Category: Economic Development

The Walnut Street Culvert Stormwater Mitigation Project in the Town of Bloomsburg was recently awarded $60,000 from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC).

In December of 2019, the SEDA-COG Joint Rail Authority and a group of stakeholders from Columbia County began a process to evaluate ongoing stormwater and flooding issues along the State Route 11 corridor from Bloomsburg to Lime Ridge. The triggering point for this study was significant damage to major industries, commercial development, municipal infrastructure, and private property caused by intense flooding in 2018.

McTish, Kunkel and Associates was chosen as the engineering consultant to perform this study with the primary goal of identifying specific projects that could help to alleviate stormwater damage could threaten the viability of businesses located within flood prone areas. Stakeholders were clear in their guidance that they did not desire another study to put on a shelf. They wanted an actionable plan and tangible solutions to problems that have been on-going for decades.

Within the Town of Bloomsburg, Scott Township and South Centre Township, a total of 27 projects were identified by the consulting team and project stakeholders. Of the priority list developed from the study, the Walnut Street Culvert was listed as high priority for the Town of Bloomsburg.

As Kinney Run enters the Town of Bloomsburg, it first flows through a 48” culvert under Walnut Street then makes a sharp turn to the south and flows under Old Berwick Road via a 3.5’ high by 12’ wide box culvert. After a short distance, the stream makes a 90-degree bend to the west.  At this location, an overflow weir has been constructed. Once flows reach a high enough level that they overtop the weir, water is diverted south through a vegetated channel and then under the airport runway to the Susquehanna River through an 84” culvert. This diversion system was constructed following the 1972 Hurricane Agnes flood event.

It has become apparent over recent years that the culvert under Walnut Street needed to be replaced a with a new, larger culvert.

SEDA-COG’s Betsy Lockwood, Director of Project Development and Grants, submitted the ARC application for the culvert on behalf of the Town and Columbia County. Regarding the project, Lockwood said, “I am thrilled to start seeing projects develop from the original study. There were quite a few urgently needed projects identified, and I look forward to seeing what else we can accomplish from that list.”

The Appalachian Region Commission (ARC) is an economic development partnership agency of the federal government and 13 state governments including Pennsylvania.  PA’s Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) partners with ARC to identify and support projects that will build community capacity and strengthen economic growth in the Appalachian counties of Pennsylvania to reach socioeconomic parity with the nation.

SEDA-COG is a community and economic development agency in Lewisburg and is one of seven Local Development Districts in Pennsylvania. SEDA-COG enhances the quality of life and economic advantage for residents and businesses in the 11 central Pennsylvania counties through its vital partnerships and initiatives.

SEDA-COG recently assisted the Central Pennsylvania Institute of Science and Technology (CPI) with an Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) grant that was awarded in the amount of $497,760.

CPI is located in Centre County and serves a region that encompasses a 45-mile radius. According to their website, “founded in 1969, CPI was built to meet the career and technical needs of high school students in the Bald Eagle Area, Bellefonte Area, Penns Valley Area, and State College School Districts. Additionally, over 1,300 adult learners annually receive training to upgrade their current skills, learn new skills, or make a career change to better their quality of life.”

The ARC Funds will be used to purchase equipment to support the CPI Health Science Building Project. The new training facility, when complete, will create 1,095 direct jobs within the healthcare industries. The equipment will include surgery tables; training kits and stations; exam tables; EMS passenger responder electric vehicle and charging station; ultrasound equipment; stretchers and traction tables. The training facility will allow CPI to expand its healthcare educational programming to train the workforce in the region to meet the unmet demands for skilled workforce.

“We are very excited and pleased to have worked with SEDA-COG to secure ARC grant funding to support equipment in the Health Sciences Buildings and for our existing healthcare programs” said Todd Taylor, Vice President of Post-Secondary Education for CPI. “ARC grant funding will help us provide students throughout central Pennsylvania with highly technical training leading to careers in the high-growth healthcare employment sector,” said Taylor. The new facility will increase CPI’s capacity to 800 students. It is anticipated that 374 students will graduate on an annual basis and will immediately become employed within the healthcare industries.

The nation continues to be confronted with unmet demands for a trained workforce. Covid-19 has placed a greater demand on all industries. Prior to Covid-19, the United States was already facing a huge shortage in skilled, licensed healthcare workers. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS), the U.S. will need to hire more than 2.3 million healthcare workers by 2025 to take care of our aging population. More specifically, the United States will be short 446,300 home health aides, 98,700 medical and lab technicians, 95,000 nursing assistants, and 29,400 nurse practitioners in 2025.

SEDA-COG’s Betsy Lockwood, Director of Project Development and Grants, applied for this grant on behalf of the Institute.

On the grant’s benefits, Lockwood said, “The ARC investment in this project will enable healthcare facilities to secure a trained workforce to fill their unmet needs. It will also expand and strengthen community systems (education, healthcare, housing, childcare, and others) that help our community members obtain a job, stay on the job, and advance a long, financially sustaining career pathway.”

