Board Chooses New Ward 2 Commissioner
The commissioners voted for who will finish Mark Hamilton's term in office.
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Upper St. Clair commissioners appointed Donald Rectenwald Monday night to fill the Ward 2 vacancy.
The vote was 6-0. Commissioner Nick Seitanakis participated in the meeting by phone.
"We were pleasantly surprised we had seven very good candidates. They only problem is we can only pick one," President Bob Orchowski said. "It was a very tough decision."
Rectenwald is a 20-year resident of Upper St. Clair and president of Rex Glass & Mirror Company. He spent seven years on the Upper St. Clair Parks and Recreation Board and played a big part in the planning of Boyce Mayview Park.
During his interview on Jan. 21, Rectenwald said he is not against the development of the former Consol Energy headquarters site on the corner of Washington and Fort Couch Roads.
(Click here for the latest article on the former Consol development.)
"It's pretty obvious the northern end (of Upper St. Clair) is a commercial area," Rectenwald said. "I live across from a major shopping mall."
He also said he likes the current plan for a residential area within the development instead of it just being a large commercial development.
However, Rectenwald is concerned about the increase in traffic it could cause and is interested in working with the traffic engineer to find ways to ease congestion.
Rectenwald added that he is not against the development of Bedner's Farm, but would like to protect Route 19 and not have commercial development in southern Upper St. Clair.
Rectenwald told commissioners they would find him to be even-tempered and a listener who takes all points of view into account.
Rectenwald will serve the rest of Mark Hamilton's term, which ends in December 2013.
Hamilton resigned from his position at the start of the year.
Upper St. Clair Athletic Association Presents Check
Joe Krolcyzk, of the Upper St. Clair Athletic Association, presented the commissioners with a check for more than $19,000 on Monday night.
The money will be used to offset township costs to maintain the sport facilities.
What is your take on the commissioners' decision to appoint Donald Rectenwald as Ward 2 commissioner? Tell us in the comments.
In This article
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Upper St. Clair Municipal Building
1820 McLaughlin Run Rd, Upper St Clair, PA -
REX Glass & Mirror Company, Inc.
2903 Washington Rd, McMurray, PA -
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South Hills Village
301 S Hills Vlg, Pittsburgh, PA
Becky Brindle
2:23 pm on Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Update: Rectenwald will be sworn in as commissioner by district Judge Wyda on Wednesday.
Mike
9:54 am on Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Of course Rectenwald is in favor of Consol development, he would not have been chosen if he wasn't. It is all a bunch of political BS. He represents a ward where the overwhelming majority of the residents are against the development. Has anyone been paying attention to the plight of big box stores these days? The developer said he had Best Buy interested in moving to the site, that Best Buy is a strong viable tenenat that could offer great tax benefit to the community. Best Buy is currently trying to refinance their debt and could be filing for bankrupcy protection. There are many resident who live in the "northern end" of the community, we look at it as the nicest part of the community to live in. The commercial development can stay to the north and east of Rt 19.