“If we’re going to reimagine the future, we need to forget the past,” Evankovich said. “We have to move beyond the ‘this-is-how-we’ve-always-done-it’ mentality.”

Evankovich was speaking at the Murrysville Economic and Community Development Corp.’s update on the Murrysville business district Thursday.

Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Chad Amond was equally frank in his assessment of what is necessary to plot a bright business future for the region.

“Since 1990, the median age in the county has gone from 37 to 45, and by 2020, it is expected to be 51,” Amond said. “Since 2010, the county has lost about 7,000 residents. … We need to define and brand Westmoreland County. We need to do some marketing.”

Factors such as more and better broadband internet access and cost-of-living comparisons can help the county’s towns and cities capitalize on the technology boom that has helped transform the City of Pittsburgh in recent years, he said.

“The median home price in the San Francisco-Silicon Valley area is $780,000,” Amond said. “Here in the Pittsburgh area, it’s $120,000. We can bring people back by showing the large part that cost-of-living can play.”

Evankovich emphasized a need for more streamlined state government that does not direct as much money to private groups addressing causes that, in his view, have very little to do with state government’s proscribed functions.

“We need to collectively understand why we can’t do these things,” he said. “We need to realize that every dollar (the state spends) is going in to someone’s pocket. And until we address that, the chamber of commerce will have to see what they can scrape from the county budget, and the MECDC will be working with legislators to see what pork-barrel project we can put a few dollars into to help them.”

As for Murrysville, development group Executive Director Jill Cooper and the municipal chief administrator, Jim Morrison, talked about the handful of larger parcels available for development along the Route 22 corridor.

Among the largest are owned by Excela Health and the former 84 Lumber location. Morrison and Murrysville Mayor Regis Synan noted that a hotel chain has showed interest in the 84 Lumber property. Excela has not disclosed its plans for the 110-acre, $7.8 million group of properties it purchased in 2015.

In terms of attracting new residents, Synan pointed to the long-discussed Southern Beltway from Interstate 79 to Route 22 and the Mon-Fayette Expressway from Route 51 at Jefferson Hills to the Parkway East at Pittsburgh and Monroeville as a “release valve” for regular traffic congestion on the region’s major east-west routes. The cost of that project was estimated at more than $2 billion in 2016, and the Mon-Fayette Expressway could begin construction in 2021 , according to turnpike officials.

“Access to the Pittsburgh airport is critical,” Synan said. “If not, increasing flights at the Latrobe airport is very important. That’s how you get the big corporate companies that want to come here and stay here.”

Evankovich stressed the need to develop rail transportation as well.

In addition to making traffic flow more easily, a vibrant business district in Murrysville is essential to the health of the county, Amond said.”We need a (transportation) vision for southwestern PA,” he said. “I think the thing that can ‘unlock’ Murrysville is rail transportation from the City of Pittsburgh to Monroeville, or — and this will sound crazy — but even (rail transport) up Route 28, I think will demonstrably benefit Murrysville, because if you have that, it will alleviate traffic and give you a ‘release valve’ from the turnpike to get to Route 28 and go Downtown. That will really open up the East Hills, because you’ll have two access roads into the city.”

“Murrysville is obviously the gateway to Westmoreland,” he said. “It is a highly livable community, it has reasonable access to Pittsburgh, and it has the highest ranked school district in the county.”