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Message KRC – Lessons Learned from Interviews Deliverable #2, Keystone Research Center Subgrant, ARC ARISE Planning Grant to Steel Valley Authority for “The Sustainable Finance Hub” Project Interviews: • Amy Kessler, 8/8/24, North Central PA Regional Planning and Development Commission • Tammy Dulaney, 8/13/24, Northwest PA Regional Planning and Development Commission • Betsy Lockwood, 8/20/24, SEDA—Council of Governments • Chuck Gray, 8/28/24, Execuve Director of Impact Corry • Zachary Norwood, 8/28/24, Planning Director at Crawford County Planning Oce • Rebecca Beach, 8/29/24, Loan Program Manager, Northwest PA Regional Planning and Development Commission • Tina Mengine, 9/5/24, Erie County Redevelopment Authority-yes • Andy Walker, Allegheny College, 9/25/24 • Julie Wilson, Common Roots, 9/25/24 Broad Take-Aways: • Broadly speaking, many of the folks at the commissions, authories, councils, non-prots, and local governments in northcentral and northwest PA know lile about the new federal funding opportunies (the grants and the IRA tax credits). LDD community/economic development sta tend to know about the agencies that historically fund them (e.g., ARC and EDA) and might be more condent seeking increases in funds in the recent federal bills funneled through exisng programs or even new programs through those agencies. • Many people spoke about the lack of experse and capacity internal to their organizaon to get to know these new opportunies. “There is a lot of federal money out there, but the people who need it most have the least ability to draw down those funds” (Betsy Lockwood). “Capacity is a massive challenge. We have the drive to go aer big funds but we don’t have the capacity. We need resources to help navigate and support organizaons that want to go aer resources.” (Zach Norwood) • Challenges idened: o Everything requires upfront costs with no hope for reimbursement. It is very hard to get a project going ▪ People need seed money or revolving interest funds. o It is hard for non-prots to create projects that create a revenue stream. They needa library of models. o “As a small rural town, I feel disenfranchised and unable to capitalize on the new federal money. (Chuck Gray). “Federal funding and other funding that comes down through local gov, the smaller the municipality, the less likely they are to take advantage of anything. Federal, along with state funding that goes through counes, are not making it out to the smaller municipalies.” (Chuck Gray)
2 • Ways a hub can be helpful: o Teach organizaons about IRA tax credits and other opportunies: ▪ Document case examples, both of private companies accessing and of “direct pay” drawdown; ▪ Mini-course for economic developers/businesses/municipalies on how tax credits can be incorporated into nancing/business models for projects. o Case studies (including of joint applicaons and joint procurement) can help organizaons see concretely what success looks like and what has worked and to understand what they can get funded for, the process, etc. Chuck emphasized the need for more resources and models to help nonprots create revenue streams and overcome nancial barriers. o Predevelopment funding is much needed. “Predevelopment funding is most important – when there is a planning grant – tend to be far more successful but typically don’t pay for planning.” (Zach Norwood) o Peer learning is important ▪ Tammy gave an example of a group they have meengs regularly around construcon. They share informaon on how to meet prevailing wage, buy American, how to address common challenges. Something like this for federal funding would be useful o Sharing administrave sides of things – grant management, scal agent, sending out bids, RFPs –can be helpful o Free assistance with grant wring. o Matching funds are much needed. o People need educated cheerleaders to know it's okay to take a risk and when to take it. o Formal or informal networks that link an enty to other smaller rural areas. o Understanding the network of the fed system is drascally dierent than state or local. ▪ Understanding how you interact and coordinate, knowing that network and those weeds is hard to break into and a barrier to geng those resources (Zach Norwood). Take-aways from each interview: • Amy Kessler, NC Commission: o Deals primarily with ARC and EDA funding o Main project she highlighted related to sustainability: ▪ EDA Tech Hub: Her region is known for and has a long history with pressed (powdered) materials industry (powders, ceramic, graphite, etc. that can be heated in ovens and pressed into dierent shapes with machining which takes me/costs money/wastes some material). Energy ecient materials. This project aims to posion this industry where it wants to be in 10 years – guring out how to get there, like how to address workforce challenges, and deal with automaon. They are planning and hope to move on to Phase 2 which is $50-$75 million to implement the next stage. Looking for 8-10 projects that will drive change in the region. ▪ Cleareld County is working on a massive solar wind farm.
