Murtha visits Brownsville
BROWNSVILLE – U.S. Rep John Murtha (D-Johnstown) got a first-hand look at the assets and needs of Brownsville Thursday. Mayor Norma Ryan invited Murtha to tour the community so he could see how community organizations are working together to make a difference in the town as well as some of obstacles that the town is trying to overcome.
The tour included the wharf, the lower South Side, the Jackson Street area and the area of the sewage plant, the Flatiron Building, Nemacolin Castle and portions of the North Side. Murtha asked about a number of the older industrial buildings in the lower South Side area, questioning what businesses occupied them now. Ryan noted that nearly all of the old industrial buildings have been vacant for a number of years, including the Brownsville Brewery building and the Bridgeport Mine buildings.
“This is the community where you can see the need the most,” said Lou Orslene, the executive director of the Brownsville Area Revitalization Corporation, as the tour went through the lower South Side. “There is blight and there is code enforcement going on for blight remediation.”
Ryan said the Bridgeport Coal Mine grew so large at one point that additional housing had to be built for the miners on the hill above the mine. Now, only foundations can be seen in some areas.
“As you can see, there’s a lot of need for demolition and remediation. Code enforcement is a problem because we just don’t have the money.”
It was noted that the new state prison being built in Luzerne Township is only a few miles outside of Brownsville.
“Do you anticipate that a lot of the people working at the prison will move here?” Murtha asked.
Ryan said she doubted many of the prison employees currently working in Pittsburgh will make the move because of the easy commute created by the Mon-Fayette Expressway and the interstates.
“Eventually, they’ll get tired of the commute if you have an attractive place for them to move to,’ Murtha said.
Murtha said one of the biggest detriments to attracting new people to the Brownsville area is the condition of the downtown area.
“I’m impressed with what you folks have done on your own,” Murtha said. “Driving downtown is discouraging, but I look at that new prison being built and it will bring people to the town, as long as they don’t have to drive through that part of town.”
Murtha was impressed with the new Brownsville Wharf and Riverside Park, though he did question its lack of handicapped accessibility due to the steep grade of the road to the wharf. Ryan said a number of options are still be explored to address that problem, but they will be costly.
“This is first-class,” Murtha said as he toured the wharf.
Consolidated Coal’s tow boat, the R.L. Ireland, was at the wharf when the tour arrived. Murtha was surprised at the size of boats accommodated by the wharf, including the boats in the Gateway Clipper fleet that come to Brownsville for the annual chamber of commerce cruise and for the high school prom.
Orslene said that grant money has been received from the Appalachian Regional Commission for more beautification in the area of the wharf, including improvements to the access road. BARC is also in the process of acquiring the former Autenreith Building for use as a riverboat museum, Ryan said.
Ryan said the borough is also working with the Izaak Walton League to create a park and walking trail along Dunlap Creek from the Monongahela River to the Jackson Street area.
Fayette County Commissioner Sean Cavanagh said a number of new businesses have moved into Fayette County. One of the largest employers in the county now is CallTech located just outside of Brownsville in Redstone Township.
“Fayette County is slowly but surely becoming a call center for businesses,” Cavanagh said.
Ryan said that while BARC has been focusing on tourism promotion by developing the Frank L. Melega Art Museum, the Flatiron Building Heritage Center and the future riverboat museum, it is also looking at using some of its buildings as business accelerates. BARC is partnering with California University of Pennsylvania to turn the upper floor of the former Brownsville Water Company Building into a wired classroom to be used for river research and other projects.
“We are also looking at a workforce development program with Cal U aimed at women,” Orslene said.
Orslene said the goal is to move many of the single mothers in the area from minimum wage jobs without benefits to jobs paying $8-10 an hour with benefits. Orslene said that in the Brownsville area, 41 to 49 percent of the children are living in poverty, with 19 to 29 percent of families living in poverty. Of the female heads of households with no husband present, 45 to 52 percent are living in poverty.
Ryan said the goal for the museum buildings is to make them self-sustaining by renting adjacent space to businesses and possibly incorporating loft apartments in the upper floors.
Murtha pointed out that the geography of the region, with the hills, creeks and the river make building expansion difficult.
“The growth we can have will be through adaptive reuse,” Ryan said.
“Of all the elected officials in Fayette County, you have to be the most optimistic,” Cavanagh told Ryan.
Donna Holdorf of the National Road Heritage Corridor said she is looking forward to the 250th anniversary of the French and Indian War beginning in 2004, since it will bring tourists to the area for a number of years. At the same time, Holdorf told Murtha, more needs to be done to make the area more presentable before then.
“We need the grassroots investment to make things flourish here. We don’t need a $100 brochure. We need code enforcement and improvements,” Holdorf said.
Holdorf said highly visible junkyards are a major problem along the National Road.
At a luncheon at Brownsville General Hospital Murtha pledged his support to the community, saying he has an extremely experienced staff that can be of assistance.
“We’ve had some innovative approaches. I’ve committed myself to helping the mayor because I’m impressed with what you’ve already done,” Murtha said. “We get our ideas from local people. We depend on you to set our priorities….We will be as helpful in the future as we can.”