Brownsville residents pile into public meeting
Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series of stories dealing with public meetings held in Brownsville to gather information to decide on a revitalization project for a pilot program by the Appalachian Regional Commission. BROWNSVILLE – More people showed up this week for a public meeting to develop strategies for Brownsville’s future than anyone ever anticipated.
The Sons of Italy Hall was filled as 152 people came out to offer their opinions on Brownsville’s strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for the future. The public meeting was part of the process being used to identify a community project for an Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) pilot project to help distressed communities become economically viable.
Brownsville is one of seven towns selected in the 12-state region covered by the ARC to participate in the program.
A national consulting firm, Civic Economics, is providing the technical assistance to Brownsville and to Nelsonville, Ohio, which is slightly larger than Brownsville. The firm conducted focus group meetings and a public forum in Nelsonville earlier in the week.
“In Nelsonville, we had 26 people at the public meeting,” said Dan Houston of Civic Engineering.
Houston said Civic Engineering had hoped to meet with about four or five percent of the local population during the focus group and community meetings this week. The large turnout at the public meeting boosted that number to about eight percent of the public.
“In this time of scarce resources, we need to hear as many voices as possible. We want to make sure the project we pick meets the needs of Brownsville,” said Lou Orslene, the executive director of the Brownsville Area Revitalization Corp., who is working with Team Brownsville, the group assembled to carry out the project over the next two years.
The audience was pooled for opinions on Brownsville’s strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. The strengths included the river, the schools, Brownsville General Hospital, Patsy Hillman Park, Route 40 accessibility and the churches in town. Other strengths mentioned were its proximity to Pittsburgh, as well as to the mountain region for recreation, its charm and ethnic diversity.
“We’ve come from out of state. One of the things that we’ve noticed is the community. Everyone is willing to share or help….This is a major strength,” said Wesley Silva.
Weaknesses listed included high poverty, a lack of jobs and a limited tax base.
“We as a borough or the people here do not own the downtown area. We have one person who owns more than 100 properties. If we don’t have cooperation between the groups, nothing is going to happen,” said Nena Kaminsky.
It was noted that the downtown property owner, Ernest Liggett and his property manager Don Kobaly, were invited to focus group meetings and were free to attend the public meeting, but did not appear. Matt Cunningham of Civic Engineering said the ARC project will not have the type of funding that would be needed to buy the downtown properties, nor would such a project fit into the two-year time frame required by the pilot program.
“There’s more to the community than just downtown Brownsville,” said Donna Jackson.
“We’re concentrating too much on Liggett’s properties,” said Izzy Martini. “We need to concentrate on what Liggett doesn’t own.”
The audience saw the construction of the new state prison in Luzerne Township as one possible opportunity for the town, as well as being on the National Road and being close to California University of Pennsylvania.
County Commissioner Sean Cavanagh attended the public meeting. He noted that Congressman Jack Murtha has been successful in the past at bringing industry to Fayette County and has shown an interest in Brownsville.
“If you don’t ask the congressman for help, you aren’t going to get it,” Cavanagh said.
Barbara Rankin suggested that the borough’s commercial and historic districts be expanded.
“Take the castle being the cornerstone at one point and work up Brashear Street to develop small businesses. That’s where people come through. Let’s take it back a block,” Rankin said.
Martini noted that small craft and antique stores have worked for Scenery Hill, with people coming from Pittsburgh to shop there even though it’s off the beaten path.
“The biggest focus we need here tonight is jobs. The wharf is beautiful, but it creates no jobs. The Flatiron Building creates no jobs. We can spend millions and millions on beautiful projects and no one is going to see them because they have to leave the area for jobs,” Kaminsky said.
Lynn Petko suggested using building renovations as a training program for students and local tradesmen.
The meeting concluded without a consensus on a list of potential projects for the ARC program.