McKeesport officials said Tuesday they're not forgetting about downtown.
City administrators and members of council joined the McKeesport Downtown Business Authority for an hour-long forum at the Palisades.
“Our main goal is keeping businesses in town,” authority secretary Shawn Potts said.
“We're also trying to start an association ... for people who own businesses here in the city of McKeesport,” authority chair and city Councilwoman V. Fawn Walker-Montgomery said.
There were approximately 30 people there, including representatives of at least six downtown businesses.
“We've got to get more people into town,” Progressive Music owner and manager Lorry A. Yednak said.
He said he would like to expand upon the city's annual Good Neighbor Day, which will be held for the 52nd time Thursday.
“Why not a flea market on Saturdays?” Yednak asked. “Or deejays on Thursday nights? It would not cost anyone anything.”
Potts said he is seeking sponsors for a car show.
Diane Natale of Natale's Sporting Goods expressed concern about the empty buildings downtown, such as the one next door to her business.
“Is there any way that they can be required to at least keep them presentable?” she asked.
Mayor Michael Cherepko and Community Development Director A.J. Tedesco suggested that ways could be found to set higher standards for empty buildings, such as that and the Peoples Building, whose ground-floor windows have been boarded, a block away from Natale's.
“Even if the building is vacant, I'd want to see glass on the windows,” the mayor said.
While there is security inside the building on a regular basis, the only use for the Peoples Building these days is as a location for cellphone towers.
“They're generating revenue,” the mayor said of building owners Lin and Lily Lum of Brooklyn, N.Y.
When the couple bought the building in 2008, Lin Lum said, “It's a good location to run a business. We want to rent the space.”
Authority vice chairman Corry Sanders said owners of car lots along Lysle Boulevard asked him to mention a problem they are having with intruders rifling cars, taking hubcaps and siphoning gas.
“Unfortunately, none of (the lot owners) came (to Tuesday's meeting),” Sanders said.
Cherepko and Tedesco answered questions about an economic generator, low-interest loans through the enterprise zone covering McKeesport, Duquesne and Clairton.
The mayor said Bridgeway Capital of Pittsburgh is working with the city to provide financing for those seeking to purchase new businesses.
In answer to a question from Councilman Keith Soles, Tedesco said loans could be matched up to $150,000.
Juan Garrett, executive director of Riverside Center for Innovation, said applications will be taken through July 31 for an enterprise-zone tax credit.
“Any company that is looking to do any kind of expansion can apply for these tax credits,” Garrett said.
Other information on Riverside programs is available at riversidecenterforinnovation.com.
Garrett is involved in a partnership with the authority for Regional Initiative to Promote Entrepreneurship, which is planning another upcoming round of classes about starting a business, similar to those held this year.
Cherepko summed up economic developments across the city, including Versailles Avenue, East Fifth Avenue and Walnut Street.
He mentioned downtown developments such as Eat'n Park's expansion and a Dollar General in the former Kentucky Fried Chicken location.
He looked across the railroad tracks to Duquesne Light's $8 million service center, which opened in August to replace a facility in the Tenth Ward.
Cherepko recalled that, at the flyover ramp's dedication, utility officials said it was a deciding factor.
The ramp carries Coursin Street over CSX tracks.
“It is not, as some would say, a bridge to nowhere,” Cherepko said about the ramp into the still largely vacant Regional Industrial Development Corp. Riverplace Industrial Center of McKeesport. “If that ramp wasn't there, Duquesne Light would not have moved there.”
In attendance was Terrence Denne, a digital sales executive for YP Marketing Solutions, part of the YP family that includes the Yellow Pages print directories and yp.com.
Patrick Cloonan is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-664-9161 ext. 1967, or pcloonan@tribweb.com.
