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

On this week’s show, Fayette County Commissioner Vince Vicites was on to talk about the great summer attractions the county has to offer like Ohiopyle State Park, Fallingwater, and Nemacolin.

View the full story at audacy.com.

The Indiana County Center for Economic Operations, in collaboration with the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, is inviting the public to a listening session this afternoon with the Interagency Working Group on Coal & Power Plant Communities & Economic Revitalization.

The session is scheduled from 1 to 3 p.m. today at the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex at 711 Pratt Drive on the Indiana University of Pennsylvania campus.

The IWG Rapid Response Team will listen to local concerns, provide overviews of resources available and discuss ways of accessing federal funds available to communities.

Indiana County CEO is a partnership of the Indiana County Commissioners, Indiana County Chamber of Commerce, Indiana County Development Corporation, Indiana County Tourist Bureau and Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

RSVPs were requested at https://tinyurl.com/Indiana-County-Registration.

View the full article at indianagazette.com.

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.

Ongoing work expanding Route 228 and access to it, Gordon said, are particularly important for transit management, because billions of dollars worth of traffic travel the road every year.

“This is not a ‘Build it and they will come’ (situation). They are already here,” Gordon said. “This will improve the overall effectiveness of that corridor.”

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission reviewed its Butler County Transportation Improvement Program during a virtual meeting Monday. The commission is the federally designated metropolitan planning organization which serves 10 counties in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and the four-year improvement plan is a short-term investment plan of an overall 25-year plan for the county.

The county is two years into its 2023-2026 plan, but members of the commission are already drafting the plan that will carry on through 2028. County officials help prioritize transportation work for the commission leaders, who formulate a plan based off local feedback.

According to Domenic D’Andrea, director of transportation planning for the commission, each short-term plan takes into account information in the ongoing plan, as well as goals in the long-term plan. The 2025-2028 draft of the plan estimates more than $4 billion will be invested toward improving the region’s transportation infrastructure over the next four years, D’Andrea said.

While road improvement projects are usually a priority for county officials and leaders of the commission, D’Andrea said safety improvement is consistently a top concern. Bridges have been one of the biggest targets for improvement by the commission in recent years, because 13% of bridges in Southwestern Pennsylvania are in poor condition D’Andrea said.

“The draft (Transportation Improvement Program) invests over $860 million in the region’s bridge infrastructure on over 280 bridges, 140 of which are in poor condition,” D’Andrea said.

In addition to road projects, the plan includes an investment of a little more than $300 million for new clean diesel and alternative fuel small transit vehicles and buses, and more than $30 million in upgrades and construction for maintenance and administration facilities.

Voting members of the commission — five from each of the region’s 10 counties and five from the City of Pittsburgh — will vote to adopt the 2025-2028 plan on June 24. However, the commission meets regularly with county officials to make updates to the plan that take into account changing economic factors, and new transit needs.

“You are laying out projects and they have factors associated with them to look at and predict what increasing prices may or may not be,” Gordon said. “Every time you go out for bid, more often than not, the responses are a little higher today than if you would have bid it a year ago.”

During the meeting, Butler County Commissioner Leslie Osche said the commission has been proactive in responding to feedback county leaders, no matter the size of the issue.

“The efforts, the advocacy on some of these big project we have has been pretty incredible, but equally on the smaller projects and calls that we make and the responsiveness on the calls,” Osche said.

View the full story at cranberryeagle.com.

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.

Ongoing work expanding Route 228 and access to it, Gordon said, are particularly important for transit management, because billions of dollars worth of traffic travel the road every year.

“This is not a ‘Build it and they will come’ (situation). They are already here,” Gordon said. “This will improve the overall effectiveness of that corridor.”

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission reviewed its Butler County Transportation Improvement Program during a virtual meeting Monday. The commission is the federally designated metropolitan planning organization which serves 10 counties in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and the four-year improvement plan is a short-term investment plan of an overall 25-year plan for the county.

