LSA panel wraps up hearings
John LaCarte, president of Middle Monongahela Industrial Development Association, presents plans to construct a flex building in Alta Vista Business Park to the LSA board Tuesday.
Susan Bowers, right, president of Monongahela Area Historical Society, and documentary filmmaker Laura Magone show a wedding cookie display Tuesday at the LSA hearings.
The annual Local Share Account hearings came to a sweet close Tuesday afternoon.
Representatives of Monongahela Area Historical Society presented cookies to LSA review committee members as a prop before presenting their pitch for funding on a project related to wedding cookies. They intend to produce a documentary, compile a cookbook and set up a display on this specialty that, once completed, would serve as ways to raise money for their Monongahela museum.
Theirs was the 32nd of 33 hearings Tuesday, and the final one open to the public. The 33rd, a redevelopment project of the former Brockway Glass in Canton Township, was a private session before the committee – allowable by the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act because it was real estate-related.
Susan Bowers, president of the historical society, kicked off her presentation by stressing wedding cookies, and the table display thereof, are a longtime tradition as well as a distinctive art form.
“This is a cultural project,” she said in the public meeting room of Courthouse Square, Washington. She was accompanied by documentary filmmaker Laura Magone, a Mon City native, and Merilee Madera.
“I’m a daughter of Italian immigrants,” Bowers continued, “and one thing I learned as a child is when you’re at a wedding, you look at the wedding cookie table. When you look, you know whether it’s a good wedding or ehhh.”
She said the society is seeking about $100,000 overall for this project, but could not recall the specific amount of their LSA request. She and Magone teamed on two previous projects: a 2008 local documentary, “One Extraordinary Street,” and the Images of America book “Monongahela City.” Money from sales of the planned documentary and book and admissions to the museum would go to the West Main Street facility.
That was the second and final day of the 2016 LSA hearings, which for the first time were not conducted in January. A total of 78 applicants presented their cases to the panel, and requested $24.7 million. Some will be turned down and few, if any, will get the full amount they ask, as about $7 million is actually available.
Applicants must have secured matching funds before making the requests, and LSA money is to be used for economic development, community improvement and job-training projects in the county.
The pot will be funded by gambling revenue from The Meadows Casino from April 1, 2015, through March 31, 2016. The Redevelopment Authority of Washington County administers the program.
The Washington County LSA committee determines recipients and amounts each will get and forwards recommendations to the county commissioners for approval or rejection. The list then will be sent to the state Department of Community and Economic Development, with funds being distributed next summer.
One of the largest requests during the two days – $2 million – came from Middle Monongahela Industrial Development Authority. John LaCarte, president of MIDA and Model Cleaners, made his pitch for that amount so MIDA can construct a 50,000-square-foot spec building at the Alta Vista Business Park in Fallowfield Township,
“We want to have a site ready for a company to move into,” LaCarte said. “We’ve found that when companies need space, and it’s available, things happen quickly.”
He said two of the four buildings at Alta Vista were constructed as “specs without tenants” and that two businesses there, Progeny Systems Corp. and Weatherford International, have succeeded with about 75 jobs apiece.
He said the planned building would be flex in nature, with a mix of office and light industrial. LaCarte added the interchange improvements nearby could be an added attraction for prospective tenants.
“We think this is the perfect time to build,” he said.
About two hours later, for a committee working through lunch, it was a perfect time for cookies.