Good news from our schools about protecting children from drugs

Drugs, alcohol and other mind-altering substances have been a problem in America’s schools for decades. But even though they present a serious challenge, it seems as though many communities don’t take them all that seriously. One result, according to a recently released nationwide study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, is that the use of illicit drugs is disturbingly high and growing.

Nearly half the high school seniors studied reported having used some form of illicit drug at one point in their lives. And almost a quarter of the seniors surveyed in 2010 had done so just within the previous month.

That doesn’t even count alcohol use. Two-thirds of the seniors in the study reporting drinking within the past year; more than 40 percent of them just within the past month. And 2.7 percent reported drinking daily, notwithstanding the fact that they were all significantly under the legal drinking age. It’s no wonder that math and science test scores of American students have fallen behind those of every other industrialized nation, as well as most developing ones.

The good news is that Seneca Valley’s schools seem to be moving the other direction. And they have data to prove it. That’s because the school, for the past eight years, has had a drug testing policy in place. Although it doesn’t apply to all students – the district is legally limited in who they can include in the mandatory testing program – it applies to the great majority who either participate in athletics, in extracurricular activities, or drive to school.

What it shows is that the average positive drug test result for Seneca Valley students is 0.43 percent – less than half of one percent. Nationally, the corresponding number is 2.5 percent – more than five times higher. Even more importantly, the Seneca Valley number has gone down in each of the last three years from 0.72 percent in 2009, and 0.66 percent in 2010.

The key to Seneca Valley’s approach is that the tests – which are administered by Ohio-based Sports Safe Testing Service – are not used as tools to punish students or expel them from the district’s schools. Instead, they are intended to provide an early warning of trouble to parents and school administrators. And in the sequence of five follow-up tests required for those who did test positive for drugs, only one student showed evidence of a repeat offense.

As a result, the program has become a model for other schools all around the country, and school administrators have been approached not only by other districts, but by CBS News and the White House Office of national Drug Control Policy to learn more about Seneca Valley’s success.

For a school district which has steadily raised its academic performance, this show of concern about drug use should tell local parents that Seneca Valley takes a broad approach to student health and achievement, and that it acts with their children’s best interests at heart. As a parent of three Seneca Valley students, I really appreciate that. As one of my Township Supervisor’s always reminds me, “it’s easy to do nothing; it’s hard to do the right thing.” Seneca Valley has chosen to do the right thing. My thanks to the leadership of our school district.

Let me know what you think, at jerry.andree@cranberrytownship.org

Cranberry Township's blooming economy

Our Board of Supervisors requires staff to constantly evaluate the effects of public policy decisions, which include ordinances and investments in public infrastructure.  This review process is to assure the end result is consistent with the expectation. To accomplish that task we monitor many factors, including employment data, private investment in the community and other key economic indicators. We have completed a review of the most current data and it includes some very upbeat information about Cranberry’s economy, and I’d like to share it with you.

For one thing, the number of new jobs created here just since 2002 has hit 11,500, for a grand total of 24,000. That’s a whopping 92 percent increase. We’ve also seen a significant investment in non-residential development, with lots of new offices, hotels, and retail construction during the past year alone. In March we had over $11 million in new commercial construction – almost half of which was for Talisman Energy’s expanded headquarters in Thorn Hill Industrial Park. And last month we had our biggest April in five years.

Our residential development is moving along nicely as well. In addition to conventional subdivisions, it also includes apartments, traditional neighborhoods, townhomes and retirement communities.

And all three of those indicators – jobs, commercial construction, and new housing – are related; new employment requires new work space and new employees require new homes.

Some people might think it’s strange at a time when America’s economy has been under tremendous stress, and unemployment is high, and our national recovery is often characterized as fragile, that Cranberry could have such huge economic growth. After all, we’re all part of the same country, aren’t we?

Of course the answer is ‘yes.’ But it’s also a reflection of the fact that national economic figures are composites – they average together places that are doing well, places that are doing badly, and those that are just treading water. It’s sort of like the weather; you can come up with an average temperature for the country, but you’d be wrong for most places. We already know most of the reasons that weather varies from place to place, but what about variations in the economy?

Let me suggest an answer: it’s that local economic health is heavily influenced by local laws, local taxes, local policies, and local investment. And each locality is different. Cranberry's new numbers offer convincing evidence that the Township's success at a time of regional and national stress is a reflection of the vision and priorities our community has articulated through a collaborative and transparent process. The Board of Supervisors, in response, have been taking concrete steps to implement those priorities and vision through public policy decisions, including investments in infrastructure, through an equally transparent process.

The community's over-arching goal: to create an environment where private investment can succeed, where property values grow, and where families can flourish. A spin-off of achieving this goal is the creation of an environment that attracts quality employers that share similiar goals. The numbers confirm we are on target with the expectations of those public policy decisions and investments in infrastructure.

I have had the honor of working in local government for nearly 35 years and am pretty passionate about it. I have seen what’s happening across the spectrum of government in Pennsylvania up close and personal, and much of it isn’t pretty. As I have said here in the past, I feel blessed to work for a community where many residents and businesses are committed to do what it takes to keep Cranberry Township a premier, sustainable community. Plus, our governing body "gets-it" and embraces collaboration in managing our local government.

So to the thousands of residents and business leaders who have pitched in to move Cranberry forward, I salute you. You are the reason for our success – a success clearly reflected in the most current economic and employment numbers. Thank you!

As always, your feedback is welcome, jerry.andree@cranberrytownship.org

The Sovereign Republic of Cranberry

Cranberry Township doesn’t have a Secretary of State or a U.N. ambassador, but it’s building the foundation for its own foreign policy. It’s a policy which was broadly outlined in the long-range comprehensive plan our Board of Supervisors adopted in 2009. In essence, it calls for taking steps to create a welcoming environment for the growing number of residents and visitors to Cranberry from around the world – a need underscored by the findings of the 2010 census.

The Westinghouse Electric Company’s 2006 decision to relocate to Cranberry was a major impetus for that push; the company’s multi-billion dollar business is global, so its worldwide outreach directly affects Cranberry’s local economy. In fact, it was the company’s selection by Chinese authorities to build a series of new power plants there that triggered the need for Westinghouse to expand its workforce into a new campus here in the first place. And other Cranberry-based companies are increasingly global as well. So Cranberry’s prosperity has become inexorably bound up with the success of our international commerce.

