Monongahela receives $25,000 WalkWorks grant
Monongahela is one of eight Pennsylvania neighborhoods to receive a WalkWorks grant to promote community and physical activity, the Wolf administration announced earlier this week.
Monongahela will receive $25,000 to put toward the development of safe and accessible walking, biking and other transportation paths.
“We’ve been doing a lot of grant-type things, but this one is a really special one. It’s an honor for Monongahela. We’re putting ourselves on the map, and this is a real honor,” said Terry Necciai, executive director of Monongahela Main Street Program, who is spearheading the WalkWorks program. “I’m just excited about the level of cooperation and community consensus-building that could come out of this.”
WalkWorks, a joint initiative between the state Department of Health and the Pennsylvania Downtown Center, works to create accessible transportation routes within communities. In creating safer, more convenient paths, WalkWorks encourages social interaction, reduces air pollution, increases health and improves local economies.
Over the next year, Necciai and local leaders will work with professional transit and community planners to determine Monongahela’s needs. Necciai plans to host several public and focus group meetings and use resident input when planning how best to allocate WalkWorks funds.
“I would like to see a lot more public input. This grant … relates to everything in town: It’s health, it’s getting kids downtown. Exercise and accessibility,” Necciai said, noting he’d love to see more bicyclists cruising about, more people who use wheelchairs enjoying downtown, and more locals taking advantage of the extensive bus transit system. “We’re hoping to get people out, engage them in the discussion.”
In recent years, Monongahela has enjoyed a comeback. An average of two new businesses open up shop every two months, Necciai said, and families are settling in the area, lowering the average age. But progress comes with caveats, and connectivity is an issue facing the second-smallest city in Pennsylvania.
Necciai said with the WalkWorks grant, Monongahela could potentially connect downtown to Monongahela’s beautiful, walkable cemetery, or build a scenic overlook near Lenzi’s restaurant. The city could install crosswalks, to make navigating downtown safer, or create a safe route directly from downtown to the Aquatorium. Monongahela might increase sidewalk accessibility, or add “sharrows” – share the road with bike arrows – to allow safer bike transit.
“It’s an opportunity to connect all those things,” he said.
Necciai is hopeful that along with connectivity solutions, community clubs will be born of the WalkWorks public meetings.
“Could we have a walking club? Could we have a biking club? We have young families now. We have to grow with them,” he said.
Before projects begin, Monongahela, guided by Necciai and others, will assess how best to connect the city, creating more opportunity for physical activity, shopping, socializing and community engagement. The ideas offered up by residents will be crucial to helping the city most effectively spend WalkWorks grant funds.
“Our goal is safe, accessible, and inviting active transportation options for all, not just the fit and fearless,” Samantha Pearson, who has worked with Necciai and serves Healthy Communities Program Manager at the PDC and coordinator of the WalkWorks Program, said in a news release. “WalkWorks helps communities understand and apply best practices and principles to transportation planning. With vehicle crashes causing ever-increasing injuries and deaths among people walking and riding, it is urgent work across the country and in Pennsylvania.”