SummerSounds, an annual Greensburg concert series and community favorite for the past 23 years, took a big leap into the future Tuesday as its members voted unanimously to merge with the Greensburg Community Development Corp.

The merger will help ensure the summer concerts, which garnered around 41,000 total visitors last year, continue for years to come, according to Gene James, SummerSounds co-founder, board president and longtime event organizer.

“I think that we are on a path to sustainability and preservation,” he said. “It has become a real Greensburg institution.”

The membership vote Tuesday was the formal next step of several in the transition process, as the boards of both the GCDC and SummerSounds already had approved the merger.

James expects the process may continue up to the end of the year.

SummerSounds concerts are held Fridays throughout the summer, with main artists taking the Robertshaw Amphitheater stage, supported by pre-show musicians. The first show this year will be June 7.

For James, the move is not a full departure. He plans to still be involved with SummerSounds.

“I intend to do as much as I can to transfer my knowledge and my experiences to GCDC,” he said. “I think they are committed to what was kind of an accidental success. This started as a hobby, and now it’s a hobby that’s my full-time job.”

James was honored at the meeting Tuesday at All Saints Brewing Co. in Greensburg by volunteers who presented him with a commemorative plaque.

He thanked the other volunteer organizers for their help.

“I’m just a guy who’s been lucky enough to have a lot of great volunteers and a community who supported us,” he said.

New structure

Elsie Lampl, GCDC board president and interim executive director, said this year’s concerts will be largely the same for the concertgoers.

“They might not even notice the difference,” she said.

Sponsorships and donations will still be a big part of the event. The 50-some volunteers who make SummerSounds happen each year will still be involved in the work of putting on the concerts, Lampl said.

Newly hired events manager Anna McClain will lead the team, but the events will still be volunteer-based, Lampl said.

“There’s volunteers who have been doing it for 10, 15, 20 years,” Lampl said. “The knowledge they have and the experience of doing this big of an event is priceless, and we want all of them to stay on.”

James, whom Lampl described as the “heart of SummerSounds,” will assist GCDC with planning.

“Gene is not disappearing,” she said. “He is going to stay involved as long as he can. But he approached us with this merger with the idea of having a succession plan to make sure it lasts into the future.

“The idea is he will stay involved and make sure the merger is successful, and the future is successful, and we know what we’re doing with his knowledge.”

The board currently leading SummerSounds will have an advisory committee role with the GCDC board, McClain said.

“This year in particular is going to be a learning year, to see what works, what could be improved — stuff like that — and listen to all the volunteers,” McClain said. “Because they are the core group that helps run the different concerts. In the future, we’re going to help it continue to grow for another 25-plus years.”

Volunteers at the meeting were already looking ahead to the future of the concert series.

Pat Erdelsky, a volunteer from Penn Township, said she thought the merger is “probably a good idea.”

“There’s a lot of work to that, and no one’s getting any younger,” she said. “It should be good. There’s a lot of responsibility.”

Volunteer Jim Steeley said the concert series is worth sustaining.

“I think it’s one of the jewels of the community,” he said, “and it’d be a shame if someone doesn’t pick this up and run with it into the future.”

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