CRANBERRY TWP — Mine Safety Appliances is the big awards winner.

MSA was named Cranberry’s Business of the Year and the Citizen of the Year also comes from the Route 228 company.

Dennis Zeitler, MSA’s vice president and treasurer, who was instrumental in the development of Cranberry Woods, garnered the Citizen of the Year Award.

The awards, named annually by the Cranberry Township Community Chest and THE CHAMBER of Commerce, were announced at the township supervisors meeting Thursday.

The honors will be presented at the Four Pillars luncheon on July 10 during the opening of Community Days.

Zeitler, who has announced his retirement from MSA, was instrumental in implementing the long-term strategy which resulted in Cranberry Woods. His accomplishments include attracting Marriott to license Butler County’s first full-service hotel and conference center at the entrance of Cranberry Woods.

He worked closely with the presidents of Slippery Rock University and Butler County Community College to create the Regional Learning Alliance, which has a dozen colleges and universities provide state-of-the-art learning facilities and programs.

More recently, Zeitler structured a land deal that allowed for the construction of a connecting road from Cranberry Woods to the north side of Route 228.

He also managed the sale of property in Cranberry Woods for the construction of a new residential community.

This is the second time in the 30-year history of MSA that it has received the Business of the Year Award and recognizes the company’s recent steps toward the final build out of its 372-acre Cranberry Woods office park campus off Route 228.

The company’s vision for Cranberry Woods, which was shared by the township and incorporated in its 1995 Comprehensive Plan, was to create a world-class business park, which could attract and retain highly-skilled workers.

“Cranberry Woods park businesses now employ 8,000 workers. Its business vitality has formed a foundation for continued economic growth, generating thousands of additional supplier and support jobs throughout the region. The result has been that Cranberry today enjoys one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation and one of the highest rates of economic growth anywhere,” according to the announcement statement.

MSA also donated land worth $3 million for the road from Cranberry Woods to the north side of Route 228.

Previous honorees for Citizen of the Year have included Chris DeCree and Dave Berneberg in 2009, Cathy Cortazzo in 2010, Mike Sherry in 2011 and Frank Petrone last year.

Previous Business of the Year honorees have included the Mashuda Corp. in 2009, MSA in 2010, UPMC in 2011 and Freedom Diner last year.