When you’re buying power, size matters

By Jason Dailey, Director of Public Works

Two years ago, Cranberry was paying an average of 7.68¢ per kilowatt hour for electric power. Last year it was 8.14¢. And, thanks to Pennsylvania’s slow-motion electric deregulation combined with the limited purchasing options available at the time, that trend seemed likely to continue.

Fractions of a cent make a big difference to Cranberry because, as the operator of a power-hungry wastewater treatment plant, 35 signalized intersections, and a number of good-size buildings, the Township spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on electricity. So earlier this year, we took a different path into the power market.

One complicating issue for us had been that Cranberry didn’t have just one electric bill; we had 83 of them. Most of them were tiny – a flashing light at an intersection, for example – and we were charged premium rates for maintaining them. Only a few of accounts were big enough to attract attention from the power company. So we decided to pool our electric purchases, not only within Cranberry’s own operations, but also with various local businesses, the Seneca Valley School District, and some neighboring municipalities as well.

Rather than following the power company’s guidance of locking ourselves into fixed rates from anywhere from one to three years – a risky idea in today’s volatile energy market – we worked through a broker who made strategic purchases for everyone in the pool at intervals throughout the year. Only this time, we had the leverage of a much bigger buyer. The result is that our average rate went down this year – to 6.89¢ – representing a savings of more than $82,000 over 2008. And we look forward to even more savings in the year to come.

Beating back bullying

By Lt. Kevin Meyer

Years ago, school bullies had to get up close and personal to intimidate their fellow students. No more. Now, with sophisticated electronic tools at their disposal, a new arena of bullying has opened. Cyber-bullying occurs when students use their cell phones or computers to coerce or harass other students, either in the form of text messages, emails, blogs or social media such as Facebook and MySpace. So parents need to be alert to those forms of abuse as well. But whether it’s the old-fashion schoolyard tyrant or the 21st century cyber-bully, the atmosphere of fear they create not only disrupts the educational process, it frequently results in lasting damage to victims.

So we were very pleased to learn that this past September, the entire Seneca Valley school system adopted the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, a program designed to identify risk factors, provide necessary adult intervention, and improve peer relations to create a positive learning environment. The Olweus program, which originated in Norway during the 1980s, has been refined and adapted to America where it is now in place at schools in every state. Members of the Cranberry Township Police Department were on hand for the program kick-off at both Haine and Rowan Schools to show our support for this important initiative.

As police officers and members of the Cranberry community, we know that the school environment needs to be a positive one for children to succeed. Bullying has no place in that setting. The Olweus program includes the formation of a coordinating committee and adoption of year-round, district-wide rules against bullying, as well as direct individual interventions. Schools which have adopted the program report a significant decrease in bullying among students, even within the program’s first months.

We look forward to working with school administrators, faculty, staff and students to see that this program is a great success here as well.

The salt bubble

By, Jason Dailey, Director, Public Works

News organizations that cover the economy frequently cite the housing bubble, the dot.com bubble, and the oil price bubble of 2008 as examples of the chaos created by rampant speculation in the market. But over the past year, municipalities in western Pennsylvania experienced a classic bubble economy of their own – one which broke this summer, causing prices to crash through the floor. I’m talking about road salt.

As recently as two years ago, there was a general balance between supply and demand. For local governments in this area, the delivered price for rock salt, which is mined most intensively in northern Ohio, was about $48 a ton. It varied somewhat from year to year, but generally within a fairly narrow band of pricing.

But then last winter, there was a price spike which caught a lot of communities off guard. Dry weather meant the rivers were low, so barges had trouble moving. Fuel costs for mining operations had skyrocketed. The previous winter had depleted the companies’ salt inventories. And so on. As a result, supply fell below demand and prices went through the roof. If a community was lucky enough to get a delivery at all, they paid the spot market price of $155 a ton. So a lot of municipalities made due with cinders and stone.

Of course, as soon as the price tripled, everybody in the mining business threw themselves into the act, so now there’s an oversupply and prices have crashed to around $50.

Cranberry was fortunate. We were able to salt away enough at $42 to hold us through the bubble and into this coming winter season. But just because it was cheap didn’t mean went through it recklessly; we made sure all the truck spreaders were calibrated properly and we kept a close eye on how much material was being used. Nobody knows where prices are headed going forward, but with our salt shed now holding nearly 6,500 tons – more than enough for an average winter here – we should be in good shape for the upcoming season.

Is Cranberry going nuclear?

In just the last week or so, I’ve had calls from several people asking whether it’s true that a nuclear plant is going to be built in Cranberry to power the Township’s electric customers. Apparently there was a story circulating at a recent meeting of a community south of us to the effect that there is a special hush-hush deal between Cranberry and Westinghouse to build a small nuclear power plant here. And the calls I was getting were trying to confirm that rumor.

