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Burgettstown developing station for Panhandle Trail

BURGETTSTOWN, Pa. — Bike rentals and other amenities are coming to Burgettstown, as a decade-long effort to redevelop the historic train station alongside Panhandle Trail enters its final mile.

The Burgettstown Area Community Development Corp. will hold an open house from 10 a.m. to noon Tuesday at the trail station located on North Main Street. In addition to a ribbon-cutting, tours of the train station will be held. Beverages and light refreshments will be offered.

The Shop Along the Way, a general store with bicycle rentals available on the lower level, will be opening in the building. Mary Kay Schreiner of Mount Washington, Pa., will lease the site, which will continue to be owned by the nonprofit community development corporation.

She plans to rent bicycles, sell provisions to cyclists and offer seasonal items, home decor, Pittsburgh souvenirs and refurbished furniture. Prior to the store’s opening, there was no place along the trail between Weirton and McDonald, Pa., to purchase bottled water.

“I’m trying to keep everything as locally made as possible,” Schreiner said. “I want it to be a modern-day version of the general store.”

Tasz Construction recently completed interior work on a 24-foot by 50-foot replica of the 133-year-old former Pennsylvania Railroad Co. station. Built in 1883, for eight decades, the station was the point of departure for Burgettstown residents heading to Pittsburgh and points east. For last 50 years, the site housed a series of occasional, short-lived businesses, becoming dilapidated until the Burgettstown Area Community Development Corp. bought it in 2008.

“We had to tear it down,” said Pamela Church, corporation director of development. “That’s when we decided to duplicate the original design.”

She credits former state Sen. J. Barry Stout, the Redevelopment Authority of Washington County, the Department of Community and Economic Development, Washington County Tourism Agency, the Valenti family, the late Tom Cassidy and his widow Ellen, Dr. Pete and Sharon Stracci, the Richard King Mellon Foundation and The Progress Fund with providing expertise and hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding necessary to complete the reconstruction and ongoing fit-out.

“If the train station gets up and running and provides a destination space for trail users, it will be a great benefit to the trail and the town,” Lisa Cessna, Washington County Planning Commission executive director, said.

No local tax dollars were used in the project.

“I really think that the trail definitely made it possible,” Church said. “Because of the location of the train station, our goal was always to house a business that would benefit the trail users and also the entire community. The completion of this project and adding a business at this location could spearhead other businesses to want to come to the downtown area.”

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