The Blairsville borough council passed a resolution supporting a local bridge project, and accepted a bid to repair the roof of a public building.
The council passed Resolution 161, declaring support for the Route 22 Pedestrian-Bicycle Bridge Project. Linda Gwinn with the Blairsville Community Development Authority says excitement for the project goes beyond Indiana County:
“We’ve met with people from Cambria County, the mayor… we had a public plan display on August 9th this year, the mayor of Ebensburg came, he was all excited that we’re connecting up to him… the mayor of Homer City was excited about it, the borough council president from Indiana is excited about it. We’ve been to see Rich Fitzgerald from Allegheny County, he’s like ‘This isn’t a local connection, this is a regional connection! You’re almost getting close to Pittsburgh with different trails.’”
Gwinn says the bridge is part of a larger plan that is years in the making.
“We’ve been planning in Blairsville since 2002, 2003, as what they call a trail town. The rotary has donated money for bike racks, and we’ve completed our streets, hoping to make it a friendly place for bicyclists to come through and help us with our economic developments.”
Gwinn hopes the project will be complete by Fall 2019.
In other news, the council accepted a bid from Tri-County Roofing of Punxsutawney to renovate the roof of the community center. According to manager Tim Evans, the plan is to construct a steel roof over the current shingle roof. The amount of the bid is $19,600, though the borough is seeking grant funding through the Indiana County Endowment to contribute to the cost of the project.
Evans said also the work on Sulfur Run is complete, but the road will remain closed over winter so it can settle.
Lastly, the council approved a request by police chief Michael Allman to purchase a 2018 Ford Explorer for the department.
