Not the best way of doing things
Local editorials from 50 years ago are being reprinted every Monday and Tuesday in this column. This editorial appeared in the Valley Independent on Nov. 22, 1966.
The long search for a suitable site for a new plant for the Brookevale Manufacturing Co. has resulted in selection of a location in Rostraver Township on the road between Monessen and Pricedale.
The company and the Monessen Industrial Development Corp. have agreed on this six-acre tract and an option to purchase has been secured.
The Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority (PIDA), which is furnishing a low-interest S200,000 loan for the project and which had previously approved a site within the city limits of Monessen has tentatively agreed to the new location.
The total cost of the project is estimated at $500,000. including S50,000 for the land. Mellon National Bank is supplying a first mortgage loan and approximately 50,000 will have to be furnished by the MIDC, presumably through a subscription campaign.
Finding a site for Brookevale has presented some knotty problems, but the experience should be instructive for all those who are concerned about industrial development in the mid-Mon Valley.
Among other things, it has demonstrated the need for a regional effort in this field on a scale which can provide adequate staff work and offer prospective employers a range of sites suitable to their needs and financial capabilities.
Hopefully such an effort will be mounted soon by the newly formed Middle Monongahela Industrial Development Association (MIDA). While MIDA’s first project — and a big one it is — involves the establishment of an industrial park on the 700-plus acres to be vacated by U. S. Steel in Donora. its sponsors and leaders are plainly thinking in terms of a comprehensive Mon Valley program with the kind of financial muscle and promotion know-how needed to produce results in what has become an intensely competitive field of civic action.
It should be obvious to everyone that the tortuous process which was followed to find a site for Brookevale is not the way to go about the work of increasing employment opportunities in the Mon Valley.