Revitalization program manager announced
The Uniontown Redevelopment Authority Tuesday hired city employee Judy Vrabel as the Elm Street manager. Her job will be to oversee a North Gallatin Avenue area revitalization program.
Vrabel, who has been working for the city for six years, currently is the part-time executive director of the Uniontown Downtown Business District Authority and a part-time clerk in the city’s zoning and code office.
She will start her new job on Feb. 24 when she travels to Harrisburg to attend mandatory Elm Street program training. Her annual salary will be $29,000 and benefits.
In August, the authority, city and the Gallatin Avenue Concerned Citizens Association were awarded two grants totaling $400,000 from the state Department of Community and Economic Development’s Elm Street program.
A $250,000 Elm Street residential reinvestment grant was awarded for removal of blight, housing rehabilitation and streetscape improvements.
A $150,000 grant was awarded to pay the Elm Street manager’s salary, benefits and office expenses for three years.
The authority also received a $500,000 Core Communities grant that is being used to buy 25 properties in the neighborhood to build homes for moderate-income, first-time homebuyers.
Vrabel, who was one of two people interviewed out of the 25 people who applied, said she would resign from her two current jobs.
Her new job involves raising money and seeking grants for more neighborhood improvement projects and to promote the neighborhood.
“I’m glad you have the confidence in me to offer me this position,” Vrabel told the authority board. “I look forward to working with you all. I’ll miss City Hall. I think this will be very challenging.”
“Their gain is our loss,” said Mayor Ed Fike.
Vrabel said she is already familiar with residents involved with the concerned citizens association because she and fire chief and code enforcement officer Myron Nypaver, her boss, helped organize community meetings in the North Gallatin Avenue neighborhood five or six years ago.
Those meetings led to the formation of the concerned citizens association and the filing of the grant applications.
“They stuck with it. Now it’s starting to come to fruition,” said John Oris, chairman of the authority board.
Authority Executive Director Mark Yauger said a team effort between the authority, city and neighborhood residents led to winning Elm Street program funding.
He said he hopes construction of the homes would begin in the fall.
Vrabel said she would know more about how to get started in her new job after the training session.
She explained she would meet with the concerned citizens association and has already been asked to meet with the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau.
In other business, the authority board:
– Agreed to pay the city $4,800 for demolishing a house at 30 Downer Ave. and $4,685 to demolish houses at 121 Berkeley St. and 134 Mill St.
– Renewed its annual membership with the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials at a cost of $210.
– Approved a $100 one-year membership as a “Friend of the Road” with the National Road Heritage Corridor in order to apply for a $25,000 grant, which would require a local match, for designing a streetscape project for East Main Street from the city’s eastern boundary to the Fayette County Courthouse.