption rates in proposed areas upon the project’s completion, and more.”

Lawrence County was previously passed up by the Shapiro Administration’s distribution of $200 million in Broadband Infrastructure Program Awards, a segment of ARPA funds.

Lawrence County, part of both the Northwest Regional Commission and Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, is also partnering with the SPC.

According to McKinney, partnerships with both commissions will increase the chances of receiving funding from the state.

“The main factor is going to be how strong of an application the two commissions can put together,” she said, noting the “highly competitive” nature of the infrastructure funding. McKinney also said no amount of funding is guaranteed.

“If successful, I would hope that we could begin within a year of the award and be complete within two years,” McKinney said.

View the full article at ncnewsonline.com.

After a solid decade in the chocolate business, Nina Midgley Kelman thought she had heard every imaginable question about her signature Mountain Magic bites at My Favorite Sweet Shoppe in Collier or local craft shows and events like Yinzerfest.

Then she brought the sweet and crunchy confection to last week’s Fancy Food Show in New York City. The buyers, brokers, distributors and other industry professionals who attended the Specialty Food Association’s 68th summer show at the Javits Center on June 23-25 weren’t asking much about calories or shelf life. A few asked whether she had gluten-free options.

“But a lot of people also asked if we were kosher” or non-GMO, Kelman recalls, which kind of threw her. “And for whatever reason, we also got asked a lot if we shipped to Canada.”

Then again, that was the point for Kelman and other Pittsburgh food purveyors who attended the trades-only show — to learn how to grow their food businesses beyond the bounds of Western Pennsylvania.

Like Kelman, Jamal “Uncle Jammy” Etienne-Harrigan was hoping to find a distributor who could get the hot sauces and rubs he started making in 2015 and selling in Giant Eagle stores in 2020 into the hands of a wider audience.

He was joined by Mike and Diane Perella of Baldwin Borough, whose end-of-the-season garden experiment in 2012 became a booming family business. Their habanero-based Two Ugly Mugs salsa is now sold in more than 1,000 stores across the U.S., including Walmart, Whole Foods and Giant Eagle — and they want to get even bigger.

“We want to be the Pittsburgh salsa,” says Matt Perella, their son and director of operations.

Candy makers Don and Laura Ross were there for the first time with the “Little Dangers” almond English toffee they make and sell at The Toffee House in Washington, Pa. Laura started the company in 2002 as a way to earn some extra money at craft shows. Her toffee really took off after it was featured on Food Network’s “Recipe for Success” in 2005. Their candy is now available at Whole Foods and Market District as well as at small boutiques. Their corporate business is also strong.

“We do a ton of toffee every 2½ days during the holiday season,” says Laura.

Gosia’s Pierogies, which arrived at Ligonier Country Market back in 2001 and now produces thousands of traditional Polish pierogi each day at its Latrobe factory for giant food companies such as Sysco, was there with a big advantage: Co-owner Terry Rawecki did the show last year and knew what to expect (Taste sensory overload!).

Stationed in adjoining booths in the show’s State Pavilion on Level 1, the food entrepreneurs arrived at the sprawling convention center along the Hudson River on June 22, and had to be unpacked and ready to go by 4 p.m. for the show’s 8:30 a.m. start the next day.

That is except for Jon Mosholder of Bumbleberry Farms, whose business has been part of the show since 2015, and proprietors of Liokareas Olive Oil, whose booth was located upstairs on the more posh Level 3. Their space came courtesy of a grant provided by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission and administered by the University of Pittsburgh’s Small Business Development Center.

This is the third year that Pitt has sent local food makers to the boutique food show, says organizer Brent Rondon, who for years has helped small businesses get off the ground as senior management consultant for international trade at the development center, which is part of Pitt’s Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence.

Some grant recipients, including Etienne-Harrigan, who he met at a “Doing Business with Pitt” informational session for small businesses, have an established relationship with Rondon. Others were approached out of the blue because Rondon liked what they produced or had heard good things about them.

