His second summit on economic development throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, brought Governor-elect Ed Rendell to St. Francis University in Loretto to learn what the needs are for this part of the state.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve planned nine economic summits regionally throughout Pennsylvania,\u201d said Rendell. \u201cThis helps us get input from labor leaders, business leaders and officials at the local and state level about what they are looking forward to concerning economic development priorities.\u201d
\nIn a region that has been hit hard by the closings of the Norfolk Southern Car Shop in Hollidaysburg, C-Cor Electronics in Tipton and Westvaco in Tyrone, economic development is a priority.
\n\u201cEconomic development is the most pressing issue facing Pennsylvania,\u201d said Rendell. \u201cI am going to ask the legislation to pass the most aggressive economic development bond issue. For those bonds to be effective, we have to learn the local priorities.\u201d
\nIn his two summits thus far, the incoming governor has learned about some of the state programs that need changed or fixed.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve spent over four hours talking with local leaders about a wide range of issues,\u201d said Rendell. \u201cThey range from workers training, to proposed infrastructure to aid for rural communities.\u201d
\nThroughout the campaign for governor, the republicans painted Rendell as a governor for Philadelphia.
\nWhen asked, how can you show the people of Central Pennsylvania that you are a governor for the entire state, Rendell was frank in his answer.
\n\u201cI plan to be fair to every part of the state,\u201d Rendell said. \u201cIt\u2019s easy for me to say now and many people can shake their heads, but in three weeks when I am the governor, I will be able to act in the best interests of the Commonwealth and be judged on my actions.\u201d
\nRendell believes that the completion of Interstate 99 will help the development of the region.
\n\u201cAnything that increases the ability to get goods to people faster helps economic development,\u201d said the governor-elect. \u201cThe link up or I-99 will open up economic development in the area. People will be able to get goods in and out so if there is a factory or distribution center that is looking to re-locate to this area will be linked with a first class transportation center.\u201d
\nThe Daily Herald asked Rendell when it comes to a cabinet, is he looking at the possibility of asking Secretary of Agriculture Sam Hayes to stay on?
\n\u201cWe are looking at every incumbent,\u201d said Rendell. \u201cThe first announcement was to keep the current fire commissioner on. Some of the incumbent cabinet secretaries have moved on already. I am looking at Secretary Hayes and many others to fill the many spots in our cabinet.\u201d
\nTyrone Mayor Patricia Stoner attended the summit and believes a lot was accomplished.
\n\u201cI think the seminar was excellent,\u201d said Stoner. \u201cYou listened to other municipalities who share a lot of the problems that our community does. This covered a lot of issues to enhancing economic development of this area.\u201d
\nOne way to help would be a change in the way that Keystone Opportunity Zones (KOZ) work.
\n\u201cIt is tough for our community to compete when you have KOZ\u2019s in Antis and Snyder Townships,\u201d said Stoner. \u201cWe talked about improving KOZ\u2019s, making it more attractive for businesses to locate in this area and the possibility of assisting businesses with more state help.\u201d
\nStoner believes that Rendell will work for the entire state, not just Philadelphia.
\n\u201cWe talked about how to improve this regions economic climate,\u201d said Stoner. \u201cThis is geared toward the \u201cT\u201d of the state. We talked about a certain level of consolidating our efforts and got our ideas on the table.\u201d
\nThis summit was a follow up to a meeting on December 19 with Rendell aides and local business and local elected officials.
\n\u201cThere was a priority list that came from the December meeting,\u201d said Stoner. \u201cOne of the things that made that list is re-opening the Westvaco plant. We need to work on a regional strategy to address the econimical issues that have been effecting our area. The Governor-elect was genuinely interested on what is happening here in Central pennsylvania.
\nRendell has seven more summits scheduled before being innaugarated as Pennsylvania\u2019s governor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
His second summit on economic development throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, brought Governor-elect Ed Rendell to St. Francis University in Loretto to learn what the needs are for this part of the state. \u201cWe\u2019ve planned nine economic summits regionally throughout Pennsylvania,\u201d said Rendell. \u201cThis helps us get input from labor leaders, business leaders and officials […]<\/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-47552","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\/47552","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=47552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}