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[Jayhawk]

There was a story in the paper the other day that said Penn-Northwest Development Corp., the quasi-public organization designated as the county's lead economic development agency is doing some soul searching in an effort to finally, after 30 or 40 years, figure out what they hell they are supposed to be doing.

So far they've identified that there are currently something like TWENTY-EIGHT different organizations with something like 35 total employees engaged in the business of promoting Mercer County.

That's not an excessive number of people, and some probably are specific towns' groups (greenville chamber of commerce). Still, if there are this many 1- or 2-person agencies out there, just the cost of individual office space, payroll services and someone to answer the phone would consume an awful lot of administrative overhead before they can eve think about accomplishing anything.

And can anyone name half of them? I can think of Penn-Northwest, 4 or 5 separate chambers of commerce (which seem to focus these days more on golf outings than anything that would grow the business environment) and the tourism agency (which isn't called the tourism agency anymore but is now named after a cryptic website address)

Heck, when the feds said they were going to throw billions at local stimulus projects, after all these years none of these agencies had a list of the Top 10 needs/ready-to-go projects taped to someone's desktop in full view if anyone asked. They had to "think about it" and then put together such a list. So we got a couple roads paved that were going to get paved anyway.

The only decent news lately was that the former werner/signature aluminum plan outside greenville would be reopened. Not because anyone recruited a new business but because one of its customers still needed product and was able to buy the gigantic plant and equipment in bankruptcy court for pennies on the dollar.

But, hey, thanks to millions of dollars to install new signs and widen a couple ramps, we not have THREE, count 'em, THREE interstates serving Mercer County. OK, so it's the same three 4-lane highways we always have, but one is now called in INTERSTATE. Prosperity, here we come.

Meanwhile, rest assure that there are 28 agencies working hard to built the future of mercer county. If you don't believe me, i'm sure at least one of them has a golf scramble coming up this month.

[Lifetime]

I have to wonder "bang for the buck". My first question is...for what is monetarily involved... How many jobs/projects has PENN-NORTHWEST "created" with their money and personnel? Not picking on just PennNW... maybe some info on the same for all the others as well.
 
Now I am seeing an "industrial" level of Mental Health and Wrap-Around services as well. So many "cooks" in the same kitchen can sometimes ( ruin the soup) blur the original intent and focus. They seem to be multiplying at the rate of "Dollar Stores" and "Cash for Checks" places. I tend to look at these as a gauge of where the Community is in economic, family and mental issues. So many changes have occured in our Valley that most of what is there, is just too obvious and not all positive in my mind.
 
 
 

[Jayhawk]

How many jobs/projects has PENN-NORTHWEST "created" with their money and personnel?

That's a good question. I have a feeling that when it really comes down to it, in recent years about half of the new jobs would have happened on their own anyway.

I still keep going back to the announcement of the stimulus money, and that the local agencies had no such list of top priority economic development projects at their fingertips and had to sit down and make such a list.

As for effectiveness, I think it was the county industrial development authority in the 80s and 90s that had money or the ability to guarantee loans, and most of what they financed ended up being just rows and rows of suburban medical offices -- not new growth, just subsidizing the relocation of existing.
 
Onthe mental health and wrap-around, you've definitely fingered a greater case of duplicated or dubious services. The wrap-around industry is definitely one that should be looked into; money is being made.

school districts can't afford classroom aids for teachers, yet several kids in the same classroom can have their own, personal wrap-around tutor. The pay is in the $ teens per hour, and most of it is taxpayer money.

in some cases what wraparounds do (especially during non-school days) is more akin to what used to be called parenting or activities handled by a Big Brother/Sister program.