Earlier this week, a group of 30 area residents gathered at Cranberry’s the House of Chen restaurant to celebrate the first year anniversary of the Cranberry Township Sister City Association – an organization that actually extends beyond Cranberry to include Butler County Rotary Clubs, Slippery Rock University, the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau, and various regional organizations concerned with international affairs, as well as a number of multi-national firms located in Cranberry.

Through that program, American Sister Cities are paired with corresponding cities abroad. In the case of Cranberry, that sister city is Haiyang, a coastal city of 670,000 on the Yellow Sea, which is also where two of the power plants that Westinghouse is building in China are located. Sister Cities typically work on projects to build understanding, goodwill, and personal contacts with the businesses and residents of their overseas counterparts.

Although it enjoys support from the Township government in the form of a resolution adopted by Cranberry’s Board of Supervisors last fall, the Cranberry Township Sister Cities Association is actually an independent, nonprofit, non-governmental institution open to businesses, individuals, and organizations that share an interest in China, in cultural diversity, or in travel abroad.

In its first year, the Association held a number of events, including a well-attended cultural fair at Sherwood Oaks. It also assisted with the Welcoming International Neighbor group, or W.I.N., which was another outgrowth of the Cranberry Plan. That group, which held its first New Neighbors Expo earlier this week, also enjoys support from dozens of Cranberry residents who make sure our new international neighbors are received in a warm and friendly manner.

So congratulations to the Cranberry Township Sister City Association  and to W.I.N.  They offer another demonstration of why Cranberry Township is becoming an even more awesome place to live, work and play.

I would welcome your feedback: jerry.andree@cranberrytownship.org

For some folks in Cranberry, Springtime is Speedtime

By Lt. Kevin Meyer, Cranberry Township Police Department

Thank goodness it’s spring.  People here are celebrating the warm weather with outdoor get-togethers, family vacations and, I’m sorry to say, by speeding on local roads.  Every year at this time, our Police Department sees the number of complaints about speeding vehicles spike, along with the number of drivers who blatantly disregard stop signs.  This is of particular concern in residential neighborhoods where children are outside playing in their yards, on the sidewalks, and occasionally in the street.

Our officers are keenly aware of the consequences of speeding autos; after all, we’re the first ones on the scene who have to deal with the consequences when something goes wrong.  So especially in residential areas, we will be out in force this spring to identify problem areas and enforce the posted limits. 

To help, Cranberry’s police department has created a dedicated Traffic Enforcement Unit.  Its primary function is to keep motorists and pedestrians safe by addressing such traffic-related issues as stop sign violations, speeding, and identifying distracted or impaired drivers.  They are also responsible for conducting accident investigations.  But we can’t be everywhere at once, so we need your help in two ways. 

First, I would encourage you and everyone you know to drive safely during this season and to persuade other drivers in your family, as well as your friends, to do the same.  Second, if speeders are a problem where you live, call 911 right away so we can act in a timely fashion.  And if you have any other traffic related questions or concerns, feel free to contact our Traffic Enforcement Unit head, Corporal Bill Ahlgren, at william.ahlgren@cranberrytownship.org or 724-776-5180 x1423.

Thank you. 

Cranberry’s Left-leaning Traffic Signal Patterns

By Duane McKee, Assistant Township Manager, Cranberry Township

Have you noticed a change in the traffic light patterns along Routes 19 and 228? It’s subtle, but it is one of many steps we have taken over the years to help improve traffic management along our major corridors.

During my tenure in Cranberry over nearly 20 years, I’ve been closely involved with putting a succession of new traffic management systems into place. Our first coordinated traffic signal system, 17 years ago, included 12 intersections; today, we coordinate more than 30 of them from a state-of-the-art Traffic Operations Center we opened earlier this year.

We completed our first signal project in 1994, which included the beginning of our fiber optic system that now connects 90% of our signals. It was the backbone for the current signal infrastructure, and it created a system we could update periodically. It was a simple, clock-driven, time-of-day plan. And for a while, it worked quite well. But as our needs grew, so too did traffic control technology – advancing from clocks, to closed loop systems, to traffic-responsive systems, and hopefully someday to automation. And Cranberry was an early adopter of all of them.

Those upgrades always involved Partners – PennDOT District 10, the Southwest Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) and private developers. Most motorists do not realize that traffic signals are owned by the municipality, even those on state highways. And they are expensive to operate and maintain. We could have chosen the route most communities have taken in regards to traffic signals which is to be reactive, but that is not an acceptable method to our Board of Supervisors. Our position has been and will continue to be proactive in managing the traffic that is passing through our community, no matter where it came from or where it’s going. That includes allocating the appropriate resources to properly maintain those systems. We also understood that motorists did not know or care which municipality they were driving through and simply wanted traffic flows that were as efficient as possible.  Poorly operated traffic signals costs motorists time and fuel. That is why Cranberry advanced the idea of managing traffic as a traffic-shed and successfully engaged our neighboring communities of Marshall and Adams Townships and Seven Fields Borough in that effort.

In our proactive position we’ve always understood that simply adding more asphalt could not be the ultimate answer to traffic congestion. We knew we would need to use all the tools in the box – particularly the ones involving more advanced signal management systems – to get the most out of the pavement already in place.

That turned out to be a good thing because in 2007, the State's General Assembly approved Act 44. That Act severely reduced funds for state highway capacity expansion projects. It left Cranberry to deal with its congestion issues, just like other Pennsylvania communites.  Fortunately, due to the foresight of our Board of Supervisors we were far better prepared for that responsiblity than most other communities – by building upon the electronic technology that was the backbone of our system.

Our most recent opportunity to implement new enhancements came with an SPC SINC-UP grant and a state Infrastructure Development Program grant (IDP). The SINC-UP grant was created to help communities manage their traffic signals to decrease driver frustration, cut emissions, and reduce fuel waste. Due to Cranberry Township's history of effectively operating our traffic signal systems, we were a perfect fit for the SINC-Up grant. The IDP grant was specifically targeted to help Westinghouse mitigate it's impact on our infrastructure, including the traffic signal systems. The IDP funds were used to acquire the most recent generation of traffic management software, which went on line earlier this month.

