Greensburg's Pennsylvania Avenue, McLaughlin Drive included in summer paving plans

Greensburg officials plan to mill and resurface portions of eight streets this summer, including Pennsylvania Avenue.

The work on seven of the streets is to be completed in two phases at a combined cost of $371,406.

City council this week approved contracts for both phases with Derry Construction, which submitted a lower bid in each case than was received from competing firms A. Folino Construction and Morgan Excavating.

Public works director Tom Bell has expressed hope that work on the first phase can begin within a month.

That phase includes four streets: Pennsylvania Avenue, between Pittsburgh and Third streets; Park Street, between Maple and Harvey avenues; Hempfield Street, between Catherine Street and Willow Avenue; and two sections of Willow, one between Lee and Locust streets and another adjoining the city line.

At the same time, the city is slated to make repairs and lay new pavement on McLaughlin Drive, between Meadowbrook and Harvey avenues.

According to Bell, repairs to the road base and drainage problems will be addressed before paving begins. Because McLaughlin provides access to Greensburg Salem High School and Nicely Elementary, he said, “We opted to wait until after school was out.”

Those schools still will see use this summer. A Summer Success academic intervention and credit recovery program is underway weekday mornings at both buildings through July 1. A Kinder Camp is scheduled from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Aug. 8-12 at Nicely.

At some point, motorists will be detoured, likely along Meadowbrook Avenue and Northmont Street, Bell said.

“We’ll keep the traffic flowing, but it’s not going to be that cut-through that everybody uses once we start doing the project,” he said.

The second phase of paving by Derry Construction, expected to begin in July, will include: Alexander Avenue, between West Newton Road and Stanton Street; and the portions of Spring and Washington avenues, between Grove Street and West Newton Road.

To help pay for the first phase of paving, the city is proposing to tap about $45,000 in extra funds available from two community development block grants it was awarded in 2017 and 2018.

The funding plan for the second phase involves redirecting more than $63,000 of a 2021 block grant that had been intended for park renovations. That grant amendment will require approval by Westmoreland County, which is administering the funds.

City fiscal director Trisha Hilderhoff noted the paving bids exceeded what originally was budgeted for the project because asphalt prices have increased by 48% from last year.

Bell said the city street crew also is catching up on “things that we haven’t been able to do since covid, with lack of manpower.”

That includes repainting lines between spaces in city parking lots.

“In the (Bisignani) lot by Pershing Square, the lines are worn off to where people are having trouble seeing them in winter,” he said. “It’s tough to get traffic paint. We’ve ordered 50 gallons; hopefully, we’ll see them in the next few weeks.”

During reconstruction of the underground parking garage at the courthouse, the county is renting parking spaces from the city. Since county officials indicated they don’t need all of the 148 spaces they originally requested, council amended the lease to include just 118 spaces, at a cost of $7,080 per month.

Police officer promoted

Council promoted Donald Sarsfield, a 27-year veteran of the city police force, from sergeant to captain.

Rosalie Carpenter, vice president for student affairs at Seton Hill University, was appointed to the city planning commission. She replaces Jennifer Lundy, who resigned as she has moved on from Seton Hill, where she was vice president for finance and administration, to Gannon University, where she is serving as vice president for finance and campus operations.