Revitalization tops municipal leaders' 2022 wish lists

Wish lists abound this time of year, but not all gifts come in neatly wrapped packages. Local community leaders know what they’d most like to see under their municipal trees — if cost and tax dollars were no object.

From trails to safe sidewalks to green space, officials appear to want most the gift of revitalization in 2022.

“I’d love to see a plan for continued growth of our business district,” said Tarentum Council President Scott Dadowski.

Dadowski said council spent $220,000 this year on anti-blight demolition, and it’s time to start targeting other areas of development.

He said he’d like to see projects start at Riverview Memorial Park, the West Tarentum business corridor and along Corbet Street.

“As a resident, I would wish for the community pride to start spreading throughout the borough,” he said.

Harrison Commissioner Chuck Dizard said he hopes for the completion of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail to connect local communities to the Freeport trail system.

A shared-use path completed earlier this year along Springhill Road is part of the trail. Total cost of the project was about $1.3 million, with $642,000 from a federal grant to support expansion of the Heritage Trail.

“This facilitates use for prospective residents and helps businesses thrive,” Dizard said.

Commissioners earlier this year also approved a move to work with Friends of the Riverfront to seek money for a parking lot near a kayak launch on the Allegheny River. The money would go toward construction of the lot on now- empty property at River Road and Sycamore Street.

Carrie Fox, Tarentum council member, said she would wish for money — lots of it — to help borough business owners revamp shop facades.

“I would ask for grants to help all the people who want to redo their businesses,” she said.

Fox is working with community activist David Rankin, executive director of nonprofit Faith Community Partners, to see that the once-thriving area gets the attention she said it deserves.

Rankin has formed a local community economic development corporation to target blight remediation in order to attract people to Tarentum, Brackenridge and Harrison.

Buildings in residential and commercial districts will be targeted for either demolition or renovation.

Already, Rankin and his business partner Gerald Driggs have broken ground on a revamp of the 100-year-old building, The Depot, in the 300 block of Fifth Avenue in Tarentum.

The developed building will house a laundromat, coworking space and Wi-Fi cafe. It has grown into a $3.2 million project that will bring jobs and better aesthetics to a formerly rundown building.

The pair are seeking funding from the state Department of Community and Economic Development for façade improvements along the business corridor in West Tarentum.

“At the top of my wish list is strategic economic growth and development,” Rankin said.

“We need a planned approach to community renewal, not a willy-nilly one. We want to bring new business and new residents — and those plans cost money.”