Since my last post, my sustainability capstone group and I returned to Fayette County twice. The first visit was a follow-up site visit to collect additional information on Uniontown since we narrowed down our focus and the second visit was our final presentations. On October 25th our group returned to Uniontown where we met with members of the government and leadership within Uniontown. During this site visit we led the group in two different activities. The first was a challenge and needs discovery process where we asked attendees to list weaknesses, needs, and wants or wish list items for all departments present. The wish list and want items generally revolved around alleviating these weaknesses and needs. Common needs and weaknesses identified across all of the departments included staff capacity, administration/organization, and technology capabilities. Wants and wish list items that were expressed across most if not all departments included additional funding, technology improvements, and increased surveillance. After everyone listed these needs and wants items, we handed out color stickers for attendees to use in two different activities. We asked attendees to use the six blue stickers to denote which of the weaknesses, needs, wants, and wish list items listed they deemed to be the highest priority. The participants could cast a vote for any of the items discussed in any department. The departments that received the most votes on the items were the City Council and Parks and Recreation.
In our second activity we asked everyone to categorize how typical government departments function in terms of the Uniontown government. Our group compiled a list of departments present in Canonsburg which is a government of similar size and classification in Pennsylvania. We provided attendees with red, yellow, and green stickers where the red stickers were used to indicate a department that needs improvement, yellow is staying afloat, and green denotes functioning well in Uniontown. The departments that received the largest number of green stickers are the fire and police departments. There were three departments/boards that received all red stickers. These departments include zoning, the planning commission, and the municipal authority. In Uniontown, the zoning is handled by a third-party contractor who works with the planning commission. The planning commission is currently understaffed. When discussing the municipal authority in terms of Uniontown, this is primarily focusing on the city’s downtown business district.
This site visit was our key method of obtaining data and valuable insight from the members of Uniontown. We used the mentioned activities as a way to obtain community centered and interactive feedback for our project. Using this form of information allows us to promote community engaged work while ensuring we are using representative information
Project Deliverables
Based on the information we gathered during our October 25th site visit, numerous meetings with Uniontown leadership, and a great deal of research our group developed three main deliverables. The deliverables include a gap analysis, an organizational chart, and the development of capstone/internship programs. Along with these deliverables we will be passing along all of the research we conducted this semester to future groups. This includes weekly updates, interview contacts and notes, recordings of interviews, site visit notes, photos, and relevant articles.
Gap Analysis from October 25th Site Visit: Our gap analysis is a compilation of the information we gathered during our October 25th site visit. It highlights the weaknesses, needs, wants, and wish list items that were discussed by attendees. We chose to break down the information into two different formats within the department headings. The first ranks the items based on the number of priority votes they received. The second sorted the items based on common themes so that each department was assigned about 2 or 3 common themes.
Uniontown Government Organizational Chart: One of the priorities we learned about during our first visit to Uniontown was the need for an organizational chart (“org chart”). The development of this would play a key role in helping Uniontown progress their approval and implementation of the Strategic Management Planning Program (STMP) funding as well as provide an easier way to determine what government positions Uniontown needs. We performed detailed research online as well as interviewed Crystal Simmons, the Executive Director of the Redevelopment Authority for the City of Uniontown, to refine our org chart. This deliverable allows people to see how all the Uniontown government staff connect, as well as what gaps exist in the various departments. Regarding these gaps, in addition to an org chart illustrating Uniontown City Hall’s current configuration, we also created a separate org chart that included the desired positions city representatives expressed on October 25th.
Internship/Future Group Preparation: Our group is working to create a project for next semester’s capstone. This project will be focused on blight remediation. The city currently does not have a blight remediation plan to address the residential blight in their community. This project will include helping Uniontown develop this plan by assisting in site assessments. There are roughly 4,000 residential properties in Uniontown that must be surveyed to determine the severity and extent of the city’s residential blight. Students will receive training on how to use iWorQ. Then, they will visit some of these residential sites and take pictures of the properties. After this initial site visit is complete, students will be able to log into iWorQ back at Pitt and complete the property assessments. The consultants Uniontown hired to create the city’s blight remediation plan will use this data.
