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