3 ▪ Northcentral region as recreaon – EV charging staons near trail heads (north of Rt. 80) o Amy was not aware of the tax credits under IRA. Use of the phrase tax credits led her to ask “do you mean new market tax credits?” o Ways HUB could be helpful ▪ Teach orgs like hers about IRA tax credits and other opportunies. ▪ Predevelopment funding and case studies seem like the most important things a hub could help with. o Orgs/enes to include in Hub? ▪ County planners ▪ DCED ▪ Small business dev corporaons (SBDCs) • Tammy Dulaney, NW Commission: o Deals mostly with ARC and EDA funding. Under EDA we need to develop an economic development strategy for our region… use this planning doc for implementaon. They have 4 areas of work – Workforce and educaon, infrastructure (2 acon teams – broadband and tourism), business expansion and growth, entrepreneurship development. Used to be heavy in manufacturing but now its manufacturing and health care. o Projects menoned that are related to sustainability? ▪ Oil Region Alliance and Erie Redevelopment Authority both thinking about browneld remediaon. POSSIBLE CASE STUDIES. ▪ Northwest PA region – done trainings with EPA on brownelds for cleanup… also done workforce training programs. ▪ Keystone Educaon Council – Venango County – educ council tries to plug the hole resulng from the lack of a community college. Workforce – apprenceship track in advanced manufacturing. ▪ TriCounty workforce – in semi-conductor training ▪ James, Crawford, Clarion County – trail systems funding received. Charging staons. EVs – DCNR is a good partner around projects that are trail related – pung EV charging staons by trail heads. o Does not know anything about the tax credits connected to new federal funding o Ways HUB can help: ▪ looking at fed and local funding opportunies. What is oen missed by smaller municipalies is community foundaons – they have stu earmarked for certain areas but also have unrestricted funds. They have exibility – can an org come in and make the case for the need. ▪ Case studies are helpful – what has worked for others. ▪ Pre-dev funding is helpful ▪ With joint applicaon/RFP support – that would depend if it would be helpful. We have a group on indiv who share what they run into around construcon. To meet prevailing wage, buy America/build America – understanding that. How geng around any challenges you are faced with. They share informaon
4 among each other. Having something like that would be benecial. LIKE PEER LEARNING. ▪ Joint applicaons – will depend on the project – partners not speaking the same language – educ working with browneld redevelopment – don’t speak the same language. Broadband is a good example… depends on the project/partners if that would be helpful. ▪ I could see a way of sharing administrave sides of things – grant management, scal agent, send bids out, RFPs. I could see this being helpful. ▪ Tammy – working with people at all dierent stages – crawlers teaming up with runners… what is equitable, how to get everyone at same place. ▪ Finding matching funds is a huge issue – maybe HUB can help? o Idea from Tammy about HUB: mul-state – consider working towards eligibility to become a registered fed agency. If you are a basic fed agency – any project seeking fed funding, need to have a basic fed agency. They ensure the applicant is meeng fed guidelines on procurement. They make sure all T’s are crossed, etc. If going to be a nancial hub – maybe think about this. Don’t know of any org that serves as a BFA. What other org has funds invested. • Betsy Lockwood, SEDA—Council of Governments o Betsy is the Director of Project Management and Grants… works with DCED, ARC and others and helps coordinate economic development projects. o There is a lot of federal money out there, but the people who need it the most have the least ability to draw down these funds. Smaller areas don’t have the experse. o Her org has capacity issues – so busy since COVID, but only have 1 other person on sta to help her. o an ARISE project – looking at training for nuclear energy. Not sure if this is considered clean. Its called SMART energy – working with Shula Talibi (from Pisburgh Technical – he was maybe from Centre County). Betsy shares a lile about the concept paper – small modular and advanced reactor training program. These smart projects can be integral in the US. (Steve – not everyone agrees that this is clean) o We see a lot of issues with matching fed funds. For smaller communies this is a huge issue. o Ways a sustainable nance hub could be helpful? ▪ Case studies of successful examples ▪ Pre-development funding– help write, engineer to help ▪ Joint procurement and applicaon support – could help ▪ Model documents – maybe that could help ▪ Betsy – Other things I can think of: free assistance with grant wring, etc. Matching funds. ▪ ALSO – more info on tax credits!! I would like to learn more about the tax credits – seen some presentaons through IRA. She needs to learn more about how she can help companies get this. o Are there any sort of industrial centers there – 1) Giessinger medical center – Montour county . 2) 7 universies in our region, 3) also have powdered metals (Centre county has some). Located less than an hour from Harrisburg… cheaper to locate to Perry County
