Feb 2, 2017 2 min read

MONESSEN – A Monessen councilman launched a new task force Thursday hoping to find grassroots ways to bring economic revitalization to the struggling former steel town.

Councilman Ed Lea said there are overwhelming challenges facing the new Greater Monessen Economic Development and Revitalization Task Force, which drew a light crowd to its inaugural meeting in Monessen Council chambers.

“You’ve got to start somewhere,” Lea said.

Eleven invitation-only participants, including the city’s mayor and another councilman, attended the meeting, leaving as many empty chairs at the roundtable.

“We’re looking to bring together the local business owners to shoot around ideas for what to do,” Lea said.

He said the task force, as it moves forward, will examine the city’s heroin problem, blight, job development and the pooling of resources to focus on the region’s problems over the next decade.

“Drugs and crime are a big problem. They have too many places to hide with the blight,” Lea said.

Monessen once had a population of nearly 25,000 people before its major employer, Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, closed a steel mill in the city in the 1980s. The city now has a population of about 7,500 residents.

The downtown main streets are dotted with abandoned buildings, and Mayor Lou Mavrakis estimated there are more than 300 blighted houses in the residential neighborhoods.

Lea said he wants the task force to included members “with a passion for bringing Monessen back.”

“Hopefully this thing is going to grow,” added Monessen Councilman Ron Chiaravalle.

“We may not always see eye to eye, but as long as we’re arm in arm,” Chiaravalle said.

Lea said the task force is a work in progress, saying the region has “formidable and pressing challenges to save our communities.”

“We cannot shy away from the challenge and must work together to make it happen,” he said.