Well, let me assure you that Cranberry has nothing but peaceful intentions. We do not pose a threat to Jackson or Seven Fields or our neighbors in Marshall. We do not seek a nuclear confrontation with Allegheny or Beaver counties. Nor do we plan to extract plutonium and become a rogue township – a pariah among municipal governments.

The fact is that no negotiations to locate a nuclear plant here have ever taken place. Nor are they likely to. And if they ever did, state and federal agencies would have been all over it. However, we have been in discussions with PennPower about building an electrical substation in the Township. And we hope to have more details on that later this month. We’re also continuing to expand our energy conservation measures. In the meantime, we’ll continue buying our power from plants far outside of Cranberry Township.

Growing Astroturf in Cranberry

There’s a term being used in Washington these days that refers to commercial efforts at creating the appearance of a grassroots movement when, in fact, it’s synthetic: Astroturf. Here in Cranberry, during the past few weeks, someone who apparently doesn’t like competition in the grocery business paid a firm called “SprawlBusters” to generate opposition to Shop ‘n Save’s application for a grocery store in Freedom Square. They did it using robocalls which were followed up with live calls – in each case claiming that the supermarket was unnecessary, that it was going to create traffic gridlock, and that it was getting a free ride from the Township by not paying for related improvements. I assume the goal was to pressure our Board of Supervisors into rejecting the company’s land development application to build a store.

Well, it didn’t work. And the reason is that it was a totally fraudulent campaign, full of misinformation, designed to anger local residents and make it look as though the Township was playing favorites with different businesses. The calls did succeed in upsetting some people who believed their claims. But nothing about the campaign was honest. For one thing, most people believe that competition between stores is actually good for consumers, although it’s the marketplace, rather than the Township, which will make that determination. But the developer of Freedom Square certainly didn’t get a free ride. Like every business that applies to develop here, they had to pay the Township hundreds of thousands of dollars in Impact Fees for improvements to accommodate the traffic they generate. Beyond that, the developer of Freedom Square had been required to make more than $2 million in improvements including new turning lanes, traffic signals, and so on as a condition of building there in the first place.

Cranberry Township approaches development differently than most. Our Board believes that development should pay for as much its own impact as the law allows, upfront. Many other communities end up ‘giving away the store’ to secure development. In fact, one of the most frequent comments we get from developers is how extensively we require them to mitigate the impact of their proposed development. They have a point. And Shop ‘n Save may be one of the best examples. But to say that they’re getting a free ride is ridiculous. It’s crabgrass.

Planning for dissent

Abraham Lincoln was right when he said you can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

Take The Cranberry Plan, Cranberry Township’s visionary roadmap for the next 25 years. It was a remarkable accomplishment for a number of reasons – its long horizon, its technical sophistication, and its principled commitment to sustainability. However its most significant achievement may be that it was built on a strong and broad foundation of public support. Even so, that support wasn’t unanimous, as a recent unsigned letter to the Cranberry Eagle makes clear. But in a real democracy, dissent is not only inevitable, it is desirable and it leads to better results.

Our entire planning process was transparent, widely publicized, and open to residents of every point of view. Thousands of residents participated in surveys, attended open houses, and testified at hearings which were conducted as part of the planning effort. We were particularly gratified by the 70-plus residents who volunteered as members of a Citizens Advisory Panel which met monthly throughout the plan’s most critical stages. And their views on important issues were far from uniform.

They poured over thousands of pages of analysis, survey results, studies and recommendations. Their feedback led to detailed exchanges with Township staff members and to vigorous, passionate debates with one another. It was one of the most intensive public planning processes ever conducted by any community anywhere. And it led to a plan which was recently honored by the state’s top award from the American Planning Association.

I am proud of the outcome of our planning process and flattered to work for such a great community, including those who hold a different point of view. Thank you.

Cranberry talks shop with area officials

Cranberry Township recently played host to a special seminar offered under the umbrella of the Local Government Academy. In fact, Cranberry wasn’t just the host, we were also the subject matter of the LGA’s first Sustainable Development Academy session. Its focus was on the way we’re going about implementing The Cranberry Plan – the comprehensive plan our Board of Supervisors adopted in April.

Altogether, about two dozen officials from municipalities throughout the region joined a number of our own senior staff members at Cranberry Highlands to hear how we are laying the groundwork for the Township’s next 25 years. Presentation topics included waste collection, traffic signal management, zoning, electric power purchasing, carbon emissions, finances and more. And it concluded with a tour of selected sites including Park Place, Graham Park, and the new Westinghouse campus. Of course it’s very flattering that so many of our counterparts in the region are interested in finding out how we do what we do.

