Mellon Foundation OKs $500,000 grant to continue child-care program
WAYNESBURG – The Greene County Industrial Development Authority’s successful child-care program is assured of at least two more years of operation. The authority board announced Wednesday that the trustees of the Richard King Mellon Foundation approved a two-year grant totaling $500,000 for the continuation of the program, the state funding for which was scheduled to end Sept. 30.
According to special projects coordinator Bert Menhart, the funds will allow the three sites – Carmichaels Area, Jefferson-Morgan and Waynesburg Central high schools – to keep offering the child care component from the end of the school day until 9 p.m.
Free computer courses, funded by a 21st Century Community Learning Center grant, are offered at those three sites, and free child care is offered to those who enroll in those classes or any educational program. The child care is available for children 6 months to 16 years old.
Menhart said participants face neither income guidelines nor costs for the program, and more than 200 children were enrolled in child care at one of the three sites last year.
Dr. Charles Rembold, board chairman, said more than 150 Greene County residents received certification in one of three areas last year because of the Community Learning Center grant. He said a well-trained work force is essential to the future economic development of the county.
While the 21st Century grant and the child-care programs already are in place, Rembold said he submitted a $500,000 grant application to the U.S. Department of Education for development of five community technology education centers (COMM-TEC), one for each of the county’s five school districts.
He said the grant is a joint venture with the county education consortium and the technology consortium, with the IDA acting as the grant fiscal agent. If the grant were approved, funds would go to both the school programs and the evening programs to improve student achievement and to help retrain the county’s work force.
“Two parts of the package are completed, and the COMM-TEC package is missing,” Rembold said. “Education becomes the driver in economic development, and to sustain a high-tech environment, we need to retrain the work force in technology.”
He said the grant would pay for a full-time technology coordinator at each school district to work from 1 to 9 p.m. Each coordinator would work in the schools until 4 p.m. and then train the residents the rest of the time.
The grant specifics were to be discussed at a meeting of all five school district superintendents Wednesday, he said.
Rembold said the authority is involved in child care and education initiatives because new economic theories are supporting the argument that economic development cannot happen without incorporating all the pieces that are necessary for it to happen.
“Greene County has a compelling story and a compelling program that matches the story, and people are willing to fund pieces of the compelling story,” he said.
In other business, Executive Director Don Chappel updated the board about a meeting he had Tuesday with officials from the state Department of Transportation concerning the access road to EverGreene Technology Park. That road will be built with Appalachian Regional Commission funds.
Chappel said PennDOT officials walked the site and have to complete an environmental analysis, though a study was already done when the application was submitted to ARC for grant funds. While PennDOT officials said they would work to expedite the process, Chappel said it will take two to three months before PennDOT grants final approval.
“The good part is they know where the road is, and we can most likely move ahead with where we want to put our water and sewage lines,” he said.
The board also voted to send a letter to the county commissioners, asking them to approve an appointment to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of John Brodak. Brodak’s term would have expired at the end of the year, so the appointee will serve only the remaining five months before the board of commissioners will have to make another appointment.
Joe Simatic, manager of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Water Authority and GCIDA board member, said he had to leave a meeting with contractors to attend the board meeting because his absence would have meant a lack of quorum. Richard “Skip” Noftzger of Waynesburg College was out of town Wednesday.
“It is in the commissioners’ best interest to fill that position,” he said. “It’s non-political because they can make a new appointment next year and we need someone to finish out this year.”
No mention of the appointment was made at the commissioners’ agenda meeting held later Wednesday morning.