McDonald's is coming to Meyersdale

MEYERSDALE ― McDonald's is coming to the borough.

Matthew Alamo is the owner and operator of Somerset's McDonald's and will also be responsible for the soon-to-be-built Meyersdale location.

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"The Alamo family has been in the Somerset community since 2010. This is home to us," Alamo said.

The plan is to break ground Aug. 19 at the Food Lion site, south of Meyersdale at the Route 219 four-lane exit ramp. There are two blocked-off exits and McDonald's will use the same in-and-out exits as Food Lion, Alamo said. It will be a full-sized restaurant with dual lane drive-through as well as inside seating.

"There will be a lot of site preparation including excavation," he said. "We will be building from the ground up which we haven't done before."

Alamo said he usually buys an already existing building.

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"It is our absolute hope and desire to be open in November," Alamo said. "We're starting to staff for the Meyersdale location and doing training in the Somerset location."

McDonald's in Meyersdale plans to hire 40-65 people. Interviews will be held at the Meyersdale Public Library at certain times during the month.

"We're a people first, family business, not a franchise," Alamo said. "This is all we do. We have ketchup in our veins."

Getting community involved

In the meantime, Alamo said the company is planning to be involved in community events.

"We are interested in sponsoring activities and will be at the Somerset County Fair Wednesday to help in the Meyersdale Firemen's Stand," he said. "We will have nine people there volunteering. They will be able to answer questions.

"We'll continue to try to do things like that through the fall."

Alamo said he's pleased with the location being close to the Meyersdale Area School District.

"The kids and community is what it's all about," he said. "We want to support Meyersdale as much as we can from the beginning."

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Alamo said his father is the original owner/operator of Somerset's McDonald's. He retired from the corporate side in 2010, but continued to privately own six restaurants. Now he owns and operates 10 McDonald's restaurants and Matthew has 11, including the Meyersdale branch, which combined makes it their 21st location.

"This is super, super, super exciting," Alamo said.

Madolin Edwards has been a journalist at the Daily American for 37 years, covering school boards, borough councils, sports and new stories. She was the Home and Family editor for 20 years, and was the primary editor and reporter for a variety of special projects, features and tabs. Contact the Daily American reporters at news@dailyamerican.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: McDonald's is coming to Meyersdale