Mercer Co. officials back 2 projects

SPECIAL TO THE VINDICATOR

MERCER, Pa. — Mercer County commissioners agreed at their work session Wednesday to send letters of support for two projects designed to spur economic development in the region, an interstate highway designation for Pa. Route 60 and for grant funding for a Greenville-area business park.

They agreed to a request by Ken Zapinski, senior vice president of Transportation Infrastructure for the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, to support designating Pa. Route 60 as an interstate highway from Pittsburgh all the way to Interstate 80 in Mercer County.

Zapinski said in a July 11 letter that the conference believes that the designation would help attract companies looking to invest, relocate or expand in Pennsylvania.

A highway can receive an interstate highway designation if it meets lane width, shoulder grading and overpass clearance standards set by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. AASHTO is a nonprofit, nonpartisan association of transportation and highway officials.

Commissioners also agreed to support a $1.2 million grant application to the Federal Economic Development Administration for extension of waterlines and sewer lines and construction of an access road in the Reynolds East Business Park Phase II.

Bradley Gosser, executive director of the Greenville-Reynolds Development Corporation, an applicant for the grant, asked for the support.