But it’s a two-way street; we are just as eager to learn the best practices of our neighbors and finding better ways of partnering with them to achieve a brighter future.

The long march along 228

Improving the Rt. 228 corridor has been Cranberry’s top transportation priority for years. So when negotiations for the $85 million package of roadway improvements that we had been working toward collapsed earlier this year, we were disappointed. But much to its credit, PennDOT immediately came back with commitments for a handful of worthwhile, but less expensive projects around the intersection of 228 and I-79. One of them – a stretch of new roadway between the I-79 northbound off ramp and the entrance to Cranberry Woods – went from start to finish in just three weeks. Amazing. At the same time, even though PennDOT is scaling back the pace of its overall program of 228 upgrades, it has not abandoned the vision; any improvements made in the future will still have to conform with their master plan for the road, which they call an ‘urban boulevard.’ Interestingly enough, that concept is patterned after the segment of 228 we struggled so hard to build here in Cranberry eight years ago – with planter islands, sidewalks, turning lanes, and so forth. So even though we’ve suffered a setback, we are very pleased that PennDOT has validated our vision for the road and that someday our shared vision will be realized.

Is Cranberry Township sending Police to the G20 Summit?

Not exactly, although our police lieutenant is on the G20 planning committee and our police are taking steps to prepare for the event’s impact here in Cranberry. When the G20 Pittsburgh Summit was first announced, our Board Chairman, Dick Hadley, wrote to Mayor Ravenstahl congratulating the city for this honor and offering any help we could provide, including advance services, such as public works, administrative and planning services,or anything else the City may need. In the meantime, Cranberry’s hotels are already booked solid and, as home to several high-profile global corporations, we expect a number of foreign visitors to our own community during that time. So our police focus is on making sure everyone here gets a warm welcome and has a great experience in Cranberry.

Cranberry Township is a huge supporter of Pittsburgh. We want the G20 Summit to be a tremendous success. We are confident the City will do a wonderful job hosting the world’s leaders along with the visitors attracted to that event, and we are pleased to be part of this great event.

Supervisor Mazzoni loves libraries and they love him back

Bruce Mazzoni, who has served on Cranberry’s Board of Supervisors for the last three years, was just named “Public Official of the Year” by a statewide library organization in Harrisburg. It caught him by surprise – the result of a hush-hush nomination by the Cranberry Library’s board. Bruce is a long-time resident of our community who, along with his wife Conni, used to regularly bring their now-grown daughters to the library. That eventually led to an invitation to join the Library’s board, which, in turn, marked the start of Bruce’s amazing public service to the Township and ultimately to his election as a Township Supervisor. Although he had to step down from the Library board upon becoming a Supervisor, his support for the Library continued in a number of important ways, which included work with the County library board, advocacy for library projects, and his own personal generosity. So the recent award was a well-deserved honor. And it has been an honor for me and for everyone else on the Township’s staff to work with a Board made up of people who are so incredibly committed to the quality of life of our community. Way to go, Bruce!

Cranberry’s stepping into the world of social media

What’s the best way to reach you? That’s a question our Board and a lot of our staff members have been asking. And the answer seems to depend on two things. One is the type of information – for instance, an announcement for an upcoming concert may be handled differently than an alert about a road closure. The other factor is the personal media preference of each individual; some people are big on text messaging, some people hate it. And so on. So we did a survey earlier this year and determined that we needed to use a mix of different media to reach people. As a result, in addition to our more established channels – the website, CranberryToday, news releases, and email – we’ve gotten into social media, including this blog. We’ve got a presence now on Facebook. We’re on Twitter. And we’re using a new Twitter-like service called Nixle, which is reserved for urgent and emergency-type announcements. You can sign on for any of these from our home page. They’re all free. And we hope they will help us stay in touch.

When do you call 911?

by Lt. Kevin Meyer, Cranberry Police Department

Everyone knows that 911 is the number to call for an emergency response, anywhere in the country. So if you have a serious situation – a fire, a wreck, a burglary, or so on – that’s who you call and that’s the number you teach your kids to call. But what if it’s not really an emergency? What if it’s a request for some other service, like getting a cat down from a tree, or help getting into your locked car, or your dog ran away, or someone’s blocking your driveway? What then? That’s a 911 call, too. The only time you would use the Cranberry Police Department’s administrative phone number, 724-776-5180, ext. 5, is to request a copy of a police report. For everything else, call 911. Why? So they can be documented to make sure no calls are overlooked.

