And now, hands across Route 40
The pronouncement the other day by South Union Township supervisor Robert Schiffbauer that the township was hopeful of cooperating with North Union on projects beneficial to both was heartening.
“We are in a similar situation and we want to see their growth continue,” Schiffbauer told the 缅北禁地. “Just as we want to see growth in South Union. We’ve decided to work together.”
The first piece of business is getting control of traffic at the snarled intersection of Routes 119 and 40. Schiffbauer indicated an approach will be made to the regional planners who are charged with designating and scheduling the construction of such projects.
A joint approach is certainly in order. One is the loneliest number. Two just might do the trick.
Schiffbauer suggested the emerging municipal partnership will necessarily center on Route 40.
Route 40 divides the townships — South Union to the south, North Union to the north.
As the veteran supervisor stated, “We need to give attention to the whole {Route 40} corridor to allow further economic development.”
Even a cursory look at a map suggests the scale of what could be in store under a literal interpretation of Schiffbauer’s remarks.
Route 40 cuts through the heart of Fayette County. The old National Road runs all the way from the Washington County line near Brownsville to Farmington and beyond.
Cooperation on this scale staggers the imagination. It will never happened and it shouldn’t be tried. There are far too many moving parts. Legally and politically, it would be a disaster, a nightmare. However, the South Union-North Union initiative, if that’s what it is, suggests definite possibilities.
During his campaign for mayor of Uniontown, Bill Gerke said construction of the Sheepskin Trail would be a high priority if he were elected.
Gerke, now the mayor-elect, noted that recreational trails have helped breath new economic life into communities, including some in Fayette County. Here’s looking at you, Connellsville.
“Are they smarter than we are?” Gerke said. “They sure as heck look like they’re smarter than we are. But I’m telling you what, they’re not smarter than we are.”
True enough, but it’s a fact that Uniontown, once the hub of Fayette County, has difficulties to surmount, chiefly a result of a dwindling tax base as more and more businesses and homeowners have fled to the townships.
South Union Township, right next door, has been the chief beneficiary of the exodus. As it has grown, Uniontown has shrunk.
Once a behemoth, in relative terms, Uniontown is like the once rich uncle whose cupboards are nearly bare. All of which has given rise to a mob of relatives in a backroom squabbling, unable to get along.
Now, money in the bank can throw a tarpaulin over many a rainy day. Ready cash obscures mistakes, errors of judgement, and the like. What’s true for individuals is just as true for municipal governments.
Uniontown’s margin for error is small. “We’re very tight,” city councilman Martin Gatti said this past week, following approval of the city’s 2020 budget. “There’s just not very much money.”
Months ago, I had occasion to speak to a city councilman and a city agency director and later with a South Union Township official.
In a column, I had mentioned how fruitful it might be if the two sides were to get together on joint development of Bailey Park and a former Cluss Lumber warehouse building on Pennsylvania Avenue, across the street from Bailey Park, which the township is eyeing as an indoor sports facility.
It made sense, I wrote. The park and warehouse building are so near one another; it takes fewer than 15 steps to get from one side of the street to the other, to go from the township to the city and vice versa.
The individuals I spoke to had complaints about the other, from an official perspective. The township would be hard to work with; township officials would insist on having things their own way, I heard from the city side.
From the township point of view, I heard this: city hall was chaotic; the right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing; there was no planning, no coordination; the city was overextended financially.
I’m not sure either side had it completely right. In any case, that was then, this is now. With a new Uniontown mayor in place, a fresh start is called for.
Surely, there are small projects the neighboring municipalities — I’m thinking of North Union, too — might use to build trust and confidence in one another before they tackle really big ones.
Might not Uniontown lend its voice to the Routes 40-119 traffic congestion matter? In this instance, three may be better than two.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.