Oakmont now has a sustainability plan that stretches out over the next decade.
The 2024 Oakmont Borough Local Sustainability Plan outlines short- and long-term goals for the borough. This is the borough’s first sustainability plan and was developed by a graduate student from the University of Pittsburgh.
Simon Joseph, 24, is in the university’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and began his position as master of public administration graduate student intern with Oakmont in May.
The plan covers borough operations, civic engagements and education for residents. For residents who say, “I want to do something (sustainable),” this guide will help them do that, borough Manager Scot Fodi said.
Joseph said he found excessive heat, stormwater and wind storms to be the biggest issues facing Oakmont, and the borough’s wastewater treatment plant is its biggest energy consumer. In terms of fuel, the borough’s fleet uses the most, which costs the borough thousands of dollars a year.
At the beginning of the process, Anderson and Fodi outlined the priorities of the borough, naming stormwater management, municipal energy efficiency, public transportation and solid waste recycling and materials management as issues to focus on. Joseph then created a list of potential actions that could be taken in the next five to 10 years to reduce costs and emissions in these areas.
He also included ways for residents to alter their living spaces to create a more sustainable environment, including using rain barrels.
Joseph previously helped to establish the borough’s glass recycling plan, a permanent recycling station that has collected 80 tons of glass since its creation in March 2023.
Joseph said Phyllis Anderson, Oakmont’s assistant borough manager, reached out to him in the spring to see if he would be interested in writing the sustainability plan.
Along with Anderson, Joseph worked with CONNECT (Congress of Neighboring Communities), a nonprofit that helps the City of Pittsburgh and surrounding municipalities identify public-policy challenges and implement solutions, to develop a plan that emphasizes three main benefits: public health and well being, cost savings and efficiency, and community resilience.
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“The plan is set to be an active plan,” Fodi said. “It’s not going to be a ‘shelf-sitting’ plan. We’ve already started planning some of the projects before he wrote the document, so that gives us a head start. We’re going to use this as our guide.”
Fodi said a sustainability plan was pitched in the 2022 comprehensive plan written by the borough’s planning commission. One of its action items suggested developing a specific plan for sustainability.
“It’s another notch off the project of the comprehensive plan that we got completed,” Fodi said.
Among the projects already in the works are the first phases of the Dark Hollow Woods restoration plan, the parks department use of an electric vehicle, the addition of electric vehicle charging stations in the community and the use of goats instead of power tools or herbicides for foliage maintenance.
“I didn’t write this with the intention of holding you guys hostage to any one plan or one idea,” Joseph said while addressing council members.
“These are, more often than not, suggestions, and how you proceed is at your discretion with what’s most realistic and feasible.”
Haley Daugherty is a TribLive reporter covering local politics, feature stories and Allegheny County news. A native of Pittsburgh, she lived in Alabama for six years. She joined the Trib in 2022 after graduating from Chatham University. She can be reached at hdaugherty@triblive.com.