The county is two years into its 2023-2026 plan, but members of the commission are already drafting the plan that will carry on through 2028. County officials help prioritize transportation work for the commission leaders, who formulate a plan based off local feedback.

According to Domenic D’Andrea, director of transportation planning for the commission, each short-term plan takes into account information in the ongoing plan, as well as goals in the long-term plan. The 2025-2028 draft of the plan estimates more than $4 billion will be invested toward improving the region’s transportation infrastructure over the next four years, D’Andrea said.

While road improvement projects are usually a priority for county officials and leaders of the commission, D’Andrea said safety improvement is consistently a top concern. Bridges have been one of the biggest targets for improvement by the commission in recent years, because 13% of bridges in Southwestern Pennsylvania are in poor condition D’Andrea said.

“The draft (Transportation Improvement Program) invests over $860 million in the region’s bridge infrastructure on over 280 bridges, 140 of which are in poor condition,” D’Andrea said.

In addition to road projects, the plan includes an investment of a little more than $300 million for new clean diesel and alternative fuel small transit vehicles and buses, and more than $30 million in upgrades and construction for maintenance and administration facilities.

Voting members of the commission — five from each of the region’s 10 counties and five from the City of Pittsburgh — will vote to adopt the 2025-2028 plan on June 24. However, the commission meets regularly with county officials to make updates to the plan that take into account changing economic factors, and new transit needs.

“You are laying out projects and they have factors associated with them to look at and predict what increasing prices may or may not be,” Gordon said. “Every time you go out for bid, more often than not, the responses are a little higher today than if you would have bid it a year ago.”

During the meeting, Butler County Commissioner Leslie Osche said the commission has been proactive in responding to feedback county leaders, no matter the size of the issue.

“The efforts, the advocacy on some of these big project we have has been pretty incredible, but equally on the smaller projects and calls that we make and the responsiveness on the calls,” Osche said.

View the full article at butlereagle.com.

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.

The department didn’t want to talk much about the project before the hearing, but in a news release it said it wants to present the preliminary construction and traffic control plans and get input on the final design. The department and its engineering consultant, Mackin Engineering, will conduct the meeting and answer questions.

Details the county submitted to the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission for its long-range Transportation Improvement Project estimate the project at $15.45 million. The project could begin construction in the second quarter of 2026.

At its last inspection in April 2022, the bridge’s deck and substructure received ratings of five, just above poor.

The 426-foot steel girder bridge, built in 1971 and rehabilitated in 1999, joins the northern and southern parts of Wilmerding and provides a key link to Wall and North Versailles. It carries about 8,720 vehicles each day.

View the full article at unionprogress.com.

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.

View the full story at audacy.com.

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.

In a wide-ranging discussion moderated by Grant Ervin, director of environmental, social, governance and innovation at S&B USA Construction, the panelists expect great opportunity to come for the region as well as organizational challenges in how best to pursue it.

Mike Evans, now a partner for K&L Gates, working in its Washington, D.C. office, previously served as deputy staff director for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, when the IRA was passed, pointed out the basic distinctions of the bill over past thinking, which sought to emphasize taxes and other “sticks” to better lead more sustainable societal changes.

“The big shift in thinking was let’s try carrots. That was a fundamental change,” said Evans, emphasizing the public investment available through the program. “It’s real. The money is on the table.”

He acknowledged there’s been some reluctance or skittishness by some to pursue funding through the act and he sees a need “for there to be some first movers so people gain some confidence.”

Costa Samaras, the director of the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation and a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, also spoke of the legislation with some level of direct experience after serving in the administration of President Joe Biden in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

He expects western Pennsylvania is well positioned to benefit from such legislation and noted the many historic firsts of the region in terms of energy.

“Pittsburgh has got a huge history of energy innovation,” he said.

That includes the first oil well in Titusville, to the north, the first natural gas well in Murrysville, the first oil refinery downtown along with innovative firsts in coal and solar.

He expects the public investments from the IRA and other federal legislation to have the potential to “supercharge a clean energy economy here in the region and around the country.”

