Local Share requests begin
Dennis Fisher was fishing for funds Tuesday to resurrect and repurpose Donora Education Center.
When it closed in the summer of 2012, the center was the last school operating in the borough. That’s why Fisher, the municipal manager, made a pitch for $200,000 to kick-start revival of the facility during the first day of the 2015 Local Share Account hearings.
“We want to create an atmosphere of educational excellence in Donora,” Fisher told the nine-member LSA review committee in the public meeting room of Courthouse Square, Washington.
It was one of 46 briefings presented Tuesday by various municipalities and entities countywide, seeking funding for economic and community development projects. The 67 applicants over the two days are requesting a total of about $18.7 million.
Some will be rejected and few, if any, will receive all that they ask. The available pot, funded by gambling revenue from The Meadows Casino, is $6.5 million.
Fisher’s request for the center is intended to cover installation of an elevator inside the former Ringgold district school to make it compliant with the Americans With Diasbilities Act. If that happens, he said, the borough would like to transform the building into a charter school that would serve students from three counties – Washington, Westmoreland and Fayette.
College courses also could be offered there, as a branch-type campus, Fisher added.
“Council feels it’s a worthwhile project that could have a great economic impact on the borough,” he said. “The school is huge (75,000 square feet), and our intent is to use that space. It’s sitting on 40 acres, including a football field with bleachers. The school would create 40 to 45 well-paying jobs.”
Donora purchased the school and property for $24,000 in August.
The LSA program was instituted less than a decade ago. The money this year will come from gambling proceeds from the casino from April 1, 2014, through March 31, 2015. The Redevelopment Authority of Washington County administers the program.
Each organization requests a certain dollar amount and must have secured funding from other sources. At least one representative from each of the 67 bodies has two minutes to present a briefing before the LSA review committee.
The committee determines recipients and amounts each will get and forwards recommendations to the county commissioners for approval or rejection. The list then will be sent to the state Department of Community and Economic Development, with funds being distributed about six months later.
Fisher made presentations on three consecutive projects early in Tuesday’s proceedings. The first centered on a roof project for the Donora 1948 Smog Event and Veterans Memorial Museum. He said the museum was in two borough buildings, and one was sold and there is speculation the other may be.
“Our intent is to convert an old church into the museum,” he said, referring to the 1948 environmental disaster that resulted in 23 deaths.
His final request was for funds to build a pavilion honoring veterans in Palmer Regional Park.
The Washington County Council on Economic Development made the largest financial request Tuesday – $1.5 million – for work at Starpointe Business Park in Hanover Township.
“It is for grading and infrastructure, water and utilities and such,” said Richard White, chairman of WCCED and retired president/chief executive officer of Washington Financial. “We’re running out of developmental land, which is why we want to move quickly into the next phase (of the project).”
The second-largest request was $1.4 million for the Donaldsons Crossroads water pollution control plan in Peters Township.
The LSA briefings will conclude today with 21 hearings between 10 a.m. and noon.