He recruited The Toffee House in early 2024 after meeting them at Washington County Chamber of Commerce’s grand opening at Southpointe (they were vendors) and reached out to My Favorite Sweet Shoppe at South West Regional Chamber of Commerce executive director Mandi Pryor’s suggestion.

The only requirements are that the business is based in Pennsylvania, makes foods or beverages that “exemplify quality, innovation, and style” and are  “defined by originality, authenticity, ethnic or cultural origin, specific processing, ingredients, limited supply, distinctive use, extraordinary packaging, and/or specific channel of distribution or sale,” per SFA rules.

“We are not the ones who decide” who gets to go, says Rondon. “We send samples to the show, and they decide if it’s ‘fancy.’”

The $4,500 grant only covers the cost of the booth, so attendees must pay their own traveling expenses and also produce thousands of samples to hand out during the show. That can prove hard for a small business, so “they really have to plan ahead with their financing,” Rondon says, or find additional grants.

The main goal, of course, is to help business owners meet food distributors that can get them into more stores. That includes making a good impression on Market District senior director Paul Abbott, who was walking the floor with his team and oversees buying for the grocery store’s specialty items.

This is no small thing, because “every time we come, we find something,” says Abbott, who has worked for the grocery chain for more than 30 years, and helped open its first two Market District stores in 2006.  “When we leave, we will have well over 100 possibilities to be vetted down.”

Known for its innovative food items  —- specialty and natural foods account for 18 percent of sales at Market District stores  — the chain has an intense focus on local products, with hundreds of regional suppliers. So to catch a conversation with Abbott, who was a 2024 Leadership Award Winner For Outstanding Buyer at this year’s show, would be a big step forward.

Rondon and co-organizers Jackie Pacheco and Rena Belshe of SPC want attendees to experience industry trends firsthand and see what their competitors are doing. They also want them to meet and talk to their neighbors to ferret out any opportunities as a supplier.

“We want our businesses to go global,” says Rondon. And with more than 2,300 exhibitors from 56 countries in attendance, “this show is perfect for that.”

Occasionally, a grant recipient is rejected by SFA because they don’t have the right packaging or don’t meet certain guidelines. (For instance, foods containing CBD or THC are prohibited.)

Two years ago, Robinson-based Smileycookie.com, which makes personalized Smiley Cookies for gifts and events, learned they had to individually wrap their cookies for distribution. This year, Kelman, who initially offered her chocolate bark for sale in white paper bags, had a similar issue. She had to work with Prizum Creative to repackage the candy in new retail-ready bags that included nutritional information.

She also developed new signage and put together a full-size parting gift for buyers who showed true interest.

“You’re nervous, because you always have fear of what you don’t know,” Kelman admits with a laugh, “and going from marketing to the public to corporations is a different level of selling.”

Diane Perella is hoping the fact that their salsas offer a taste of sweet before the heat of habanero sets in will prove enticing to distributors. They also have a killer of a label featuring father and son that’s not only fun— they were enjoying adult beverages when they came up with it — but tells the story of the family business in a very personal way. Or as Mike Perella likes to ask, “Would you ever think two ugly mugs like us would have a company?”

The family is working harder than ever at what was supposed to be a fun retirement job, as they still do all of their own local deliveries from where the salsa is packed in Punxsutawney. The three Perellas unloaded 65 cases from the back of their Nissan SUV at Three Rivers Grown in Lawrenceville for distribution a week before the show.

Rawecki, a deaf woman who is co-owner of Gosia’s Pierogies, was lucky in that her booth secured an enviable spot at the end of the aisle where attendees had more room to stop, sample and chat.

It was the same for deaf-owned business Bumbleberry Farms’ booth, where bottles of the Hot Honey the farm started selling last year sat proudly on display next to the new Peach Vanilla Honey Cream Spread it just released in April. It’s already a best seller.

“We’re ready to take the next step,” says Mosholder.

Rawecki, whose sister-in-law and product namesake, Gosia, flew in from Poland to lend a hand, was quick to agree.

“I want to work on expanding my business by making connections and networking,” she signed through her interpreter, Jessica Adams. “I’m more comfortable with my product. I know what I’m selling and what they’re looking for.”

