SR spurs growth in northwest
In northwest Butler County, municipalities must balance economic livelihood with residents' desire for open spaces.
"We've had a few local businesses expanding, and we are looking for stable development. But at the same time, one of the reasons people move to Franklin Township is to get some elbow room," said Herman Bauer, chairman of the township supervisors.
In the future, Bauer said the 20.8-square -mile municipality might see more "trickle-up" effect from Westinghouse's new corporate headquarters in Cranberry Township and other development along Interstate 79. That helped Franklin to be one of the county's fastest-growing townships, he said.
"We try to run the township as a family-run household, planning expenditures and monitoring our finances to maximize the taxpayers' dollars," Bauer said of himself and fellow Supervisors Bob Thompson and Janet Gray.
"We're a half-million dollar small business, that's how we see it."
The board is relatively new with Bauer and Thompson being elected in 2008, while Gray joined in 2010, but they already face the pressures of hard-knock political decisions.
Capital projects needed"We've suffered some impacts from the economic downturn and impact from the state, including our Department of Environmental Protection sewage reimbursement from the state," Bauer said."It dropped from 100 percent in 2008 to 42 percent reimbursement for 2009. That's about a $10,000 hit for us."Furthermore, Bauer said townships such as Franklin have had difficulty in getting state and federal grants."They seem to be aimed at job-creation, 'green' projects or shovel ready projects," Bauer said.He said capital projects such as road maintenance and a new dump truck for the township's streets department are what the township needs."We are not just looking at this year, but a series of years ahead to see what we will need to save for and what our needs will be," Bauer said.
Progress in Slippery RockKen Harris, mayor of Slippery Rock, said he is encouraged by progress on several projects under way in the borough, as well as the future dividends which could result from the development of a hotel."There are two really interesting things coming into the township right on the borough line," Harris said.Butler Health Systems intends to build a walk-in medical facility along Route 108, and Slippery Rock University wants to build an economic development center, called The Innovation Center, on the same stretch of road."We used to call these things business incubators. It's going in on property that the university owns. As I understand it, it's to help developing businesses with their plans and business models," Harris said.Slippery Rock Development, a nonprofit board of which Harris is a member, continues to work for community beautification and improvement within the borough. The group was most recently responsible for the Franklin Street Streetscape project."I think (a municipality) is always a work in progress. You tinker, you hope, you daydream and you wait for things to happen," Harris said."We are looking broadly at economic development issues, like how to attract more businesses here."There are several large sites available for development in the borough, which are privately owned, Harris said. Those locations include a pair of sites along Route 173 north, one a former Burger King restaurant, as well as 50 acres on the west side of Route 258.The Route 258 site has been proposed as a student housing location in the past, but the borough council opted not to rezone the single-family occupancy zoning there."It may be that developers are waiting to see what happens with this hotel," Harris said.RBI Development, a Pittsburgh company, has plans to build a Marriott Fairfield Inn on the 10-acre site for about $12 million, including an 18,000-square-foot retail mall and up to four restaurants.The stormwater, roads and site have been graded at the development across from the Giant Eagle plaza."Their infrastructure is all installed, and they are working with the university on traffic control. We're awaiting their next step, their plan for the rest of development. They have passed all of the borough and other code requirements," Harris said.
Route 108 corridor commerceKenneth Harley, who is serving his fifth year as a Worth Township supervisor, said the township is pleased with its current situation, but would like to develop commerce along the Route 108 corridor in the northern part of the township."This is a great community with a good tax base and good people," Harley said."I don't see any development in the immediate future, but maybe after the economy picks up. I see us doing good in places."Because of state funding cuts, Worth Township was forced to raise taxes this year, up one mill, for the first time since 1983.Most of those tax dollars go to support administration and to maintain the township's 43 miles of roads."I think the roads have gone well and we are accomplishing things there," Harley said."We have two guys in the streets department and they work their tails off."
Harrisville holds status quoHarrisville Mayor Jere Donovan said his priority is simply to safeguard the well-being of its citizens."We have a very small area here in Harrisville, and we're always going to be a bedroom community," Donovan said."We have no industrial base here, just a few businesses. Basically, people live here and work elsewhere"He added that the county's northernmost borough, just 0.8 square miles in size, doesn't have much vacant land to develop.Harrisville has a small police force as well as its own elementary school, Harrisville Elementary, which is in the Slippery Rock School District.There are scattered churches and no bars, since the borough is a dry community."Our main activity is our park. We have one of the nicer parks in northern Butler county. We were provided with grant money by the county commissioners to improve the park," Donovan said.Harrisville's park includes a baseball field and one of the only skate parks in northern Butler County.
