Looking for commitment
Dear Editor: A letter from Pittsburgh’s Mayor Tom Murphy to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) expressed some continued concerns regarding the Route 51 to I-376 Mon Valley/Fayette Expressway Project (The Medal of Honor Highway). The letter should be the last step in securing the mayor’s support for this crucial economic revitalization project.
The letter was in response to a PTC correspondence to the mayor regarding inclusion of project enhancements. The mayor proposed the enhancements to address issues of access and mitigation of community impacts inside the city of Pittsburgh.
Without question, the Medal of Honor Highway is a vast undertaking that has to include features and enhancements to ensure that it will be an asset to the communities it will serve. And it is clear that the PTC continues to make a very deliberate effort to address the concerns raised by Mayor Murphy. Accepting many of the mayor’s concerns has not come without costs. Recommendations accepted by the PTC will add more than $100 million to the cost of the project.
The PTC has pointed out to the mayor that a number of items on his list of recommended changes can not be done as a matter of law and that certain other items are best addressed in the final, design phase of the project
With the strong “good faith” effort demonstrated by the PTC, it is time for Mayor Murphy to publicly state his support. Any remaining issues can be worked out in the future.
By taking this step, the mayor would be joining supporters including all counties in the entire Mon Valley/Fayette Expressway Project corridor, 46 local governments and more than 130 businesses, economic-development organizations and labor groups. The mayor’s public endorsement would demonstrate his support for a major, regional, economic-revitalization initiative that will address persistent conditions of economic distress in the entire Mon Valley region and traffic congestion in the Parkway East corridor.
Mayor Tom Murphy, it’s time to step up to plate for the Medal of Honor Highway.
Joseph P. Kirk
Monessen
The writer is chairman of the Mon-Fayette Expressway and Southern Beltway Alliance.
Penn State snubbed
Dear Editor:
As a long term patron of your newspaper and a long-term employee of the Pennsylvania State University, Fayette Campus, I would be remiss in my loyalty to my employer and our students if I failed to launch a formal complaint regarding the treatment your newspaper has given, past and present, to the Pennsylvania State University, Fayette Campus.
I speak specifically regarding the printed coverage of our graduation on Saturday, May 11. My concern is the very noticeable preferential treatment your paper gives to California University of Pennsylvania (not in Fayette County) as well as Waynesburg College (also not in Fayette County). These non-Fayette County institutions of higher education were given front page, Section A billing, one on Sunday and the other on Monday, of their graduation ceremonies. Why? You advertise as Fayette County’s daily and Sunday newspaper. Is this really true?
If so, please let us know why we, as a Fayette County institution of higher education, always end up elsewhere within your paper. I am sure our students would like to have their picture on the front page of Fayette County’s daily and Sunday newspaper.
I understand the role of a newspaper and coverage given to events taking place within the tri-county area. However, never will I understand why your newspaper’s role regarding the Fayette campus is to send a subliminal message to us, our students and to the community. And, you definitely send a message.
Harriet Galida
Uniontown