Sep 18, 2002 By Steve Ferris 3 min read

About 20 Uniontown business owners, city councilmen and other local officials were asked Tuesday to become the nucleus of a Downtown Business District Authority (DBDA) volunteer task force to lead an effort to plan improvements in the prime business area. The meeting was one of the first parts of the “Charting the Future of Our Community” downtown planning program, which the Penn State Cooperative Extension is providing free to the authority.

Although it was called a pre-charting meeting, those is attendance brought with them many ideas for making downtown more attractive to businesses and consumers.

Steve Neubauer of Neubauer’s Flowers said stores should consider staying open evenings and weekends, and that specialty shops like antique stores would prosper in the city.

He said police have to keep downtown streets safe so shoppers can walk through town without worrying about “what’s around the corner.”

“Everybody talks about the Waterfront (in Homestead),” authority member Gregory Parsons said. “It’s like downtown. People park in one place, then walk around.”

City councilman Joe Giachetti said police foot patrols are needed downtown.

Neubauer said more parking spaces should be reserved for patrons, noting that spaces along South Street for shoppers and residents are being used by business owners and employees.

He also said some changes are needed in the DBDA’s practices because businesses that don’t support the authority receive the same benefits as those who do.

Councilman Gary Crozier said the perception of the city and Fayette County is bad, but people outside of the county don’t realize the city has a paid fire department, a police department and an in-house sewage department.

He said the city is taking action against slum and absentee landlords who don’t maintain their properties, but the process is slow.

Myron Nypaver, the city’s code-enforcement officer, said recent state legislation allows cities to sell properties taken through eminent domain to businesses.

He said the law used to restrict cities to use such properties for public purposes.

“I’m hearing people ready to take action,” said Lucinda Baron Robbins of the Penn State Coopertive, who is organizing the charting effort.

She asked those who attended the meeting to invite others to attend another session that will be held after the Oct. 22 DBDA meeting.

Robbins said the next step in the process is to conduct a walking survey of downtown businesses, so the authority can have a better understanding of the area and how to revitalize it.

In unrelated business, the authority accepted the resignation of Melinda Dellarose of the Davis and Davis law firm from the board.

There are now two vacancies on the panel.