Judy Pletcher remembers when
Rockwood, Pa. was a sleepy spot without even a stoplight.
Now the bustling town along the 150-mile
Great Allegheny Passage has got pizza, ice cream and candy shops, a bakery, a fitness center, a tanning salon, a jewelry store, tons of antiques, dinner theater and a performing arts venue. And that's just in one building, the
Rockwood Mill Shoppes & Opera House. Two doors down from that mecca, there's a brand new hostel, which can sleep about 30 tired travelers a night.
After retiring from a 30-year career in surface mining, Judy and Terry Pletcher opened the three-story Shoppes & Opera House in 2000, and followed up with the
Hostel on Main this summer.
The Pletchers worked with architects at Greensburg-based Lettrich Group on the 1,600 square-foot hostel, which features several sleeping rooms, a common living room, and kitchen and laundry areas equipped with Energy Star appliances.
"We've seen almost 40 guests so far without any promotions," says Judy Pletcher. "Cyclists come to the trail and stop here from all over -- Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, Colorado, even Montreal."
The Hostel on Main received a low-interest loan from
The Progress Fund, which provides entrepreneurial capital and coaching to small businesses in rural Pennsylvania, as well as West Virginia and Appalachian Ohio.
"More than 350,000 people use the Great Allegheny Passage each year," says Amy Camp with The Progress Fund's
Trail Town Program. "People who use the trail obviously need services, so we engage communities around the trail to embrace those opportunities."
A recent study by the Trail Town Program reports $12 million in direct spending on the trail annually, and an additional $3 million in wages attributed to the trail. The average overnight trail user spends $98 per day, and local users spend about $13 per day.
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Caralyn GreenSources: Judy Pletcher, Rockwood Mill Shoppes & Opera House/The Hostel on Main; Amy Camp, program coordinator, Trail Town Program
Image courtesy The Hostel on Main