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By Jill Brown

For the very first time, the five municipalities of Charleroi, Fallowfield, North Charleroi, Speers, and Twilight came together to work out a plan for the future, and this is just the beginning. The Redevelopment Authority of the County of Washington was mainly responsible for the public meeting, held on October 3, 2016 from 6-8 p.m. in Charleroi City Hall Building.

President of Mon Valley Community Chamber of Commerce Jamie Protin and Susan Morgan, Brownfields & Municipal Planning Manager, are excited to work together on this unique project.

Patty Folan, GAI assistant director and main lectern, introduced the course of plan. She said, “We want to make this very issue-based and have action items…We want to have focus groups. This is a …process, and we’re a month into it, going into April or May. We want to be sure everyone can access it on social media.”

Brad Strader, project manager with MKSK, spoke next, explaining a comprehensive plan including the assets that exist currently. He said we will examine questions such as: How can we bring employment to the area? Also, included will be quality of life and housing choices. What are key issues? They also dealt with other issues to include transportation, blight and of course general strengths.

People broke into 3 groups for 45 minutes and discussed their visions for the future, as it pertains to issues such as housing needs, future growth patterns, industry, job growth and public facilities such as schools. They also plan to use a SWOT analysis, focusing on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the area.

The leader of each group next addressed attendees for three minutes on their ideas that were taken from the informative round tables.

The first group to speak was led by John LaCarte, Vice Chairman of Mon Valley Alliance, who spoke about the fact that there are opportunities in the area. He said, “Government isn’t going to fix our problems for us. We’re meeting roadblocks every step of the way. It starts with us talking positive. We always talk about how negative things are.”

Jamie Protin, President of Mon Valley Community Chamber of Commerce, said, “The key to our success is to fix Charleroi and bring the downtown business forward. Our historic district is too large—older property is dilapidated. Our restaurants are a positive, such as Speers Street Grill and Rego’s.”

First to speak was Patty Folan, GAI assistant director, who helped make the program possible.

Ed Zelich, Superintendent of Charleroi School District, spoke for the next group with pride of “wonderful, hard-working Charleroi students and staff.” In that group, Frank Paterra, Charleroi Councilman, explained that a hydroelectric power plant as an energy source would solve problems and bring jobs. He also said we have to look at senior housing improvement.

The last group, led by Alan Benyak, candidate for state representative, said, “We have a very aggressive Chamber of Commerce, which is positive. We are very positive about the future of the districts, such as beautiful housing in one of the areas. Also, in working together, can we cross county lines and work with another county?”

Protin stated of the meetings, “I think it’s really important to not only these communities, but to the entire Mon Valley. What comes out of this plan will impact the surrounding communities.”

Residents are encouraged and invited to join in the planning process at the next meeting to date to make a difference. To keep updated of progress and for more information, a site will be made available online: fallowfieldtownship.org.

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