How that potential is realized in the Pittsburgh area is still being worked out, whether by local government or private companies.

Brittany Prischak, director of department of sustainability for Allegheny County, detailed how Allegheny County is pursuing a Climate Action Plan as well as working with the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission to pursue joint funding for projects.

Allegheny County is also considering a guaranteed energy savings agreement, through which an energy audit would demonstrate areas for county government to cut energy use and cost and then help to finance various improvements over what’s typically a 20-year plan.

Samaras noted how much Pittsburgh has changed in terms of pursuing green improvements.

“Twenty years ago, green buildings were exotic,” he said. “Now, they’re just commonplace.”

He added that “no place in the country is better poised than the 10-county region” to benefit for what he hoped would some day be a green new deal to follow through on a green and clean energy transportation.

Laura Ainsman Sohinki, a senior director for government affairs for the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, added the region is drawing such interest now.

She noted one program she’s working on for a company looking to add in the range of 1,200 jobs, a labor demand to come with challenges of its own.

“We have a historic infrastructure that these large companies come in and get super excited about,” she said.

S. Kumar Nandan, vice president, Global Tax at PPG Industries, said his company is already capitalizing on the IRA in buying up tax credits through the program.

“The IRA was a game changer in terms of tax credits,” he said. “We’re able to find sustainable projects and reduce our tax liability at the same time.”

View the full article at bizjournals.com.

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.

The program featured two panels — one of state elected officials that included state Reps. Marla Brown and Aaron Bernstine and Sens. Michele Brooks and Elder Vogel. The other panel was comprised of Lawrence County Commissioners Dan Vogler and Chris Sainato and county planning Director Amy McKinney.

Bush played an interview he taped Thursday with Commissioner Dan Kennedy, who is currently on sick leave. Kennedy emphasized the county needs to help “Mom-and-Pop stores because they’re the growth of Lawrence County.”

His desire as a commissioner is to help promote the development of the Route 422 corridor in Shenango and Slippery Rock townships, he said.

Vogler and Sainato also highlighted the jobless rate being lower in the county and their recent contribution to local municipalities of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds for infrastructure improvements.

One thing all four state panelists agreed upon is the state needs a speedier way to grant environmental and other state permits to prospective businesses and industries instead of making them wait for several months, thus delaying their projects to where they build elsewhere.

Bernstine pointed out Senate Bill 350 is pending in the state Legislature. That measure will provide for the administration of permits by state agencies, a tracking system for permit applications, the establishment of permit programs, third-party review of permit decision delays and annual reports, establishing the Pennsylvania Office of Transformation and Opportunity and the Economic Development Strategy Group; and providing for their powers and duties.

Brown said she is a co-sponsor of legislation with state Rep. Jim Struzzi of Indiana County to do a full investigation of the permitting process to determine “how to fix things.”

“We’re losing businesses to Ohio,” she said, noting the county was lucky to keep Steelite here. She touted the Neshannock Township supervisors for doing an “awesome job” in working to retain and grow the industry here.

Vogel said the state Department of Environmental Protection office in Pittsburgh is “the worst office in the state” for permitting, noting businesses often have to wait 120 days for permits.

“It’s a very frustrating issue,” he said.

Brooks said Pennsylvania has been working for several years on addressing the issue of ticks and tick-borne illnesses. Pennsylvania has been the leader in Lyme disease, she said.

People who encounter ticks can send them for free to the state Department of Health’s lab in East Stroudsburg for testing, and there are several illnesses borne by ticks in the state. She encouraged people to visit ticklab.org for instructions.

“Please have the ticks tested,” she urged.

McKinney enlighted the group about a broadband study the county undertook two years ago, and said the county has chosen to focus on one of three weak broadband areas it identified — the area of Plain Grove Township along the Interstate 79 corridor — where it hopes to strengthen broadband capabilities.

That area was chosen because the other three areas are currently being addressed by internet service providers, she said. She said the Northwest Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission and the Southwest Pennsylvania Commission are pulling together to pursue funding for broadband there as a regional project.

