here - Satellite Beach

Internet – Newspaper Archives Searches
Marla Marcinko
(Articles are in reverse chronological order)
TAB 7
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (PA)
July 14, 2005
Supporters, detractors abound for new manager
Author: Reid R. Frazier
The Penn Hills manager's job is not for the faint of heart. Marla Marcinko, hired last week to
run Allegheny County's second largest municipality, hopes she is up to the task.
Marcinko, who resigned this week as borough manager for Zelienople, will take over the bigger
job Aug. 1, inheriting a porous municipal budget, leaky sewer system and bickering council. She
will be the sixth person to occupy the manager's office in the past 16 months.
Ed Schrecengost, the acting manager, started his second tour of duty in that position when Peter
Colangelo resigned in June after only four months on the job. The previous full-time manager,
John Brennan, was fired in March 2004 after new Mayor Anthony DeLuca Jr. took office.
Although Marcinko comes from Zelienople, a small borough in southern Butler County, those
who know her say she's ready to make the move to a bigger municipality with bigger problems.
"They have some problems in Penn Hills, I know they have some problems, and God bless her in
dealing with those," Cranberry manager Jerry Andree said. "But if anyone can do it, she can."
Marcinko, who declined to comment about Penn Hills, will get a pay raise, from $63,000 a year
in Zelienople to $86,000 in Penn Hills. The Penn Hills job also comes with a municipal car, a
perk Zelienople doesn't offer. She has a year to move to Penn Hills from her home in Fombell,
Beaver County.
Zelienople Councilman Bill Dickinson said Marcinko was instrumental in reaching a consent
agreement between the borough and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
to find another source of water for the borough.
The agreement came after Butler-based AK Steel agreed to stop dumping unhealthy levels of
nitrates into the Connoquenessing Creek, a source of drinking water for Zelienople.
"It was a very arduous process. There were meetings upon meetings upon meetings. I think it
took a lot of effort on Marla's part to get that (agreement) through," Dickinson said.
DEP Northwest regional director Kelly Burch, who sat across the table from Marcinko many
times in discussions over the Connoquenessing, called her "one of the toughest negotiators I've
ever come across."
"She really understands the balance between the economic and environmental side of things, and
what it takes for communities to meet regulations," Burch said.
Page 64 of 76