Cranberry Township invested resources into a good deal of infrastructure work in 2024, including bridges, water filtration and waterlines.
Two bridges that had been deteriorating were repaired or replaced in-house during the past year: the Zacherl Road bridge in the spring, and the Meadow Church Road bridge in the fall.
Originally slated to be repaired using Community Development Block Grant funds, township supervisors decided in July to pull the plug on the CDBG funding and instead use township funds, since requirements attached to the use of federal funds had significantly slowed the project.
The township also needed to complete the work on Meadow Church Road bridge by October, per an environmental permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection to protect the habitat of an endangered rattlesnake found near the bridge, which also contributed to the decision to use township funds.
In the fall, engineers submitted an environmental permit to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for repairs to a third deteriorating township bridge on Aires Hill Road.
Work on that bridge is slated to start in the spring.
The township also started work on upgrades of its water filtration treatment plant, which is expected to greatly increase the plant’s filtration capacity.
The upgrades are being funded by a Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST) loan of about $3.2 million.
In February, Seneca Volunteer Fire Department brought its new fire truck to the municipal building to thank the township, since the new $517,000 tanker was funded in part by a $100,000 donation from the township over three years.
And along with other municipalities and as required by changes to the federal lead and copper rule, the township sent an inventory of its waterlines to the state Department of Environmental Protection in October. The township continues to work with residents to determine the material of their waterlines if it is unknown.
During the year, township staff continued work in conjunction with a consultant to comprehensively update and clean up the township’s zoning code.
Unlike a number of nearby municipalities, including Franklin and Oil City, Cranberry Township finalized its $2,012,812 budget in December with no tax hike for the new year.
Personnel
Personnel did not change much over the course of the past year, although some board vacancies were filled in January and the township also hired a new manager after the resignation of former manager Eric Heil in December 2023.
Chad Findlay, also a former township manager, acted as contracted consultant for the township until March, attending meetings and offering his expertise to supervisors until the hiring of current manager Sabrina Backer, who also is president of the Franklin Area School Board. She took on the role of manager at the beginning of April.
Supervisor Mike Deibert also began his elected six-year term in January 2024, after serving as interim supervisor for two months to fill the seat vacated by the retirement of longtime supervisor Fred “Sonny” Buckholtz, who passed away in December 2023.
In January 2025, Deibert was made the chairman of the supervisors’ panel, taking over from Matt McSparren. Bob Betzold was made vice chairman.
After garnering the required number of signatures, a measure that proposed raising the number of supervisors in the township from three to five was added to the November ballot.
The measure, initiated by local businessman Wayne Hepler, who made an unsuccessful bid for a seat on the supervisors panel in the 2023 election, ultimately failed to pass by 126 votes.
Collaborative projects
Courtesy of the Cranberry Small Business Association, which formed in 2024 to include a number of businesses in the Cranberry Area School District, the township had its first community Christmas tree put up outside the municipal building in November.
The township also permitted the association to put a sign in front of the township building to advertise some of its free community events.
The collaboration with the association was not the only one in which the township participated in 2024, as it contributed one-third of the funding, in conjunction with the school district and Venango County, for a feasibility study for a possible community recreation center in the township.
Although it is not, strictly speaking, a township project but rather a Venango County project, township officials have been waiting as eagerly as anyone for a $500,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission to fund broadband development in the township.
Deb Sobina, executive vice president of the Oil Region Alliance of Business, Industry and Tourism who was the lead on the grant application, said in the summer that the commission changed the type of grant from a construction to nonconstruction grant.
Currently, the county, ORA and township are still waiting for the grant conversion to be finalized before they can put the project out to bid to find an internet service provider.
Looking ahead
The township will be seeing a flurry of development activity in the near future, since Starbucks, Dairy Queen and Two Cousins Pizza have proposed constructing facilities in the business cluster near the intersection of Routes 257 and 322.
And, in December, the Venango County Regional Planning Commission approved plans for the proposed development off Route 322 of an administrative building for the Commonwealth Charter Academy.
In January, the commission also approved plans for the construction of a Verland home at 133 Steffee Boulevard to house several former Polk State Center residents, which must be completed by March.
