Sen. Bartolotta hosts tour of Mon Valley blight

DONORA – Donora officials envision turning a vacant lot that once held an abandoned building into a small park to display relics from an old bridge that was imploded last month.
The reuse plan for the lot at 14th Street and McKean Avenue is an example of a good way to deal with vacant property that was once an eyesore, Donora Mayor Don Pavelko said Tuesday during a Mon Valley tour of blight.
“We’re turning it onto green space for some of the artifacts taken from the Donora-Webster Bridge,” Pavelko said during the tour hosted by state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll.
Bartolotta, who is a member of the state Senate Urban Affairs and Housing Committee, also hosted a public hearing on blight in Carroll in April as lawmakers work with local officials to create solutions for removing blight in the old Mon Valley towns.
She said Tuesday’s tour allowed officials in Charleroi, Donora and Monessen to share success stories and seek better ways to fund blight demolition and hold landlords responsible for taking care of their properties.
The tour also passed through nearby Monongahela, a city whose leaders have made significant progress in revitalizing its downtown, she said.
“Main Street in Monongahela is a business district that the town changed 100 degrees,” Bartolotta said. “We’re really trying hard on the committee to draw attention to (my) district.”
State lawmakers are considering a bill that would increase fines to owners of blighted property and “speed up the process” to take property from absentee landlords, she said.
Pavelko also took the nearly 30 people aboard the small bus to the former Donora Elementary Center the borough purchased from Ringgold School District to have better control of its reuse. The Community College of Allegheny County, whose president attended the tour, is considering opening an education center in the old school.
“We took the chance of taking over the building and now we have the opportunity to make something happen to the building,” Pavelko said.
He also discussed the former Fifth Street School that was torn down by borough road department employees at a cost of $500 rather than by an expensive contractor.
“We want to address the issues and talk to the local governments and to seek opportunities for grants and stress changing the legislation,” said Bartolotta, who also hosted a roundtable discussion on blight following the tour.