Adams said the team was still learning about how to display, but were getting a lot of good leads that they hope will pan out.

Uncle Jammy’s spice rubs and sauces also have a good chance of making it over the border into Canada, says Etienne-Harrigan. “We’re getting people to know us and mark our territory. There are a lot of maybes and we’re answering all the questions.”

Other than the fact she over-prepared for the event with more product than she needed, Kelman says the show had no negatives. A lot of that had to do with love and advice she got from her Pittsburgh compatriots.

“I was the new, fresh person so  their information was invaluable about what I can do differently and move forward,” says Kelman.

One of her friends joked she had to go all the way to New York to talk to Giant Eagle, “but that’s how it works,” she says. “I’m just looking forward to learning so much.”

View the full article at post-gazette.com.

Leann Chaney, senior active transportation coordinator at the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, works with stakeholders looking to advance active transportation such as biking and walking within the SPC’s 10-county region. She provides technical guidance to help local governments achieve their active transportation goals and improve safety, comfort and connectivity. She also manages SPC’s nonmotorized data collection program, implementing the Regional Active Transportation Plan for Southwestern Pennsylvania and sponsoring a quarterly Active Transportation Forum.

How did you end up working in active transportation, and what attracted you to the field?
I prefer biking or walking for short trips and often bike to work, so the idea of advancing active transportation was appealing to me. Active transportation plays a crucial role in public transportation and transportation demand management strategies and is integral to many aspects of the work we do at SPC.

In what ways can active transportation be incorporated into projects funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act moving forward?
There are numerous opportunities to incorporate active transportation into plans, policies and infrastructure projects. Bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure can be incorporated into roadway and other infrastructure projects by embracing Complete Streets principles and using innovative design guidelines to develop contextually appropriate multimodal solutions.

What has been the most gratifying aspect of your career?
Knowing that more people of all ages and abilities can safely bike, walk or roll to get to everyday destinations because new bike lanes, trails or sidewalks were installed or because street crossings were improved brings a sense of fulfillment, knowing you’ve played a part in fostering positive change.

What emerging technologies do you see as having the most significant impact on active transportation?
Rates of active transportation have increased nationally over the past several years, driven by improved walking and bicycling infrastructure and emerging technologies like electric bikes and micromobility solutions, like scooters. E-bikes make biking accessible to a wider range of people, and scooters provide convenient options for short trips, particularly in urban areas.

What book are you currently recommending to friends?
“The Death and Life of Great American Cities” by Jane Jacobs — one of the most influential works in community planning.

View the full article at bizjournals.com.

Nationally syndicated reporter and author Salena Zito joins The Big K Morning Show with Larry Richert to discuss Rich Fitzgerald’s new role at the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission. To get a glimpse into his new role, Zito recently joined Fitzgerald for a variety of meetings across the region.

Read her latest article “Rich Fitzgerald’s out of office, but not out of work” for more details.

View the full story at audacy.com.

It has been just under six months since Rich Fitzgerald walked into the Allegheny County Courthouse, something he did daily for over a dozen years as the county’s chief executive, usually with a phone in his hand trying to manage a crisis.

But today was different. Today he was there to attend the unveiling of his portrait, along with the portraits of the other two former county executives, Dan Onorato and the late Jim Roddey, honoring their place in county government as the first three to hold that office since 1998, when the county switched from three commissioners to a county executive and 15-member council.

After the new county executive Sara Innamorato unveiled the three portraits and they were ceremoniously placed on the courthouse walls, Fitzgerald walked briskly out the door, not as a 64 year old man heading towards his sunset, but as a man who needed to get to Oakland for a memorial honoring Roddey and then to Greene County for a public meeting on the Transportation Improvement Project (TIP), in his new role as the executive director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC).

The long time Democrat, a Garfield native and father of eight, got his start in politics running for county council in the late 90s. He said he jumped at the chance to lead an organization whose mission is to lay out a blueprint for development at the most granular level for the region’s ten counties.

