South Fayette begins search for new township manager
Katie Roupe/Observer-Reporter
Ryan Eggleston’s last day as South Fayette township manager will be April 27. He is leaving to become city manager in Morehead City, N.C.
Newbury Market master plan
South Fayette begins search for new township manager
{child_byline}By Jacob Calvin Meyer
Staff writer
jmeyer@thealmanac.net
{/child_byline}
The South Fayette commissioners are beginning their search for a new township manager.
Board President Raymond Pitetti said after the township’s March 21 meeting that the goal is to find a full-time replacement for exiting manager Ryan Eggleston as soon as possible while also not rushing the process.
Eggleston, who has been South Fayette’s township manager for nearly six years, informed township staff and the board that he was leaving on April 27 for a city manager job in Morehead City, N.C.
Last month, the township hired GovHR USA, a consulting firm that specializes in hiring for government positions. Pitetti said GovHR USA met with township staff and the board before the meeting to prepare the search process.
“We met with them and now they’re going to start their search for the position and start to bring people in for interviews,” Pitetti said.
Pitetti said the replacement process is “soft,” meaning there are no set dates on when a candidate needs to be hired or when interviews must begin. He said he hopes in the next one to two months that GovHR starts to bring in applications and in two to three months interviews can begin.
The one guarantee, though, is that a full-time replacement will not be hired by Eggleston’s last day. Pitetti said an “in-house” interim township manager will be announced by the board at its April meeting.
Last month, Eggleston said he is willing work with the board to make the transition “as seamless as possible.”
Also during the meeting, Newbury Market representatives presented a brief update to the board about the development.
Brett Malky, president of Newbury, said TopGolf is on schedule to open this summer, while Carvana is set to begin construction in a few months. Also coming to South Fayette soon, Malky said, is Blaze Pizza, a California-based make-your-own pizza shop. Blaze Pizza is set to open in May, becoming the third location in the Pittsburgh region.
Malky also said the development is finalizing the leases for its Main Street and its family entertainment center.
“We’re very excited with both of this beginning this year, and the response from tenants has been spectacular,” Malky said.
Jared Imperatore, vice president of Jones Lang LaSalle retail brokerage, updated the board on his work on the two main buildings on Newbury’s Main Street.
“Those two buildings will have food and beverage in both of the buildings as well as professional services,” he said. “We’ve also done the testing for a movie theater…We’ve been extremely active.”
Commissioner Gwen Rodi, who has been critical of the development in the past, was positive about the updates from Malky and Imperatore.
“This is really exciting stuff,” she said.
Following the Newbury presentation, the board unanimously passed a revised master signage plan for the development.
After the planning commission approved the plans for Hennecke Inc., a polyurethane technology company based in Germany, last month, the board approved them at the Alpine Point development. The location will employ 50-60 people.
The 35,000 square foot building on Energy Drive will join Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania in the Alpine development. Hennecke develops polyurethane machines and works with processors and users in more than 100 countries.
The South Fayette location will be the 11th in the world and the second in the United States; the other in the U.S. is also in Pennsylvania, as Hennecke opened a location in Lawrence in 1977. Hennecke’s other locations are in Mexico, Brazil, India, Singapore, China, Korea, Russia and the Czech Republic. Polyurethane machines produce materials such as wheels, furniture, automotive parts, household appliances and many other everyday products.
Also during the meeting:
- The board passed a service order authorization from Lennon, Smith, Souleret Engineering Inc. for site inspection service on township developments. “With (Mike Benton’s) passing and the continued growth in the township, we feel like it’s a necessity to have on-site inspection as it relates to all our projects moving forward,” Eggleston said.
- The board also tabled the passage of a master plan for South Fayette’s parks and the hiring of a consulting firm, HRG from Cranberry. The Parks & Recreation Board chose HRG out of four bidders.
- The board voted to put out a bid for road work in 2018. The draft proposes nearly 50 different township roads to be repaired for a total of $873,689.