Joanne Letcher is working to make Carnegie thrive through CCDC

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The Carnegie Community Development Corporation was not able to do many of the things it’s done in recent years — but that didn’t mean the main person behind it took a break.

The organization’s executive director, Joanne Letcher, said the focus on marketing the borough’s Main Street shifted during the pandemic that shut businesses down. Instead of planning and hosting recurring events in the borough’s Business District, she worked to keep those business leaders informed through email blasts.

The information she sent out focused on how-to’s on applying for business loans and grants and other important information pertinent to the pandemic.

“The response from local businesses was incredible,” she said. Soon, Letcher said the informative emails transformed into a way to rally around a common cause: feeding people in need.

A total of $25,000 was raised by business leaders and residents through the email chain. Letcher said she then applied to the Pittsburgh Foundation Emergency Fund to raise another $25,000.

The money was used to feed schoolchildren and to bolster other organizations working in food security during the pandemic.

“Everybody came together to help feed the local population,” she said.

It was a move that aligned with Letcher’s vision for the organization since being hired as its executive director eight years ago. When she took over the helm, her focus was to sell the borough’s downtown — what she calls “being the cheerleader for Carnegie.”

“Now we have a website, we have Facebook and Instagram. We’ve really been promoting Carnegie through social media and events,” she said. The idea is to get Carnegie on the map for prospective entrepreneurs, shoppers, consumers and residents.

It’s working, she said. The borough has experienced vacant storefronts driven by floods, fires and economic recessions. But now, the borough’s downtown doesn’t have many vacancies. Letcher said only a few buildings remain vacant — a couple are for sale.

“But we’re seeing new businesses come in,” she said, referencing a deli that plans to open next to Bakn, a restaurant that serves burgers and sandwiches.

The Carnegie Crawl is the crown jewel of this focus — attracting people every second Friday during May through October.

“There’s music, people in the streets, shopping the stores — everyone’s just lining the sidewalks,” Letcher said of the event. She said the organization hopes to expand the crawl in the near future to include West Main Street, where additional businesses have set up shop.

She’s even kicked an idea around about getting a shuttle service for the bi-weekly event in order to incentivize visitors to explore additional shops during the event.

Joe Myers, 65, serves as the organization’s board president. He owns Myers, Patsy and Associates in Carnegie and has served on the board for 10 years. He admires Letcher’s energetic and passionate leadership style.

“The organization has changed dramatically under her leadership,” he said. “We’re much more at the forefront of the community now. She keeps the community humming, moving ahead and vibrant.”

Letcher grew up in Penn Hills before moving out to Pennsbury Village, a community about three miles northwest of Carnegie — where she worked for a mortgage settlement company.

She then moved into the travel industry when she started her own agency, J&L Travel. Since then, she’s been involved in various organizations, such as the Carnegie-Collier Rotary, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and others.

“I just wanted to be involved to see us grow,” she said of Carnegie.

Letcher is quick to point to others when talking about the successes of the CCDC. She commended council members and borough administration for working so well with the corporation over the years. And she said her board of 13 “dedicates a lot of time” in making Carnegie thrive.

“That makes all the difference,” she said. “You get issues when people don’t work together.”