5 than Dauphine County. Then Perry people leave to go work in Harrisburg. 4) Hardwood industry is strong – modular housing manufacturers and cabinet makers – but when a recession – this is the rst one to lay people o or to close. o How does SEDA-COG play a role in a HUB or how to help scale sustainable projects. We have a lot to oer in terms of boots on the ground – we know communies that don’t have the experse. We also have some background experse in applying for funds. • Chuck Gray, ED of Impact Corry near Erie o Impact Corry is a trusted partner, a rural hub that gets stu done. They completed a plan in 2021 (Erie Insurance said would fund the org for $7 million but they needed to have a plan) and are focused on: ▪ Ramping up connecvity (true ber in the home, broadband) ▪ Housing (stopping blight, geng homes improved, all socioecon levels) ▪ City center (façade improvements, create county-wide group to coach business owners to a higher level – our chamber was dysfunconal, use place making at park I will talk about), ▪ green spaces and trails (compleng of 9 miles of Erie-Pisburgh trail) and ▪ adding to scal stability of our city’s scal balance sheet o Projects ▪ About to state a universal cyber network ▪ Digital economy careers ▪ Rebuilding a city park to be an economic desnaon – interact to the park to bring more people ▪ Working with downtown owners for an enre block – not developed for housing because of a lack of elevators – want to create housing there. o Things we have found dicult – ▪ how everything is up front costs with no hope for reimbursement. ▪ Engineering – need to come up with $400 k before I can even get a penny. That is crazy and wont happen. ▪ The other challenge – with federal and state reimbursement funding – why? That’s redlining – we barely squeak by to pay ourselves. Pung that money out there is dicult. Gaming revenue authority oered us a $300K loan - , get reimbursement, spend it again. We are fortunate to have redevelopment authories that give low interest. Way over 3 % now. That could kill a project. Communies like ours struggle to live up to the model. Maybe we have a closer relaonship with liaison – approved before you have to put out the money – or you have a seed payment that’s large enough to get you going. Or revolving low interest funds. This needs to be looked into and solved. Problem with engineering – nd out its way too much – could be money that is lost. Maybe there is money out there that can help with engineering. Or maybe state and fed can reconsider doing reimbursement funding. Need something to help us – help communies – an agency that does feasibility studies or does engineering studies to see if feasible. These are all things that get in the way. ▪ anything we can nd within these states that have tax incenves for investment – they are a huge piece of the puzzle – would be hard to expand into school
6 district. This is a way to do it to use private funds… fewer bars to hit… but also it uses someone else's money up front. ▪ People need educated cheerleaders – when I started this ber project – I’m here with so much risk going on. You have to take the risk to iniate or your project will not succeed. We understand you don’t have all the details gured out but we want to see. Non prots – unless we feel we have everything buoned up, we don’t apply. To do large scale infrastructure projects… you cant make the impact you need to make on the me scale you need to make it. A lile risk is okay as long as you are up front about it. You have a relaonship to discuss what you are looking at it. ▪ Corry is a blip – a Camelot – haven’t acvated enough to have this acvism – other small towns don’t have the same resources/voice. o How can HUB be helpful? ▪ Dicult for nonprots – looking for projects that create revenue streams. A library of models – of how to earn on your investment legally. We can Serve PA – every legal doc you need – share models with us – so helpful. Chuck emphasized the need for more resources and models to help nonprots create revenue streams and overcome nancial barriers. o How have new fed bills changed what you are doing? ▪ The Cares act helped. ▪ Each bill – I feel disenfranchised as a small rural community. I have bus downtown that pay $300 a month for cable connecvity… they cant count on connecvity. But if you go to the FCC map – we are covered. Lack of knowledge or interest in understanding. We can’t even apply bc we are considered served. The USDA is pushing the acceptable levels of service up - redlining rural communies will be the death of them. I wish there was Teddy Roosevelt – we are going to make this fair and universal. I’ve lost my taste for the fed funding bc of this. Moved over to private funding – system isn’t changing fast enough. We have a local coop bidding for ours. I’m on call with NTIA – we did an applicaon with state of PA for funding for an addional project – partner is state of PA and don’t get it – looking at what they funded in rural areas – no connecvity. Investment in anything other than ber is wasted money. A place in central south – we are far behind you – we got funded for a project that wasn’t ber – we are far behind you. This was in 2022. To stand up to the challenges we had to go through enre school district – go take photos. ▪ Fed funding – anything that comes down through local gov – the smaller the municipality – the less likely they are to take advantage of anything. Anything that trickles down through municipal authories – when goes to county level most of money is spent in cies. Not making it out to the smaller municipalies. They are Erie County. I was enre ght for infrastructure – on planning commissions statewide, giving feedback. Time over me, the rural communies – very few that have an Impact Corry org to make their voices heard. Is there any formal or informal network that links you with other small rural areas? We’ve done that on our own – also connected to Northwest commission.