All of those efforts resulted in the timing and movement changes that were implemented on April 5. This was a team effort. The IPD grant was managed by the state’s Department of Community and Economic Development and the Community Development Corporation of Butler County. SPC pulled together a great team of traffic engineering, operation and technology specialists and our own signal technicians to develop and implement custom-crafted traffic signal patterns. Our new signal sequence, known as “leading lefts,” was part of that solution.

Leading lefts are not a common pattern in our area. So we published a lot of information about it. We used local media, our newsletter, variable message boards, and social media to prepare the motoring public for its rollout on April 5. Right now, we’re in the monitoring phase – tweaking the timings to refine our traffic model information and make sure it’s working as intended.

But you can prove it for yourself; drive the length of the Route 19 and Route 228/Freedom Road corridors and see if you notice the improved flow of traffic. Also, please pay attention to the other traffic corridors you travel, you may even get a better appreciation of what we are doing in the Cranberry Township area traffic-shed.

Keep an eye out for those leading lefts and if you notice something that needs a little more tweaking, I would appreciate it if you dropped me a note at Duane.McKee@cranberrytownship.org

Coffees confirm local pride and passion

Yesterday I held my tenth ‘Coffee and Conversation’ with Cranberry residents.  Maybe I had too much coffee, but I’m feeling overwhelmed with the pride over the way our residents think about their community.  We launched our series of coffees last year to provide an additional channel for dialogue between our residents and their Township’s government.  Most of our communication up to that point had been mediated – information carried by print or Internet or text messaging – all of which were essentially one-way.

At the outset, quite frankly, we weren’t sure if the coffees were going to be successful – after all, we started them around the same time that congressional representatives all over the country were getting hammered by their constituents at town hall meetings about healthcare, stimulus spending, and other issues.  It wasn’t pretty.  But we put on our game face and said: let’s try it. 

Well, not only did we end up sharing coffee with more than 150 guests altogether, it reconfirmed how well-informed and caring the residents of Cranberry Township really are.  I heard excellent questions and thoughtful comments that clearly showed that people really were paying attention.  And it led to a great exchange of thoughts and ideas.  I left each of those coffees beaming with pride over the honor I have in serving a community of such engaged, informed and supportive residents.  It was really reassuring.

As a high school student back in the 1970’s, I remember loving my civic class; it spurred my interest in local government and it really never left me.  Unfortunately, our schools don’t offer those same types of civic classes today.  Civics seems to have gone the way of wood shop and other practical courses which gave everyone the sort of hands-on learning that stays with you for a lifetime.  Perhaps that’s why we work so hard in Cranberry to make sure there are lots of opportunities for civic involvement and education.  Just look around and you’ll be amazed by the civic involvement of our residents. 

Let me give you an example.  At last night’s Board of Supervisors meeting, there were two significant recognitions of residents whose activities helped to improve our community.  One was Amy Fuller, who headed up the Relay For Life fundraiser last July in North Boundary Park.  The American Cancer Society honored her for running the most successful Relay out of the 5,000 that were held last year nationwide. 

Then Michael Sherry was honored by the Cranberry Township Community Chest and Chamber of Commerce as their outstanding citizen of the year.  Michael was the driving force behind the Miracle League Baseball Field at Graham Park.  It is a remarkable facility, designed to accommodate players with serious disabilities, and it demonstrates our community’s insistence that children of all abilities get to experience the joy of playing baseball. 

One comment I recently heard from a resident really summed it up for me.  It was from a guy who provides financial services to local governments all across the state to help them with their operating and capital needs.  He told me that when his clients explain what they need, they inevitably say ‘we want to do it the way Cranberry Township is doing it.’  At that point, he beams and says ‘I know exactly what you mean, I live there myself, and I’m very proud of my community.’  Well, so am I.

If you have any ideas on how we can even do better with communications, I would love to hear from you by contacting me at jerry.andree@cranberrytownship.org

Supporting our High School Seniors is just as important as supporting our Golden Age Seniors

Perhaps, during a recent visit to the Municipal Center or one of our outdoor facilities, you’ve noticed groups of high school students huddling together, carrying out strange and unexpected activities.  You don’t need to notify the police.  They’re probably Seneca Valley high school students doing their senior projects.

Starting in February and continuing for another week or so, Cranberry Township’s facilities will have hosted 40 different students, at various locations, doing an assortment of worthwhile projects which are required for their graduation.  Among them: a presentation on dyslexia, an anti-bullying seminar, a musical program, various athletic competitions, fund-raising projects, and taste testing.  

These dedicated, hard-working students are actually completing one of the most stressful parts of their high school experience.  And Cranberry Township is honored to be able to help them with facility support, staff guidance and in other ways helping them achieve excellence in their projects.  

Since the school district’s own facilities are not available to support these student projects, the Township and its resources have emerged as a critical element of Seneca Valley students’ ability to graduate.  We are genuinely pleased to play such a key role in students’ success and ensuring that they get the most from their high school education.

So, the next time you see a group of high school students standing around a table or display at the Municipal Center, stop by and say hi; you’ll be amazed at what our SV seniors are doing.  They make us all proud.

If you have had any experiences with the students undertaking their senior projects in Cranberry Township, I would appreciate hearing about that experience by contacting me at Jerry.Andree@cranberrytownship.org

No quonset huts here, thank you

You may never have heard of NAIOP – an organization of commercial real estate developers. It’s a big association, with chapters all over the country, and its members are responsible for creating most of the office parks, shopping centers, industrial and mixed-use facilities in the United States.

Last week, the Pittsburgh chapter of NAIOP held its annual banquet and presented awards for projects which distinguished themselves in various categories. Projects throughout the tri-state area were eligible for recognition. And of the four projects selected for honors this year, two of them were right here in Cranberry Township.

Naturally, we were flattered by the attention. The Cranberry Woods Westinghouse campus and its developer, Trammel Crow, received an award of excellence in NAIOP’s “Build to Suit Office” category, and Pennwood Commons – now the headquarters of Talisman Energy in Thorn Hill Industrial Park – was honored in its “Speculative Building Office” category.

Of course, commercial development is a huge industry and the spending generated by new construction can benefit any local economy, including ours. But construction is only the start; the people and businesses which ultimately come to be housed in those projects are what really form the backbone of our economy. But development can have tradeoffs.

