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Group to help form Scenic Waynesburg

3 min read

WAYNESBURG – Scenic Pittsburgh, a nonprofit organization that helps preserve and promote the region’s scenic resources as a tool for economic growth, has taken an interest in Waynesburg.

The organization is, in fact, ready to begin Scenic Waynesburg.

Mike Dawida, executive director of Scenic Pittsburgh, told Waynesburg Borough council Monday that his organization wants to assist Waynesburg in preserving and promoting what it has to offer.

“It’s all about beautification,” Dawida said. “We try to help communities develop by using the natural resources that they have,” he said. A former state legislator, Dawida said he has visited Waynesburg may times in the past. “I think this town has a lot of natural beauty,” he said.

And it’s the beauty of an area that attracts people and leads to increased tourism and business opportunities, he said. As an example, Dawida spoke of the Waterfront at Homestead, once the site of a former steel mill that has been transformed into a shopping and residential area where, he said, people now want to live because of its beauty.

Scenic Pittsburgh is an affiliate of Scenic America, a national conservation group started by Lady Bird Johnson to safeguard the scenic character of the country. The group focuses on scenic conservation as a means of promoting economic growth and community vitality.

Dawida said he already has had discussions with Douglas Lee, Waynesburg University’s president, regarding the creation of a “green way” around Waynesburg that would involve preserving the green hillsides that now encircle the community.

The organization will help the community assess its natural scenic assets, as well as its housing, buildings, streets and parks and develop strategies to preserve and maintain them, he said.

The group’s activities will cost the borough nothing. Scenic Pittsburgh will seek funding from foundations and other entities to accomplish its goals, Dawida said. It also will not dictate what issues it will address but focus on those the community believes to be important, he said.

Dawida said he also will be meeting with others in the community, including Waynesburg Prosperous and Beautiful, to discuss the project. The process usually takes about two years with the initial focus on assessing existing resources and planning, he said.

In other business, council agreed to meet with Waynesburg University to discuss the university assuming some of the responsibility of mowing grass and removing snow from sidewalks in parks in the Waynesburg Commons.

Borough manager Mike Simms said he had discussed the matter with Lee and Lee seemed to be receptive to the idea.

Police Chief Rob Toth reported Masontown Borough Council has donated a Jeep Cherokee to the borough that is specially equipped for the borough’s canine unit.

Patrolman Asa Winter has trained a 3-year-old German shepherd named Izzy to aid the department in its law enforcement effort. Council will send Masontown a letter thanking it for the donation.

Simms reported on snow removal for the winter season to date, noting the borough had purchased 408.49 tons of salt this year at a cost of $23,435. The borough work force also had 176 hours of overtime, at a cost of $5,500.

Bryan Cumberledge, assistant borough manager, reported on new federal regulations regarding street signs and the amount of reflective materials each sign should contain.

The borough will be required to inventory its signs and their reflective value and will replace older one when resources become available.

Council voted to transfer Kresta Porter, at her request, from a full-time position in the police department to a part-time police aide.

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