Extra money going toward Monroeville road resurfacing

Monroeville’s road resurfacing program stands to receive a financial boost.

Council members have agreed to raise the allocation by $500,000, for a total of $2 million this year, toward improving municipally maintained driving surfaces.

“We have 110 miles of roads and 34 parking lots, which convert into about seven miles equivalency,” Paul Hugus, director of public works and engineering, said during council’s Feb. 7 agenda-setting meeting. “And we’re still behind the curve from past years.”

His department’s objective is for a street to last 15 years before undergoing milling and paving, an asphalt-replacement process that cost $310,000 per mile in 2022, according to Hugus.

“Sometimes it happens. Sometimes it doesn’t,” he said. “It depends if it’s a highly traveled road or a smaller road. But it balances out in the end most of the time.”

Between milling and paving, the department provides maintenance with less-expensive processes such as applying asphalt emulsion, sealing cracks and repairing patches.

Roads are given priority for degree of repair through a Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating system, using visual inspections to evaluate surface conditions and assigning numbers based on relative deterioration.

“Our road preservation program, we’ve shared with a lot of different municipalities,” Hugus said. “And it’s become one of the standards out there, how we approach the whole program.”

In other council business on Feb. 7:

• During the Citizens’ Night portion of the meeting, Cavitt Road resident Glenn Schlereth presented a petition signed by residents of his neighborhood, just to the south of Route 22 near the Murrysville line and including homes on Asbury Court.

“We want the zoning that is currently assigned to our area, which is R-2, to remain R-2, and not to consider possibly changing the zoning law to include any type of commercial type of structure built and operated,” Schlereth said.

Monroeville officials are working on updated the municipal zoning ordinance. But according to Paul Whealdon, community planner and zoning officer, no changes are forthcoming for the area described by Schlereth.

“We had a concern, and we just wanted to address it up front,” he said.

Close to the neighborhood is the Murrysville Shops complex and other businesses along Route 22.

At their regular monthly meeting on Feb. 14, council members plan to vote on authorizing the advertisement of a public hearing for the revised zoning ordinance, which may be scheduled for April. Whealdon said that the document has been submitted to Allegheny County officials, who have 45 days to review it before the hearing can take place.

• Council announced plans to vote Feb. 14 on entering into an agreement with consulting firm Public Partners to conduct a municipal manager search.

Tim Little, who first was hired as manager in 2010, said he plans to retire at the end of the year.

He has 33 years in municipal management, serving in that capacity for Baldwin Borough prior to joining Monroeville’s administration, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh, along with his membership in the Rotary Club of Monroeville.

• A discussion focused on an ordinance, which council tabled in January, that would prohibit the feeding of wild animals.

“If council is going to consider this, I would recommend is we remove the feral cat language,” Mayor Nick Gresock said. “That wasn’t the original intent of the ordinance, and some of the comments that we got regarding feral cats, that there could be some better ways to deal with them.”

Last month, he said that the impetus for the ordinance involved a coyote attack on a pet dog.