State official tours Greene County developments
WAYNESBURG – State Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Yablonsky toured three economic hot spots in Greene County on Tuesday. Accompanied by state, county and local officials, Yablonsky visited the EverGreene Technology Park and Separation Design Group in Franklin Township and Waynesburg College’s Center for Research and Economic Development.
At EverGreene, work is being completed on a building that will house U.S. Air Force software contractor R.J. Lee Group, a satellite campus for Westmoreland County Community College and the Pennsylvania Army National Guard’s Waynesburg Readiness Center.
State Rep. H. William DeWeese (D-Waynesburg) said EverGreene is the first step toward the “affluence” of the Route 21 corridor and called it a “mini-Southpointe effort.”
The 248-acre business park is in enrolled in the tax-free Keystone Opportunity Zone program through 2010.
Southpointe is a well-established business park near Canonsburg, Washington County.
State Sen. J. Barry Stout (D-Bentleyville) said the EverGreene development is the result of federal, state, county and local officials working together.
“We’re blessed with Gov. (Ed) Rendell’s initiatives,” Pam Snyder, chairwoman of the Greene County Commissioners, said, also acknowledging the efforts of DeWeese and Yablonsky. “The amount of money they’ve brought in the last three years has been incredible.”
Yablonsky said $38 million has been invested in Greene County economic development projects over the last three and a half years through Rendell’s initiatives.
He said that investment has helped reduce the county’s unemployment rate from 6.6 percent down to 5.9 percent.
Statewide, the private sector has invested $5 billion as local matches to Rendell’s $2.8 billion in economic stimulus funding, Yablonsky said.
The state unemployment rate has dropped from 5.7 percent down to 4.7 percent in the last three years reflecting the addition of 125,000 jobs, he said.
The Monroeville-based R.J. Lee Group will move into its new office in EverGreene by mid-September, said Barb Wise, an executive assistant with the company.
Its 20 current employees are working in a temporary office in a basement under a doctor’s office near the county fairgrounds, Wise said.
She said the company would eventually have about 50 employees after it moves to EverGreene.
“We’re ready to move in,” Wise said.
Community College of Westmoreland County Community College’s Greene County Education Center is more than ready to move as classes for 305 registered students are scheduled to start on Aug. 24, according to Dr. Nancy Davis, center coordinator.
“We are absolutely planning on starting school Aug. 24,” said Davis, a former superintendent of the Central Greene School District.
She said she was “a little concerned” because interior construction is not yet complete.
A variety of courses will be available at the center, but Davis said she believes the associate’s degree nursing degree program would have the most students.
The center will have five classrooms, two computer rooms and multimedia capabilities for distance learning, she said.
Davis said the opening of the center means the college no longer will have to hold classes in local high schools.
Waynesburg College’s Center for Research and Economic Development was the next stop on the tour.
Construction of the center started in January and the anticipated completion date is November.
Housing classrooms, conference rooms and a large forensic science laboratory, the center will stimulate business and industrial growth through scientific research, according to the college.
The center will include the Rural Entrepreneurial Center, which will encourage and equip people to start their own businesses and seek commercial application of research already being done by business partners such as R.J. Lee, according to the college.
The final stop was Separation Design Group (SDG) on Rolling Meadows Road in Franklin Township.
SDG is developing a modular oxygen concentrator to improve combustion efficiency and a lightweight portable medical oxygen concentrator for ambulatory long-term oxygen patients.
The company started operations in 2003 and has six full-time and six part-time employees.