Delmont residents form 'vision committee' to consider heritage-trail spur
When AnnaMarie Stackiewicz of Delmont and her husband are on bike trails in the region, one of their favorite parts is when a trail brings them into a town where they can look around or find a bite to eat.
They are hoping to bring about something similar when the Westmoreland Heritage Trail connects Export to Delmont.
“When you get past the Cramer plant, it’s not all that safe to get down to the trail,” Stackiewicz said. “We thought it would be nice to have a safer way to get there, and also to bring people into town.”
To that end, Stackiewicz held the first meeting of a vision committee on the advice of county parks officials.
“We got in touch with (Westmoreland County Parks planning coordinator) Jeff Richards and his advice was that we needed to have a vision before doing anything,” she said.
The initial meeting included the Stackiewiczes, Delmont librarian Denni Grassel and her husband Bill, Delmont Councilwoman Pam Simpson, and Westmoreland Conservancy board members Shelly Tichy and Rob Malley.
“We did some very preliminary things,” Stackiewicz said. “Denni said someone suggested we should try and get the Delmont Historical Society up and running again, to help with finding grants.”
Westmoreland Heritage Trail officials recently secured grant funding to study the feasibility of linking Export and Delmont via the trail.
The trail is accessible from Delmont near the intersection of Lauffer Mine Road and Athena Drive “but we’re looking more along the lines of developing a small spur that would make it more accessible for people coming from Delmont,” Stackiewicz said. “Obviously, we’ll work with the (heritage trail officials), but I don’t know that something like a spur is part of their vision, so we’ll have to do some fundraising and find some money.”
The committee’s next meeting will be at 7 p.m. April 3 in the Delmont Public Library at 77 Greensburg St.
“We’re going to get more organized, assign tasks to specific members and decide when and how often we’re going to have meetings,” Stackiewicz said.
Patrick Varine is a TribLive reporter covering Delmont, Export and Murrysville. He is a Western Pennsylvania native and joined the Trib in 2010 after working as a reporter and editor with the former Dover Post Co. in Delaware. He can be reached at pvarine@triblive.com.
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