Apr 3, 2002 By Amy Karpinsky 4 min read

The Uniontown Redevelopment Authority Tuesday discussed a proposal to co-sponsor a group of 400 young people to come into the city and perform cosmetic repairs for low-income homeowners. Executive director William C. Long said he recently met with Jim Stark of Fayette County Community Action to discuss the proposal. The organization, the Group Work Camp Foundation Home Rehabilitation Assistance, is a faith-based organization that travels around the country repairing homes. Long said, if approved, the group would come into the city for a week next summer and perform work, such as painting and construction of wheelchair ramps. The ages of those who participate range from 14 to 21, Long said.

Long said he would like to coordinate with other redevelopment authorities and organizations throughout the county. He said a co-sponsorship would cost $17,000. Long added that materials could be used as a match for the funds and churches and other organizations could be recruited to raise money as well. He said the project would be done in areas other than Uniontown also, but 40 to 50 percent of the homes that would be repaired would be in Uniontown.

Authority chairman Alvin Mundel expressed concern about the cost of the sponsorship, although Long was confident that the money could be raised without using authority funds.

Mayor Jim Sileo said the project would help to beautify the city.

Authority employee Mark Yauger suggested that the authority first contact the Fayette County Builder’s Association, to explain that plans are not to take away work from them. Board member Brian Ludy said the people who would be helped are people who can’t afford to pay contractors to do work on their homes.

The authority voted to give the proposal tentative approval, pending a discussion with the homebuilders association.

In a personnel matter, the board approved two motions dealing with compensation for outgoing controller Darlene Rodeheaver, who is leaving on July 12 after 21 years with the authority.

The board voted on the motions following a 50-minute executive session to discuss the matter. The board voted to pay Rodeheaver 148 1/2 hours of compensatory leave as compensatory time of not more than 20 hours per week through July 12. The payment is for work Rodeheaver performed for the authority when she was off on medical leave. As a condition of the motion, additional hours will be paid per week at the discretion of the executive director. Voting in favor of the motion were Mundel, Ludy and board member John Oris. Muriel Lantz and John Shull were absent.

The board denied a request from Rodeheaver to pay her an amount of $1,500 per year as stipulated for in the city contract as a compensation for not having health care benefits. She was requesting the annual amount for a time period stretching from 1993 to now. Instead, the board voted to pay Rodeheaver a prorated amount of $125 per month for the last seven months of this year.

Long announced that he began interviewing people for Rodeheaver’s position on Monday. He said two dozen people applied for the position.

The authority voted to amend the application process for housing rehabilitation to include people who are in rent-to-own situations. Long said they could collect applications from people in those situations and put them at the bottom of the list. He said if they get to the top of the list and are not in a situation where they own their own home, they would then be eliminated from the list. In the past, the authority only accepted applications from low-income homeowners.

In response to a question from Oris, Long said plans are to do the Morgantown Street improvement project next year. Cost overruns on the South Street project caused a delay.

In agenda items, the board voted to renew the annual dues for the Fayette Chamber of Commerce in the amount of $190.95.

A motion was approved to advertise for community development consulting services for a three-year period. The last contract expired at the end of last year.