Citizen, business of the year honored
CRANBERRY TWP — Team work, community and cooperation of the community leaders were front and center Thursday afternoon.
The Four Pillars of the Community — business, faith-based groups, government and nonprofit/civic groups — along with the members of the Cranberry Township Community Chest and THE CHAMBER of Commerce, gathered at the Cranberry Highlands Golf Course to honor the CTCC Community Citizen of the Year and to hand out the Community Business Award.
MSA was named Cranberry’s Business of the Year. The Citizen of the Year went to Dennis Zeitler, MSA’s vice president and treasurer, who was instrumental in the development of Cranberry Woods.
Zeitler, who has announced his retirement from MSA, was instrumental in creating the long-term strategy which resulted in Cranberry Woods.
He worked 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 classes and programs.
More recently, Zeitler structured a 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.
Township manager Jerry Andree said Zeitler’s ties to the community go back to the 1980s, when he was part of the company’s team that bought original 300-plus acres off routes 19 and 228.
It was back in the early 1990s that Zeitler had approached the township with the vision of MSA and the Cranberry Woods office park.
Zeitler said without the cooperation of the township and their team work, the office park would not have become a place where more than 8,000 people are employed and includes both MSA and Westinghouse Electric Co. headquarters.
“It (Cranberry Woods) had exceeded our expectations,” said Zeitler.
This is the second time in the 30-year history of MSA that it has received the business award. It 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 incorporated in the township’s 1995 Comprehensive Plan, was to create a world-class business park, which could attract and retain highly-skilled workers.
MSA also donated land worth $3 million for the road from Cranberry Woods to the north side of Route 228.
