Despite a waning office market and struggles by the companies of Robotics Row, people keep moving into the Strip District.

That’s one of big take aways of the new State of the Strip Report for 2023, an annual neighborhood benchmarking exercise by Strip District Neighbors, a community organization.

“The Strip District continues to transform as a residential community,” said Pam Austin, president of Strip District Neighbors, at an event July 13 to announce the report’s basic findings at Cadence on Smallman Street. “Our pipeline is the most abundant in the city.”

According to the new report, the population of the Strip District grew by 316% since 2015, reaching an estimated total population of 3,214 residents, a figure that’s grown dramatically in part due to demand and in part since before a recent boom in the past 20 years, it was a neighborhood with very little residential population at all.

Given high asking rents and a recent residential sale that eclipsed $2 million for the first time, the report projects the Strip District’s population will double again in the next two to three years, based on a pipeline of 2,111 residential units in the works for the urban fringe neighborhood along the Allegheny River, with many projects announced or approved by the city along Smallman Street in the past 18 months.

Average apartment rents in the Strip District range from $1,520 for a studio to more than $2,800 for a two-bedroom unit, according to the report.

The report totaled up 17 new restaurants and retailers that opened in the Strip District in the last year, many of them opening in the Strip District Terminal — City Winery, Sandbox VR, among others — as well as elsewhere along Smallman Street.

It was an expansion trend that significantly outpaced only two retail closures in the last year.

The neighborhood’s office market, once one of the most active places in the region for new office development, drawing in a variety of major tech firms, has not fared as well, in keeping with the office sector as a whole.

The report noted “extreme headwinds” in the office market even as it welcomed some significant newcomers to the neighborhood, noting the Richard King Mellon Foundation and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission inked new offices at the Strip District Terminal and Oshkosh Corp. set up an innovation center in the tech flex Factory 26.

View the full article at bizjournals.com

A high-speed internet expansion study of Lawrence County elicited input from a Shenango Township resident because their household is paying $100 a month for unstable internet service.

Reports of spotty service and connection issues also were reported in Enon Valley Borough, Plain Grove Township, North Beaver Township, and in Volant and Ellwood City boroughs, among other areas, as shown on an accompanying detailed map.

The broadband expansion study, “Link Up Lawrence,” was initiated more than a year ago by the commissioners and county planning office. The study was conducted by the engineering firm of Michael Baker International Inc. and seeks to identify areas of weak high-speed internet access countywide. It also contains recommendations on how to improve connectivity.{p class=”p1”}Broadband is determined by megabits per second and refers to the upload and download speeds. Broadband is internet service that is 25 megabits per second, or 25/3 — high-speed internet that is faster than the traditional dial-up. If a service is less than that, it is not considered broadband. The minimum definition of broadband is 25/3, and deal is 100/20 or greater.

The county commissioners formally approved the study Tuesday, which recommends that internet should be reframed as a public necessity.

Michael Baker’s report identifies four areas, in Plain Grove and Washington townships, as “early action areas” for more immediate focus on remedying some of the problems.

Plain Grove Township Supervisor Jeffrey Bishop, an active member of a task force formed as part of the study, told the commissioners that COVID awakened the residents of his township and eastern Lawrence County to internet communication deficiencies there.

“A number of students who had to work from home did not have communication,” he explained. “The library and I got in touch with each other, and they had units they could loan to kids. After COVID let up, we had a lot of communications with people at Comcast and Armstrong about what was needed out there.

“It isn’t just about running the cable and fiberoptics down the road, it also has to do with power, power poles, telephone poles and right of ways,” Bishop pointed out. “It’s a pretty in-depth project to get that done.”

He added Michael Baker and Amy McKinney, the county planning director, have been asking the right questions and listening to the information given to them.

“Lawrence County has done a fantastic job, getting as far as it has, as quickly as it has,” said Bishop, who has been an elected supervisor for 34 years.

He noted he also is part of a northwest study group “that’s not having near the success that Lawrence County is.”