Another internship we are pursuing regards business development. An intern in this position would assist Uniontown’s Redevelopment Authority as they utilize funding from the Pennsylvania Main Street Matters program to create a city plan that encourages economic development through business resource identification and creation. This will be a paid or credit-based internship for Pitt business students that will take place in Summer and/or Fall of 2025.
December 5, 2024 – Final Presentations
On December 5, 2024, the student cohort from the Appalachia Regional Commission’s (ARC) Appalachia Collegiate Research Initiative (ACRI) at Pitt gave our final presentation. My group, the sustainability capstone, had two presentations on December 5th. The first was at the Uniontown City Hall followed by the ARC ACRI cohort presentation at the Connellsville Canteen. Our group decided it would be best for us to hold two presentations to allow us to effectively present our findings to the Uniontown government. We wanted to ensure that we visited them for the presentation because the foundation of our project was that the members of the government were stretched thin. By going to Uniontown to hold our presentation we were able to accommodate their schedules as best we could.
Our presentation in Uniontown was presented to members and leaders of the Uniontown government. Members that attended spanned the following departments and boards within Uniontown:
- Redevelopment Authority
- Police
- Code Enforcement
- Parks & Recreation
- City Council Members & Mayor
Some of the members that attended on December 5th were also present for our site visit on October 25th. It was gratifying to be able to present our findings to the people who provided us with so much information. Our group presented a gap analysis based on information gathered on October 25th as well as an organization chart for the City of Uniontown government. Our gap analysis outlined the needs, weakness, wants, and wish list items discussed divided by priority and by theme. The organization chart was broken into two types; the first was the current state of the government positions and the second was an “ideal” chart that included changes in structure as well as additional positions. All of this information was gathered with the help of Uniontown leadership. After presenting this information to members of Uniontown, we held a discussion with the attendees where we got additional input on our findings and were able to learn more about the city. One of the key takeaways from this discussion were the answers to our question of what the University of Pittsburgh and returning student groups can do to help Uniontown. Various attendees explained that something that could be impactful for Uniontown is a database of information on other cities, municipalities, and counties of similar size and classification that includes information on contacts. They explained that this type of information would make it a lot easier for them to troubleshoot problems and get assistance if they ran into an issue. It can also give them additional ideas for projects around the city and information on potential grants available.
The second presentation was at the Connellsville Canteen with the rest of the 2024 cohort. Our final presentation consisted of an overview from each of the student groups. There are four student groups that make up the ARC ACRI cohort at Pitt including urban studies, sustainability, business, and political science. This was our opportunity to present the work we have been doing all semester to the project stakeholders as well as members of Fayette County. Being able to present the research we have been working on for so long and have put so much work into was very rewarding. Being able to hear about the research and projects completed throughout the semester that are all aiding the same effort put the project into more perspective, especially since we presented it to the community directly.
I am having somewhat mixed feelings about it all being over. While I am relieved to have the work done, I will miss doing work that has such an impact next semester and will miss working alongside so many wonderful people. This project has taught me so much on working within groups of people with a wide variety of backgrounds, researching within a community I am not a member of, and patience. The work we did on this project was not something I was particularly familiar with prior to this semester as most projects I have worked on were engineering and technical focuses. With this project I have become more confident in myself to approach tasks that I am not familiar with and in my ability to do them well. All of the time and effort put into this project was well spent even when it was put into topics that didn’t end up to be our final focus. To put it simply, this project has required a lot of patience and quick adaptation to new topics. Our group has cycled through quite a few topic ideas before landing on our final deliverables, but handling the challenges as they came allowed me to grow. I am incredible grateful for the opportunity to work on this project and to have had the chance to meet so many hardworking people.