Donora, Charleroi move closer to cooperative project

By KRISTIE LINDEN

klinden@yourmvi.com

This week, Donora Council discussed its desire to work out an intergovernmental agreement with Charleroi that would, in part, use Donora workers and equipment to bring down blighted Charleroi buildings.

Charleroi Councilwoman Jeannine Motycki sat in on Donora’s work session Thursday to talk about what Donora might want from Charleroi in return for the use of Donora’s street department crew and the equipment it uses to demolish buildings.

Motycki said Charleroi council thinks the trade could be as simple as whenever the Donora crew leaves to demo a building in Charleroi, the Charleroi crew would go to Donora to do the work that would get done that day if the demolition weren’t happening.

Motycki said they aren’t thinking of it as Donora helping Charleroi, but as Donora and Charleroi helping each other.

Steve Toprani is solicitor for both boroughs. In March, Donora council gave permission for Toprani to reach out about working as the go-between to get an agreement finished.

During the work session, Toprani and Motycki mentioned a few times they just wanted to know what “Donora would seek in return” for the demolition work.

Mayor Jim McDonough kept asking Toprani what needed to be done right now to get the agreement done. Toprani would answer that three things would be great — getting council to figure out what they want in return for the street crew performing demo work, having the foremen of both street crews meet with each other to discuss the work and having a couple members of each council meet as a committee to hammer out the legalities so the agreement could be formed and Toprani could write it.

To read the rest of the story, please see a copy of Friday’s Mon Valley Independent, call 724-314-0035 to subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at http://monvalleyindependent.com.