East End residents, officials discuss neighborhood’s future
A handful of residents from Uniontown’s East End met with officials from the East End United Community Center and the city to discuss ideas to revitalize the neighborhood through the Blueprint Communities program. The East End is among 22 communities in the state that were selected by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh to participate in the Blueprint Communities program, which is designed to help them with revitalization planning and obtain program funding.
In Fayette County, Connellsville and Brownsville were also selected. Waynesburg in Greene County was also chosen.
Kenneth Johnson, EEUCC Chairman, said while the center is in the process of obtaining funding to build a new center at the corner of Coolspring and Butler streets, input is needed about what programs and activities are needed at the center to benefit the entire city.
Along with the EEUCC, Fayette County Community Action, National City Bank and the city are partners in the Blueprint Communities effort.
Mayor James Sileo attended a recent Blueprint Communities seminar that focused on leadership.
“You’re part of Uniontown. We’re one city,” Sileo said. “We’re all leaders. We’re all players.”
The Rev. Howard Dantzler, an EEUCC board member, said city council’s support is necessary to make any revitalization effort work.
He said the East End is perceived as the “other side” of town and its children need help to obtain a good education and to stay away from drugs.
Johnson said the existing center on East Main Street has after-school tutoring programs for students, but ideas are needed to attract businesses and reduce crime in the East End.
A new center with more programs would benefit residents and spur interest in the community, Johnson said.
City Councilman Bob Cerjanec said the Uniontown Redevelopment Authority allocated $50,000 from Community Development Block Grant money in 1998 for the new center.
He said after $30,000 was spent demolishing five homes that once occupied the future site of the new center, the project was closed.
However, Cerjanec said he will look into the possibility to re-allocate some CDBG money for the center.
Johnson said many East End children that were tutored at the center went on to college and lead successful careers.
He said programs are also needed for young adults.
Tracey Wrona, EEUCC project manager, said some of the concerns about the neighborhood that residents expressed at previous meetings include drug activity, older people feeling unsafe, a need for more police and a more diverse police department, slum landlords, abandoned and neglected property, code enforcement, the lack of parks, unsupervised children, grandparents raising children, the lack of better paying jobs, a need for a grocery store and people not being aware of available social services.
Ellwood Kelly Jr. of Searight Avenue said the East End has a bad reputation, but he believes the neighborhood is improving.
He said a new EEUCC will help, but it won’t be the neighborhood’s “salvation.”
“We need to recreate tax-producing properties in the East End,” Kelly said.
He said blighted homes should be rehabilitated – not demolished.
Tom Colebank, the acting principle at Lafayette School and the administrative assistant to the superintendent in the Uniontown School District, said he sees the East Ends problems in his students.
He said one student told him that he doesn’t want to sell drugs, but he has to pay his grandmother’s rent.
“When they leave my door, I wait for the phone to ring. It rings everyday,” Colebank said.
He said he goes to a neighborhood convenience store some nights to see if any of his students are hanging out, he walks them home from after-school dances and some students have asked him to adopt them.
The EEUCC should provide more programs for children, he said.
“Our future is in the kids, not in us,” Colebank said.
He said the motto at Lafayette is “what we learn today, we will use tomorrow.”