In their zeal to attract new investment, many communities are happy to turn a blind eye to the appearance, safety, impact and use of commercial construction. A generation ago, Cranberry was among them. But over the years, our Board of Supervisors has raised the bar, reflecting the expressed wishes of our residents. Today, not only does a project need to meet high safety standards and mitigate its impact on the community, it also needs to look good and feel right.

That’s because our Board of Supervisors, reflecting the beliefs of our residents, visualize Cranberry as a community of character with a distinctive identity. Creating a strong sense of place, however, is not just a cosmetic flourish – it’s at the heart of the Board’s long-range plan for building an attractive and sustainable community. It is fundamental to creating the sort of environment where visitors come to shop, where students come to learn, where families come to settle, and where businesses come to prosper.

Those qualities form the building blocks of an enduring community.  But they don’t happen in places which encourage construction that degrades, rather than enhances, their built environment. Understanding that dynamic has been a key to guiding our development.

We see NAIOP’s recognition of the high-quality commercial development here in Cranberry Township as validation of our residents’ desire to live, work and play in an attractive community, and for that we are very grateful.

I would welcome your ideas or comments.  Please let me know at: Jerry.Andree@cranberrytownship.org

Volunteerism is Alive and Well in Cranberry Township

One of the complaints Americans constantly keep hearing is how our youth are distracted, inattentive, self-centered, and generally disappointing to the generation that preceded them.
Well if that’s true, the young people of Cranberry Township are an important exception. Several weekends ago, I was assisting in a neighborhood food drive organized by Cranberry’s Sunrise Rotary Club along with Gleaner’s Food Bank – a local food pantry that serves residents of Cranberry Township.

It was a huge success. Not only did the drive collect over 600 bags of groceries from our neighbors – enough to provide for more than 100 families – it also saw at least 65 volunteers canvassing their neighborhoods to identify families in need. They came from the Rotary Club, from friends of the club, and especially from the Seneca Valley Lacrosse Team’s players and their families.

A related demonstration of young people volunteering was provided by dozens of students from Seneca Valley and nearby high schools who sorted and shelved the groceries into the pantries of Gleaner’s Food Bank.

I was tremendously impressed watching those young students and players donate so many hours to helping neighbors who needed their assistance. It reinforced my observation that, contrary to the popular stereotype, we are blessed with a caring, giving and loving younger generation in our community – one eager to serve when given the opportunity.

Of course they had leadership. Linda Heery exemplifies volunteerism in service of those experiencing difficult situations. Our community is tremendously fortunate to have someone like Linda who donates so many hours to making sure the Food Bank’s pantries are full and ready to serve those who need help.

Thank you Linda; you amaze me.

The Gleaner’s Food pantry is a truly wonderful volunteer venture. But it is not the only one. There are many worthwhile volunteer organizations, activities, and projects going on in our community. And we encourage them. The Cranberry Plan, the long-range comprehensive Plan our Board of Supervisors adopted in 2009 to guide the Township’s future growth, recognized the importance of volunteerism to securing a healthy future.

Right now, the Cranberry Township Community Chest, CTCC, is leading an effort that will help us better connect those who want to volunteer with the needs that actually exist in our community. I’m convinced that there are many more people willing and waiting to help than we generally realize; we just need to do a better job in tying them to the need. And perhaps the greatest asset we have to draw on is our younger generation.

If you have any thoughts about how we can enhance the opportunities to volunteer in Cranberry Township and engage more young people, I would welcome your ideas. You can reach me at: Jerry.Andree@cranberrytownship.org

Hiding the Cost of Government

How do government agencies show that they’re serious about cutting costs? They pass those costs along to other units of government.

Take the case of PennDOT. Until now, the state’s transportation agency has owned and maintained the storm water collection and drainage systems associated with its highways. But now PennDOT needs to slash expenses. So it has found a small codicil of state law that allows it to wash its hands of ownership and push the responsibility for maintaining, repairing, and ultimately replacing those stormwater systems onto the municipalities its highways pass through. Of course, no state money is being allocated to help local governments achieve that.

So here’s what it means: in the short run, it will add to the cost of local governments by mandating that they perform routine cleaning and maintenance of those facilities. But local governments in Pennsylvania are struggling, too. So in many communities, that routine maintenance won’t happen. And when stormwater conduits are not maintained, they flood the roads, breaking up their pavement, causing them to fail.

What it ultimately means is that our state highway network will deteriorate much more rapidly. And as it does, the responsibility for that failure will be blamed on the local governments who weren’t able to maintain their state-created drainage systems.

It won’t take long. Regardless of where the money is coming from, before the end of this decade, those systems will need to be replaced. Our maintenance costs will rise much faster than our revenues. And unless something is done soon, that will further squeeze our ability to take care of the assets our community already owns, leaving a legacy of debt and decline for the next generation.

One possibility is that the Department could seize the already-small share of the state gasoline tax revenue we currently receive – money which helps to pay for the upkeep of locally-owned roads. Since PennDOT distributes that money, it seems likely the agency would impound it if we didn’t maintain their highway drainage systems. That would help keep the state system intact, but leave nothing for local governments to maintain their roads. Once again, local taxpayers would be left holding the bag.

Let me make clear that I am not attacking PennDOT; they are only doing what any struggling organization would do: shedding costs wherever possible. Of course, in this case, we are the recipient of those costs. But from the standpoint of individual taxpayers, there’s no upside: shifting costs is different than cutting costs. If you have to pay more in local taxes so that state and federal agencies can boast that they’ve cut their own, where’s the gain?

There are really only three choices: raise revenue, cut services, or both. None of them are popular. While it’s easy to say ‘cut taxes!’ or ‘no new taxes!’ it’s a lot harder to do. The truth is that the costs of state and federal government are spiraling out of control. Here in Cranberry, we are not only feeling the state’s financial pain through PennDOT, but also through other cost shifts, like the Department of Environmental Protection raising its permitting fees 500 percent. And where does that money come from? The pockets of local sewer and water customers.

What we need is to begin a grown-up discussion on the state level that looks at Pennsylvania’s plethora of programs, projects, laws, regulations and mandates, and then decide what they’re actually worth, what they should really cost, and who is going to pay for them. If we decide we really don’t need some of those programs, projects or mandates, they get eliminated; it’s really that simple.

