Jun 26, 2002 By Steve Ferris 2 min read

Herald-Standard The Uniontown Downtown Business District Authority will ask the Penn State Cooperative Extension for help in planning improvements to the city’s central business district.

DBDA members agreed Tuesday to apply for free assistance in planning from Penn State’s curriculum-based “Charting the Future of Our Community” program.

The authority was considering hiring the Pennsylvania Downtown Center to assist in planning the improvements, but it was denied a $5,000 grant it needed to pay the organization, Leigh Anne Sperry, DBDA executive director, said.

Lucinda Baron Robbins of the cooperative extension office in Uniontown told DBDA members that the charting program needs a “positive, can-do spirit” from 30 to 40 volunteers who will be asked to develop a vision on how to improve the downtown business district.

The DBDA’s only expenses will be providing a meeting place, refreshments, notebooks and binders for the volunteers, she said.

Through the charting process, which will involve four three-hour evening meetings beginning in August or September, the volunteer committee will create a “vision” of ways to change the business district, Robbins said.

The first meeting will focus on assessing the district and identifying trends. Improvement goals will be set at the second session and ways to achieve those goals will be discussed at the third meeting. An action plan and a draft “vision statement” will be prepared at the last meeting.

Robbins said volunteers will be asked to investigate and carry out the ideas they come up with.

She said university research will be available to the committee.

DBDA Chairman Mark Rafail said the first item the committee looks into should he ways to find better ways to fund the authority’s operations.

Currently, its money comes from membership dues.