Outdoor 1-8 - Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce

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2Williamsport Sun-Gazette, July 2013 The Chamber View Vincent J. Matteo, President/CEO Recently, two levels of local government have come together to help keep businesses and jobs in Williamsport and hopefully bring in more down the road. Williamsport City Council and the Lycoming County Commissioners took action to make sure the Chamber endorsed a request by the Mayor to have the remainder of Reach Road Industrial Park paved in as timely a manner as possible becomes a reality. City Council voted to accept funds from the County’s share of the Impact Fee dollars to have the engineering done for Reach Road and the Lycoming County Commissioners voted unanimously to follow through on it. This means that if all goes well, Reach Road will be done sooner than had been expected and that is great news. City Council, under the leadership of Bill Hall understands the importance of the Reach Road project to jobs in Williamsport and it is rewarding that our three County Commissioners understand that as well. This is the type of project that makes it easy for different levels of government to participate and we are fortunate that the Mayor, Council and the Commissioners understand that. I should also mention that this critical economic development project may not have been possible without the Impact Fee money generated by the Natural Gas Industry and, while their arrival did indeed exasperate the condition of Reach Road, this project would have needed to be done even if the gas industry never arrived. Another welcomed move by Williamsport City Council was their approval of a cooperative agreement with the owner and manager of a planned multihousing complex to be built on Memorial Avenue on the site of the former Brodart warehouse. This is a great project for a city in need of new housing and Council made the right decision in loaning the money to Arbor Housing and Development Group. In approving the agreement, City Council loaned the group $300,000 at 1% - a wise economic and community development decision. Without incentives like this low interest 1% loan, these types of community and economic development projects would most likely not happen and we certainly need these projects to take place not only in Williamsport, but throughout Lycoming County as well. The importance and effectiveness of low interest loans to developers was highlighted in a recent email notication from Secretary C. Alan Walker of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED. In the email he announced that the State was raising their interest rates because of the great success the reduced 1.5% rates had. He wrote, in part, “In December 2012, the Corbett Administration reduced the interest rates of four DCED business loan programs to improve access to capital and encourage business expansion and attraction, and to spur new job creation. Interest rates for the Machinery and Equipment Loan Fund (MELF), the Small Business First (SBF) Program, the Pollution Prevention Assistance Program and the Export Financing Program were reduced from 2.75 percent to 1.50 percent. DCED also waived its standard fees charged to borrowers. DCED’s lower interest rates were initially available for program applications received through March 31. However, the immediate and positive impacts realized from Governor Corbett’s initiative, led to the extension of the interest rate reduction for an additional three months through June 30. Since the initial announcement of the interest rate reduction, 42 SBF loan applications and 32 MELF applications have been submitted to DCED for consideration. These 76 independent project proposals forecast the potential creation of more than 1,500 jobs and the retention of more than 8,600 more jobs. In 2011, prior to the interest rate reduction, DCED received a total of 34 SBF applications and only six MELF applications the entire year. The additional loan programs included in the lowered interest rate also had an uptick in applications.” Those who do not understand economic development will claim the rates by the city or the state are too low but the results outlined by Secretary Walker show they work. I do not normally write about federal issues because it is difcult for us to have any real impact on what is happening in Washington, but this will be the second column in a row I at least mention Washington. Last month it was the war President Obama is waging on coal- and I guess he did not listen to what I wrote since the other day it was announced – or leaked – I forget which- that it was revealed he is planning on bypassing Congress (again) and issuing an Executive Order to ght global warming and the major target in the EPA’s sights will be the coal industry by placing what many call unreasonable standards on electric generating facilities. Hopefully others with more in u- ence will persuade him not to issue the order. This month I want to mention, brie y, the IRS scandal rocking the President and his Administration. Now, to be fair, no one knows how far up the food chain this goes. To date, the President and his top aides have not been implicated – but that could change. My problem is not necessarily with who did or did not order or know that the IRS was targeting conservative groups but it is that this is the same government agency that is going to monitor and enforce Obamacare. If that does not send chills up and down your spine, I don’t know what will. I wonder if they will target conservative groups and businesses to see if they are complying with the new Health Care regulations or actually do a fair job. It is hard to tell – seems there has been a lot of left leaning government ofcials unfairly targeting groups perceived to be conservative lately. Finally, before coming to work this morning I read in the paper an article about the reported delays in mail delivery since the closing of the processing facility in Williamsport. I can tell you from a personal perspective that my mail is being delivered at home some times as late as 8:30PM and postmarks are rarely from the day or two before. I can also tell you it is not the fault of our local delivery folks either- they do a great job. I hate to say it, but the local postal workers (and the Chamber) told you this could happen. Let’s hope the excuse given that it is just a temporary problem due to the transition is true, but the fact is the decision to keep Harrisburg – one of the lowest rated facilities open and close Williamsport (one of the highest rated ones) was never done on merit. And that’s the Chamber View. Get Connected With Your Chamber! Check out our websites for all your events, relocation plans, economic development news, leadership opportunities, and membership information. www.williamsport.org www.vacationpa.org www.leadershiplycoming.org
