McKinley Avenue in downtown Vandergrift is reaching the final stage of a makeover that started last year.
The McKinley Avenue Improvement Project will boost mobility, access to local businesses and neighborhood beautification, said Aleesha Kelly, a resident who helps nonprofits with improvement projects.
Kelly led the McKinley Avenue effort, which included adding curb cuts, or sloped parts of the sidewalk, to help people in wheelchairs, pushing strollers or who have trouble stepping up onto a curb.
“This project is about more than fixing a street,” Kelly said. “It’s about creating a space that people naturally move through, gather in and connect with. When accessibility and design are treated as priorities, even a single corridor can reshape how a community experiences its downtown.”
The street connects Washington and Grant avenues in the borough’s downtown business corridor.
It was repaved last year by the borough, which helped Kelly get the $30,000 grant for the rest of the improvements, she said.
The grant was awarded by the Community Foundation of Westmoreland County.
A bench, a trash can and directional signage were installed as part of the project’s beautification effort.
Now that spring weather has broken, the street’s new diagonal crosswalk will be painted by a muralist, and a gateway arch will be installed soon.
The mural’s design, which will include depictions of the steel industry and of wildflowers, was chosen by the community through an online poll, Kelly said. The design is a nod to Vandergrift’s history as a steel town.
McKinley Avenue is blocks away from McMurtry Towers, a senior citizens housing complex.
With that proximity in mind, Kelly said, it was crucial for her that the project increased access and mobility for residents.
“I went in (McMurtry Towers) for a couple of meetings, and I came out in tears once or twice because of the mobility issues they have. People that can just run from one place to another don’t even think about it, and these people can’t even get to the dollar store,” Kelly said. “(I wanted) to make sure we’re doing it with people being able to navigate the town in mind.”
In small towns, small improvements add up over time, Kelly said.
“Once you can move around a town more freely, you can feel more comfortable in it,” she said. “You stay longer, you visit more places.”
