16851_Authority_Aug_2023

40 The Authority | AUGUST 2023 been invaluable with a small staff and finite resources. Our board members and the county commissioners are knowledgeable about what we do, how we do it, and why. Each member of our staff has a deep understanding of the importance of their individual roles within the organization, while always being focused on working as a team; they are invested and care deeply about our mission, and with that dedication, we’re able to accom- plish really big things in the County, even in the region." The RA/LB aligning their operations and mission to eliminate blight in Westmoreland County is not the only factor they attribute to their success. As Hallie Chatfield, Senior Project Manager explained, “Like a lot of post-industrial areas, the combination of population and socioeconomic decline has led to pockets of blight all throughout the County, with proper- ties sitting vacant, abandoned, and deteriorating for years - sometimes decades - without intervention. The cost for either demolishing or rehab- bing these properties across West- moreland County is more than the resources available to communities or any one organization.” The RA/LB works hard to address this funding gap - in addition to managing and overseeing all of the demolition, envi- ronmental, and historical preservation projects within the RA/LB, Chatfield spends extensive time researching and applying for grants that can help the agencies complete their work. Ad- ditionally, in July of 2022, the County Commissioners, in recognition of the extensive need for blight remediation within the County, allocated $10.4 million dollars from the County’s American Rescue Plan Act funding. This funding is unprecedented in the history of these organizations and will allow them to change the face of the county they serve. It also necessitat- ed additional manpower - in March 2023, the RA/LB added Navy veteran Chad McLaren to its team as a Project Manager to help Chatfield manage the many new projects that the organ- izations would be taking on in the coming months and years. Also integral to the success of the RA/ LB is their focus on planning. In 2021, the organizations spent the sum- mer months working on its five-year Strategic Plan, which describes the six strategic objectives the RA/LB aims to achieve in order to maximize their efficiency and impact, identifies the gaps that currently exist in meeting those objectives, and the steps the organization intends to take (or is taking!) to close those gaps. Among many other initiatives, this plan identified a need for external com- munications and education. “It was very clear to everyone involved that too many of the people working with us to revitalize their communities weren’t completely aware of everything that the RA/LB does to remediate blight, and how their communities could benefit from us,” said Lawrence. “This revelation led us directly to the idea of an Annual Summit to provide our neighborhoods and the entire region with education and support for working with us to remediate blight in their communi- ties.” Lawrence continued, “However, at the time, we were a small staff of four - we didn’t have the capacity to successfully create and implement a County-wide educational initiative while trying to plan an event on this scale.” In October 2021, the RA/LB hired a full-time communications manager whose first major task was bringing the organization’s Annual Summit to life. On April 22, 2022, the Westmoreland County Redevelopment Authority and Land Bank’s First Annual Blight Reme- diation Summit was immediately met with excitement for the first-of-its- kind event in Westmoreland County. “Relevant corporate and nonprofit organizations purchased vendor space to explain how their services can help communities in our region. Local and regional speakers led participants in informative and interactive sessions on the basics of blight,” Lawrence ex- plained. “Local media took an interest, with several reporting on the event; more attendees came than expected, and most expressed interest in attend- ing a similar event the following year - we were clearly meeting a need with this Summit, so it was a no-brainer to make it an annual event.” Continued from page 15.