Cranberry Woods sale confirms the value of planning

Late last month, the entire Cranberry Woods Business Park complex, except for its Westinghouse, MSA and Regional Learning Alliance campuses, was sold to a Pittsburgh-based investment group. Altogether, it included 460,000 square feet of office space, and it sold for $89.5 million. If you do the math, that’s a little more than $185 per square foot. But, according to the Pittsburgh Business Times, the average price per square foot for suburban Class A office space in western Pennsylvania today is just $90, and in downtown Pittsburgh it’s $67. That’s a huge difference, and it didn’t simply happen. Way back in the early ‘90s, our Board of Supervisors worked with MSA on creating the vision for a world-class business park capable of competing with the Carolinas for knowledge-based industries. It became part of our 1995 comprehensive plan. And over the following years, we worked hard to implement that plan. I think it’s fair to say that the recent sale of Cranberry Woods validates the merit of formulating a vision and following it through.

What’s the deal with Cranberry’s Internet/Video service providers?

A lot of people want to know: when is Cranberry going to get more TV/Internet services? And why are we stopping this or that service from being offered in the Township? The fact is, Cranberry has been actively recruiting video and Internet Service Providers, or ISPs, to provide their services here. It’s purely a business decision by each provider. Local governments have to approve the use of public rights-of-way to install lines and vaults, and we’ve done so with both Armstrong and Consolidated Communications. We’ve also invited Verizon and Embarq to offer those services as well. And while we haven’t heard back yet, we anticipate that they will begin offering them sometime in the foreseeable future. The bottom line is that the Township is poised to help all the ISPs offer their services to Cranberry customers on the same footing. It gets complicated, but if you have any questions, give me a call: 724-776-4806.

What will change when Waste Management arrives in Cranberry?

Nothing. For the last five years, Vogel Disposal has done a great job of working with Cranberry in setting up the Collection Connection residential solid waste program. Last month, the Board of Supervisors took bids on a contract for the next five years, and Waste Management came in with the best price. So they’re getting the contract. But except for the color of the trucks going by your street, nothing’s going to change when Waste Management starts collecting in November. You’ll put out the same carts, recycle the same material, use the same 65¢ bag tags, get billed the same way, and have your trash collected on the same days you’re already familiar with. It’s going to be a big non-event. But I do want to thank our associates at Vogel for helping us pioneer a real breakthrough program which has become a model for all of Pennsylvania. Collection Connection has been a tremendous success and we are pleased to have had such a strong partner in that effort.

Traffic enforcement - Not a revenue generator for the Township

Sometimes people will tell me that the only reason the Township is having its Police write traffic tickets is because we need the revenue. Nothing could be further from the truth. If a motorist fails to stop at a stop sign, the basic fine is $25.00, the state returns 1/2 of that amount to the Township, or $12.50. On top of the $25.00 fine, the state levies extra fees of $84.50 that are all kept by the state, so out of a $109.50 traffic ticket, the Township will receive back from the state $12.50, the state keeps $97.00. If the violation is for speeding,the basic fine is $35.00, the Township receives $17.50 of that amount. The cost of enforcing that traffic law is many times that amount, which often includes court time.

So, it is certainly not a revenue generator for the Township as the Township must absorp the costs of its police department. Traffic laws are strictly enforced in the Township by our well trained, professional police department because it saves lives! Excessive speed and careless driving are a significant cause of traffic accidents. Our Police work hard to create a safe community for our residents and visitors. So please, the next time you see one of Cranberry Township's Police Officers on the side of the road with a traffic stop, it is not about raising revenue for the Township it is about keeping everyone safe on our highways, and please let them know you appreciate their dedication to our safety.

Welcome to The Cranberry Blog! And what is it with these sidewalks?

With the launch of this column, Cranberry is officially stepping into the blogosphere.

Along with some of my colleagues in the Township, we will be offering comments about issues concerning Cranberry that people keep telling us are on their minds. Some of it will be factual, some of it will be background information, and some will be our own personal points of view. But we hope all of it will be interesting, and ultimately useful, to you.

Let me start with an issue that’s come up ever since I started here in 1992 – and probably even earlier: sidewalks. We’ve got bits and pieces of sidewalk all over the town, but they don’t weave together into a network at this point. So are sidewalks in Cranberry a stupid waste of money, as some people have said? I don’t think so.

In every study we’ve done since I arrived here, making Cranberry a more pedestrian-friendly place has been right up there among our residents’ top concerns. Every trip you would normally make by foot – if there were sidewalks to accommodate you – is a trip that’s now made by car. That contributes to congestion, pollution, and so on.

So we’ve got an ordinance that requires anyone doing development along a public road to build that section of sidewalk. Eventually, every property will get developed or redeveloped. So, in time, those sidewalk segments will knit together. But it’s going to take a while.

The alternative is to use taxpayer money to build sidewalks. But that can get really expensive, and nobody has much of an appetite for spending that kind of money. So for now, we’re watching the system slowly emerge, driven by development, and keeping an eye out for innovative ways of picking up the pace.