Never in my 300+ tours of the USA have I seen such well developed and extensive industrial parks as I saw in Armstrong County, PA (population 69,059). Patty Kirkpatrick, county board chair and also president of the board of the Armstrong County Community Foundation (more on them Monday), and Rich Pallilla, head of planning and ED for the county, were my tour guides of the county. Patty was the first female ever elected to the county board in the 240 year history of the county, coming in first in vote totals both times that she ran.
The first park we toured was Northpointe, a 900 acre mixed use park which opened in 2001. Today there are 10 buildings with over 600 employees in them. There are another 600 employees in the West Hills Industrial Park. The county also owns the Parks Bend and Manor Township Parks with over 150 acres available and already several hundred employees in each. Parks Bend also includes a business incubator that has the look of a big barn and silo to easily fit into the countryside.
Armstrong has gone through several booms and busts in its history. Patty told me, “Parker City in the very northern most part of the county had a population of over 20,000 in the early 1900s when it was an oil boomtown. Now they are down to only about 750, but because they are considered a city, they get as much federal funding as the rest of the county combined.”
The oil boom was followed by coal, glass manufacturing and china booms which peaked in the mid 1950s with about 30 to 35% of the population employed in some form of manufacturing. As those industries went into slow decline, Armstrong County planned and executed the construction of these four industrial parks.
I’m certain that the decision to build those parks was not without controversy, but if you aren’t planning for the future, you are only going to go backwards. Armstrong County is ready when the next company comes calling.
The first park we toured was Northpointe, a 900 acre mixed use park which opened in 2001. Today there are 10 buildings with over 600 employees in them. There are another 600 employees in the West Hills Industrial Park. The county also owns the Parks Bend and Manor Township Parks with over 150 acres available and already several hundred employees in each. Parks Bend also includes a business incubator that has the look of a big barn and silo to easily fit into the countryside.
Armstrong has gone through several booms and busts in its history. Patty told me, “Parker City in the very northern most part of the county had a population of over 20,000 in the early 1900s when it was an oil boomtown. Now they are down to only about 750, but because they are considered a city, they get as much federal funding as the rest of the county combined.”
The oil boom was followed by coal, glass manufacturing and china booms which peaked in the mid 1950s with about 30 to 35% of the population employed in some form of manufacturing. As those industries went into slow decline, Armstrong County planned and executed the construction of these four industrial parks.
I’m certain that the decision to build those parks was not without controversy, but if you aren’t planning for the future, you are only going to go backwards. Armstrong County is ready when the next company comes calling.
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Recently an insurance company nearly wind up....
A bank is nearly bankrupt......
How it affect you? Did you buy insurance? Did you buy mini note or bonds?
Who fault?
They only talk about how bad the crisis will be, but they did not give regulation measures…..
Now using tax payer money, $700B is used to save finance industry only, how about the industry that you are in.....retail industry, construction industry, manufacturing industry, R&D, electronics, electrical, mechanical, chemical, IT etc.... each industry will be able to enjoy at least $10B.......
The top management of the Public listed company ( belong to "public" ) salary should be tied a portion of it to the shares price ( IPO or ave 5 years ).... so when the shares price drop, it don't just penalise the investors, but those who don't take care of the company.....If this rule is pass on, without any need of further regulation, all industries ( as long as it is public listed ) will be self regulated......
Sign a petition to your favourite president candidate and ask for their views to comment on this......If you agree on my point, please let as many people know as possible....
Media and finance sector are the only two sectors ( hopefully Hacker can also ) which can overcome political incorrect power, so it is time to fine tune to the correct path, so hopefully media can united to report the truth......
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