Main Street manager resigns
Uniontown officials are contemplating the future of the Main Street program manager’s position, which has been vacant for nearly a month.
The Uniontown Downtown Business District Authority (UDBDA) will meet next week and is planning to meet and talk with other city and state officials about how and whether to replace Connie Burd of Waynesburg, who resigned on Oct. 21 after holding the job for more than three years.
“We haven’t decided how to proceed with the manager’s job,” said Bernard John, the authority’s board chairman. In the meantime, board members are doing the manager’s work, he said.
Using a four-year $160,000 grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) and $96,500 in local matching funds, the business authority hired Burd in June 2008. The grant and matching funds covered her $40,000 annual salary, benefits and program expenses.
However, the deadline to spend the money is June 30, 2012, and hiring someone to work only until then would be difficult, said Mark Yauger, executive director of the Uniontown Redevelopment Authority, which helped the business authority obtain the grant.
The DCED’s New Communities program, which encompassed the Main Street program, was reorganized as the Keystone Communities program and received a budget cut under Gov. Tom Corbett.
Keystone Communities grant funding will be competitive, but the state hasn’t issued guidelines for applying for the money yet, Yauger said.
Uniontown receives grant money to run the Main Street program, which was designed to help municipalities attract new businesses, retain existing businesses and improve business districts, and the state Elm Street program, which focuses on revitalizing residential neighborhoods.
The Elm Street program also was reorganized under the Keystone Communities program.
The business authority will meet to discuss the Main Street manager’s job on Nov. 22 and the board is trying to schedule a meeting with the redevelopment authority in early December, John said.
City Council, the business authority, the redevelopment authority and the DCED will have to decide the future of the position, Yauger said.
Burd said she found a new job opportunity and wished the best for Uniontown business owners in the future.
“I wish only the best to the merchants in the central business district. It has been my joy to work alongside devoted entrepreneurs who have weathered this extended economic crisis holding fast to their downtown roots. Economic development is an ever changing yet exceedingly slow process. I am confident that my resignation from the Uniontown DBDA will surely open opportunities for fresh ideas and new faces. Change is good,” Burd said.
The business authority is busy working with the National Road Heritage Corridor to plan the city’s annual holiday light-up night event and, John said, the business authority will continue to thrive after its “little reorganization.”
“I think the UDBDA board is excited about the future opportunities we have.” John said.