Senior housing could replace disputed Donner Avenue building in Monessen
Kelly Tunney | Herald-Standard
Monessen Mayor Lou Mavrakis talks about the opioid crisis as it pertains to Monessen. He says with the local economy as it is now, young kids either have to move away to make a living or stay in the area where they are in danger of falling victim to drugs.
Kelly Tunney | Herald-Standard
500 Donner Avenue in Monessen remains a controversial property. Local band director Matt Shorraw hopes to restore the building to be used as a music center. Mayor Lou Mavrakis claims that as soon as money is available he will demolish it, saying that Shorraw has never presented a feasible plan with funding behind it.
Monessen Mayor Lou Mavrakis said he has negotiations going on with a group that wants to renovate the Donner Avenue corridor between Fifth and Sixth streets.
“They are very reputable,” the mayor said, though he disclosed little about who is in that group during a discussion at Monday’s city council meeting, except to say “housing for seniors” is a goal of that group.
Most buildings in that corridor are owned by the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Monessen. Mavrakis said the group may meet with council in two weeks.
Among the buildings is 500 Donner Ave., a dilapidated three-story 112-year-old structure a group of concerned citizens want to preserve — if they can get in there.
“We’ve been asking for two years for access,” said Linda Lacey, who has taken over as prime spokesperson for the group since Matt Shorraw began running for mayor.
Shorraw is challenging Mavrakis in the Democratic primary.
“(Shorraw) has people who will back him, but first we have to get in,” Lacey said. “Several letters asking for access for an unbiased engineer were never answered.”
Mavrakis insisted again, “No, the building will be demolished,” during an exchange with Lacey toward the end of the meeting.
Outside the council chamber, Lacey questioned that suggestion, saying, “Who puts a parking lot in the middle of a city that has no businesses?”
The mayor had a motion on the agenda to “authorize Westmoreland Engineering Co. to prepare specifications and advertise for demolition of 500 Donner Ave.,” but chose not to go ahead with that because of his negotiations.
Solicitor Gary Matta said he has met with Shorraw — and again said Shorraw has to meet with city officials “if he would like to go forward” with his ideas for 500 Donner Ave.
Matta previously provided copies of a Nov. 9, 2012, notice of condemnation for the building listed as being owned by the Miller Commercial real Estate Holding Trust. It said the building is unfit for human occupancy and in imminent danger of collapse.
“He needs to provide us with a program and schedule a meeting where we can meet,” Matta told Lacey.
Lacey also challenged Mavrakis regarding President Donald Trump’s reported plans to cut federal spending for such programs as Community Development Block Grants. The mayor has expected help from the administration of Trump, who campaigned in Monessen, but said he had no response to Lacey’s challenge.
“There is nothing I can do about it,” Mavrakis responded. “That is up to the Congress.”
Other developments also were discussed Monday night. Council approved providing a letter of support to the R&K Development Project for a housing development along Schoonmaker Avenue between Second and Third streets.
Councilman Edward Lea said state Rep. Justin Walsh, R-Rostraver Township, also planned to write a letter of support, and city officials plan to seek such a letter from Westmoreland County officials.
The mayor and other councilors gave their support to Herb Lippincott, who wants to establish a Monessen Youth Activity Center in the former Sons of Italy building at 529 Sixth St.
Lippincott said he’s moved to Jefferson Hills but still bleeds the black-and-white colors of Monessen High School. He said a similar facility in Coraopolis has been helped out by various foundations, such as a gift of 70 sets of golf clubs from the Tiger Woods Foundation.
Lippincott has been working for 10 years on his idea — when he wasn’t deployed with his Army Reserve unit as happened on four occasions, twice to Iraq and once each to Afghanistan and Kosovo.
Mavrakis offered his help to the Rev. Fred Pfeil in making arrangements to appeal the tax assessment of property his St. Michael Antiochan Orthodox Church is trying to sell along Penn Avenue.
Pfeil said several would-be buyers have turned him down after looking at what sort of taxes they might have to pay once the property is back on the books.
Monessen is about to join a score of communities in Pennsylvania and Ohio that have contracts with Pittsburgh-based MeterFeeder Inc. to provide a way to pay parking fees through an app.
“You would type in a license plate,” Elliott O’Brien said. Those checking city meters would have a tablet to keep tabs of those using the app rather than quarters to feed the parking meters.
“We go off the Navy master clock,” O’Brien said of how MeterFeeder keeps tabs of those who go online to pay for parking. “We charge a convenience fee (of 3.25 percent) to users.”
Parking tickets can be paid through the app, too, again with that convenience fee.
Council approved a contract with MeterFeeder, contingent on approval from Matta as well as the state’s weights-and-measures inspector.