Mar 21, 2024 4 min read

By Brad Hundt

Staff writer

bhundt@observer-reporter.com

The Washington County Local Share Committee will recommend to county commissioners Thursday that it approve a $500,000 request from Washington City Mission for a 50-bed women’s shelter.

This is a reversal from a previous decision made by the committee. When it made its recommendations to the Washington County Board of Commissioners in February, funding for the shelter was not on the list of 50 projects for final approval, despite having been on a preliminary list that had circulated.

The about-face was unanimously approved at an online meeting of the committee Wednesday morning. The meeting was carried out at the behest of the commissioners, who asked earlier this month that its members “reconvene and research” the City Mission’s request. At the meeting, Diana Irey Vaughan, a former commissioner and now the president and CEO of City Mission, fielded questions about the proposed shelter and how much funding it had secured for its overall $5.2 million cost, and how the shelter adhered to the county’s human services plan.

“The funding is very secure,” Irey Vaughan said. “City Mission has raised a great deal of money in a very short time on this project.” She explained that more than $4.1 million had already been raised, and the City Mission had received additional verbal pledges of support and are waiting to see if grant requests from other entities will be approved. Irey Vaughan also said Washington Financial Bank had agreed to provide a bridge loan to cover any funding gaps.

Jeff Kotula, the chairman of the committee and the president of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce, said the City Mission failed to check a box on its original application about whether funding was secure. Kotula said, “We want to make sure funding is secure.”

Irey Vaughan said City Mission is hoping to break ground on the shelter in mid-May and complete it within 13 to 14 months.

Daryl Price, a member of the committee and the chief of staff to the county commissioners, questioned the need for the shelter, saying that most of the calls the county’s human services department receives are from men and not women.

Irey Vaughan responded, “That’s not what we see here. That’s not who we turn away.” She explained that women often stay in violent domestic situations “because they have nowhere else to turn.” She noted that homeless women sometimes turn to prostitution or couch-surfing, and the county was not taking into account the women who are already being sheltered at City Mission, or requests for assistance that come to the social service agency Blueprints.

If commissioners approve the $500,000 request, it will have to amend the original list of Local Share Account recommendations it made in February, and not approve it as a separate agenda item.

The $500,000 the City Mission requested is part of a $9.2 million pot of gambling revenue Washington County receives for hosting the Hollywood Casino at the Meadows in North Strabane Township. The final list of approved projects must be sent to the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development for final approval at the end of March. Money from the Local Share Account is earmarked for projects related to economic development, community improvement or public interest.

Some of the other 10 members of the Local Share Committee include state Rep. Tim O’Neal, state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, Jamie Colecchi, the CEO of the Mon Valley Alliance, and John Timney, executive director of the Washington County Authority.

At the start of Wednesday’s meeting, Kotula said that several preliminary lists of projects for approval are drawn up as the committee hears requests and “the only list that matters is the one we present to the county commissioners.”

When representatives of local government or social service agencies make presentations to the Local Share Committee, they are only given five minutes to make their case, and Kotula suggested that more time be allotted to discuss larger projects.