The Greene County Commissioners’ Board Meeting was convened this past Thursday, Nov. 17, in the First Floor Meeting Room at the Greene County Office Building.

Phase Three of the Greene County Broadband Service Expansion Project is making headway. The CNX Foundation donated $1,000,000 for the project, which has an 18-month to 2-year installation period for 31 miles of fiberoptic cable.

“Of all the projects that we have either underway, completed, or forecasted, with this $1,000,000 investment, we targeted areas that were not going to be served,” Belding said.

A ribbon cutting is taking place at 3 p.m. on Dec. 6 at the EQT REC Center in Waynesburg.

This was the only scheduled meeting for November. The previous meeting for Commissioners Betsy McClure, Mike Belding and Blair Zimmerman occurred nearly a month prior on Oct. 20. Every topic was unanimously voted.

Two proclamations were approved to begin the meeting. November was designated as National Adoption Month, and Nov. 8 was officially recognized as National Parents as Teachers Day.

Representatives were invited to speak about these initiatives and take pictures with the commissioners.

“Parenting has gotten to be pretty challenging in a lot of arenas, whether it’s drug abuse or mental illness,” Belding said. “Those kids have an opportunity to have a more normal life, loving parents [and] adequate housing.”

The Greene County Airport may be getting some improvements in the near future. A letter was approved to request multimodal transportation funds in the amount of $1,133,613 from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

These funds are going towards the Greene County Regional Airport Safety Improvements project.

“We may be one of the only general purpose airports in the commonwealth that doesn’t have 100% coverage with security fencing and runway and taxiway lighting,” Belding said. “That will increase the opportunities out at the airport for safe operations.”

A commitment match of $340,086 will come from Greene County’s Act 13 and Liquid Fuel Funds only if the grant is awarded.

William Cree III was also appointed as Chairman of the Greene County Farmland Preservation Board.

State Senator Camera Bartolotta of Pennsylvania’s 46th district, who ran unopposed for the midterm elections, had her office lease agreement approved at the meeting.

The lease was between the County of Greene and the Senate of Pennsylvania for Bartolotta’s district office, amounting to $169.27/month for four years with an option to renew for an additional four years.

The next Greene County Commissioners’ Board Meeting will be held on Thursday, Dec. 15 at 10 a.m. in the First Floor Meeting Room. This will also be the final meeting of 2022.