Officials of 3 counties share vision for region
Economic development, land banks, blight and drug issues provided food for thought at the Mon Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce luncheon Tuesday afternoon.
An official from each of the three counties comprising the majority of the Mid-Mon Valley participated in a panel discussion addressing challenges facing the region they share. Commission chairs Larry Maggi of Washington and Gina Cerilli of Westmoreland and Bob Shark of the Fay-Penn Economic Development Council shared the mini-dais during a spirited 45-minute session in the Willow Room, Rostraver Township. Chamber President Jamie Protin was the moderator.
Shark replaced Vince Vicites, commission chairman of Fayette, who was at a meeting related to that county’s budget.
Protin outlined four topics – economic development, blight, drug problems and regional unity – and let the panel go. The accent was on region.
Though Maggi said this was the first time officials from these counties, in particular, gathered for a public forum, he pointed out that Washington, Westmoreland and Fayette have huddled together as members of the 10-county Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, a regional planning agency.
“We do work well together. You attract federal and state money by working together,” Maggi said. “We like to say how we have country charm in Washington County. Fayette and Westmoreland have it, too. We want to grow and grow smart.”
Although the oil and gas industry is suppressed by a downturn in energy prices, Maggi said his home county “has been blessed with Marcellus Shale” and maintains the energy situation is cyclical and will rebound.
But he added “Washington County is not only driven by the energy sector. We’ve drawn a lot of business.” He said the valley “is starting to percolate” and people are looking to move there.
Shark, who called Fayette “probably the poorest of the three counties,” said “we’ve been impacted probably a little more by the downturn in oil and gas.” But he added that there is “a lot of positive stuff moving forward.” He said agriculture, tourism and manufacturing are his county’s top industries, and “we are looking to create a business accelerator.”
Cerilli, 29 and fairly fresh out of law school, said industrial parks are a boon in Westmoreland: there are 17 parks with 142 companies. Expanding parks is an initiative there, she said.
Excela Health and Kennametal are Westmoreland’s two largest employers, and now that Kennametal’s plans to move its headquarters to Pittsburgh have hit a snag, Cerilli believes that company will stay put.
Blight is a plague on the valley and elsewhere around the region. A land bank is one way to alleviate that, the panelists agreed. That enables a body to acquire, hold and transfer real estate, with the aim of returning property to the tax rolls.
These three counties are at different levels on the land bank initiative. Two years ago, Westmoreland was one of the first counties in the state, and the first in Western Pennsylvania, to form one. Maggi and fellow Washington commissioners Diana Irey Vaughan and Harlan Shober approved the bank last week, which will likely be passed by the Washington County Redevelopment Authority March 28.
Cerilli said Westmoreland has acquired 42 properties and 19 have been redeveloped, and that the former Monsour Hospital, a longtime eyesore, has been razed. Shark said that while Connellsville and Uniontown have redevelopment authorities, Fayette does not have a land bank. But … “it’s something we’re looking at.”
In the spirit of regional unity, Maggi said Washington approached Westmoreland and “worked with” its eastern neighbor on forming a land bank plan. “We made a few changes unique to Washington County,” he said, but essentially followed the format.
The drug problem, Cerilli said, is a perception problem as well. She said anyone, regardless of his or her personal appearance – and regardless of age – can become a victim.
“People who die from this disease are like those in this room,” she said. “People can get a knee replacement, break an arm in an auto accident and take pills. They may need those pills for only two days, but take them until they are gone and are addicted to pain pills. Then a supplier can say, ‘For $5, I can get you heroin.'”
Cerilli said there were 126 overdoses in Westmoreland County last year, and only two victims were 16 to 20 years old.
Maggi, a former state trooper, said, “we’ve had this problem for 50 years. It’s a problem everywhere and we’re still trying to find a solution.”