close

Greene County gets $200K economic development grant

2 min read
article image -

Reeling from coal’s decline, Greene County hit a mini-mother lode Wednesday afternoon.

County officials found out Greene will receive $200,000 in federal funding for economic and workforce development.

Robbie Matesic, director of the county’s Department of Economic Development, said Greene will get half of a Partnership for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization grant administered by the Economic Development Administration, an arm of the U.S. Commerce Department. The county will share a $400,000 POWER grant with Catalyst Connection, a manufacturing consulting organization in Pennsylvania.

“This is federal money designated especially for communities impacted by the decline of the coal industry,” Matesic said. “The goal is to bring workforce developers and economic developers together to diversify economies.”

She said the POWER program was initiated about a year ago and “we started working on” an application immediately. Greene had to raise the amount for which it would apply, and did. Then, seven months after submitting its request, it got the full $200,000.

Matesic learned the grant requests of Greene and Catalyst Connection were approved a little after 1 p.m. Wednesday, via an email from Petra Mitchell, president and CEO of Pittsburgh-based Catalyst Connection. Mitchell got the news from U.S. Sen. Bob Casey’s office.

The two bodies agreed to EDA’s request they split one $400,000 grant.

“I am looking forward to working with all of you!” Mitchell said in the email to Matesic; Don Chappel, executive director of Greene County Industrial Developments Inc.; and other development officials from the region.

Matesic lauded Dana Kendrick, former economic development specialist in Fayette County, for alerting people in the region about the POWER initiative.

Greene County, Matesic said, will be one of 20 counties working together “to develop a strategy to develop manufacturing.” Greene was hit hard by the plunge of the coal industry and the loss of hundreds of mining jobs in recent years, and is striving to diversify its workforce and economy.

“We have some great efforts underway, and this will help tremendously,” she said. “In our economy, this is critical.”

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today