In an effort to get construction of the proposed Route 228 Improvement Project under way, municipalities through which the highway passes are taking the notable step of forming a partnership that would assemble a needs assessment and potential funding package. The effort is an overdue show of urgency and unity among the municipalities — Seven Fields Borough and Adams, Cranberry and Middlesex townships — regarding the project's economic, as well as efficiency-of-travel, importance.

Simon Property Group, which is planning a large development, is running out of patience after five years of deliberations and uncertainty over the fate of Route 228 upgrades. Jerry Andree, Cranberry Township manager, has made it known to Route 228 corridor elected officials that Simon has given Cranberry until the end of this month to produce a feasible funding package or Simon might abandon the project.

He said that would mean millions of dollars of lost taxes for the region.

Considering what's at stake, perhaps officials and residents, while pursuing the partnership course that was agreed upon last week, also need to employ an easily available, free resource that they seem to have ignored — "noise." That's one of the tools that Somerset County officials are using in their efforts on behalf of another new, limited-access section of Route 219 in the southern part of that county.

The Somerset County commissioners have scheduled a public rally on behalf of the project for Friday in Somerset. President Commissioner Pamela Tokar-Ickes told a Johnstown newspaper that officials want to make sure they are speaking with one voice so the state Department of Transportation and Gov. Ed Rendell know how much Route 219 means to the county's residents and economy.

The highway section in question is in jeopardy reportedly because of a federal rules change regarding use of "toll credits" for the state's share of the project. The state's match to the $45.8 million allocated by the federal government for the section in question is $9 million.

Tokar-Ickes said officials hope the unified voice demonstrated at the rally will convince the state to find the needed money elsewhere.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday the Somerset County commissioners provided residents with a portal to e-mail Rendell and other state leaders to lobby for restoration of the $9 million in question. The commissioners approved spending $4,500 to buy a one-year subscription for computer software to send boilerplate or personalized e-mails to federal as well as state officials.

A sizable contingent of lawmakers and other lawmakers' representatives are expected to attend Friday's rally.

Closer to Butler, the amount holding up the start of the Route 228 improvement effort is listed as $11.3 million. A look into this county's not-too-distant past reveals how some modifications to the original plans for the Cranberry Connector project, along with strong community support, helped put that project back on track after being placed in limbo by Penn-DOT because of a funding shortage.

With that in mind, the partnership needs to do more than piece together a needs assessment and a potential funding package. It ought to meet with state and federal lawmakers to apprise them of the situation, and it needs to get area businesses and residents on board with the idea of getting the project moving.

The theme behind that effort must be that progress invites more progress. Just as the progressive attitude of Cranberry Township made it attractive to Westinghouse for the company's new corporate center, so too will the project envisioned by the Simon Property Group — if it becomes reality — be a magnet for attracting other ventures.

"I agree with coming together as one force, one voice," said Thomas Smith, Seven Fields' borough manager, who hosted last week's session at which the partnership idea was hatched. "I think that's probably our only option right now."

Not really. Making noise is another way of keeping the issue in the spotlight.

Officials, residents and business interests in the Route 228 corridor should proclaim what they need, what they want and what they are willing to do in a unified, emphatic voice that projects optimism, not pessimism.

Quiet discussion won't produce the desired effect and result.