PENNSYLVANIA Hart rearranges district offices

Satellite offices will be set up throughout the district at least one day a month.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- There will be some shuffling in the next few weeks of U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart's district offices.
Brendan Brenner, Hart's spokesman, said plans call for consolidating the New Castle and Beaver offices into one in Ellwood City.
Hart, a Republican from Bradford Woods, is starting her second term in office.
The move is intended to better cover her newly aligned district, which includes Mercer, Lawrence, Beaver, Butler, Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, Brenner said.
The Ellwood City office will serve Lawrence, Mercer and Beaver counties and should be open by Dec. 18.
Another new office on the Pa. Route 8 corridor in Allegheny County will replace Hart's Cranberry and New Kensington offices and represent the rest of the district. That move is expected in late January, Brenner said.
Exact locations for both new offices have not been determined. Brenner said the Ellwood City office will be in the Lawrence County section of the borough.
More staffing
Hart expects to save about $10,000 annually by consolidating offices, Brenner said.
The money will be used to add more staff. There will be four full-time staff people in Ellwood City once it opens. Currently, there is one staff person in New Castle and two in Beaver.
They expect to have five people in the Allegheny County office, he added.
The changes will mean that one person will always be in each office during regular business hours. There are times when New Castle and New Kensington are closed because Hart's representative is out helping constituents, Brenner said.
He said they intend to set up satellite offices at least one day a month in other parts of the district. One satellite office will be in Mercer County and likely be set up in a municipal building, he said.
"The main goal is to offer the most efficient services we can provide," he said.
Brenner said the congresswoman has found in her first two years that most constituents contact the office by telephone or e-mail and only a few visited the offices for help.