Looking back
A look at some of the headlines gracing the pages of the Observer-Reporter and Waynesburg Republican this week in Greene County history:
SDI set to relocate
to Meadow Ridge park
WAYNESBURG – A West Virginia mine construction company plans to relocate to Mt. Morris, bringing 98 jobs to the area.
Shaft Drillers International will move its headquarters from Morgantown to a 44,500-square-foot building that will be built at Meadow Ridge Business Park. The company develops mine shafts that are used for ventilation as well as transporting workers and equipment underground. SDI also drills for the natural gas and civil engineering industries.
The state offered SDI $2.1 million as enticement to locate here. The funding package includes a $2 million grant through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, which can be used to pay for some of the construction costs. SDI also will get $110,000 to help train people to work at the company.
Greene County Commissioner Pam Snyder said Pennsylvania was competing with West Virginia to convince SDI to locate in their respective states. The money, which was negotiated through the Governor’s Action Team, “tipped the scales in our favor,” said Snyder.
“We worked very hard on this one,” Snyder said. “It will be a huge project that will fill up Meadow Ridge, and I think you will see a lot of good things happening in Mt. Morris.”
Kevin Adrians of SDI’s land development department said the state incentives played a major role in the company’s decision to locate to Mt. Morris, but another reason had to do with the company founders’ Greene County roots. SDI executives Scott Kiger and Charlie Riggs grew up here.
“They’re Greene County natives, and I know they are just excited that they can bring their company back home,” Adrians said.
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Officials approve
CNX game land lease
The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners Tuesday approved an oil and gas lease with CNX Gas Co. to acquire oil and gas ownership under a portion of State Game Land No. 179 in Greene County.
The lease contains about 2,175 acres in Aleppo, Jackson and Gilmore townships.
CNX Gas currently owns oil, gas and coal rights on portions of State Game Land No. 179, and also controls oil/gas lease position on private lands adjacent to the state game lands.
In exchange for an oil/gas lease, CNX Gas will convey to the commission a 2,300-acre tract of land known as the Jacksonville property in Young Township, Indiana County.
Upon transfer of this tract of land, the commission will establish a new state game lands complex, State Game Land No. 332. The land has been assessed a value of $1,666,500.
According to the commission, it has negotiated with CNX in an effort to safeguard the development of its oil/gas reserve while protecting the wildlife resources and recreational use of game lands in the county.
The commission has agreed to a seven-year lease with a three-year “drill or drop” clause. CNX also has agreed to pay rental for undeveloped acreage in years four through seven. The commission and CNX Gas have agreed to a tiered royalty ranging from 16 percent to 21 percent, based on the well-head price per 1,000 cubic feet of gas produced and sold from each well.
CNX also will pay the commission a well location or spud fee of $5,000 for each shallow well and $10,000 for each well targeting the Marcellus or deeper formations.
In addition to a surface well or wells, CNX also wants to use surface pipes to transport oil and gas off the state game lands.
Further, CNX will provide 350,000 cubic feet of free gas annually for the agency’s use with a payback clause for nonuse.
Renovation project gives
county vo-tech school
‘warehouse’ feel
WAYNESBURG – A $3.2 million project to renovate Greene County Vocational-Technical School, which had been in the planning stages for more than two years, got under way last week.
Employees of various contractors had set up construction trailers outside the building and as one of their first tasks inside, began to remove ceiling tile from throughout the hallways.
“It’s different,” school director Jan Quailey said Tuesday about the changes in her normal surroundings. “It kind of feels like you’re in a warehouse because you can see right up into the building,” she said.
The building’s acoustics also changed noticeably. “It’s more echoey in here,” she said. Other work also has begun inside the 35-year-old building.
The school had moved its child-care program to the community room to permit work crews to start work in the child-care center. They already have removed floor tile and an existing room divider, Quailey said.
Contractors are doing only a minimal amount of work now during school hours. “They have not been intrusive or anything like that,” Quailey said. Much of the work is being done on a second shift after school hours.
The renovation project will include replacement of the roof, soffit and fascia and renovation of the culinary arts section, west wing rest rooms, drafting area, multi-purpose room, child-care area, business information technology area and boiler room.
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County gearing up
for major projects
WAYNESBURG – With several major economic development projects ready to advance from the talking to the doing stage, the executive director of Greene County’s department of planning and development briefed members of the media Thursday on the status of the projects, including the planned retail complex on Route 21.
Robbie Matesic said the county has “extremely important assets” to advance development in Greene County, such as Pennsylvania Turnpike, Mon-Fayette Expressway, Norfolk Southern Railroad, a navigable Monongahela River and a county-owned public airport.
These assets, she said, will play an important role in the county’s plan to see:
• A retail development across from the county airport.
• A $5 million business park site development at the county airport.
•A $15 million airport runway extension.
• The creation of a county sewerage management agency.
• The realization of EverGreene Technology Park.
• $2.5 million aquatics center at the current site of Central Pool.
Saying these projects were not presented in a “priority order,” Matesic emphasized the retail development is “a go project.” Although no contract between the developer, McHolme/Waynesburg LP and a major retailer, ostensibly Wal-Mart, has been signed, she said construction is scheduled for 2005 and “something is going to open in 2006,” she said.
However, Norman McHolme said recently that while work on the project continues to move forward, groundbreaking probably will be pushed back until late this year or early 2006.
County may seek state
funding for task force
WAYNESBURG – District Attorney David Pollock is exploring the possibility of obtaining state funding to assist the Greene County Drug Task Force in its fight to apprehend drug peddlers.
Following a meeting with Fayette County District Attorney Alphonse P. Lepore, Pollock said he will apply to the state attorney general’s office for funds that could be used for overtime pay for undercover officers and buy drugs.
“The AG has money available for that purpose and we hope to get some of it. Fayette County gets $80,000 a year for its task force, Pollock said.
The main thrust of the meeting between the two district attorneys was a discussion of how the two task forces could assist each other.
“They offered to have some of their people work with us when we need them, and we offered to reciprocate,” said Pollock, who heads the county task force that was organized in November.
The Greene County Task Force consists primarily of 10 municipal police officers and personnel from the sheriff’s office.
State flunks area landfills
Officials of 11 Greene County municipalities were informed that State Health Department inspectors have indicated that virtually all existing landfills in the county do not meet new state regulations, and could not be upgraded to the point where they would do so.
The township and borough officials, meeting for the second time to discuss the idea of developing regional landfills to replace existing disposal sites, were informed that the inspectors made the ruling after visiting existing sites at Crucible, Mather, Waynesburg and other county locations.
Michael Lucas, a member of Carmichaels Borough Council, who has been named chairman of the study committee, presided at the meeting. Other municipalities represented were Clarksville, Jefferson, Rices Landing and Waynesburg boroughs, and Cumberland, Dunkard, Franklin, Greene, Jefferson and Monongahela townships.