Residents voice ideas for county’s strategic plan
About a dozen Fayette County residents took advantage of an opportunity Thursday to have their ideas about how to improve the quality of life for the next five years included in the county’s strategic plan. Ideas ranged from completing the Mon/Fayette Expressway to making childcare more affordable.
The opportunity came at Penn State Fayette Campus during the second of six meetings intended to get residents involved in setting priorities in an updated strategic plan.
The first strategic plan was created in 1993 and was revised five years later in 1998. The plan is due for another update this year.
Fayette Forward, which is a group of individuals, business owners, organizations, local agencies and elected officials, is working with Pashek Associates, a Pittsburgh-based planning firm, to gather input from citizens at the six meetings and compile their suggestions and ideas into a new strategic plan.
Robert Junk, Fayette Forward manager, said the plan will be completed by the end of May and then be presented to the county commissioners for their approval in June.
County Commissioner Vince Vicites, who serves on Fayette Forward’s strategic plan steering committee, said many of the goals from the 1993 plan has been accomplished, citing a lower unemployment rate, increase in population, rise in median average family income and fewer residents living in poverty.
“I think this plan is a major reason why this happened,” Vicites said.
With the new plan “we’ll be able to chart a course for the next five years,” he said.
Junk encouraged those who attended to tell people they know to attend the remaining sessions, including one set for Thursday evening in Farmington. The other meetings will be held April 1 at 1 p.m. in the State Theatre for the Arts in Uniontown, April 1 at 5:30 p.m. in the Masontown Volunteer Fire Hall and April 3 at 5:30 p.m. in Brownsville’s North Side Fire Hall.
He said about 20 people attended the first meeting in Connellsville City Hall on Tuesday.
Junk also encouraged residents to volunteer to serve on one of the nine action committees, which try to accomplish the goals identified in the plan.
“This is your plan not ours,” Junk said.
On Thursday, Jim Pashek and one of his associates Jodi Koviach reviewed the list of goals assigned to the action committees that worked on the 1993 strategic plan, and asked the dozen residents in attendance to come up with new goals or revise the 1993 goals.
The nine action committees are agriculture, tourism and recreation, social conditions, marketing and public relations, infrastructure, environmental, education and business, economic development and community health.
Vicites, who is running for re-election this year, said completion of the Mon-Fayette Expressway was his top priority. He said West Virginia needs $40 million to complete the expressway connection to I-68, while construction of the Brownsville-to-Uniontown link has not yet started.
Dave Lohr, another candidate in the county commissioner’s election, said lobbying U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Holidaysburg) to bring more grants to the county.
Don Miller, who is also a candidate for county commissioner, said municipalities should consider regionalized police and fire services to save money. He also suggested a program to rehabilitate old houses.
Jacki Lincoln, a Penn State student who works in its day care center and is an intern with the Fayette County Early Care and Education Committee, said childcare should be more affordable and incentives should be offered to retain quality providers.
Penn State professor John Rapano, interim coordinator of the human development and family studies department, also said child care should be made more affordable and programs should be started for ” the working poor” residents of the county.
Stephanie Franks of the West Virginia Career Institute said more public transportation especially in hard to reach rural areas give many residents better access to educational institutions. She said financial assistance for post-secondary educations should be better publicized. Franks also said more childcare programs are needed.
Connie Kikta, president of the Fayette County Historical Society, said historic buildings and artifacts should be preserved. She said a museum for artifacts would benefit tourism and be educational. It could also house genealogy records, she said.
Bill Thompson of the Westmoreland Fayette Workforce Investment Board, which obtains funding and oversees programs at CareerLink Fayette, suggested programs for preparing workers for jobs is manufacturing, health and bio-technology, hospitality and tourism, information technology and financial services.
Rita Coleman, the Department of Environmental Protection’s watershed manager for the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers area, suggested working with citizen-bases watershed groups to preserve water resources. She said there are four such groups and the Chestnut Ridge Chapter of Trout Unlimited that strive to protect local waterways.
Jill Rush of the office of community and human resources said county residents should be encouraged to seek and use services and agencies available to them, like Fayette Area Coordinated Transportation.
Andrea Stephens, a Connellsville resident and Penn State students, said recreation facilities should be made to accommodate activities youth enjoy, like skateboarding.