Right now, in fact, there’s a statewide commission on local government which is compiling a list of candidates for scrutiny. Their report, which will identify all the mandates pushed onto local government, will be released later this year. It should make excellent reading for those who are sincere about cutting the cost of government.

Of course it will get messy; hard decisions will need to be made. Noses will get popped out of joint. But in Cranberry, we have great confidence in the wisdom of our residents. They know how budgets are balanced. They are tired of all the disingenuous rhetoric and reckless partisanship that only serve to mask our real challenges and jeopardize the financial standing of our communities.

But we are not going to close our eyes, shut our mouths, and leave that problem to the next Board or the next generation to worry about. That’s not going to happen here. Our Board of Supervisors won’t tolerate it, and neither will our residents.

So, if this practice of state and federal government quietly passing costs onto local government continues, you can expect us to speak up and tell it the way it is.

I’d like to hear you speak up as well. I welcome your ideas, comments and suggestions. You can reach me at Jerry.Andree@Cranberrytownship.org. Thanks.

Getting stuff done

There are two times a year when I can count on being contacted by news media. One is Thanksgiving where some enterprising reporter is working on a story about communities with names like Drumstick, Arizona or Stuffing, Iowa and, of course, Cranberry Township. The second is at the end of the year when someone is preparing a wrap-up story about the year’s accomplishments.

As a result, I’ve been getting calls lately about what Cranberry achieved in 2010. Perhaps I should have been better prepared for them, because my first reaction was that 2010 seemed to have been a fairly routine year. Everyone at the Township did their job. No great disasters or prize-winning achievements came to mind. I couldn’t think of any noteworthy scandals. Children who regularly went to school and cats that didn’t run away from home don’t make very interesting headlines.

So I decided to make a list. And the list kept growing. Pretty soon, I became astonished by the number of important accomplishments Cranberry actually made in 2010.

That list is posted at http://www.cranberrytownship.org/2010Accomplishments.

But even more significant was the dual revelation that, first, Cranberry is really a very special community, and second, that it’s awfully easy to become complacent and take that for granted – which is a huge mistake. Why?

Just look at any local or national news coverage and what do you see? Partisan politics. Name-calling. Denunciations. Threats. Ultimatums. Posturing. Political gridlock. Fed by shrill cable news and talk radio hosts, dysfunctional government has become the new norm. Much of America today is in a state of paralysis. The idea that units of government are acting in the public interest has become something of a joke in today’s cynical, cash-driven political environment.

That’s why Cranberry is all the more amazing. It’s not as though we are immune from the toxic atmosphere around us, nor is it that our own Board of Supervisors sits around singing Kumbaya. Instead, it’s the Board’s realization that at the end of the day, their work as elected officials will be judged by what they’ve collectively accomplished. So their guidance and encouragement to make Cranberry the best possible community and to run its public functions in the most professional manner, has inspired all of us on staff to do our best and to really get things done.

Happy New Year.

Digital democracy

There’s a growing disconnect between the warp-speed pace at which most people lead their lives and the more deliberative pace with which policy-making occurs in the public sector. Particularly with today’s 24-hour news cycles, it’s easy to jump to the conclusion that the democratic process, at least as we’ve known it, has failed. Here’s why:

A little more than 20 years ago, local governments began introducing computers into their office operations. It seemed pretty impressive at the time. Local officials would proudly show visitors the PCs that one or two staff members had sitting atop their desks. And publicity photos depicted municipal office workers peering earnestly into their monitors.

That was then. Today, essentially everybody is in front of a screen for the better part of their work day. And so are most of our constituents. At the outset, we believed that computers would provide us with significant advantages such as easier record keeping, faster work turnaround, and lower cost. And we were right, up to a point. But the expectations of our residents – fueled by the growth of the World Wide Web – rose even faster.

Now, computers and computer-like mobile devices are everywhere, and we’ve become accustomed to that. As a result, people expect to find whatever information they need, transact whatever business they have, and secure whatever decisions they’re looking for, all with just a few keystrokes. Our patience for extensive deliberations, and our attention span for going through the sometimes lengthy processes required by law before enacting new ordinances, are increasingly out of step with public expectations.

For example, amendments to Pennsylvania’s Constitution – which is already three times longer than the U.S. Constitution – require passage in the state’s House of Representatives and Senate during two consecutive years before they can be submitted to the electorate for a vote. Even in routine legislation, the sequence of committee referrals, reporting, multiple considerations, appropriation and Governor’s approval in lawmaking is painstakingly slow, although that probably helps to prevent rash legislation.

Here in Cranberry, the process is a bit more streamlined. But major decisions still require research, consultation, public input, consensus building, and reconciliation with other ordinances and operations – all essential steps for making sound decisions and defensible laws. So it was just this month, after four years of work, that Cranberry’s elected officials finally adopted an updated zoning ordinance for Freedom Road – one that truly reflects what’s happening there and can guide the Township in sustaining it as a healthy area in the future as well.

It was an arduous experience – both for residents and our Township Supervisors. But I’m convinced that its outcome ended up being far better than anything which might have been decided in haste – something which is awfully easy to do today. Instead, it was a process that our Board of Supervisors insisted be undertaken in a deliberate, careful and thoughtful manner.

So I’m pleased to report that the democratic process still works – it’s just that working well, in contrast to the rest of the world we’re in today, sometimes means working slowly.

You can be sure if it’s Cranberry

This past weekend, there was a formal dedication of the new Westinghouse campus in Cranberry Woods. It’s an impressive place with four brand new buildings, more than a million square feet of interior space, and hundreds of millions of dollars in construction costs. It’s a huge investment in our community, and we are deeply flattered.

It’s especially flattering because our Township didn’t lobby for it. We didn’t go out and try to buy the company’s favor or try to snare it like some sort of battle trophy. Instead, it was a business decision – a good business decision, I might add. It was made after lengthy discussions with the Governor’s office and others who really, really wanted Westinghouse to remain in the state. Their interest is understandable; Westinghouse has played a major role in our region’s industrial history, and I’m sure it will be a key player in our future as well.

But even though Cranberry didn’t actively lobby to become Westinghouse’s new hometown, we did some things which we like to think made the company’s decision easier. Back in the early ‘90s, our Board of Supervisors began to craft a long-term vision for the Rt. 228 corridor. They directed our professional staff to design an environment where knowledge-based companies of the 21st century could settle and prosper and benefit our entire community.

