Trader remembered for pushing conservation efforts as Greene commissioner

Archie Trader had a duality about him while serving a dozen years as Greene County commissioner, using his business experience to promote economic development while also being fond of conservation projects thanks to his love of farming.
“He had his hands in everything,” Greene County Chief Clerk Jeff Marshall said. “Economic development side with business background, with his farming background he cared about (agriculture). He was involved in everything. He knew something about everything that was going on.”
County employees and former colleagues are remembering Trader, who served three terms as county commissioner, after he died at home Friday. He was 80.
“He was very dedicated. He tried to do what was right. He was just an all-around good person,” Marshall said.
Trader came to Greene County from Wisconsin after being transferred by Weyerhaeuser to manage the company’s plant in Jefferson. He soon embedded himself in the community and later ran Trader’s Plumbing and Heating business while also working on his farm in Washington Township. Before being elected commissioner in 2007, Trader sat on the Central Greene School Board for eight years.
While Trader tried to push economic projects, such as the Greene County Airport redevelopment plan, his real passion seemed to be for conservation. He was the commission’s board representative for both farmland preservation and the conservation district.
“He supported just about every endeavor we ever had,” said Lisa Snider, who is director for the Greene County Conservation District. “He didn’t do anything that was against conservation. He really took to heart the programs we had and promoted them though the community. He talked to people about them and was always interested in what we were doing.”
Snider said Trader helped to push the Greene County Reinvestment and Agriculture Cost-Share Enhancement Program, also known as GRACE, to direct Act 13 funds to assist with small environmental projects for individual farms that typically wouldn’t be able to access larger grants from the state and federal governments. She added that Trader regularly attended school Envirothon events and supported the Friends of Ryerson even before he was a county commissioner.
“A very good soul,” Snider said. “A very good person.”
But Pam Snyder, who worked with Trader as a commissioner for five years before she won election as state representative in 2012, remembered him as someone who never let politics get in the way of doing what he thought was best for the public good. She noted that Trader was active at St. Ann Catholic Church in Waynesburg, while also volunteering for the soup kitchen and serving on the United Way board.
“Archie was a really great public servant,” Snyder said. “We always left the politics outside the door, and we did what was best for the people. … He gave so much back to the community, not just as a public servant, but to the community as a whole.”
Snyder said Trader mostly raised sheep and chickens on his farm, but he also had a donkey at one point, which she joked didn’t exactly line up with his political party. Trader spent his entire tenure as the minority party’s commissioner, but Snyder said he was still able to get things done with her and other Democrats who led the board.
“We did not let the politics interfere,” Snyder said.
Trader’s tenure ended when he lost in the Republican primary in May 2019 to Mike Belding and Betsy Rohanna-McClure, who currently hold the majority on the board. After leaving office, Trader and his wife, Jeanette, moved from their farm in Washington Township to Smithfield in Fayette County, where he lived the final few years of his life.
Just before his term expired in January 2020, Trader discussed his proudest accomplishments that included upgrading the courthouse security and pushing resources to battle the opioid crisis. He also offered a message to what Greene County and its residents meant to him and his family.
“I love Greene County, and I love the people here,” Trader said. “They’ve been very, very supportive over the years. I just thank them for the support they’ve given us.”