Delta Development Group, Inc. aided with the preparation of the grant. To date, Delta has assisted CPI with the original market study to determine the need for new post-secondary training programs, and secured over $14.5 million in federal and state grant/loan funding for the actual construction of the Health Sciences Building.

SEDA-COG is a community and economic development agency in Lewisburg and is one of seven Local Development Districts in Pennsylvania. SEDA-COG enhances the quality of life and economic advantage for residents and businesses in the 11 central Pennsylvania counties through its vital partnerships and initiatives.

Two projects in Perry and Lycoming Counties recently received Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) grants.

$500,000 was awarded to Clarks Ferry Tavern for the renovation of the historic building as an official Perry County “Welcome and Interpretive Center.” The Clarks Ferry Tavern is located in the downtown of the Borough of Duncannon, at 603 N. Market Street. The Tavern will welcome hikers on the Appalachian Trail, the 9/11 Memorial Trail, and thousands of tourists seeking to explore the county recreational opportunities and heritage sites.

The 1789 Clark’s Ferry Tavern and Inn located at 603 N. Marketing Street, Duncannon, Perry County, was a rest stop for travelers heading west into the American frontier. Steeped in history, the Tavern served as a stagecoach stop, an inn, the town’s post office, and a Civil War recruiting office. At the turn of the 1800s, travelers would check into the inn while waiting to cross the Susquehanna River. Today it is a heavily visited tourist site. Hikers also know Duncannon as the halfway point on the Appalachian Trail, stretching from Maine to Georgia.

Now a National Register of Historic Places site, Clarks Ferry Tavern will be a multi-use building suitable for historical interpretation and a Welcome Center to the Juniata River Valley and the Appalachian Region of Central Pennsylvania. The Clarks Ferry Tavern (CFT) Welcome Center is planned as a commercial enterprise that provides rental space for public events. The ARC and matching funds will include renovating the building to provide a catering kitchen, a large community room, break-out rooms, and restrooms. The building will also become ADA compliant and bring the building up to 21st-century codes.

$1,000,000 was awarded to the Timber Run Access Road located in Brady Township, Lycoming County. This project involves the construction of a new 2,600 LF (0.492 miles) access road through the Timber Run Industrial Park. The project will include a new 24 foot-wide access road with concrete curbing and associated storm drainage improvements and end in a cul-de-sac. This project will serve 396 acres, including one to four lots of varying sizes designated as a Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ) until 2027. At full buildout, this project could employ over 300 jobs.

The Timber Run Industrial Park (TRIP) was developed to re-use the farm the County had purchased for use as a soil borrow area for its Landfill. The TRIP offers 396 acres of industrially zoned property with good access to major highways, US 15/I-80 and the nearby Williamsport Airport. This project will encourage the protection, modernization, and expansion of existing businesses and job opportunities, and where appropriate, encourage entrepreneurship and the recruitment of new business and industry consistent with the character of the Region.

SEDA-COG is a community and economic development agency in Lewisburg and is one of seven Local Development Districts in Pennsylvania. SEDA-COG enhances the quality of life and economic advantage for residents and businesses in the 11 central Pennsylvania counties through its vital partnerships and initiatives.

Businesses in an 11-county region have the opportunity to complete a COVID-19 impact survey whose results will help SEDA-Council of Governments (SEDA-COG) further respond to the needs of businesses during this time. This survey checks in approximately one year after our first survey that assessed how businesses in our area were coping in the midst of the pandemic.

This survey has been developed to gauge the impact of the pandemic on overall business operations, as well as if and how businesses have successfully adjusted.

The survey questions include, but are not limited to, if the business and their staff have adequate internet access; adaptations they’ve made; types of services and assistance they need; and if they are interested in collaborating with other business owners.

It takes less than 10 minutes to complete, and businesses are asked to complete the survey by May 7.

Businesses should be located within the following counties: Centre, Clinton, Columbia, Juniata, Lycoming, Mifflin, Montour, Northumberland, Perry, Snyder, and Union.

SEDA-COG is a Lewisburg-based agency that builds strong economies and communities by partnering with, investing in, and revitalizing local companies and communities.
Betsy Lockwood, SEDA-COG Director, Project Development/Grants, said this is a tool to provide further assistance to businesses.

“While we have helped hundreds of businesses since the start of COVID-19, we created this 2nd phase survey realizing that businesses may still be struggling, perhaps with different issues. It is essential to capture the type of help and level of assistance businesses in our region need to continue fostering our local economy. The results also will identify ongoing and future responses needed during these unprecedented times,” Lockwood said. “The pandemic has created large gaps of need, and one of SEDA-COG’s primary roles is to bridge those gaps and help businesses and communities to meet their needs and empower them to reach their goals.”

The survey can be taken at https://seda-cog.org/covid-19-business-impact-survey/

For more information about the survey, contact Betsy Lockwood at elockwood@seda-cog.org.

As a community and economic development agency, SEDA-COG enhances the quality of life and economic advantage for residents and businesses in 11 central Pennsylvania counties through its vital partnerships and initiatives. SEDA-COG also is an advocate for the interests of its communities at the state and federal levels. For more information, visit www.seda-cog.org.