The issues ranged from basics such as sidewalks to complex ones involving cutting-edge economic development last Thursday when Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato took the show on the road, visiting Stowe, McKees Rocks, Kennedy, Neville and Coraopolis.

It was part of his municipal tour program, meeting with citizens as well as business and civic leaders to address specific needs in those communities.

The most intriguing project not only for the county's western communities but for the entire region was at the former Valley Protein site on Neville Island, where the Neville Island Development Association has been working with Capital Technologies International, a Carnegie Mellon University startup based in Hazelwood, on a brownfield development site to study biodiesel fuel.

"This is a potential product and company that, if it continues to move forward, would take an abandoned chemical site and turn it into a center for conversion and production of a product to ship out of here that could create several hundred jobs and bring real wealth to this area," Onorato said.

"It's tied in with one of our great universities, so this is the type of program that we'll look to do whatever we can to help grow."

Biodiesel research is on the forefront of technology being investigated as an alternative fuel source, a hot-button issue in the wake of rising gas prices and finding means to end dependence on foreign oil.

According to Biodiesel.org, an industry Web site, biodiesel is a clean-burning alternative fuel produced from domestic, renewable resources. It contains no petroleum, is biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur emissions. Biodiesel is made through a chemical process called transesterification, in which glycerin is separated from fat or vegetable oil.

The process leaves behind two products -- methyl esters, the chemical name for biodiesel, and glycerin, a valuable byproduct usually sold to be used in soaps and other products.

For instance, biodiesel fuel could be made from the excess fat stored in vats at fast food restaurants to power a tractor-trailer more cheaply and clean than existing methods.

NIDA is seeking $45,000 to further promote such projects as well as more brownfield development on the island.

Gregg Brown, a NIDA board member, said he appreciated Onorato's visit and the attention drawn to new technologies that could be developed where traditional heavy industry, and the pollution stigmas attached to it, were once mainstays.

"Between our proximity to the city of Pittsburgh and Interstate 79, the island has the things needed to be a real winner," Brown said. "But we've struggled to get over the old stigmas associated with Neville Island."

A sample of other projects included:

Installing lighting on Broadway Avenue in Stowe at a cost of $39,000.

Funding a Community Market Place Program in McKees Rocks administered by Focus on Renewal, which will offer fresh fruits and vegetables from May through November at a cost of $166,000.

Covering costs of ADA-approved doors at the municipal building in Kennedy, which was completed in February at a cost of $11,998.

Funding the installation of ADA-compliant curb ramps at an intersection in Coraopolis, which was also finished in February at a cost of $11,895.