Cranberry Township Manager Wins Township Association’s Leadership Award

Jerry Andree, manager of Cranberry Township, Butler County, was presented with the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors’ 16th Annual President’s Leadership Award at the association’s annual convention in Hershey in April in recognition of his dedication to and involvement in township government.

Andree is the first township official in Butler County to receive this prestigious honor, which the Association established in 1990 to recognize local leaders whose outstanding projects or programs have benefited their community. Township supervisors, secretaries, and managers who held office in 2004 were eligible.

The Association presents two awards each year to recognize both a township supervisor and a township secretary or manager. The other winner was Diane Snyder, a supervisor for West Whiteland Township, Chester County.

Cranberry Township supervisor Chuck Caputy, who was among those who nominated Andree for the award, says that “Jerry has established a distinguished record of leadership throughout his 14 years as township manager. His tenure here has been marked by a series of successfully implemented initiatives, all of which have contributed to making Cranberry Township an exceptional place to live and work.”

Hired in 1992, Andree has lead 200-year-old Cranberry Township through a period of rapid growth and development and, along the way, has implemented the township supervisors’ vision of creating a healthy, vigorous, attractive, and cost-conscious municipality. The township’s population is expected to increase from the current 27,000 to 45,000 in the next decade.

“As a result,” Caputy says, “the township is governing over the horizon. Many of its initiatives are directed toward creating infrastructure for a community nearly double its current population.”

Still, rather than relying on taxes to fund public programs, services, and improvements, Andree has taken an entrepreneurial approach to managing the township by forming relationships with private-sector partners, cultivating volunteers, securing grants, and encouraging innovative strategies.

Andree’s approach has helped to build a township that now boasts a new $9 million 18-hole municipal golf course, two new community parks, a larger municipal building that serves as a civic center with a library and other public amenities, a new state-of-the-art water park complex, and improved intersections and roads.

To manage growth and its side effects, Andree oversaw a comprehensive overhaul of the township’s zoning, building, and maintenance codes. He also developed a communitywide stormwater management system and created the “pay-as-you-grow” financing program, which requires developers to pay for public improvements associated with their projects.

“Although Jerry’s technical skills and public-sector know-how have been major factors in his success, perhaps his greatest asset is his character,” Caputy says. “He leads by the example he sets of hard work, good cheer, respect for others, and determination to do whatever is best for his community, even when it means accepting new and difficult challenges.”

In addition to being given the President’s Leadership Award, Andree has received another notable honor. In 2003, he was presented the Joseph A. James Excellence in Local Government Award from the Southwest Pennsylvania Commission.

Andree is also active in PSATS, where he serves as a consultant and instructor for the PA Local Government Training Partnership.

He is a member of the Association for Pennsylvania Municipal Management and the International City Management Association. Andree also serves on the board of directors for the Local Government Academy, the Butler County Community Development Corporation, the state Department of Transportation’s Local Transportation Assistance Program, and the Keystone Municipal Insurance Trust.

Andree is a graduate of Penn State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in parks and recreation in 1976 and a master’s degree in public administration in 1983. He is a native of Hempfield Township in Westmoreland County.

The Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors represents Pennsylvania’s 1,456 townships of the second class and for the past 84 years has been committed to preserving
and strengthening township government and securing greater visibility and involvement for townships in the state and federal political arenas. Townships of the second class represent more residents – 5.1 million Pennsylvanians – than any other type of political subdivision in the commonwealth.

Note: Jerry Andree can be reached at (724) 776-4806.

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Photo credit: Socolow Photography