That resulted in a number of important changes. They included expanding our transportation capacity, our water supply, and our workforce training resources, as well as improving our land use management and administrative efficiency. It also led to a number of new amenities for Cranberry residents.

We implemented a corridor management plan to designate future points of access from the highway serving Cranberry Woods. And we down-zoned much of this area from retail use to business park use. Down-zoning, as you can imagine, is a politically difficult choice to implement. However we see the Westinghouse decision to locate here as strong validation of that concept.

But beyond those steps, as important as they are, there was one quality we felt would be particularly critical to a successful relocation – and that was our promise to Westinghouse of consistency and uniformity in dealing with local officials. We promised the company that when they spoke to any of our local public bodies – the Township, the School District, or the County – they were speaking to all of us. And we told them that when any one of us would respond, we were speaking for the others as well.

I know it sounds simple, but building partnerships and creating this sort of collaboration requires hard work and constant communication. We know that getting conflicting stories from different units of local government can be a maddening experience. But we think we’ve lived up to our promise.

All of us want Westinghouse to grow and prosper. So as we go forward, we see Cranberry and its partners remaining in close contact with the company, collaborating where it makes sense, and continuing to provide the information that management needs to make the best decisions for their shareholders and employees.

I would welcome your response or comments, please Email me

How I connect the dots

Like most of my Cranberry neighbors who work in the private sector, I head to the office each morning and spend my day dealing with the same sorts of things they face. Things like dealing with customer requests, budget challenges, staffing levels, technology issues, conferences, and board meetings. I work with my colleagues and counterparts trying to figure out the new rules, regulations and mandates which regularly arrive from Harrisburg and Washington – almost all of which are unfunded. I fret over health care costs, prepare for presentations, and solemnly attend professional association seminars.

So, like most of my neighbors, I sometimes see my workday efforts as being terribly fragmented, unfocused, even pointless. But not always. What helps me connect the dots – to really understand what all of that busyness amounts to, is that on weekends I walk the “floor.” That’s where the real meaning of my work life comes together. And it helps recharge my batteries. Take a recent Saturday.

It started at home. I took a shower, using plenty of clean water, courtesy of our Public Works Department. That water went down the drain and off to Cranberry’s Brush Creek wastewater treatment plant, run by our very capable Sewer and Water folks. Then I went out to the curb to retrieve my waste carts, which had been emptied – and in many cases with their contents recycled – thanks to our Collection Connection program contractor. Then I dropped off some old computer parts at an electronics recycling event we hosted. And after that, I took some unused prescriptions to a Public Safety collection station behind the Municipal Center for proper disposal.

Then I walked into the Municipal Center. It was full of people coming and going from programs in our Library and gym, as well as neighborhood meetings in the activity rooms. When I left, I was reminded that the well-landscaped streets I was navigating were the outcome of what had seemed at the time to be endless staff meetings, paperwork and contract negotiations.

Of course, there was traffic – plenty of it. But the traffic was moving. And that movement is the outcome of sophisticated traffic control technology which was only possible after repeated shuttling back and forth to Harrisburg, dealing with mountains of paperwork, and holding endless hours of meetings with state officials to secure funding to buy the equipment and support the passionate staff who maintain that system.

As I drove past, I also noticed how nice Cranberry’s business properties look. And I recall that those features were results of laborious visioning and planning sessions with our Community Development Department, our Planning Advisory Commission, and our Board of Supervisors. The same with Cranberry Highlands – Pennsylvania’s top municipal golf course – and our beautiful parks where parents, children and grandparents are walking, biking, and cheering on their favorite teams.

Then on my Township radio, I heard about a traffic accident. Within minutes, our highly-trained, well-equipped safety professionals arrived on the scene. Seconds later, I got a text message informing me about the accident, advising me to seek alternative routes and of the projected time until it could be cleared. Where did that come from? It came from all those budget, planning, and staff meetings that once seemed so onerous.

Most people don’t realize what makes a community tick. And the better it works, the easier it is to think that working well is simply the norm. It’s not, but I’ve had the good fortune to be part of one of Pennsylvania’s best-working, most desirable communities. I report to an elected Board that truly gets it. And we have a staff of passionate professionals and dedicated volunteers who make every day here an amazing experience. It refreshes me and reminds me of the connection between what I see around me and those mounds of paper, phone calls, and meeting notes that sometimes seem to dominate my life.

I would welcome your thoughts about how we can help connect the dots for you.
Email me

Local climate change

It’s official now: we’ve broken the record for 90-degree-plus days in Cranberry. Back in February, as everyone here remembers, there was a once-in-a-generation snow event which essentially shut the region down for days at a time. This past spring, we were hit by rain storms more intense than anything we’ve been accustomed to. And it’s not just a Cranberry thing.

Last winter, Washington DC was paralyzed for more than a week. This summer saw torrential storms with record floods battering New England, Nashville and Arkansas. Outside the U.S. the weather extremes have been even worse. Pakistan drowned. Russia baked. And so did parts of Africa and East Asia. If this turns out to be a long-term trend, it will have real implications for municipal governments everywhere. This year alone, our staff spent hundreds of hours addressing problems that weather extremes caused for our residents. And we’re learning from that experience.

For example, we manage land use according to topographic flood levels – by how frequently we expect our streams to overflow. A 100-year flood level means we only expect that to occur once a century, and we regulate land use accordingly. But already this year, we’ve had three 100-year storms, and we’re only three-fourths of the way into 2010. And when you’re personally affected by weather extremes like that, official frequency projections become hard to believe. So does that mean the federal government should direct municipalities to revise their flood maps in light of weather shifts? And should they declare land which was formerly considered developable to be unsuited for building? Perhaps.

But is climate change for real? Or is it just a fluke? We’ve heard arguments on both sides. Problem is, discussions about it have become highly politicized. The political left sees it as nature’s wrath upon conservatives who resist greenhouse gas regulation. The political right, on the other hand, sees all the talk about global warming as a liberal smokescreen to expand control over the economy. Frankly, those discussions are way above my pay grade. At the local level, I work with people every day who have to deal with the impacts of weather on our residents and community assets. And there are a number of ways we feel that impact.

