Faces of the Valley: Leechburg’s Doreen Smeal is on a mission to make the town the most it can be

Doreen Smeal could have used all the free time she had after retiring four years ago to do the things she put off while commuting daily for 39 years to her banking job in Pittsburgh.

And while the Leechburg native carves out time to spend with her grandchildren and pursue other interests, retirement has mostly been a chance to do more for the town she loves.

“I enjoyed my job, but I haven’t looked back since I left,” said Smeal, 68, who lives in the house her grandfather owned along Canal Street. “I’ve always felt a need to give back to the community and had done some things in the past while I was still working. But it wasn’t until I retired that I was able to really get more involved.”

Smeal serves as president of the Leechburg Community Association and is treasurer of the Leechburg Public Library.

Even before retiring, Smeal felt called to public service when a friend told her about an opening on the board of directors for a women’s shelter in Kittanning called Helping All Victims In Need, or HAVIN.

“That organization has done so much to help women in need,” she said. “They are very dear to my heart.”

Smeal also has been active in social ministry and the vacation Bible school program at First Lutheran Church in Leechburg for a number of years.

As a member of the library board, Smeal was instrumental in keeping the facility from shutting down after it could no longer be housed inside Leechburg Middle/Senior High School.

“The community was in an uproar when they learned that the library was closing after 100 years,” she said. “So we worked to keep it open until we found a storefront on Market Street and moved it there.”

Smeal said the Community Association’s primary mission is to support the local business community.

“We’re very fortunate here in Leechburg that nearly all of our storefronts are occupied,” she said. “But it’s important that we do things to support our businesses, like activities that bring people into town.

“That’s what’s going to keep this town alive. And it’s one of the things you need if you want young people to settle down here instead of moving away after graduation,” she said.

One of the ways the Community Association is promoting local businesses is a recently launched program called Mingle on Market, which features a farmers market, food, live music and sidewalk sales at local shops.

“Mingle on Market is such a nice way for people to get out and meet up with their neighbors, enjoy the food and music and shop at the local stores,” she said. “It was a nice surprise that more than 100 people turned out for our first Mingle in June. Then we did a second one in July and the turnout doubled.”

The community association also has been involved in fundraising to buy flowers to fill planters along Main and Market streets along with recruiting volunteers from the high school for cleanup projects.

The association also has sponsored home decorating contests at Christmas and a “scarecrow contest” among local businesses at Halloween.

“The businesses that participated in the scarecrow competition really got into it,” she said. “We gave out ribbons for the best ones, and people were genuinely appreciative that the effort they put into it was recognized.”

Smeal said the Association is always on the hunt for new initiatives to help bolster the business community. But there is a project she got involved with in the past that she would like to resurrect to help reduce the cost of opening a business.

Dubbed the Leechburg Investment Program, Smeal said a group of investors pooled their resources to create a business that was then sold to an entrepreneur.

“The Coco Coffeehouse on Market Street exists as result of that program,” Smeal said. “We don’t have many empty storefronts here, but I think it’s good to be able to have a way to help someone who wants to open a business but doesn’t have all the resources needed to do it.”

Nikki Saxion, who owns the coffee shop, said having a dedicated group of volunteers such as Smeal and the other members of the Community Association is helping the business district with projects such as Mingle on Market.

“We aren’t open in the evenings, so it’s great to be able to stay open when there are a lot of people in town who may never have come in — or maybe don’t even know we’re here,” she said.

Seeing the efforts of volunteers materialize into positive results for the community serves as inspiration to forge ahead, Smeal said.

“The Community Association would like to do a lot more stuff to help beautify the town, especially in the area of Riverfront Park,” she said.

Living in the community her entire life has allowed Smeal to observe the changes that have occurred over the decades.

“Things started to go downhill in the past when industry left and people started moving out of town,” she said. “But we’ve been seeing some big changes. Younger families are moving in, and people are fixing up their homes. There seems to be a growing sense of community pride, which is such a positive sign.”

Smeal said the growing appeal of water recreation, such as kayaking and canoeing, along with interest in the region’s hiking trails is benefiting the community.

“We have the Kiskiminetas River and the hiking and biking trails right here,” she said. “People are realizing that homes are still affordable here and that the commute to Pittsburgh is really not that bad. On top of that, they can live close to the things they really enjoy doing.”