The ORA take

There have been numerous comments to Inside Oil City regarding the Oil Region Alliance’s efforts to promote and market Oil City’s downtown and its regional economic development activity.

That led me to contact Randy Seitz, ORA president and chief executive officer. I asked Randy to take a few minutes and look at the comments and draft a brief reply outlining the ORA’s work and accomplishments from his perspective.

This is what Randy had to say:

John,

Thank you so much for bringing these comments to my attention. First, let me say how proud I am that our headquarters is in Oil City and it is our pleasure to focus some of our attention on downtown revitalization, particularly through the "mainstreet program" and the industrial park. But, the fact remains, that our focus is and must remain region-wide. We must continue to focus on building the economy of the entire region if we are going to be successful on the war against the economy. Job creation cures all ills!

Now to address the specific comments in the blog. I am confused. In the past year the ORA was the catalyst for:
- The Conair Expansion which retained over 150 jobs
- The expansion of FedEx which retained and created jobs
- Latrobe Steel Expansion which retained and created jobs
- We completed the build-out to the BIC 2nd Floor Space and created a marketable opportunity for Oil City
- Secured over $125,000 in grant money to train incumbent workers keeping our constituents employable
- Secured money for a revolving loan fund to help local entrepreneurs
- Attracted New Airline Carrier for the Venango Airport and the marketing to keep it going
- Recruited Vantage Health Care to the region and created new jobs
- And, assisted in the financing of the second Hawbaker expansion since they arrived in 2007.

Please keep in mind that most of this was accomplished at a time when our neighboring communities like Meadville and Erie announced job losses and companies leaving town. We are, as you know, in a recession and most companies are not expanding anywhere, but they are expanding here, and the ORA has been there to help every step of the way.

In addition, in the case of Conair, the ORA put in the funds to save these jobs, along with FICDA and the NWC. Our commitment was $100,000. This was done during a time when our budget is tight. But that is what we are here for. And lastly, during the same time period, as your blogger pointed out, we have done a tremendous job bringing in tourists that spend money in our region and stay in our hotels. This money keeps our retail here.

Please let me know if you need more information.

Thank you,
Randy Seitz

Of our downtown and April 22

There will be a Oil City Main Street Program on Wednesday, April 22 at 6:30 p.m. in the Great Room of the Transit Building.

The purpose is to update everyone on where things stand with development of the Main Street Program, and more importantly obtain the public’s input on key issues of our strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats.

Already I’ve heard some comment along the lines of "haven’t we done this before." Well, yes and no. Efforts to make our downtown and our community successful and vibrant are not start/finish propositions. They must be ongoing.

In a sense, the current Main Street drive is a natural evolution of recent work done by Take Pride and earlier work by the former CDC and others. But it is also new and different.

Also new and different is our approach to official Main Street Program designation. We are going after that designation in a way that has never bone done before, skipping an entire step (really it is more like a staircase) to get right to where the money is for façade programs, revolving loan funds and more. This is possible through a unique partnership with the Oil Region Alliance.

I have my own thoughts about how our downtown would best succeed and compete. Whether that is what eventually emerges from the Main Street Program is an unknown. What I do know is that my thoughts will be taken into consideration, as will yours – if you take the time to participate. It is your community. It is your future.

So, what are my thoughts on the downtown?

I think the arts can play a huge role, and we are already seeing that happen. I think we need to give thought to what kinds of businesses can fill a market niche. I would like to see our downtown be a vibrant entertainment/social center. I think our upper floors need to become quality office space. I could go on and on.

Cleanin Up Feels Good

My son Noel and I spent Saturday morning with seven other people working our buns off.

It felt good.

We were participating in the PA CleanWays effort to clean up some roadside dumps along Deep Hollow and Aires Hill roads in Cranberry Township.

PA Cleanways is a nonprofit agency that attacks the problem of illegal dumping and littering across the state through cleanup of sites, education and adoption of problem areas. It works through local chapters. Venango County’s chapter recently reactivated thanks to Erik Johnson who took on the role of county chair.

Johnson of Franklin works in the Venango County Planning Commission and is the county’s solid waste and recycling coordinator. I met him for the first time earlier in the week at a planning meeting.

