Around the Regions

East

RDO Promotes Broadband in PA
SEDA-COG, in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, along with the Williamsport/Lycoming, Greater Susquehanna Valley, Central Pennsylvania and Columbia Montour Chambers of Commerce, have been promoting the advantages of broadband technology through the Building Broadband Demand (BBD) project. Through BBD, companies can try the technology at no cost for three months. Several area firms reported the broadband service has increased their productivity, provided faster access to information needed to conduct business, and allowed them to go paperless, thus saving time and money. The Appalachian Regional Commission funded this project with a $60,000 grant. Three Internet service providers provide installation and initial connection services at no cost. To date, almost 50 companies are using broadband and 90 percent of the companies who signed on have kept the service.
Contact: Dennis Robinson at 570.524.4491 or robinson@seda-cog.org

Southeast

Industrial Park Benefits Region
The FIVCO ADD in Ashland, Kentucky, is currently pursuing a new, multi-purpose building that will be located in EastPark, also known as the Northeast Kentucky Regional Industrial Park. The 1,000-acre park already employs 2,000 employees, students and teachers who work or study at Cingular Wireless, Cintas, Ohio Valley Wholesale and the Technology Drive Campus of the Ashland Community and Technical College. The Kentucky General Assembly approved $18 million in the FY 2005-2006 state budget for a second building at the Technology Drive campus expected to be ready for students in the fall of 2007. State funds, an Economic Development Administration grant, and Community Development Block Grants provided the impetus and finances necessary to build the new community and technical college building and campus. The structure is considered to be the only business/industrial park in the nation with a college located within its boundaries.                     
Contact: Sherry McDavid at 859.739.5191 or sherry@fivco.org 

Protecting the Homeland in MS
The Central Mississippi PDD in Jackson is working with the Southwest One Regional Response Team, which was created to develop the capabilities of responding to any type of terrorist event. The team is comprised of ten counties, is one of nine regional response teams in the state. The PDD has contracted with Southwest One to gather and organize bi-annual grant reporting data needed by Mississippi’s Office of Homeland Security. Over the next year, the Central Mississippi PDD will continue to work with each jurisdiction within the ten counties who receive grant money through the State’s Homeland Security Program in order to gather and submit information related to the type of equipment and training each jurisdiction receives to prepare for a terrorist event. The teams have also been asked to help with Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts in Mississippi. Once it is determined how many people are needed, team members will be dispatched to the damaged area within two weeks.
Contact: F. Clarke Holmes at 601.981.1511 or cholmes@cmpdd.org

Promoting Growth While Preserving the Environment
The South Central Tennessee Development District, along with the Duck River Agency, the Nature Conservancy, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Southeast Watershed Forum recently sponsored two workshops that focused on ways to promote growth while preserving the natural beauty of the communities’ surrounding environments. Workshop participants learned how land use changes affect water resources, economics and quality of life. They also looked at ways to build a consensus for a different approach to growth. Representatives of jurisdictions compared existing development rules with model principles and identified opportunities to work together for change.
Contact: Joe Max Williams at 931.381.2040 or jmax@sctdd.org

Southwest

RDO Efforts Help Secure Kellogg Grant
The North Central New Mexico Economic Development District (NCNMEDD) in Santa Fe, along with a coalition of organizations that work with entrepreneurs and small businesses in northern New Mexico, received a $2 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation as part of a national rural entrepreneurship development initiative. The Empowering Business Spirit Initiative (EBS), commemorates the foundation’s 75th anniversary and aims to increase access to services for entrepreneurs in several counties in the area.
Contact: Barbara Deaux at 505.827.7313 or bdeaux@nm.net. Or visit www.bizport.org for more information

West

Encouraging a Productive Workforce
The Gila-Pinal Workforce Investment Board, along with Central Arizona Association of Governments Workforce Investment Act Program (CAAG/WIA) and the Arizona Department of Economic Security JOBS Program, received $114,511 in WIA Set-Aside funds in 2004 through the State of Arizona to assist welfare recipients interested in medical careers.  Clients participating in the program are co-enrolled in both the WIA and JOBS Programs. Clients are trained on site at Casa Grande Regional Medical Center and hospital staff provides training, mentoring and supervision of trainees.  
Contact: Maxine Leather at 520.689.5004 or mleather@caagcentral.org or Cathy Melvin at 928.425.3181 or cmelvin@caagcentral.org

Midwest

Industrial Park to Generate Jobs and Revenue
The Economic Development Administration (EDA) has invited the West Michigan Shoreline RDC in Muskegon, Michigan, and Muskegon County to apply for a $2.562 million grant from EDA with a 50 percent local match to develop the Muskegon County Business/Industrial Park – North. The proposed site for the park was once considered to be one of the nation’s top ten worst Superfund sites. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has since cleaned up the property and it is now suitable for industrial development. The $5.124 million project will include developing 117 acres of the 211-acre property into 19 lots ranging in sizes from 1.2 acres to 19.9 acres. The proposed project is expected to create more than 652 jobs, and it is anticipated that roughly $75 million of private investment will be generated.
Contact: Sandeep Day or Erin Kuhn at 231.722.7878 or sdey@wmsrdc.org or ekuhn@wmsrdc.org

Organizations Honored for Alternative Fuel
The Southwest RDC (SRDC) in Slayton, Minnesota presented its first annual Project of the Year awards at their recent annual meeting. SRDC honored FUMPA biofuels, a division of the Farmers Union Marketing and Processing Association. They will produce 2.8 million gallons of alternative fuel annually.  In partnership with the Minnesota Prairie Line Railroad, FUMPA bio-diesel is the first bio-diesel to be used in a diesel locomotive in the United States. Minnesota Soybean Processors (MnSP) was also honored. In the past year, they began constructing a refining plant that will produce 30 million gallons of bio-diesel per year. MnSP is a farmer owned, new generation, value-added, closed cooperative, which will take soybeans to the next level of value.  
Contact: Jay Trusty at 507.836.8547 or execdir@swrdc.org