Road projects totaling more than $186 million in costs are planned in Butler County over the next four years.

The development is not designed to prepare for an increase in traffic the region is expecting, but to help manage the traffic that is already here.

Mark Gordon, county chief of planning and economic development, is a voting member of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, and said in a public meeting Monday, June 3, that the road projects are vital to Butler County’s growing economy.

Allegheny County will hold a virtual public hearing Thursday evening to get public input on the upcoming rehabilitation of the Patton Street Bridge in Wilmerding.

The project, which will result in the bridge across Turtle Creek being closed for about a year, likely is still two years away. The county’s Department of Public Works will hold a virtual meeting from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday to discuss the project, and registration is required.

Executive Director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, Rich Fitzgerlad, joins Larry Richert in the KDKA radio studio each Wednesday morning.

On this week’s show, Greene County Commissioner Betsy McClure was on to talk about the HighPoint National Pro Motocross Race in Mount Morris that will take place on Father’s Day weekend.

Two years after it was passed into law, the federal Inflation Reduction Act and companion legislation continue to generate plenty of discussion over their potential as well as questioning as to how best to make use of them.

At a PNC Brunch & Learn and Networking Event by the Green Voice held at the Tower at PNC, a collection of executives and public officials explored the prospects for the region to come from the federal funding jolt of the $891 billion IRA, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, totaling $1.2 trillion nationally over 10 years and the $53 billion CHIPS and Science Act.

Delays in the state permitting process, improving infrastructure, corporate income tax rate reform, broadband and the prevalence of ticks were all topics that state and county officials addressed over breakfast Friday morning.

The 2 1/2-hour gathering of more than 100 government and business officials from Lawrence County took place in the McKelvey Center of Westminster College, organized and mediated by Forward Lawrence Executive Director Ben Bush.

One of the area’s leading organizations on transportation is looking for input from Butler County residents.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission is in charge of developing a long-term transportation plan for the region. They will be hosting a virtual event next Monday evening starting at 4:30 p.m. looking for feedback from the public.

Jennifer Liptak spent 26 years working for Allegheny County, moving up the ladder from a typist to chief of staff to manager of a $3 billion budget and 5,000 employees.

Now, the longtime hidden hand behind the county’s bureaucracy is moving on.

Liptak, 49, of Shaler, will leave the county’s top bureaucratic role in two weeks and move to the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, to serve as its chief operating officer under Rich Fitzergald, her former boss.

Jennifer Liptak — who spent 26 years in Allegheny County government, including 12 as the top assistant to former County Executive Rich Fitzgerald — is following her old boss to the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission.

The county announced Friday that Liptak resigned as county manager for new County Executive Sara Innamorato to join the commission in the newly created position of deputy executive director/chief operating officer. Liptak was Fitzgerald’s chief of staff for 12 years and finished as county manager in the final few months of his term after previously working for the district attorney’s office and serving as County Council’s budget director.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission again has tapped Allegheny County for a top administrator, announcing Friday that Jennifer Liptak, county manager under former county Executive Rich Fitzgerald and his successor Sara Innamorato, has been named SPC’s deputy executive director/chief operating officer, effective June 10.

In her new role, Liptak will lead a team of 50 staff members and report directly to Fitzgerald, who was named SPC’s executive director at the end of three terms as Allegheny’s chief executive.

Allegheny County Manager Jennifer Liptak will leave the county after more than 25 years of service to become deputy executive director and chief operating officer of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission.

Liptak had been chief of staff for former Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald during his 12 years in office and had been county manager in the first months of County Executive Sara Innamorato’s tenure. She joined the Allegheny County government in 1998 and has been finance director in the Office of District Attorney and budget director of the Office of County Council.