Jul 14, 2018 2 min read

A $900,068 stormwater project in is jeopardy of losing funding without an authorization by Charleroi Council.

The regular council meeting was canceled Thursday night due to a lack of quorum.

Jody Cheplic, Larry Celaschi and Randy DiPiazza were in attendance. Jerry Jericho was away on vacation, Jeannine Motycki was away for work, Heidi Cramer had just returned from vacation and Debbie Buck notified Secretary Brenda Doerfler minutes before the meeting she could not attend, but reportedly did not provide a reason.

With no action being taken on the agenda items, the appointment of two council members to the Regional Police Board, the nomination of a council member to the president position, approval of two handicapped-parking spaces and approval of an oil and gas lease with EQT were left in limbo.

Celaschi said the lack of quorum is not fair to the citizens waiting for approval of handicapped-accessible parking.

“This is embarrassing to our community and to the people that came to the meeting,” Celaschi said.

Jamie Protin of Mackin Engineering urged council to hold a special meeting for the approval of the authorization of the stormwater project.

“If you wait until the next regular meeting, you will lose the funding,” Protin said.

On Friday, a special meeting was scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday.

With the cancellation of the full council meeting, the remaining council members conducted a community, planning and economic development meeting and talked about how to make Charleroi Community Days better.

Mark Alterici, chairman of the board of Washington County Tourism, said more communication is needed between business owners and the community day organizers.

As owner of Dee’s Wireless, he said he lost customers on days when there was an opportunity for new and established customers to walk into his store.

“I know I lost customers because they went to my other store in Rostraver,” said Alterici.

He said the Charleroi store’s visibility was affected by a community day booth that was placed in front of his store and covered his second-floor business sign.

“There were areas that this booth could have been placed, vacant lots or across the street in front of vacant buildings.”

He added the community days event is great for the entire community, but thinks there needs to be more communication with business owners in the community to see what works best for them.