Counties, Fitzgerald told me, that are part postindustrial, part rural, and all in need of meaningful economic development and infrastructure to grow their most important treasure: the people.

Meat and potatoes politics
It is five o’clock on a sweltering Monday evening, yet several dozen people have gathered in this PennDOT maintenance facility to discuss Greene County’s transportation future. The people here are true stakeholders in the community: residents, township supervisors, mayors, the three county commissioners, as well as representatives from both the local members of congress and the governor’s office and Fitzgerald. No local press, print or television, attends a meeting that affects most people and businesses here.

The meeting starts off discussing the work being done by PennDOT to make state route 21 less dangerous. It’s the kind of meat and potatoes stuff that Fitzgerald loves — and hoped he could do after he retired as county executive. After nearly two decades of Democratic politics, he wasn’t sure he’d even get the position, since most of the SPC county commissioners who decide who gets the position are Republicans.

Republican Greene County commissioner Betsy McClure is the first say how thankful she is he runs the SPC. “I didn’t care what party that he came from,” she said. “I cared that he had a vision and understood and recognized the importance of regional economic development. We want our young people to have a reason to stay here and Rich understood that need.” She added: “He is a game changer.”

In Fitzgerald, many there see a man who doesn’t just get the importance of regional development. They also see someone who can bring in the money, expertise and hope for a county that doesn’t see why because of its proximity to interchanges with Interstates 70, 68 and 79 that their future prosperity could not look any different than Cranberry Township’s, where I79 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike intersect.

Fitzgerald says a lot of people do not remember, but it wasn’t all that long ago that the Butler County township went from a sleepy farm outpost with no proper downtown to a boomtown of retail shops, corporate headquarters and residential development that has made it one of the fastest growing areas in the region.

“Nothing is impossible. I do think with growth and economic development around gas and hydrogen and production, and partnering not just with the universities in Pittsburgh but also partnering with WVU in Morgantown, there are opportunities here for substantial growth,” he said of Greene County’s proximity to that many interstates. “We’ve got to push it.”

In 1981, Fitzgerald found himself entering the work force at 22 after graduating from college as the region’s economy was collapsing. The steel mills had shut down, along with every business that supported them. The unemployment numbers hit nearly 20% by 1984 and in the next decade nearly 200,000 people would be forced to leave their families and their roots to find work and stability elsewhere.

“It was a loss of our greatest treasure, our people, that shaped me in politics,” Fitzgerald said. “It is an unmooring of community I understood the people felt across the region and why I really wanted to take on this job to help draw development here but also keep our young people here as well as draw in new young people,” he said.

Keeping the people here
Being finished with elected office, he wanted to find a way he could help the region, using his knowledge and experience and skills to continue to improve the economic climate and quality of life. “Those things, I really think are what going to keep people here, draw people here, and grow our region.”

He could have gone on to other things. “I really didn’t want to go to Washington. I really didn’t want to go to Harrisburg. This is my home,” he said, adding with a broad smile, “I like being home at night to see my kids, see my grandkids, my wife.”

For the next week he would be at the Lawrence County public meeting on the Targeted Industry Programs in Neshannock, a robotics factory in Lawrenceville, at three successive Environmental Protection Agency meetings in Fayette, Westmoreland and Washington counties to discuss federal initiatives to support displaced energy workers, and Indiana County for a discussion of economic prosperity in Homer City one year after the coal fired power plant was shut down.

The first time he met Fitzgerald, Austin Davis told me, he was in college and Fitzgerald had just gone through his umpteenth “body man” — the person who drives the candidate around, often for 12 hours a day — for his campaign for county executive. The University of Pittsburgh college student from McKeesport took on the role.

He would go on to become Fitzgerald’s executive assistant and one of his most trusted advisors. When a state house seat became open in his home district in 2018, Fitzgerald urged him to run for office. He won, becoming the first Black state representative in the state to win a majority white seat. Three years later, when then state attorney general Josh Shapiro asked Fitzgerald to recommend a good running mate, he had only one answer: Davis.

