The public will get to learn and comment on priorities that will shape a master plan for the enhancement and beautification of the Banksville Road corridor at meetings at 7:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. July 26.

The meetings, conducted by Vollmer Associates, will be held at the Boilermakers Hall, 1221 Banksville Road, Banksville.

The priorities were solicited from members of the Blitz on Banksville Beautification board, commuters, and business and property owners along the corridor.

The project goal, said BBB President Carol Knox, is to make the 2¹/₂-mile stretch from the Parkway West to McFarland Road "look like a beautiful boulevard."

When finished, the plan will address beautification, environmental, economic and safety issues, Knox said.

Vollmer Associates, of Pittsburgh, was retained by BBB to devise a master plan after officials of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources told the group that it needed a master plan to qualify for large grants.

Funding for the plan's development is derived from a $30,000 shared grant from the DCNR and the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh.

The idea for forming the BBB in 2000 came from Knox, who observed beautification projects on roadways she traveled to visit her three out-of-state children.

Closer to home, she realized the impact of visual stimulation on commuters when people commented on her own flower garden on Cochran Road in Mt. Lebanon, thanking her for giving them something to look at while stopped at traffic lights.

She shared her idea with neighbors Lynn Butz, Betsy Hohlfelder, Bill Winschel, Roberta Sarraf, Nancy Smith, Nancy Gusky, Jane Eck, Donna Williams, Heather Orient, Matt Maniet, and Andrea and Howard Stein, who signed on for the project.

Other group members include Diane Reckless and Mary Neff, of Dormont, and Jim and Mary Beth Crawford, of Banksville.

The BBB's first effort was painting the Banksville Cleaners, now DeMino's Cleaners, building at McMonagle and Banksville roads, and doing landscaping.

Other projects include erection of a decorative ironwork structure on a retaining wall at Crane Avenue and Banksville Road and the planting of flowers in the strip of grass in front of it; planting $20,000 worth of trees native to the state in eight places, and landscaping at Bruster's Ice Cream in Dormont and at the Dairy Queen on McFarland Road in Mt. Lebanon. The latter involved staining the wall and doing ironwork on the wall, lattice work and planting a garden.

The group maintains 10 gardens at Banksville Road intersections, and has helped businesses establish gardens on their rights of way.

A bird habitat will be finished this year at a site to be determined.