SMETHPORT—“I’m on your side,” Clyde “Champ” Holman assured
the community representatives who attended a town meeting in Smethport, last
Wednesday.
Accompanied by several other Department of Community and
Economic Development (DCED) officials, the Deputy Secretary appeared briefly in
the Court of Angels banquet room during a whirlwind tour through the area.
His remarks offered little in the way of announcements or
plans or promises of new funding, but rather focused on encouraging local
community leaders to become more vocal, and to interact with state and federal
government in various ways.
“I’m on your side,” Holman said, encouraging listeners to
email him directly using his cholman@pa.gov email address. Going through
layers of bureaucracy to reach someone who can and will work on a problem “cuts
into time, getting the process done.”
Process was what irked a number of locals in the audience.
“Opportunities dwindle,” lamented Susan Carlson, a leader in the Port Allegany
Area Economic Development Corporation, and long a proponent of downtown
revitalization. “Things change. Our Main Streets have empty storefronts.
Carlson pointed out that even when tenants’ businesses close
up, building owners still must pay property taxes and maintain the buildings.
Prospective entrepreneurs face “too big a hurdle” in some cases, because of
burdensome regulations.
Rural locations face the additional burden of extra distance
between communities, “We are too far apart to band together,” Carlson said.
“What can we do?” Holman asked, urging that locals contact
DCED with specific requests and ideas about how the state can be involved.
Norwich Township Butch Schaffer said, “Government should get
out of the way.”
Holman quickly interjected, “You are the government,” then
asked Schaffer to continue.
“I look at some of these projects,” Schaffer said. “Common
sense has been killed dead…It costs (the community or entrepreneur) $200 to get
$50.”
Holman responded, “Who do you think writes those
regulations?” He mentioned the role of legislative guidelines in the regulatory
process, and counseled, “You’ve got to get in their ears and start telling
them” about the problems and needs of the local community.
“Up here we don’t need that much regulation,” Carlson
remarked.
Richard Kallenborn, Port Allegany Borough Manager, pointed
out that stricter highway rules coupled with the distances in rural areas bring
about serious dislocation and long detours.
For example, a detour to avoid “one bridge out here, you may
have to travel 30 miles,” Kallenborn said. Recently a number of bridges have
been reclassified as to weight limits, effectively closing them to traffic
greater than three tons, hampering area drilling operations related to the
Marcellus Shale, along with logging. Emergency vehicles such as fire trucks
will also have difficulty reaching many locations where bridges are being
closed to them.
Holman said that Transportation Secretary Barry Schoch is
trying to force legislators to appropriate more money for inspections and
repairs of highway infrastructure.
Dusti Dennis, Executive Director of the McKean County
Housing and Redevelopment Authority, and Gay DeGolier, Community Development
Coordinator for the authority, engaged with Holman in discussion of the
changing, and sometimes onerous, guidelines for projects and funding. The
recently organized McKean County Blight Task Force was another topic they
launched.
Holman’s replies touched on Act 90, passed when he was a
legislator, and the possibility of “land banking.”
Sharen Horvath of the Inn on Maple Street described the
paperwork burden government requirements add to a small business. Being
“shackled” to those tasks hour after hour tempts a business owner to consider
working for another employer, she said.
Holman challenged her and other business people to “educate
us.”
DCED Acting Regional Director Alison Schmidt commented that
there is no easy fix for the regulatory requirements and challenges presented
by sparsity. The Erie-based official mentioned changing technology and its
impact on the kinds of business that can do well in rural areas. “Smethport
used to be known for the Christmas store,” she recalled. Communities planning
in isolation “in rural Pennsylvania are the ones that will get left behind,”
Schmidt said.
Also accompanying Holman on the tour were DCED’s Executive
Director Peter Zug, and Ed Fosnaught, DCED Regional Local Government Policy
Specialist.
Concerning Fosnaught, Kallenborn said, “We trained him,”
referring to Fosnaught’s years in the Port Allegany area and service as
Pittsburgh Corning Corporation’s production manager at the local plant.
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