Another member of the work crew that I knew was Susan Hileman. The new folks I met were Ray Fry, Brandy and James Rhinebolt, a young couple from Oil City, Susan Carmichael from PA CleanWays home office in Greensburg and Paul a Cranberry Township employee whose last name I did not get.

It was quite amazing how much our small group was able to accomplish and is testament to what local citizens can do when they work together.

Of course, examples of that are common in Venango-land. We see it often, and it is one of our strengths.

Conversely, there is something of a weird dichotomy that seems to make it difficult for us to work together as effectively as we could on a municipal or government level. To me, that is one of our weaknesses. At least that’s my take.

All things Ning -- New ways of staying informed

This might be an example of teaching an old dog new tricks, I being the old dog.

The Internet has opened up so many more possibilities for keeping the public informed and our citizenry involved. My hope is that this blog is one example of that, but there are many more ways and I’m just learning about them.

Many of you know that Oil City is embarking on a Main Street Program. Two members of the Steering Committee, Susan Williams and Trenton Moulin, decided we needed to find a way to have a Web presence where everyone could be kept informed and even participate if they so desired. Next thing I know, Susan and Trenton are Ning Masters, knowing all things Ning.

I had never heard of Ning before, but it is sort of along the lines of a social networking site (i.e. Facebook or MySpace) but far better suited for the intended purpose.

So, to keep up with the goings on of the Main Street Program go to: http://ocmainst.ning.com/

And no more that I learn of Ning, I find out that the South Side Association now has a Web site: http://southsideassociation.getmynwsite.com/

Such Web sites and networking sites are a valuable addition to keeping up with important events in our community. If you know of a community group with a Web site or networking presence, please post them up. I hope we can develop a lengthy list here and that people will visit them and become involved.

Housing, Neighborhoods and our future

In my last post I noted the Oil City Derrick’s article on the Venango County Housing study conducted by CZB.

Thanks to Joan Wheeler for clueing me in, here is a link where the full report can be found: http://czb.org/worksamples.html

I urge everyone concerned about our neighborhoods and our future as a community to read it. The study conducted by the consulting firm CZB contains some hard truths. I suspect many of us instinctively knew or at least had a suspicion of some of the things that CZB found and made crystal clear in its report, including that cheap, substandard housing leads to further decline.

Some of the suggested solutions to our housing problems are going to draw fire, notably the call for rental unit registration and inspection. On at least two prior occasions when that was brought up in Oil City it met with a firestorm of criticism from landlords and obviously failed to go anywhere.

The consultants also called for strict and aggressive building code and property maintenance enforcement. Again, this is not going to be popular with everyone, but in my mind is absolutely necessary if we are going to save our neighborhoods and our community.

The report also clearly indicates we have way more housing than we need, especially of the cheap and substandard kind. This is not good for Oil City, or the county as a whole. The report suggests that we move to demolish the worst of that. Council has long recognized the need to demolish our condemned and abandoned houses, but as with all things, is constrained financially.

Getting our housing market right is necessary to preserve our neighborhoods. Preserving neighborhoods is necessary for economic development.

It's Your Turn

On Dec. 2 an anonymous commenter said:

“Could you possibly start a new post asking for ideas on how to attract or market O.C. to them? I'm thinking about a post just for that purpose. You could bring it up at a council meeting and tell folks with solid ideas to go to it. They would most likely be interney savvy!!”

So that is what this blog post is going to be all about.

I’d like to hear your ideas about marketing Oil City, attracting businesses and residents and overall improving our town.

And I mean real solid ideas with as many specifics as possible, not the “bring jobs” that we so often hear and that does nothing. We all want that, and so much more. What I want to hear as how we achieve all our hopes and dreams with as many details as possible.

For our downtown business district a similar “no-holds-barred” approach to thinking about crafting a new future is beginning with the Main Street Program. You can become directly involved in that as well, and I urge you to do so.

So, let’s hear what you come up with.

A Must Read

The article in this morning's Derrick is a must read.

http://www.thederrick.com/Derrick/1.shtml

Please, take the time to read it.

I'll have more to say when I have the time
John