Courtney Accurti of Michael Baker told the commissioners several nonprofit organizations and key departments in the county were helpful in the study.

“We developed an approach to reach all areas of the county and Jeff Bishop was a significant part of that,” she said. The company also conducted industry interviews with internet service providers.

The study outlines all that has been done and links around what you can do in the future, identifies a number of priorities for the county and pinpoints connectivity opportunity areas,” Accurti said. “There are spots where we know access is needed in the county.

“The expansion project is a snapshot of work that’s been done and what can be done in the future,” she said.

With federal funding being made available, there will be immense opportunities in the next couple years to help those expansion projects become a reality, she said, adding that “It won’t happen overnight.”

Commissioner Dan Vogler suggested the county send copies of the document to state legislators.

“We’ve been told we have to have a plan in place, and we have to work with areas and service providers. We need to be ready, because it’s going to go,” he said.

Joe Bzorek of Michael Baker added that “through these processes, your vision is a missing piece of the puzzle. These programs bridge those gaps and open lines of communications to express needs and partner with internet providers. It is a big help.”

Lawrence County hired Michael Baker more than a year ago to conduct an in-depth look at the high-speed internet connectivity here. The company, in partnership with the county planning staff, initiated countywide survey of residents to determine how effective their residential and business internet connections are.

A key part of the study was that public survey, along with speed tests.

Lawrence County’s broadband study task force members, in addition to Bishop, are: Andy Waple, Southwest Pennsylvania Commission; Andrew Henley, director of New Castle Public Library; Lisa Bekoski, Challenges Options on Aging; David Richards, director, New Area Castle Transit Authority; Erin Smith, Westminster College; Jennifer Elliott, Lawrence County Community Action Partnership; Chad Strobel, county public safety director; Drita Crawford, New Beaver Borough secretary/treasurer; Chris Frye, city administrator of New Castle; Paul Bucciarelli, Forward Lawrence; Jesse Putnam, Lawrence County Veterans Affairs director; Jess Carroll, Northwest Pennsylvania Commission; Tom McKinley, New Wilmington Area Chamber of Commerce; Albert Burick III, Shenango Township supervisor; Gayle Young, United Way director; and Kevin Swogger, Ellwood City Borough manager.

The cost of the county’s study, between $244,000 and $287,000, was funded by the county’s American Rescue Plan Act funding does not involve local tax dollars.

The study pinpoints areas of the county that are weakest for internet services or where internet availability is nonexistent.

The study could enable the county to pursue, and qualify for, federal dollars to boost high-speed internet service countywide.

The Southwest Pennsylvania Commission in 2019 identified broadband connectivity as a high priority for southwestern Pennsylvania’s long-range plan. It worked with a coalition of stakeholders to develop a regional connectivity roadmap — spcregion.org/connected/#roadmap — to identify and guide the deployment of high-speed connectivity programs and projects regionally.

On a wider basis, the state in December of 2021 created a Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority that is seeking input from Pennsylvanians statewide about the accessibility of broadband — high-speed internet access — in their areas. The authority is charged with creating a statewide broadband plan and distributing federal and state monies for broadband expansion projects in unserved and underserved areas of the commonwealth, including in Lawrence County.

The state Department of Community and Economic Development last year approved the grant guidelines for the Pennsylvania Broadband Infrastructure Program, which will provide $200 million statewide to businesses, nonprofits, local government, and economic development organizations to enhance broadband connectivity statewide. The money is part of a U.S. Department of the Treasury allocation of $10 billion to states nationwide through the Capital Projects Fund program.

View the full article at ncnewsonline.com.

Roads and bridges in Southwestern Pennsylvania will see a $300 million boost in funding because of the infrastructure law enacted in 2021.

The extra money is included in a regional plan for $1.5 billion in transportation projects that is set to be approved June 27 by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission.

