rentwood

CITY BRIEFLY OF MCKEESPORT BRENTWOOD NEWS

I believe I came across this quote while enjoying my delicious General Tso ’ s chicken from the China Wok or it could have been Wang ’ s Kitchen , anyway , I though it was appropriate for this article . Although Confucius died over 2,500 years ago his words still ring true to this day . Planning is the keystone to achieving your goals . Planning is not limited to individuals , in fact planning becomes essential as more and more people are brought together . A community needs strong planning in order to continue its growth . As many of you know the borough has recently completed substantial improvements to its parks system , stadium , sidewalks , and roadways . We hope the citizens of Brentwood utilize these tremendous resources now afforded to them by these renovations . However these enhancements to our existing infrastructure come with costs . It is now more important than ever to continue comprehensive and diligent planning for our community ’ s future . With these things in mind the Borough Council has authorized the completion of a strategic plan that will address the development goals of our community for the foreseeable future . Many of you may recall filling out a survey in late 2016 regarding strategic goal setting for the Borough Council . These surveys have been analyzed and included into the forthcoming strategic plan . The Council and Borough administration have been busy meeting with citizens , local businesses , community leaders , and outside investors to formulate this plan . Drafting a plan that benefits all citizens of Brentwood is imperative .

The next step in this process is the creation of a Ten Year Capital Improvement Plan ( CIP ). This CIP enables the Borough to spread out capital purchases from different departments over ten years . By creating this CIP , the Borough can see

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what costs it will incur in the future and address them accordingly . This enables the Borough to keep the tax burden of the citizens of Brentwood low , and allows the administration to search for alternative sources of revenue for these future projects . If we know a few years in advance that we are going to need , say a new chipper for the Department of Public Works , Borough staff can possibly look for grants that will pay for or help subsidize such expenses . This also eliminates the “ surprise ” expenses of items that “ break down all of a sudden ” thus giving the Borough little options to shop around for the best prices and savings . The Borough has proven success with a similar CIP when they adopted the 5-Year Street Rehabilitation and Maintenance Plan ( Street Map ). This outlined the streets and estimated costs for 5-Years . Eliminated was the “ guessing ” and “ wondering ” when your street was going to be paved . If it is on the 5-year schedule , you would know what year and thus you too could plan accordingly . The Street Map Plan not only realized the Borough a lot of savings , but we found we were also able to add some additional streets each year as in-house engineering saved the Borough enough to add these additional streets . In addition , we are able to send out the 5-year plan of streets to the utilities so they know when the Borough is scheduled to repave a street where one of their older utilities is scheduled to be replaced and thus move up said replacement to coincide with the Borough ’ s project therefore eliminating the “ tearing up ” of recently paved streets . The 10-Year CIP will be a large undertaking and you may be wondering how will the Borough with its limited resources and overworked employees accomplish this undertaking ? The Borough was successful in obtaining a grant given by the Local

Government Academy to hire an intern to complete this crucial step of the process . The Borough has hired Stephen Berry , a senior studying economics and political science at the University of Pittsburgh to work on this project . Mr . Berry is looking forward to devoting his summer to helping our community take a tremendous step towards further growth and success .

In summary the Borough has continued to move in a positive direction with the recent improvements to infrastructure , including the completion of the renovations to the stadium and the parks system , the passing of a 5 year sidewalk restoration plan , and a 5 year street rehabilitation and maintenance plan . The time has now come to the take the next step as a community and create a strategic plan tied to a 10-Year CIP that continues and accelerates this growth and success , while following the desires of its citizenry . The Borough Council and Borough Manager have been busy meeting with local businesses , community leaders , outside investors , and most importantly the citizens of Brentwood to create this plan . As I have said in the past if we do not invest in the future of Brentwood , who will ? I believe the creation of this plan will allow Brentwood to exceed all expectations and continue down this pathway of success while maintaining our strong sense of community . Have a great Summer !!!!

George Zboyovsky , PE Borough Manager