Budget Gatekeeper Visits
5/20/2008

Eric Poole, Ledger Staff

ELLWOOD CITY - Revitalization efforts in Ellwood City are on the right path for accessing state grant funding, the appropriations chairman of Pennsylvania's House of Representatives said Tuesday.

State Rep. Dwight Evans, D-203, Philadelphia, told officials from the borough and the Ellwood City Revitalization Committee that they are doing exactly what they should be doing.

"You've got to have a plan, you've got to have a strategy, and you've got to stick with it," Evans said.

As appropriations chairman, Evans is the state Legislature's budgetary gatekeeper, and he was visiting Ellwood on Tuesday at the request of Rep. Jaret Gibbons, D-10, Ellwood City. Evans mentioned the fact that he was elected to the house at age 25 in 1980 - the year Gibbons was born - and said the local representative could be an advocate for his district for years to come.

"When you have somebody like Jaret, who was born in 1980, he can be there for the next 40 years," Evans said.

Evans said Ellwood City's revitalization effort has a good chance of getting state funding under the Main Street grant program because the revitalization committee has obtained its own funding from donations for preliminary design.

Kevin Bowser, a legislative aide in Gibbons' office, said the borough would be able to provide matching funds from income generated by a proposed harness racing track and slot-machine casino, which will feed a Lawrence County economic development account.

One purpose of Evans' meeting with the revitalization committee was to outline some of the budgetary requests that will be coming down the line, Gibbons said. Toward that end, Lenore Bazzichi, president of the revitalization committee, gave an impassioned outline of the group's work.

"When you have a downtown, you need to value it," Bazzichi said. "When you don't have community loyalty, community pride, the community dies."

For Evans, Tuesday's stop was part of a western Pennsylvania swing to gauge the needs of western Pennsylvania's communities. He began the day in Erie and stopped in Sharon before stopping in Ellwood City.

Evans said he has been making such trips since being elected Democratic chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

"This is your money. It's not my money, it's not Philadelphia's money," he said. "I don't think the government can solve all these problems, but I do think we can act as a catalyst."

Evans also met Tuesday with board members of the Ellwood City Area Public Library to discuss plans for the facility's expansion and with Dave Rettig of the National Charter Education Foundation.

Evans also had discussions with Jim Wassel, owner of Appalachian Lighting Systems, and company President Dave McAnally, about Wassel's light-emitting diode innovations. Gibbons said the state Department of Community and Economic Development could offer expansion funding for Appalachian Lighting.

"I think that Dwight was very impressed with them and does not want to lose them to another state," Gibbons said. "I'm very confident that we'll see more state aid flowing in our direction."

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