Sharpsburg gets intern to help craft capital improvement plan

A Carnegie Mellon University grad student will assist Sharpsburg officials in crafting a plan for future borough projects.

Saul Bezner, who is studying for his master’s degree in public policy and management at CMU’s Heinz College, was selected from a dozen candidates for a summer internship, borough Manager Christine DeRunk said.

“Saul will be working on assisting the borough in developing a five-year capital improvement plan,” DeRunk said via email. “This plan will help prioritize capital improvements, which could be infrastructure projects such as additional streetscape work, park upgrades, roadway improvements, sewer improvements, or creation/expansion of services.

“The project proposals will be written up by department heads and staff as well as the borough engineer. Saul will work to put the various requests into a proposed plan. If there is time remaining, Saul will work on other recommendations from the (borough’s financial health assessment) report.”

Sharpsburg went through the assessment with Grass Roots Solutions last year. Its report was filed in November and is available via the “News” section of the borough website, sharpsburgborough.com.

A capital improvement plan was among its recommendations, which also included development of a fiscal procedures ordinance and a study of the borough’s metered spaces to determine if parking meter revenues are consistent with occupancy rates.

Council approved updates to its parking ordinance last month.

Bezner’s internship starts May 30 and is scheduled for between 10-12 weeks at a total of 400 hours.

DeRunk said it is at no cost to the borough because it is subsidized through a federal work-study program and the Local Government Academy’s municipal internship program.

Bezner has a bachelor’s degree in economics with a minor in art-history from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He served as a health economist for RTI International from March 2021 to May 2022.

Council Vice President Karen Pilarski-Pastor said she believes Bezner’s work will be a great benefit to the borough.

“A capital improvement plan is a tool used to coordinate the location, timing and financing of capital improvements over a five-year period,” she said via email. “Sharpsburg never had one, although, we do have a comprehensive plan which highlights our vision 10 years down the road.

“The CMU intern, working with our manager, Christine, will help identify those projects, rank them with input from the department heads, estimate the project costs and any funding sources and this document will be used when planning and passing our annual budget.”

Attempts to reach Bezner were unsuccessful.