Other participants in the program were Westminster College President Dr. Kathy Richardson, Melanie Brewer, the district director for U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, and Alex Halper, senior vice president of Government Affairs of the state Chamber of Business and Industry.

View the full article at ncnewsonline.com.

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.

Residents will be able to offer their opinion on local transportation and infrastructure projects. The link for the public meeting can be found here.

If you cannot attend the meeting, but would still like to weigh-in, residents can email at comments@spcregion.org through June 7th.

View the full article at butlerradio.com.

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.

Fitzgerald, the three-term county executive who left office in January, took over as the executive director of the commission, the federally designated metropolitan planning organization in charge of guiding government investment for the 10-county region surrounding Pittsburgh.

Liptak has no qualms about leaving. She said she’s confident that the county will be left in capable hands.

“We have been building a county government that is stable, where no one person should be the make or break of any success,” said Liptak, who ascended to county manager in February 2023 after more than a decade as Fitzgerald’s chief of staff.

Liptak said she trained scores of county employees to work independently and is sure they will thrive on their own and under new management.

She said she has been impressed with the administration of new County Executive Sara Innamorato, which made her decision to leave easier.

Liptak’s last day is June 7. Steve Pilarski, deputy county manager, will take over her position temporarily while the search for a new permanent manager is undertaken.

Her yearly salary was about $193,000.

Liptak started working as a clerk typist for county government in 1998 and has worked her way up ever since, serving as finance director for Allegheny County Council during the 2000s and ascending to the top unelected position by the end of her tenure.

She called her departure bittersweet because the role has been fulfilling, but she is ready to slow down and avoid the late-night and weekend calls to deal with county emergencies.

“It has been my entire life working in government,” said Liptak, who has worked for the county for more than half her life. She said wants to spend more time with her teenage children.

“For 20 years, it is 24/7. It is always on, always looking at emails, taking phone calls, doesn’t matter if it is a holiday, that is normal to my kids.”

Innamorato said Liptak’s depth of county knowledge will be nearly impossible to replace quickly.

“We have been accepting applications for her position since the transition, and it is a hard job to fill and find qualified people,” Innamorato said. “We are actively interviewing right now. Finding the right fit is difficult.”

Allegheny County Council President Pat Catena, D-Carnegie, and Liptak haven’t always seen eye to eye, with disagreements sometimes flaring at council meetings.

Still, Catena said Liptak’s institutional knowledge will be hard to replace and he praised her dedication to county government.

Innamorato said Liptak was instrumental to a number of initiatives within county government, including ensuring county workers’ wages and benefits increased and implementing drop-off locations for mail-in ballots.

She also praised Liptak for her role in getting the county to have arguably the quickest voting tabulations in the state on election night.

This primary election, Allegheny County had all of its mail-in votes tabulated 18 seconds after the polls closed. Many other counties take hours, sometimes days, to finish counting each mail-in vote.

“It was a team effort,” Liptak said. “We are doing something bigger. This is about the fundamental right to select our leaders, and we are all part of making sure that system operates properly for the county.”

Liptak said she recruits workers from virtually all county departments to sort and count votes on Election Day. She said everyone works a long day, but a sense of pride permeates the workforce on these vote-counting days.

One major issue left unsettled within county government is a potential countywide property reassessment.

Pittsburgh Public Schools recently sued to force the county to trigger a reassessment, and several other public school districts have voiced support for a countywide reassessment, as commercial property values have declined.

Innamorato said while Liptak’s presence will be missed, she believes the operation of the county is stable.

“There are so many people that have been here for so long, and those folks are staying put,” said Innamorato.

Liptak said she hopes her time at Allegheny County government will remind residents of the dedication of public servants and help push back against stereotypes that county employees are lazy. She praised the county’s janitors, engineeers, doctors and jail workers.

“Just be aware of all that we do,” Liptak said.

Vie the full article at triblive.com.