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10/6/2008 3:32 AM

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At last year's Waynesburg Prosperous & Beautiful garden party, it was reported that phase one of a $1 million project to revamp a portion of Waynesburg's business district was on target and would begin in the spring of 2008.

Nothing happened.

Last week, again at the annual garden party, one speaker promised that it will finally come to fruition in the spring of 2009.

Waynesburg P&B, along with borough officials and others, have been planning a facelift for the sidewalks and streets of the downtown business district since 2005. Organizers have set construction start dates several times, but problems - with finances, logistics and most recently, utility line relocations - have delayed the project.

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We hope the organization has its ducks in line this time because, as County Commissioner Pam Snyder said, people have been waiting for the tree-lined streets and decorative sidewalks for quite some time.

The project received about $1.6 million in state and federal grants. Waynesburg University and borough council have also pledged money. That should be enough to revamp two blocks on High Street, from Morgan to Washington streets, and about three blocks on Washington, leading to the university campus.

But before we all get to excited, borough officials will have to reach agreements with utility companies to bury the lines, so that telephone poles and overhanging wires do not detract from the new look of downtown Waynesburg.

The state Department of Transportation plans to award contracts for the project in March.

Mike Dufalla, borough engineer with Mackin Engineering, has been negotiating with Allegheny Power, Windstream telephone company and Comcast cable company.

"It's going to be a beautiful project for downtown Waynesburg," he said. "But nothing happens without collaboration."

Dufalla explained that Waynesburg's streetscape project will be similar to the Main Street revitalization projects that were recently completed in Greensburg and Uniontown.

This ambitious downtown revitalization effort comes at the time the Wal-Mart project is beginning to take shape off Route 21 in Franklin Township.

History shows that when Wal-Mart moves in, the nearest "downtown" takes a retail hit, and that has not escaped the attention of the Waynesburg Prosperous & Beautiful people.

But we believe the project would have been planned and carried out whether Wal-Mart was coming or not.

We won't go as far as to call this a merchandising preemptive strike, but it's pretty close and very smart.

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