Municipalities are the ones who manage the storm water system and upgrade those systems when needed. We are the ones who prepare for winter weather with material, equipment and personnel. We are the ones who train and equip first responders to deal with emergencies that arise from extreme heat, cold and rain. We are the ones who administer flood hazard boundary zones and decide which areas are off limits to construction. We are the ones who enforce statewide building codes that incorporate weather related regulations. We are the ones who set design standards for local roads and maintain over a hundred miles of them – all of which are subject to stress from weather extremes.

We are also the ones responsible for managing hundreds of miles of storm water pipes, catch basins and detention facilities in the community. We are responsible for managing hundreds of acres of heavily used athletic fields and keeping them safe for our thousands of residents who participate in our recreational programs, including our award winning, popular, golf course. We are responsible for managing millions of gallons of wastewater collected daily through hundreds of miles of underground piping – all of which are directly affected by weather extremes.

So while Congress and pundits and scientists continue to argue whether climate change is real, our municipal governments are the ones obliged to constantly respond to bad weather and its impacts and to prepare for more of the same. This blog entry is not about the climate and if it is changing, it is to say when the weather is bad, it has an impact on local government, both on our finances and on our residents lives, and 2010 has been an exceptional year. At least here in Cranberry, we’ll continue doing our best to manage your assets responsibly in light of that impact – no matter which way the political winds are blowing.

I’d be interested to hear your take on this topic. Email me

Our regional vision

You may have heard about a project called Power of 32. It takes its name from the 32 counties in western Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland included in its footprint – a region which some might identify as North Central Appalachia, although nobody likes the stigma associated with that title, so it remains nameless, at least for now.

There are more than four million people who live in that region, and the project’s stated goal is to develop a shared vision for their future – a vision which would presumably help to guide the 2,000 units of government and countless private institutions that fall within its boundaries.

Several large Pittsburgh-area foundations are funding the project, which involves numerous local meetings and open-ended community conversations. Former state senator Allen Kukovich is its spokesman, and overall leadership is being provided by a 51-member steering committee, consisting mainly of representatives from the private sector as well as a handful from the public sector. Along with a couple of mayors and county commissioners, I am one of the latter, representing municipal governments.

I agreed to take on that assignment to make sure the aspirations of our region’s suburbs, smaller towns, and rural areas didn’t get drowned out by the preponderance of urban interests represented on the panel. So just for the record, here are the ideas I want to inject into the project’s thinking:

• People from around here tend to stay in this region and so do their children. They have choices, but they find this area to be livable, affordable, comfortable and family-friendly. We don’t want to lose those qualities by trying to transform ourselves into something that’s not consistent with those core values.

• It’s always nice to attract new investment from elsewhere to boost the local economy. But we need to nurture those businesses which are already here and encourage them to expand. We also want to help individuals here to become more entrepreneurial so they can create new opportunities at home.

• We want to encourage residents of each community to remain engaged with their local governments. Municipalities in our region tend to be more responsive, cost-effective, and creative in dealing with problems than larger units of government. We don’t want to lose their ability to personally engage residents by imposing consolidation or mandates on local governments.

• Our region includes a variety of communities with different histories, topographies, economies, and cultures. That variety is a strength. Respecting those differences rather than trying to homogenize them, will serve as a source of continued strength.

• Finally, while Pittsburgh is the largest municipality in the Power of 32 area and enjoys a number of wonderful resources, it represents less than eight percent of the region’s residents. We are a multi-centric region, not a uni-centric one, and our public policy priorities need to make sure that through this collaborative process, all parts of our region remain healthy.

Cranberry Township’s Municipal Center will host a Power of 32 Community Conversation beginning at 6:30 on Thursday, September 23. No advance registration is needed. Just stop in. We look forward to hearing from you. In the meantime, if you have any concerns you would like to share on this issue, please send me an email: Jerry.Andree@Cranberrytownship.org.

Keeping Informed

Let me get something off my chest.

For a long time now, we’ve been working hard at getting information about the Township out to residents and visitors. We have websites, email blasts, a newsletter, and a Facebook page. We send out Twitter announcements and NIXLE messages. We put up signs, publish brochures, write letters, take out ads, hang posters, insert bill stuffers, produce videos and meet with all sorts of local organizations. Not only that, we work with local newspapers and broadcasters to provide timely and practical information concerning virtually every aspect of life in Cranberry.

But just about every week, someone comes up to me with an indignant look to complain about being surprised by something we’ve actually been publicizing for weeks. “Why wasn’t I informed?” they demand to know.

Well, the answer in most cases is that they chose not to be informed. When I point out that it was in the Cranberry Eagle, they’ll say “I never read that paper; it goes straight to my recycling cart.” When I tell them it was on our website home page, they’ll reply “I don’t have time to waste on the Internet.” And when I explain that it’s something we’ve been announcing on our big-screen monitor and with posters throughout the Municipal Center, they’ll tell me “I never pay attention to those when I’m in the Municipal Center.”

Okay. Fair enough. We all have the right to choose not to pay attention to the information around us. And there really is a glut of information out there. Sometimes it seems like we’re overdosing on it. So we all need to be selective. I can even understand that someone might not want to pour over the legal ads we’re required to place in the Butler Eagle.

But part of being a citizen in a democracy means taking on the burden of informing yourself, at least in broad outline, of what’s going on. You can’t participate effectively in government at any level unless you have at least some understanding of the issues and events of the day. Ignorance may be bliss, but doesn’t make for good government. Each of us is responsible for educating ourselves about the issues that matter to us.

Cranberry’s Board of Supervisors has asked our staff to look at our communications efforts over the coming months to make sure we’re all doing what we can to provide meaningful communications with our residents and businesses. If you have any suggestions on how we can get our “stuff” to stand out better and reach people more effectively, I would welcome your thoughts. In the meantime, we will continue to work on new ways of making our information available and easy to find.

But please understand that when I look at you in bewilderment after you’ve just told me that the Township never tells people what is going on, it’s not because we didn’t try.

Ban the boroughs?

Back in April, a legislative proposal designated House Bill 2431 was introduced into Pennsylvania’s General Assembly. While its sponsors claim that their goal is to improve the efficiency of local government in the state, it is actually a radical piece of legislation which would effectively outlaw local government as we know it.

What the bill proposes is to organize local government in Pennsylvania on a county basis and give the counties jurisdiction over personnel, police, land use zoning, sanitation and other responsibilities currently managed by municipalities. Cities, townships and boroughs, to the extent that they continued to exist, would have their duties dictated from the county seat.

