Apr 11, 2016 3 min read

Washington County Planning Commission intends to apply for a $750,000 grant from the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission to renovate the entrance to the fairgrounds in Arden, which also is a stop for passengers traveling to and from the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum and its parking lots.

A trolley line, passenger boarding platform and bridge have been, for more than 100 years, part of a unique mix at the northern entrance of Washington County Fairgrounds in Chartiers Township. Reworking those elements will be the task of A&A Consultants Inc. of Pittsburgh, with whom the county commissioners entered into a $258,220 agreement last year.

The project will not be underway during August’s Washington County Fair.

Trolleys based at the nearby museum carry 7,000 people to and from fair parking, and they also operate during other events scheduled at the exhibit halls.

At the events’ closing times, pedestrian traffic tends to back up on the narrow bridge over a creek as people head for a hillside parking area bordering Hickory Ridge Road or gather on the trolley boarding platform. Relieving this congestion is part of the county’s master plan for making changes at the fairgrounds.

Lisa Cessna, director of the planning commission, said if the county is awarded the grant, the trolley museum will provide in-kind services and the county will use natural gas lease funds from drilling in the Marcellus Shale layer beneath the fairgrounds.

Other changes are in store.

Washington County Fair Board has decided not to build a new horse barn at the fairgrounds in Arden, resulting in a revision of its plans for grading, site layout and stormwater management.

The county commissioners Thursday approved a change in the contract with HRG Inc. to redesign the site at a cost of $20,400 for the grading permit application required by Chartiers Township.

Cessna told the commissioners at an agenda-setting session Wednesday “the fairgrounds cannot take on any more horses because of manure-management issues.”

The new contract total, $56,400, will be paid from natural gas lease funds.

Also at the request of the planning commission, the board of commissioners on Thursday approved an easement agreement with Burgettstown Area Community Development Corp. to construct an 11-by-50-foot deck, compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, on the local train station that would be adjacent to the Panhandle Trail.

The county entered into an agreement in June 2012 with the community development organization, but the Burgettstown group did not follow through with the project at that time.