Mon River towns highlight events
There’s one common theme for festivals and celebrations across the Valley in the coming months — a river runs through them.
Community representatives detailed their events during the Mon River Coalition’s quarterly meeting Friday on the campus of California University of Pennsylvania.
“We want to connect with each other’s events so we are creating a buzz about each other’s communities,” said program director Cathy McCollum.
“The Valley’s right here and there’s always something going on right here.”
Mon River Coalition program, started in 2010, works with communities bordering navigable rivers.
Among a long list of events planned in Monongahela is the annual concert series at the aquatorium, said Councilman Ken Kulak. Several bands, including Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers, are scheduled to perform there Saturdays between June 18 and Aug. 27.
And on May 21 and 22 Dock Dogs, a canine aquatics competition, will hold practice in and around the aquatorium.
Meanwhile, Allenport Councilman Dennis Martinak said the Allenport Civic Club will host a fundraising comedy show May 20.
The Brownsville Area Revitalization Corp. is hosting a ducky race Aug. 6, in which participants sponsor a rubber duck for $5. The ducks are dropped into the Monongahela River for a race.
On Nov. 5, Brownsville will host A Taste of Italy, involving homemade wine and food.
Other projects aimed at improving tourism-related economic development were also discussed.
Mark Alterici said Charleroi recently applied for a tourism grant to convert a section of the river bank into a fishing dock, and the pony baseball field there was recently equipped with lights and will be used to stage tournaments.
Bob Shark of Fay-Penn said Brownsville Area High School will again host a business competition pattered after the television show “Shark Tank.” He said Maddison Angelone and Caleb Kirkland, Brownsville Area seniors and founders of pastry business Holy Cannoli, won the George W. Tippins Youth Entrepreneur Regional Business Plan Competition last year and topped the regional competition as well.
He also noted that United State Collegiate Athletic Association National Basketball Championship Tournament being hosted by Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus. With 40 teams nationwide attracted to the competition, Shark said it is a chance for hotels and restaurants in the valley to benefit, noting that the tournament attracted more than $500,0000 in tourism related dollars, about 60 percent in hotels and 40 percent in restaurants. Some teams stayed as far away as Morgantown, West Virginia, because of limited availability of hotel rooms in Fayette County.
The River Town Program and the Small Business Administration will host Make It Happen April 28 in the Charleroi Borough Building.
Michael Wholihan of SBA, said Make it Happen is just one of many training programs his organization holds for small businesses. The SBA hosts at the University of Pittsburgh a pair of repeating seminars — developing a business plan and the mechanics of starting a new business.