Barbara Putz has seen Braddock's highs and lows since starting as a nurse at UPMC Braddock in 1961. She remembers when the business district was a bustling shopping destination.

Now Braddock Avenue, the main drag of this Mon Valley town, is lined with vacant storefronts, a far cry from its steel mill heyday.

But the hospital remains, and it has become, a key part of Allegheny County's strategy to revive Braddock.

"Braddock is a real community hospital," said Ms. Putz, now a clinical coordinator. "We call ourselves a diamond in the rough."

Gov. Ed Rendell added shine to the diamond yesterday, presenting $3 million in state funds, which will be matched by $4 million from UPMC, to renovate and expand the hospital.

"Since I've been governor, most of the funds from the Redevelopment Assistance Capital program have gone to pure job creation," Mr. Rendell told more than 100 people gathered in a hospital classroom, many clad in suits, others in scrubs.

"What we're doing here today will create 80 decent, solid jobs over the course of time. But this isn't a job-creation project. ... We felt this was very important in helping you remain competitive and deliver the best services you can."

The funds will be used to build an entrance on downtrodden Braddock Avenue -- the hospital currently faces away from it -- create an in-house magnetic resonance imaging facility and increase patient capacity.

The funding also includes a $250,000 grant for an initiative -- called Steps to a Healthy Community -- to combat racial and socioeconomic disparities in health care.

State Sen. Sean Logan, D-Monroeville, and county Chief Executive Dan Onorato pushed for the funding, saying it would help an area in which less than 8 percent of residents have college degrees and a third live in poverty.

"We're here because of disparities in health care," Mr. Logan said. "This is a community, this is a service area that has those disparities."

Mr. Onorato touted the county's three-pronged plan for bringing back Braddock: the UPMC renovations, combined with the county's purchase and renovation of the old Carrie Furnace site nearby and a $10 million investment in redeveloping neighborhoods.

The latter two projects have gotten matching state funds, prompting Mr. Onorato to joke yesterday about how he always sits next to Mr. Rendell so he can keep prodding him for more investments in the area.

"I know he cringes when I walk into a room because my list just never ends," Mr. Onorato said.

As the politicians grinned and clutched oversized novelty checks, Ms. Putz snapped photos. She and several other nurses had taken an extended break to catch sight of the governor, and she expressed excitement about what the funding can do for the hospital and for Braddock.

"This community, everyone can stand behind [the hospital]," Ms. Putz said.

"There's so much to look forward to in the years to come."