Leadership Lycoming Presents Community Projects On May 21, 2013, the Leadership Lycoming Class of 2013 presented its community projects to Leadership advisors, board members and project agency leaders during a reception at the Professional Development Center on the campus of Pennsylvania College of Technology. Each year the class is divided into four groups and assigned a community project for them to work with. This year’s projects included Favors Forward Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, the Salvation Army and STEP, Inc. Favors Forward Foundation Leadership Lycoming partnered with the Favors Forward Foundation by assigning a group of its participants to coordinate a group project that would bene!t the nonpro!t. Our group consisted of Jonathan Blackwell, Nicole Hayes, Glenn Smith, Mark Thompson, Kimberly Vanemon and Geralda Xavier. As members of the Leadership Lycoming Class of 2013, we were commissioned to work together on a project that would ultimately transition into a sustainable solution to a need within the organization in order that we would grow our understanding of the organization while volunteering the skills and leadership within our group. We collaborated on several occasions with the leadership of Favors Forward to learn about the organization and to discuss some of the greatest needs and challenges to the effectiveness of accomplishing their mission. Our project became focused around communication and the way the organization communicated with their volunteers and potential volunteer base. This is a critical piece to the social network of volunteers that is Favors Forward. Our team put together an extensive plan to help identify the ways in which this communication can be enhanced and data can be collected, while also taking a hands-on approach to increasing communication through three speci!c media outlets: Facebook, the Favors Forward website and text ready communication. We identi!ed ways for Favors Forward to gather speci!c information about each volunteer in order for them to begin personalizing and tailoring their involvement requests to the strengths and passions of each volunteer. Favors Forward is a tremendous asset to our community and through this project we presented the organization with key ways to increase their volunteer base, communicate with current volunteers, extract the data needed for personalized communication through their website and increase awareness for the organization. Two of our team members have volunteered to remain active with Favors Forward once our project is completed. Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Humanity is an organization with a strong international brand, but the Greater Lycoming Chapter suffered from lack of awareness, or more precisely an accurate public perception in the Lycoming County area. Many local residents did not realize that families who receive housing from the organization must qualify for a mortgage and invest their own time and “sweat equity” in the home builds. Outreach and promotional efforts have been adversely impacted because of ongoing leadership and administrative changes at the local Habitat af!liate. Staff is limited to an executive director and two part-time coordinators, and the Board of Directors was going through a major transition. While Habitat’s original request was to receive help organizing a major fundraiser, the Leadership Lycoming team deduced, after the !rst meeting with Habitat coordinator Ana White, the needs were more fundamental than that. With the organization’s agreement, the project goal was modi!ed to develop a marketing plan for the current year that could serve as a template for a long-range marketing strategy. The Leadership Lycoming team bene!tted from having team members from different backgrounds representing a number of local organizations that worked with the very willing Habitat staff. Members included Joseph Geffre from Pennsylvania College of Technology, Greg Harrison from Susquehanna Health, Megan Lehman from Lycoming County, Sherry Paulhamus from Range Resources, Stacie Schearer from Halliburton, Jamie Snyder from North Central Sight Services and Heather Willis Lewis, Esq., from McNerney, Page, Vanderlin & Hall. In producing the integrated, multimedia marketing and communications plan, the team identi- !ed three major goals of the plan – increase public awareness, expand the number of volunteers with speci!c skill sets, and increase and sustain donations to the organization. The group also pinpointed critical success factors that included securing the full support and participation by the Executive Director, creating a Board-level Outreach and Communication Committee, integrating the marketing plan with ReStore efforts and establishing a permanent budget for marketing and communication. The group was highly vested in the success of the plan. More than considerable counseling session, the group also provided seed money for marketing efforts, in-kind printing services for collateral and stationary and networking opportunities with various community leaders. “For me, the most valuable part of working on this project for Habitat was collaborating with my fellow group members,” said Megan Lehman. “It was fascinating to see how each person brought their varying professional experiences and skills to the table to assist Habitat. We saw very quick results and I felt like our work had an impact in better positioning Habitat to succeed.” Following a presentation of the marketing plan to the Habitat Board, the Board and staff adopted and implemented most recommended action items and fundamentals. Habitat’s new executive director and her team are very active in the community, the Board has reestablished its outreach committee, the organization has adopted the recommended positioning strategy and efforts are focusing on completing priority actions and developing a permanent budget and strategy. In turn, all seven Leadership Lycoming team members have committed to be available to provide advice. continued on page 7 All four teams did such a fantastic job on their community projects, the decision was very hard to choose just one. But the team members that worked with the Favors Forward Foundation were awarded for their efforts in bringing this very young organization into the public’s eye. They include l to r: Mark Thompson, Hope Enterprise, Nicole Hayes, Transitional Living Centers, Geralda Xavier, Susquehanna Health, Kim Vanemon, IMC, Glenn Smith, First Community Foundation Partnership of PA and not pictured, Jonathan Blackwell, Lonza. Congratulations! 3 Williamsport Sun-Gazette, July 2013
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Outdoor 1-8 - Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce

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