7 • Zachary Norwood, Planning Director at Crawford County Planning Oce o Director of Carford County Planning – south of Erie. Forgoen county. Very rural community – 51 municipalies – 83,000 populaon. Major challenges aecng our area… aren’t necessarily new but we are realizing. Manufacturing hub for NW PA. Reason for that – great depression – Kneadville was the economic engine and – we built that rust belt historic base. o We are planning and community development. We are tasked by board of commission – to create a road map. Need to aract and maintain our populaon. There are 9 core community priories that community has idened. o Projects: ▪ creang a county redevelopment authority and landbank, ▪ develop county wide park and rec.- we have largest most diverse waterway – river of the year in PA, miles of trails, largest man made lake – leveraging all of these resources. ▪ Specic projects – our local industry fundamental training program – aract and retain workers to our region. All of this is based on having good data – data hub. University of Pisburgh – Titusville, Allegheny College. Crawford inspired.com ▪ 3 big projects – • 1) authorizaon a safe streets – study process. My intenon is to then seek implementaon funding. • 2) 3 acre site in one of our small boroughs – falling in disarray is blighted – needs to be demoed. Want to build a new senior center and 40-unit aordable housing on that site. • 3) Partnered with 3-mile trail segment – doing a road diet. Building a trail to create a trail network system between dierent communies. Funded through the infrastructure bill ($3 m) through PennDOT. ▪ Done any joint applicaons for fed funding or joint procurement? • Yes - us partnering with Allegheny College – ARC grant we applied for – invesng in a facility for workforce development for advanced manufacturing and precision machining. They are invesng in the machines. • Other item we are working on – partnering with Crawford County and Allegheny College – with RK Mellon Foundaon… it was for Recompete applicaon for EDA funds – and Johnstown, and others – surrounding workforce dev/educaonal instuons – leveraging these enes to advance the region outside of Pisburgh. Several projects came out of it – invesng in Besimer, Meadville – creang a training center or hub. Johnstown and Univ of Pisburgh – welding and IT facility (same with Washington PA). We applied for a planning grant but did not receive it. How to take a bite at the apple – might be easier to get ARC funding – annual allocaon… might go through ARC. This was the rst me Crawford County has ever worked in coalion of that scale or size – we’d like to do more of it. Broadband internet – we have over 7000 houses that don’t have access. Public access network is one idea.
