Milissa Bauer, the Clarion County Economic Development Corporation’s secretary/treasurer, offered a summation of the CCEDC’s work and how it has benefited Clarion County: “Economic development brings wealth to the county.”
Bauer, in her speech to attendees at the CCEDC’s annual meeting last week at the Haskell House, said the CCEDC has over the past few years engaged in a “concerted effort” with Delta Development, which has a contract with Clarion County to explore grant opportunities.
“For 2022, we had received $5.2 million in state grants and $7.4 million from private investors,” she said. “I think that is huge.”
“In three years, there have been 22 projects for $22.6 million,” she said. “That is a 764 percent return on investment.”
Bauer said the CCEDC is working on several new projects for 2023.
“One of the things the commissioners challenged economic development to do is tourism,” she said. “The destination improvement initiative will get people here. We are also working on industrial development and turning properties that may not have been on our tax rolls into viable properties.”
Bauer said the CCEDC is working on “all Main Streets” in the county. “We will start with one and then take this template to other communities.”
Bauer said housing also is a priority because “our housing inventory is down 50 percent since the start of COVID.”
Jack Maytum, senior analyst for Design Nine, a Virginia-based company that provides technology advice and services, spoke on the Clarion County Connected broadband engineering plan, during which he said the county “is well ahead of the game.” The intention is to put it in a position to take advantage of any grant money that is available.
“We plan to include the information from the survey into our plan,” Maytum said. “Eventually, everyone in the country is going to be connected by fiber just as everyone is connected by electricity today. Electricity was considered to be a luxury in the 1920s, and now everyone has it.”
He said the money will be distributed to the states, but the counties that have a plan in place will be “first in line” for funds.
“For a commercial provider, those areas that have more customers are going to get better service,” Maytum said. “Those in the rural areas, where it is more expensive to connect, are usually the last to be connected.”
Maytum said the county should be in a good position to submit its plan to the state and federal government.
Jarred Heuer, the CCEDC’s executive director, said the Clarion County Connected initiative seeks to coordinate various groups in advancing programmatic and capital improvement projects across the county.
Three Strategic Action Teams (SAT) have been implemented to reach the goals. The three SAT are tourism, promotion and attraction; workforce and education and communities; and sites and infrastructure. Each SAT is built from public, private and nonprofit stakeholders.
“SATs will work to … problem-solve toward the creation and implementation of solutions,” Heuer said. “We have a lot of work to do.”
During the meeting, Jason Hansford was elected as CCEDC president for 2023. Also serving are Bill Henry, as vice president, and Bauer, as secretary/treasurer.
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