“I can tell you from working with him, he is a perfect fit for SPC,” Davis said. “He’s had a strong focus in his time as county executive on making sure we have a strong infrastructure here in Pittsburgh.”

“I think we redid almost every county bridge. He was really good at working with elected officials to get resources back to this region for transportation,” said Davis. Fitzgerald developed a “really strong relationship” with Republican governor Tom Corbett and then Republican congressman Bill Schuster, who chaired the powerful House Transportation Committee.

Both relationships produced necessary funds for transportation needs in the county. “That is why I think SPC is just really a natural fit or a natural extension of the work that he’s been doing for years,” said Davis.

He doesn’t miss being in office
When in office, Fitzgerald had a reputation for wanting to get things done and being more pragmatic than his fellow Democrats. That worked well for the county’s residents, but caused consternation within his party, particularly as he often butted heads with leftwing county councilwoman Bethany Hallam.

Does he miss being in office? Especially as this end of the state will be a focus for his party’s efforts to reelect President Joe Biden? “I don’t miss much, to be honest with you. … And I certainly don’t miss the constantness of it.”

The politics is all behind him now. For a man who until the late 90s never once thought about politics, to go from indifference to the leader of the second most populous and politically powerful county in the state and then back to a more dispassionate position suits him just fine.

View the full story at post-gazette.com.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation opened the public period for the proposed 2025 statewide transportation improvement program.

The program consists of road and bridge projects statewide that support Gov. Josh Shapiro’s vision of a safe and reliable transportation network. The comment period will remain open until July 3, 2024.

Members of the Southwest Pennsylvania Commission and PennDOT officials presented the plan for local projects at a public meeting of local elected officials earlier this month.

The first on the list of local priorities are the resurfacing of East Washington Street from downtown New Castle and Route 65 in Shenango Township and the replacement of the East Washington Street bridge downtown. The $7.61-million East Washington/Route 65 repaving project already is underway and will continue throughout the summer.

The project is along East Washington Street (Route 65) between the Old Princeton Road intersection in Shenango Township to the South Croton Avenue intersection in the City of New Castle. It also includes work along South Croton Avenue (Route 108) between the Jefferson Street (Route 18) and East Washington Street intersections. Work along East Washington Street will include milling and paving, bridge preservation work to the structure over Route 422, utility and inlet adjustments, guide rail updates, wheelchair-accessible curb ramp installation, traffic signal upgrades, signs and pavement markings and other miscellaneous repair work. Work along South Croton Avenue (Route 108) consists of milling and resurfacing, roadway reconstruction from Mill Street up to and including the intersection with Route 65, inlet adjustments, utility work, sign and pavement marking installation, and other miscellaneous repair work. There will be single-lane restrictions throughout both project limits. Pedestrian access will be maintained throughout the project, which is anticipated to be completed by the end of the year.

Crews will begin paving Route 108 (South Croton Avenue) from Route 18 to Route 65 and on southbound Route 65 from Route 108 to Cascade Park. Once that work is completed, bridge work over Route 422 on Route 65 will commence and involve traffic signal upgrades, sign installation and miscellaneous construction work. The contractor will then finish paving Route 65 from Cascade Park south to the project limits near the Shenango McDonald’s, according to information from PennDOT’s press office in Pittsburgh.

The East Washington Street Bridge over the Neshannock Creek in the City of New Castle will undergo utility relocation work beginning this year. Full replacement of the 145-foot-long structure is expected to take two construction seasons. The project cost is $7.28 million and includes approach road work and minor signal work at the intersections of Route 65 and Route 108. If utility work extends into 2025, the project will conclude in 2027. Verizon needs to work with the contractor on coordinated work on its line that crosses the bridge, according to information from PennDOT. Once the Verizon work is completed the contractor can begin bridge replacement work. A date for the closure of the bridge has not been determined yet.

A delayed resurfacing project on Route 18/ 158 in Wilmington Township is expected to begin next year.

Work will include milling and paving the travel lanes and shoulders and drainage improvements of 3.23 miles of Route 158 in Wilmington Township and New Wilmington Borough, and bridge preservation work on two structures over McClure Run and a branch of the Little Neshannock Creek.

