The Altoona-Blair County Development Corporation will be the venue today where local officials will pitch their messages in an attempt to have three areas in Northern Blair County designated as Keystone Opportunity and Enhancement Zones.
\nThe areas in question include an undeveloped parcel of land in the Tyrone Industrial Park, two parcels of ground associated with the Westvaco site and a 434-acre tract of land near the Pinecroft Interchange of Interstate 99, known as the Bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese estate.
\nAccording to Marty Marasco, ABCD president, the meeting will gather both taxing municipality officials and school district leaders to discuss if they would be in agreement with submitting the proper paperwork to the state to see if these areas qualify for KOEZ status.
\n Marasco said the paperwork must arrive in Harrisburg by June 1. He said ABCD will contact the Blair County Commissioners after today\u2019s meeting to get their opinion on it.
\n\u201cThere are positives and negatives to it,\u201d said Commissioner John Ebersole. \u201cIt\u2019s no secret that we need more jobs, but when these places are designated as Keystone Opportunity Zones, local taxing bodies are taking the hit.
\n\u201cI\u2019m not too fond of the 15-year KOZs, but I think the five-year programs are definitely an enticement,\u201d he said. \u201cAlmost every community across the state is hoping big businesses and industries move into their area. They, like us, need them for the jobs and for the local economy. Blair County is like all these. We have to do these kinds of things.\u201d
\nRep. Larry O. Sather echoed Ebersole\u2019s comments. He talked of the importance of jobs in the area.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s something that we need and something we need to compete for,\u201d said Sather. \u201cWe definietly need more family-sustaining jobs in Northern Blair County. These incentive programs are going to help us get them here.\u201d
\nPerhaps the most notable talk today will be concerning the Westvaco plant, which closed its Tyrone doors and packed up in 2001, and took with it more than 250 well-paying jobs.
\nMarasco said ABCD has organized a team of individuals made up of representatives from Tyrone Borough, the Governor\u2019s Action Team, U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, state Senate Pro Tem Robert Jubelirer and state Rep. Larry Sather to look into the Westvaco situation and discover an entity to begin operations there again.
\nRumors have surfaced about a group of ten local and non-local investors who are working feverishly to purchase the plant from the owners of Westvaco and begin paper production again.
\nThis morning, Carl Marcharola, executive assistant with Sen. Robert Jubelirer, deferred comment about \u201cTeam 10\u201d to ABCD, but did note its progress is continuing. Ebersole said this morning that he knows \u201cTeam 10\u201d has applied to different entities for funding, but has not asked the county for any financial help.
\nMarasco said he would not comment on \u201cTeam 10.\u201d He said ABCD is continuing to advance the project and there is \u201cno deal at the present time\u201d and he would not comment until signatures are on the documents.
\nMayor Stoner would not go on the record as to the activities of \u201cTeam 10\u201d and Rep. Sather said he would not comment on possible entities that are involved in negotiations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Altoona-Blair County Development Corporation will be the venue today where local officials will pitch their messages in an attempt to have three areas in Northern Blair County designated as Keystone Opportunity and Enhancement Zones. The areas in question include an undeveloped parcel of land in the Tyrone Industrial Park, two parcels of ground associated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}