Comedy fundraiser to benefit Westmoreland Heritage Trail, nearing 5th phase

As Westmoreland Heritage Trail officials begin prep work for the trail’s fifth phase, they are also gearing up for an annual fundraiser to offset the cost of trail maintenance.

This year’s Comedy Night will be from 6 to 10 p.m. Feb. 15 at Colton Hall in Penn Township’s Claridge neighborhood. Tickets for the stand-up comedy show are $30 and include dinner.

“It produces something in the neighborhood of $6,000 or $7,000, and that goes directly toward caring for the trail,” said Westmoreland County Parks & Recreation Director Malcolm Sias.

A few thousand for trail maintenance, however, is likely to be a drop in the bucket when it comes to the big hurdle in the trail’s fifth phase: crossing Route 66.

“That will depend largely on where we cross,” Sias said. “If we can put the pieces together to cross where the old rail line was, I think the ideal thing would be to dig under.”

Once trail officials find a path to continue northeast out of Export, Sias said there is “some rail corridor we’d like to use.”

It will take roughly 4 miles of trail to link existing trail heads in Export and Delmont, which would create a continuous trail from B-Y Park in Trafford to Saltsburg in Indiana County.

Sias said trail officials have secured a grant from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to conduct a feasibility study evaluating options for the fifth phase, which “would be the final phase, if we do it all at once,” Sias said.

“We’re forming a steering committee, which should be happening in the next couple months,” he said. “In the meantime, we’re working on some (property) acquisitions to get a few of the key pieces that are available.

The trail’s fourth phase opened this past August, connecting the Roberts Trail Access off William Penn Highway in Murrysville to the restored Turtle Creek Valley Railroad caboose on display in downtown Export.

In the spring of 2019, members of the Delmont Visionary Committee worked with a group of Indiana University of Pennsylvania students to evaluate potential routes the fifth phase may follow.

The recommended option was a route that comes into town along Church Street, before veering back north along Freeport Street, crossing Route 66 and passing through the Westmoreland Conservancy’s Morosini Nature Reserve. It follows Turtle Creek briefly and runs parallel to Old William Penn Highway before a few quick north-south detours as it heads into downtown Export. It also provides for the possibility of a trail spur along Greensburg Street, something visionary committee members hope to bring to Delmont.

While those efforts are not directly related to the feasibility study Sias plans to undertake, it could certainly serve as a tool in the toolbox as trail officials head into perhaps the most challenging section of the project.

“Because of crossing Route 66, it probably will be the most costly,” Sias said.