Greene County commissioners OK $25K grant
WAYNESBURG – Greene County commissioners on Thursday approved a $25,000 grant agreement with the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources that will be used to rehabilitate many of the county’s recreational facilities.
County Chief Clerk Jeff Marshall said the grant will be used to pay for various improvements to parks, pools and trails in the county, including new fencing, signage, picnic tables and entrances for those with physical disabilities.
The county applied for the grant last year and received notification within the past month from the state that the application was approved, Marshall said.
The commissioners also awarded a contract Thursday to a Fayette County company for a water system improvement project at the Greene County Fairgrounds.
Marshall said the county awarded a contract in the amount of $24,852 for the project to Roger Suter and Sons of Connellsville, the lone bidder.
Marshall said the project includes the installation of a new 2-inch water main line and numerous spigots underneath the grandstands. The contract will be paid for through a grant earmarked by the state Department of Community and Economic Development.
The project is expected to start as soon as possible, and Marshall said it should take one to two weeks for it to be completed. The project will not affect or interfere with any ongoing events or activities at the fairgrounds, commissioners said.
In other business, the board agreed to retain current officers of the board of commissioners and reappoint the county’s chief clerk, public defender and bridge engineer for 2011.
The board agreed to reappoint Snyder as board chairwoman, Archie Trader as vice chairman and Charles Morris as secretary. The board also agreed to reappoint Marshall as chief clerk, Harry Cancelmi as public defender and Widmer Engineering as the county’s engineering firm.
In other matters, the commissioners agreed Thursday to continue a contract with part-time county solicitor Cheryl Cowen, under her current pay scale.
Cowen will be paid $14,000 annually for her services, as well as a rate of $125 an hour for additional services that do not involve public meetings.
The solicitor serves as the legal adviser to the commissioners and also draws up contracts and assures a legal basis for all county governmental functions.
In July 2009, the county agreed to hire Cowen as a part-time solicitor until end of the year, after former solicitor Farley Toothman was appointed judge of the county’s Court of Common Pleas.
Marshall said the contract with Cowen is an annual agreement and will expire at the end of 2011.
In other matters, commissioners agreed to renew a lease agreement with U.S. Rep. Mark S. Critz, D-Johnstown, for office space on the third floor of the county office building.
U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha leased the office until his death in February.
Critz, a former congressional aide, was voted in as Murtha’s successor in a special election for Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District during the May primary. He defeated Republican Tim Burns of Eighty Four in the special election in May to serve the remainder of Murtha’s term, which ended in November.
Critz faced off against Burns again and defeated him in the November general election for a full two-year term.
The county is donating the office space and the lease is effective until the end of 2013, which coincides with the end of Critz’s term.
Also during the meeting, commissioners reappointed Shirl Barnhart to serve as one of the Greene County representatives on the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission for a three-year term.
The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, or SPC, is the region’s forum for collaboration, planning, and public decision-making. As the official Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the 10-county region including the city of Pittsburgh and the counties of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington, and Westmoreland, SPC is responsible for planning and prioritizing the use of all state and federal transportation funds allocated to the region.
Commissioners also recognized Janet Mawhinney of Waynesburg, who was appointed to serve on the board of directors for the state Department of Agriculture’s recently established National Sheep Industry Improvement Center.
State Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Tuesday the national appointments of Mawhinney and six other people to serve on the board of directors.
The appointees “represent a cross-section of the sheep and goat industry, and I am confident that the sheep and goat industries will be well served by them,” Vilsack said.
Vilsack said the new center “will strengthen and enhance the production and marketing of sheep and goat products in the United States through infrastructure development, business development, production, resource development, and market and environmental research.”
Vilsack said the new center, which was established to improve the competitiveness of the U.S. sheep and goat industries, currently has about $1 million available for grants that will support facility and infrastructure improvements and other initiatives to help the lamb and goat industries remain competitive.