Local businesses receive inaugural Impact Awards
Two area businesses were among 50 in the state to receive the inaugural Governor’s Impact Awards for their impacts on the economy and their communities.
Neubauer’s Flowers and Market House of Uniontown received the Community Impact Award and 84 Lumber Co. of Eighty Four received the Export Impact Award at a ceremony in Hershey last week.
Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration created the awards to honor businesses that are creating job opportunities and contributing to the state’s economy.
“Today we honor the men and women who spend countless hours providing the leadership and care that it takes to run a successful business,” Corbett said at the May 23 ceremony. “You are the champions partnering with us to put Pennsylvania on the path of growth.”
Steve Neubauer, owner of Neubauer’s Flowers, was recognized for renovating the flower shop on South Gallatin Avenue and the more recent restoration of the Market House, which opened in 2009.
“We’re obviously quite honored. We’ve continued to work hard and invest here. It was humbling to say the least. It’s just a tribute to my staff and the customers who support us,” Neubauer said.
The blighted Market House building hadn’t been painted in more than 20 years, didn’t have any windows and the roof leaked before it was restored, he said.
“We completely rehabbed that building bringing it back to its original condition,” Neubauer said, adding that one additional full-time and one part-time employees were hired when the Market House opened.
84 Lumber was recognized for its international exports.
“We were certainly honored,” said Mark Reginelli, 84 Lumber’s director of world trade.
A concentrated effort to exporting building products began two and half years ago, Reginelli said.
The company has been exporting materials to Korea, the Bahamas, Iraq, Chile and Mongolia, he said.
“84 Lumber has been really diverse in our exports,” Reginelli said. “We have people who concentrate on the export program. We’re now being proactive in it.”
He said 84 Lumber products were used in the first home built in Mongolia with material from the United States; the company sent materials to Chile to rebuild homes after the earthquake and tsunami in Chile in 2010, and another contract is being negotiated in Iraq with a contractor the company worked with previously.
Three other area businesses were nominated, but didn’t win awards. The Christian W. Klay Winery in Wharton Township and Greene Team Pellet Fuel Co. of Garards Fort in Greene County were nominated for enterprise awards. Universal Well Services of North Union Township received a jobs award nomination. Ford Business Machines of Connellsville was nominated for a small business impact award.
The awards recognized companies in the state in five categories: jobs, community impact, small business impact, entrepreneurial impact and export impact. The awardees were chosen by an independent judging panel selected by the state’s partners, Team Pennsylvania Foundation and Journal Multimedia.
Nominations for each award were provided by the state’s regional economic development partners — the Partnerships for Regional Economic Performance (PREP) network.
The awards were sponsored at no cost to the taxpayers by the state’s private sector partner, Team Pennsylvania Foundation, and are being coordinated by DCED, Team PA and Journal Multimedia. Representatives from the Team PA Foundation and Journal Multimedia evaluated the nominations and selected the award recipients.