This project, expected to cost between $3.5 million and $4.5 million, is to be contracted in late February with the project starting in late May.

The Transportation Improvement Programs (TIP) for Lawrence County involves a $12.7 million investment in roads, including the preservation of Route 19 and Wilmington Road, sections of Route 422 and Interstate 376. Additionally, $9.6 million is being spent on bridges. In addition to the East Washington Street Bridge, those that will get attention will be the River Road Culvert, Frew Mill Road Bridge, Jefferson Street Bridge and Paden Road Bridge over Hickory Run.

Additionally, sidewalks are to be improved in a Union Township neighborhood for pedestrian traffic.

The draft 2025 statewide TIP (STIP) consists of a list of prioritized projects and project phases identified for federal, state, local and private funding over four years for capital improvements, 23 regional TIPs, an independent Wayne County TIP and two statewide-managed programs — the Interstate Management Program and Statewide Initiatives TIPs.

“Infrastructure that serves everyone requires input from everyone,” said PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll. “Planning for the future of transportation infrastructure is a complex process, and I encourage everyone to submit their comments and take part in this process.”

The draft, including an infographic providing an overview of the STIP process, can be viewed at https://talkpatransportation.com/how-it-works/stip. Comments can be submitted online at TalkPATransportation.com, by emailing a fillable form to RA-PennDOTSTC@pa.gov or by calling PennDOT to at (717) 783-2262.

The draft 2025 state TIP will be adopted as part of the 2025 TYP update by the STC during the commission’s August 14 business meeting. The 12-year plan is updated every two years.

View the full article at ncnewsonline.com.

Penn Township commissioners approved the preliminary development plan for a new Pennsylvania Turnpike maintenance complex featuring nearly 8 acres of solar panels.
 
The complex — which will contain an office space, truck and maintenance garages and a salt storage building — will be located on a nearly 42-acre property with an entrance along Route 130.
 
Pending stormwater, sewage and driveway permit requirements, the complex is scheduled to be built by fall 2026, according to the turnpike’s website.

 
The property is almost directly across the road from the current maintenance area, which has an entrance off Sandy Hill Road, said Bill Roberts, township community development director.
 
Before they approved the plan, resident Cliff Nabuda, who lives near the site, requested more details.
 
“I would also like to voice my disappointment that no one has come and spoken to anybody along Four Seasons Lane about this proposed development,” he said. “We’re the ones who are going to be the most severely impacted by it.”
 
The vote on the new complex comes about 10 months after the turnpike specified the location of an interchange officially announced in October 2021. The interchange will be installed near the intersection of Sandy Hill Road, Nike Site Road and Route 130 between spring of 2032 and fall of 2034, according to the turnpike website.
 
The turnpike organized an advisory group featuring officials from Penn Township, Westmoreland County and state government to navigate the design process with community input, said turnpike spokesperson Crispin Havener. The first meeting was in March.
 
“We are currently in the final stages of preliminary engineering and some aspects of the plans that we shared with the advisory group in March may still change,” Havener said. “Once that is completed, we will host a public meeting to show the potential plans to the community as a whole and get their feedback. This should take place in the near future.”
 
The advisory group’s meetings are not open to the public, but meeting summaries will be posted on its website.
 
Traffic on surrounding roadways, traffic disruption during the construction period and consistent communication between the turnpike, the state Department of Transportation and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission were discussed at the March meeting, according to the advisory group website.
 
With little information available about the interchange, Nabuda said, residents are left to wait and see.
 
“We know the train is coming,” he said, referring to the interchange. “We don’t know which track it’s coming on.”
 
Turnpike officials have told the township that moving the maintenance facility is part of the turnpike’s $300 million project to widen the toll highway between the Monroeville and Irwin interchanges.
 
The widening project includes expanding the highway from four to six lanes in the 10-mile stretch and reconstructing the Irwin interchange. A bridge carrying Harvison Road over the turnpike in the township is set for removal this summer as part of the project, turnpike officials confirmed in February.

View the full story at triblive.com.