As a practical matter, it seems unlikely that the bill will gain much traction. After all, it would require changing the state’s constitution, and that’s a very long and difficult process. And besides, there’s no groundswell of public support for it. Perhaps its greatest significance is that it highlights the tendency of some state legislators to point the finger of blame at everyone but themselves for the Commonwealth’s largely dysfunctional and disconnected state of governance.

After all, when was the last time you had the opportunity to speak before the General Assembly or the U.S. Congress on an issue that concerned you? Or even to know exactly what they were voting on? Probably never. But just about every week of the month, somewhere in Butler County, local residents are attending their local board or council meeting to speak out about a concern or interest of theirs.

Pennsylvania’s smaller municipalities, unlike its larger cities or the state government itself, are actually doing a great job of providing services, responding to residents, and balancing their budgets. The notion that bigger units of government are more efficient is laughable. Just look at Harrisburg or Washington, where there is essentially no fiscal discipline.

The average Cranberry household pays about $680 a year in Township taxes, and in return they receive 24-hour police, fire and EMS services, maintenance of over 100 miles of local roads, world-class recreational facilities, planned community development, a first-class community library, and responsive local officials. That’s less than I pay for home cable and Internet. Yet that same average resident pays the Commonwealth about $8,000 and the U.S. Government $27,000 a year. So where am I really getting my money’s worth?

We have nothing against our good friends in Butler County government, who work hard to do their best with the tasks they’ve been assigned. And frankly, they want nothing to do with taking over the Township’s duties. Perhaps what’s really needed is to turn the bill’s proposed realignment around and hand the powers of the state over to Pennsylvania’s municipalities. At least that would put the public’s welfare into the hands of its most accountable and effective units of government.

Sic transit

You’ve probably read about the proposed route cuts and fare hikes in Port Authority’s bus service. If they happen as announced, Cranberry residents who currently commute to Pittsburgh from nearby Warrendale – which is at the outermost fringe of Port Authority’s Allegheny County service territory – would be shut out altogether starting in January. And so would a bunch of other communities.

If it sounds familiar, that’s understandable; similar deep slashes in service and fare hikes have been announced in the past, only to have some last-minute deal save most of what had been threatened with elimination. So a certain amount of route-cut threat-fatigue has begun to set in, and there is a lot of scepticism about whether this is for real or if someone’s just crying wolf.

I don’t have any special insight into how this will ultimately unfold. But I do know that there’s a huge gap in Pennsylvania’s transportation funding, which had counted on tolling I-80 to generate revenue before the feds shot that idea down. And it seems unlikely that the General Assembly will find the missing $450 million tucked away in its well-padded sofa between now and January.

Adding insult to injury, those of us who use the Turnpike frequently will now be paying some of the highest tolls in the nation. At one time, those rates were pegged at the cost of maintaining and improving the Turnpike itself. Now they’re being used to pay for transportation projects all over the state. So since state officials won’t do what’s right by distributing PennDOT’s costs fairly across the Commonwealth, we’re being forced to pay extraordinary heavy Turnpike fees to cover holes in state funding. Maybe that’s why the Feds turned down the I-80 proposal, which seemed to do the same thing in the northern part of the state.

In the meantime, Port Authority is required to give public notice of any potential rate hikes or service cuts. So what you’ve heard about proposed changes has actually been mandated by the state. And, in all fairness, Port Authority has made a number of changes over the past few years to get its house in order and Allegheny County enacted some unpopular taxes to help fund it. But if worse comes to worst, and the service stops, is there anything Cranberry can or should do about it?

For the record, Cranberry has been consistently supportive of public transit. Over the years, we have worked closely with regional agencies and Butler County agencies to introduce service to, through, and around Cranberry Township. We’ve received awards, participated in studies, made financial pledges, and received various grants in support of that effort. We still think transit will be an important part of our future. And we will continue to be advocates for it.

At the same time, like everyone else, we’ll be keeping a close eye on developments that affect transportation funding, including public transit. And we’re hoping for the best. But also like everyone else, if those cuts really do materialize, we’re preparing to endure some major travel headaches.

Rattlesnake rights

The other day a resident came up to me and asked: why are we spending all that money signalizing and adding turning lanes to the Franklin-Peters intersection?

I’m glad they asked. But first, a little background.

There have been more than two dozen serious accidents at that intersection since 2005 plus a bunch of others that were just fender-benders. And the volume of traffic there keeps increasing. It was clear that something had to be done, so this summer, we’re spending about $600,000 to install a traffic signal. We were able to bundle enough to make it happen by combining federal safety money, which is managed by the state, with Township funds. So that really is a lot of money.

And it offers a perfect snapshot of why it’s become so difficult to make public improvements anywhere. First of all, since federal money is involved, it follows a whole different set of rules from ordinary projects. There’s a sad truth behind the maxim ‘don’t make a federal case of it.’ It’s that so many additional steps and hearings and documents and studies and consultants are required to satisfy federal regulations, that progress slows to a crawl. And all of it costs money.

Planning and design costs used to represent 6 or 7 percent of the project’s total. Now they’re closer to 25 percent. In Pennsylvania, as in most of the rest of the country, we over-design roads to accommodate the most reckless and irresponsible drivers. We strip away any trees they could conceivably hit. We bulldoze hills and level bumps and engineer everything else we do to reduce the risk of liability lawsuits.

Then the federal-state wage rules kick in, so that costs become at least 15 percent higher than local projects, where the rule doesn’t apply. Inspectors need to have different certifications than for other projects, and we have to pay a premium for that. And environmental specialists have to be hired to prove, just as we had to with the Northwest Connector Project, that the road improvement won’t disturb the habitat of the elusive massasauga rattlesnake – a species which has never actually been seen in Cranberry.

And that’s not even counting the rising cost of materials – asphalt, steel, gravel, and so on.

So there’s no single smoking gun behind the high cost of public improvement projects. But the cumulative impact of all these developments has made it virtually impossible to build new things and made those which do go forward breathtakingly expensive. By giving virtual veto power to anyone or anything that might object to a project for any reason, we have allowed ourselves to fall hostage to our own democratic impulse and good intentions. And that’s why the Franklin-Peters project is so expensive.