The commission’s Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) covers 2023 through 2026 and includes increases in funding for bridges, highway safety improvements and bike-and-pedestrian infrastructure compared to the previous program.

The SPC is responsible for allocating state and federal funds to local transportation infrastructure projects across 10 Southwestern Pennsylvania counties that surround Pittsburgh.

Among the $300 million increase in funding for roads and bridges under the commission’s jurisdiction, $100 million is earmarked just for bridges.

At a June 1 public meeting, SPC staff explained that the increase in funding for Pittsburgh-area transportation infrastructure is thanks to the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law passed by Congress in 2021.

“With passage of the bipartisan law, the highway and bridge funding is back up to higher levels,” said SPC director of transportation planning Domenic D’Andrea.

Roads and bridges are the biggest winners, but bike-and-pedestrian improvements, while still comparatively small, also saw a big jump and increased five-fold compared to the last TIP.

Funds for public transit also saw a modest jump. D’Andrea said this includes some money for capital improvements, but most is for operations. The majority of public transit funds are funneled to Port Authority of Allegheny County — rebranded Pittsburgh Regional Transit last week — the region’s largest public transit agency.

Read the full article at www.triblive.com

Greene County was awarded $946,083 in grant funding from Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission for sidewalk and pedestrian safety improvements as part of phase 2 of the Waynesburg Commons Multimodal Improvement Project.

The roughly $1.5 million project, which aims to make the area safer for students and community residents, includes construction of four new sidewalks in and around the Waynesburg Commons Park. It also will include the installation of five new pedestrian warning signs on the pedestrian routes that cross state Route 19 and on Washington Street, and the installation of new light poles along the new and repaired sidewalks.

“The (project) will enhance the livelihood of students that attend Waynesburg University and local residents that frequent the park,” said Jared Edgreen, chairman of the Greene County Board of Commissioners. “This park is a vital part of our community, and we want to ensure that anyone walking in or near it has safe sidewalks to use.”

SPC recently completed selecting projects for its competitive grants program, which chooses projects in the region to receive federal funding. A selection committee reviewed and scored the grant applications.

The multimodal improvement project qualified for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Transportation Alternatives Set Aside (TASA) program.

The TASA program accepts applications from counties and municipalities for projects that support transportation alternatives, including pedestrian and bicycle facilities, improving access to public transportation, enhanced mobility, recreational trails, safe routes to schools, and environmental mitigation.

“Increasing safety for pedestrians is one of our organization’s priorities, and this funding will directly impact local residents,” said Rich Fitzgerald, executive director of the SPC. “When we create environments that foster mechanisms which protect and keep residents safe during their travels, communities have the opportunity to thrive.”

Phase 1 of the project will cover improvements to Monument Park. The county and Waynesburg University secured a $450,000 grant for those improvements, and work is expected to start in the summer.

The funding for Phase 2 will be programmed into the 2025-28 Transportation Improvement Program.

Commissioner Betsy McClure said she is pleased with the grant.

“These improvements are needed for safety when individuals and families are utilizing the Commons. These improvements, along with the downtown Waynesburg Betterment Project that is currently in progress, will give the county seat a long-overdue facelift,” said McClure.

View the full article at observer-reporter.com.

Greene County was awarded $946,083 in grant funding from Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission for sidewalk and pedestrian safety improvements as part of phase 2 of the Waynesburg Commons Multimodal Improvement Project.

The roughly $1.5 million project, which aims to make the area safer for students and community residents, includes construction of four new sidewalks in and around the Waynesburg Commons Park. It also will include the installation of five new pedestrian warning signs on the pedestrian routes that cross state Route 19 and on Washington Street, and the installation of new light poles along the new and repaired sidewalks.

“The (project) will enhance the livelihood of students that attend Waynesburg University and local residents that frequent the park,” said Jared Edgreen, chairman of the Greene County Board of Commissioners. “This park is a vital part of our community, and we want to ensure that anyone walking in or near it has safe sidewalks to use.”