8 o How have the 3 big federal bills of 2021 and 2022 impacted your work? ▪ It has been very limited bc of our limited resources. I have 6 people to cover all of our exisng grants. Limited capacity to take on. Indirectly – we are working with PennDOT – they are going aer resources then are being plugged into projects that are being plugged into our region. o more than half of IRA is the new tax credits that local governments can also access. ▪ we have proposed addional stang which would allow us to go aer this funding. Had a conversaon with Tammy about our LIFT program – I was able to match to go aer to map… I need to learn about the programs, gure out how to navigate… need to bring in experse and resources to do that. o How can a hub help you? ▪ Manufacturing – aerospace engineering to producing razors. Company creang solar glass and solar panels. Advancing manufacturing to be in 21st century – using robocs, R&D – sustainable nance could help us transion to pre-green energy strategy to a post-green energy strategy. Can't get workforce – aerospace (Acutech) – do machines for Boeing. If they invest in 1 or 2 roboc arms to do - they can save themselves 5 employees – don’t have to worry about their workforce. Now we need people who can code and maintain that machine… trying to bring n people from outside the region to do that. ▪ Capacity is a massive challenge – we have the drive. Tools and resources who want to go aer these programs. We don’t have that experse… we don’t have a week to look into stu. ▪ Predevelopment funding is most important – when there is a planning grant – tend to be far more successful but typically don’t pay for planning. ▪ Networking and case studies – take the best and brightest ideas and share ▪ Joint applicaon/procurement/RFP support – I think we would leverage that. ▪ The library of model development documents – what would that entail? Steve - Like how you tap the tax credits. Go nd the case studies – what did they do. • Zach – part of the elements that will be benecial – understanding the network of the fed system – it is drascally dierent than state or local… how you interact and coordinate – knowing that network and those weeds is hard to break into and a barrier to geng those resources. ▪ Steve - Successful examples should include breaking into fed money – how you can get this or that tax credit. LDD folks that help go get grants – tradionally tap EDA and ARC funding – you will be comfortable tapping those programs. Resistance. How to crowdsource the learning. Zach – we talk about how to apple the product – has to be streamlined enough for folks to be able to use – simplify so it can be consumed – mini-grant program the county just released. ▪ I also want to menon other ways sus hub can help – we also have housing investments and programs. We have orgs across Crawford County – developing aordable housing – doing it in sustainable ways… connecng that org with the tools. They are in conversaons with manufacturer in Pisburgh to expand their housing stock using modular housing projects.
9 • Rebecca Beach, Loan Program Manager, Northwest PA Regional Planning and Development Commission o My role is the Loan Program Manager – oversee business nancing deprt – provide for prot business for startups or expansions. Cap funding at 50% of total project costs or up to $400,000 – not trying to replace a bank but provide gap in funding. Not just manufactuing – cant lend to nancial instuons. o New fed money made a dierence in your job? ▪ We did apply for grant for CARES Act – low interest nancing through COVID. But don’t think any of the other fed bills has inuenced. o Rebecca asked how the hub would be dierent from the SBDCs that provide business planning, have trainings, refer people to resources for nancing? ▪ Steve – would be dierent in a few ways – 1) aimed at helping with these new massive federal investments. The Green Bank stu – incredible amounts of loan money available (separate from the tax credits). Trying to help people tap these new resources. 2) The aempt to broker projects and private socially responsible investments. 3) encourage folks to act more collecvely in terms of peer learning and joining together for projects and seeking funding together, etc. Julie Wilson, Execuve Director, Common Roots PA - Works with Common Roots, a community land trust organizaon focused on increasing housing and economic security for low-income people in Meadville PA. Common Roots PA is rapidly growing, and is more organizaon based rather than a tradional charity. - Started a public benets construcon company - One day wants to expand into modular housing o Accelerate the producon of modular housing and put it where it is needed the most. o Company we could get into contact with: Module in Pisburgh. ▪ Brian Gaudio is the CEO, Marquis Cofer is the COO - Julie is very involved in local polics and is aware of the available resources. However, it seems like it’s so much all at once, and she does not have the sta capacity to take advantage of them as much as she’d like o She notes there’s lots of technical assistance out there, but it doesn’t help, she gets tons of webinars and slides (lots of informaon) but does not have the sta capacity to actually apply for these programs. o Quesons how you ulize the resources if you already have the informaon (and keep geng it) but it isn’t scking, talks about how a sort of “cheat sheet” would be helpful o You must have people to break down the informaon and collecvely pursue the resources available, and have addional conversaons - She notes the specic struggles with being a smaller community with fewer resources and connecons, saying someone from City Council will tell her about a program to apply for, but the applicaon will be due in 3 weeks and there just isn’t me/sta to do it o Meadville is an environmental jusce community working with the Green Building Alliance
10 o Julie is the only one to get some money so far, people keep coming to her and asking her for help but she just doesn’t have the capacity. - She says seng up infrastructure for those who wouldn’t otherwise be able to access funds would be helpful. She struggles with predevelopment costs and says that it’s a very dierent ball game trying to access the money when no one has the experience/bandwidth - When asked about the role of labor, she says that labor has been beaten down in her community and is not organizing much. There’s lots of organizing among owners in her community to keep wages low and trying to get people to do prevailing wage and paperwork is dicult, Meadville is not a union construcon town.