Jul 16, 2009 3 min read

Uniontown’s Gallatin Avenue Concerned Citizens Association discussed grants and the city’s stalled rental property license ordinance, and received an update on the Sheepskin Trail project at a meeting Wednesday. The city, Connellsville and Fayette County recently received notice that their joint application for a $1.8-million “neighborhood stabilization” grant was approved, but officials are trying to determine how the money would be divided among those entities, said Elm Street manager Jeff McLaughlin. The money, which came from federal stimulus funds, can be used for property acquisition, demolition and rehabilitation, McLaughlin said.

He said he is trying to find out if the stabilization money can be used in place of Elm Street grant money that has been earmarked for demolition so the Elm Street money could be spent on other projects.

Uniontown Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Mark Yauger said the city also uses Community Development Block Grant money for demolition.

Yauger said many neglected or “slum” properties have been demolished, but new homes have to be built to preserve the city tax base.

Property taxes were being paid on some of the neglected homes, he said.

The authority is still in the process of buying lots needed for construction of 25 homes on Maple and Walnut streets, Yauger said.

Turning to another grant, McLaughlin said Uniontown was one of only two cities in the state to receive approval of $100,000 “Weed and Seed” grants, but the fate of that money is dependent on the state budget, McLaughlin said.

The Weed and Seed grant is for hiring a program coordinator who would start programs and activities in the Gallatin Avenue, East End and Lafayette neighborhoods and hire a police officer to patrol those areas.

McLaughlin said there would also be an oversight committee consisting of residents from each neighborhood, police, the mayor and the county district attorney.

In another issue, association president Christopher Jones asked city officials if city council is planning to act on the proposed rental property license ordinance?

Assistant fire chief Myron Nypaver outlined some of the provisions of the ordinance.

It took two years to develop the ordinance and city officials worked with the Uniontown-based Southwestern Pennsylvania Landlords Association, which sued the city over the ordinance, to allay some of its concerns about the measure, Nypaver said.

Mayor Ed Fike didn’t discuss the fate of the ordinance, but said existing ordinances should be enforced at rental properties.

City council adopted the ordinance in December 2007, but it was later tabled for review last year and hasn’t been discussed in public for some time.

In a separate matter, county chief community development officer Art Capella provided an update on the Sheepskin Trail project.

He said a two-mile section that connects to the Great Allegheny Passage trail in the Wheeler Bottom area of Dunbar Township is finished and the county is preparing to build a second section from there to the Shady Grove area in North Union Township.

Another part of the trail would be built in a railroad right of way adjacent to North Gallatin Avenue, but the city wants that part to be on the road.

Capella said the county commissioners are looking forward to building that part of the trail and want to work with the association.

The trail would eventually go all the way to Point Marion. The county wants to acquire property from a railroad in Point Marion to build a section of the trail there and connect it to a trail in West Virginia, Capella said.

In other business, Sarah Jones was elected treasurer to replace Janet Yniguez, who resigned.