SPC recently completed selecting projects for its competitive grants program, which chooses projects in the region to receive federal funding. A selection committee reviewed and scored the grant applications.

The multimodal improvement project qualified for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Transportation Alternatives Set Aside (TASA) program.

The TASA program accepts applications from counties and municipalities for projects that support transportation alternatives, including pedestrian and bicycle facilities, improving access to public transportation, enhanced mobility, recreational trails, safe routes to schools, and environmental mitigation.

“Increasing safety for pedestrians is one of our organization’s priorities, and this funding will directly impact local residents,” said Rich Fitzgerald, executive director of the SPC. “When we create environments that foster mechanisms which protect and keep residents safe during their travels, communities have the opportunity to thrive.”

Phase 1 of the project will cover improvements to Monument Park. The county and Waynesburg University secured a $450,000 grant for those improvements, and work is expected to start in the summer.

The funding for Phase 2 will be programmed into the 2025-28 Transportation Improvement Program.

Commissioner Betsy McClure said she is pleased with the grant.

“These improvements are needed for safety when individuals and families are utilizing the Commons. These improvements, along with the downtown Waynesburg Betterment Project that is currently in progress, will give the county seat a long-overdue facelift,” said McClure.

View the full article at heraldstandard.com.

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.

“Over the last decade, a lot of the economic success and transformation that Allegheny County has experienced can be largely attributed directly to Jennifer’s strategic leadership, collaborative management style, and her ability to get things accomplished,” Fitzgerald said. “From the success of the airport, investing in infrastructure, rehabilitating bridges, the vibrancy of the trails and parks, and making the county government’s operations more efficient, Jennifer has been instrumental in bringing these initiatives to fruition.”

The SPC director said his former and future colleague “will be able to use her outstanding qualities and experiences to support the 10-county region with its transportation, infrastructure, economic, workforce, and quality of life priorities.”

Regionally, those counties include Indiana, Armstrong and Westmoreland, as well as Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Lawrence and Washington counties in which SPC is the federally designated metropolitan planning organization, local development district and economic development district.

Liptak stayed on with Innamorato’s administration to support them over the last six months during the transition from Fitzgerald’s administration. The Allegheny County Manager position serves as the chief administrative officer for the county, and is appointed by the County Executive.

Along Grant Street, where Allegheny County government is centered in downtown Pittsburgh, Liptak has had a public service career spanning two decades. She started out in 1998 as an employee of the county’s Office of District Attorney where she later became finance manager.

In 2004, she joined the Office of Allegheny County Council as budget director, then moved when Fitzgerald was elected as county executive to serve as his chief of staff, a position she held throughout his entire tenure.

Liptak’s ties extend into west-central Pennsylvania. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications with a minor in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. She also earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public and International Affairs as well as a professional certification in Personnel and Labor Relations Management.

She also attended Duquesne University’s School of Leadership and Professional Advancement, earning a professional certification in Advanced Accounting. Liptak is also a graduate of the F.B.I. Citizens Academy and the Harvard School of Business’ Young American Leaders Program.

SPC is in the midst of the comment period for the draft 2025-28 Transportation Improvement Program, a proposed outline of specific initiatives which in turn will be part of a 25-year Long-Range Transportation Plan for the region.

The 2025-28 draft TIP contains over $4.5 billion in investment for transportation and infrastructure projects, as already detailed at public meetings in Indiana, Beaver, Westmoreland, Armstrong, Allegheny, Fayette and Washington counties, as well as one in the City of Pittsburgh.

Further hearings are slated May 29 in Greene County, June 3 in Butler County and June 4 in Lawrence County. The public comment period continues until June 7.

Those who didn’t attend a hearing can still provide comments, thoughts, suggestions, or questions about transportation projects by:

• Completing an online form at spcregion.org
• Sending a letter to Southwestern PA Commission, Attn: Ronda Craig, 42 21st Street, Suite 101, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
• Emailing comments@spcregion.org.

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 article at butlereagle.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.

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.