Feb 11, 2014 By Erin Hayes for The 4 min read

BROWNSVILLE — Fostering community spirit and retaining businesses dominated the discussion at the Greater Area Brownsville Chamber of Commerce meeting Tuesday.

President Frank Ricco said that the chamber will honor the Giannetti family, owners of Phil Giannetti Motors Inc., at the annual membership dinner, scheduled for May 24.

“They’ve been in business a long time here in the community, and we want to honor them,” Ricco said of the car dealership that has operated in Brownsville for nearly 50 years.

Phil Giannetti founded the business and his family took over the tradition upon his death, Ricco said, adding that “Phil was very instrumental in the chamber and the community also.”

The business, located at 656 National Pike East, was started in the early 1970s at a time when “every building in town had a business — on both sides of the street,” Ricco added.

Another business that had been operating for almost as long is Tru-Copy Printing, which recently officially closed its doors because of the ailing health of owner Ray Koffler, also a longtime chamber member.

Koffler is enjoying retirement and has liquidated some of the print shop equipment, members said.

A few interested buyers have looked at the property, located at 13 Arch St.

“We’d like to see it continue,” Ricco said.

“It was definitely so convenient for the community, very convenient to go there and get something done. Otherwise, we’ll have to go to Uniontown.”

Ricco said the chamber also supports any upgrades and expansions the Brownsville Public Library is currently seeking community input on.

“The library is an important part of the community,” he said.

“We certainly want to make it a success and the chamber will do all can.”

Councilman Jack Lawver reported that several organizations, including the Brownsville Historic Society and the Brownsville Area Revitalization Corp. (BARC) were teaming up to organize three-hour field trips for area school districts.

“It would be nice to take them to the rail museum now that spring is coming up. That’s when we do these field trips,” Ricco said, adding that currently students only visit Nemacolin Castle.

BARC also is assembling a focus group for a March 3 workshop with Penn State University students who recently toured the borough, according to a chamber newsletter.

The students plan to share their ideas with the focus group and develop classroom projects applicable to their majors.

BARC’s new director, Bryce Connors, announced that the nonprofit organization had recently hired Kristen Tunney as an administrative assistant.

“It was a slam dunk for BARC,” Connors said of hiring Tunney, daughter of Glenn Tunney, author of “Looking back: The Best of Glenn Tunney,” a series of books written by the former columnist.

The series is based upon the author’s popular local nostalgia-themed articles that appeared weekly in the Herald-Standard from 1998-2006.

Kristen Tunney is the former manager of the Geyer Performing Arts Center in Scottdale, where she was in charge of the day-to-day operations of the 320-seat community theater and helped with fundraisers, grant writing and organizing volunteers.

Referring to new grant monies becoming available, Connors said, “We’re going to be working hard with the borough to get as much of that pie as possible.”

In other business, John Moores announced he had been elected to retain his position of president of the Izaak Walton League following a recent reorganization meeting.

Other appointments were as follows: Connors, vice president; Mayor Lester Ward, membership chairman; Barb Carroll, finance officer; and Rebecca Trigger, secretary.

The league will be working to promote this year’s fishing tournament, a community event slated for the third Saturday in June.

“There was a problem getting the word out last year. Hopefully, that won’t happen again,” Moores said.

In reporting on the progress of this year’s membership drive, Ricco said that of 123 letters sent out to area businesses, 39 had responded to requests for chamber membership, one had refused and eight had been returned.

Also, Ricco said the chamber would be considering alternate locations where members could meet.

Currently, the members gather in a meeting room at the Dairy Queen on National Pike, which seats 20.

The next meeting is scheduled for 8 a.m. Tuesday, March 11.