Erie 2018

Sunday, February 18, 2018

ERIE 2018

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com |

Our annual economic report FEB. 18, 2018

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Sunday, February 18, 2018

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R E I N V E N T I O N

IN PROGRESS

Real estate developer Tom Kennedy’s State Street Renaissance Centre is the downtown’s tallest building. Shown in this 2014 file photo, Kennedy, 57, of Erie is the CEO of Professional Development Associates, Inc., which operates the building and others in the area. [FILE PHOTO/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Everywhere you look, there are people, programs and money working to put a new face on Erie have made the move by choice.

Others have made the move because GE no longer had need of their skills.

But from where Kennedy stands, Erie, notwithstanding high poverty rates and other challenges, has done more than survive.

"We are a better community today than it was back then," he said.

By Jim Martin jim.martin@timesnews.com

B

usinessman Tom Kennedy still remembers the first night he spent in Erie. It was more than 30 years ago, before he took a job at GE Transportation.

He hates to say it, but he wasn’t impressed.

“There wasn’t much going on,” he said.

GE Transportation, at the edge of town, was a different story.

It was Erie's heartbeat, a business that employed thousands, a place where a new union contract meant good times for the community and where the end of a shift meant a traffic jam.

GE is still a force in Erie, but a smaller one these days and it is on track to get smaller if the company moves ahead with plans to eliminate another 570 jobs later this year. That's on top of 1,600 job cuts that already have taken place in the past two years.

Kennedy, who left the company years ago to launch a career in real estate development, doesn't minimize the magnitude of the lost jobs or the possibility of more losses if General Electric moves ahead with plans to sell GE Transportation.

"They are paying high wages relative to the rest of the community," he said. "Just do the math."

But there should be no surprise in any of this.

Kennedy, who develops hotels and owns the

A growing diversity The Boscov’s department store in the Millcreek Mall in Millcreek Township opened in October, replacing a Sears store and expanding the size of that space. [FILE PHOTO CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

This dual-cab, 4,500-horsepower Evolution Series locomotive has been built for India Railways by GE Transportation. Shown June 1, 2017, it’s one of two currently at the Lawrence Park Township plant. The 1,000-locomotive order will include 100 built in Erie and 900 built in India. [FILE PHOTO CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Renaissance Centre, Erie's tallest building, said the downsizing of GE Transportation was inevitable from the moment the company announced plans to move its headquarters to Chicago from Erie.

"You know you are vulnerable when they move the

main office location," he said.

"We are fooling ourselves otherwise."

Things are different now.

The story of GE Transportation isn't the only one worth being told in Erie.

Kennedy, like so many others, has moved on to other things. Some, like himself,

Erie measures success with a different ruler these days.

And Ken Louie, a professor of economics and director of the Economic Research Institute at Penn State Behrend, would argue that there's wisdom in that approach. Like most econoLouie mists, he says a diverse economy is best able to weather downturns.

When the Erie Times-News published Erie 2000 on March 5, 2000, the newspaper recorded that Erie County had 34,400 manufacturing jobs.

Eighteen years later, following the departure or decline of companies such as Hammermill, EMI, CopesVulcan, Steris Corp., and GE Transportation, that number sits at 19,200.

Erie had no choice but to change.

As manufacturing declined, employment in other sectors, especially in health care and See PROGRESS, K4

A B O U T T H E COV E R It takes Erie workers to make Erie what it is. Erie Times-News photographers shoot hundreds of pictures each year of people doing what they do: their jobs. For this year's annual economic report, Erie 2018, we looked back at those photographs over the last several years and put together more than 300 of them to form one of Erie's most iconic images, the Bicentennial Tower. [PHOTO ILLUSTRATION/STEVE PUSKAR]

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Sunday, February 18, 2018

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Sunday, February 18, 2018

PROGRESS Continued from K2

education, has grown to the point that medical and educational employers represent five of the top 10 industries by employment in Erie County.

Erie is still a community that makes things. Erie County residents work in manufacturing at a rate that’s almost twice the national average.

But there’s a growing sense that we can’t expect Erie to succeed if it continues to do what it has always done.

At work on Erie Perhaps at no time in the community’s history have more people and organizations been focused on the idea of creating an environment in which Erie and its economy can flourish.

Detailed plans— developed on behalf of the county, city and Erie Downtown Partnership— have been crafted to make that happen.

Erie does not lack for tools and people to transform plans into reality.

Some of those efforts are strategic, like the new CoStarters program that brings together experienced entrepreneurs to work with prospective business owners or would-be inventors.

“This is a very good step,” said Brock Allen, founder of TechTank. “If you have an idea, you need to put a spark behind it and add the fuel.”

Other efforts are dramatic, like the half-billion dollars being invested collectively by UPMC Hamot, Erie Insurance, Saint Vincent Hospital and Scott Enterprises in their four respective building projects, two of which are underway and two of which

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are likely to begin sometime this year.

Erie Insurance has been demonstrating the power of private investment for years in its own eastside neighborhood, where it’s been buying and restoring blighted properties, including a former armory.

More recently, Erie Insurance, led by CEO Tim NeCastro, has taken a leadership role in an initiative that could leave a bigger mark on Erie as the chairman of the Erie Downtown Development Corp., a group that’s building a private investment fund to purchase and renovate real estate in the city.

Meanwhile, Velocity Network has purchased a downtown building for its headquarters and is building a fiber-optic network that will deliver high-speed Internet service to an everlarger footprint in Erie and the outlying community.

There are other efforts.

At 900 State St., Gannon University’s Erie Technology Incubator provides space and mentoring for fledgling businesses working to get off the ground.

At Penn State Behrend, the Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation Center at Knowledge Park provides tenant companies access to student interns, faculty and research facilities. In exchange, students are exposed to realworld learning opportunities and job experience.

The list goes on.

As part of a program overseen by Mercyhurst University, a CEO has been named for the Downtown Erie Innovation District, an organization charged with encouraging connections between academia and industry and with developing businesses focused on security, intelligence and safety.

All this is to say nothing of the recent formation of a

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series of beehive labs at all four Erie County universities, which have been given a $1 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to focus on business development.

Everywhere one looks, it seems, there is a different group, working a different angle to make Erie hum on all cylinders, including Bridgeway Capital, a nonprofit that makes loans to startup or expanding businesses, and Ben Franklin Technology Partners, which funds technology companies.

These are part of a long list of initiatives— some large, some small. Efforts are being led by the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership, various county-led organizations and a group called Up for the Job that’s designed to find jobs for displaced workers.

Obstacles to overcome The reality is, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by everything that’s being done to salvage what works about Erie and to fix what doesn’t.

The law of averages suggests some of these efforts won’t come to much, but that doesn’t mean we should be quick to abandon those efforts, said Brian Slawin, regional director of Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

“One of these programs needs to only help one company to make it worthwhile,” he said.

The truth is, Erie has some tangible roadblocks standing in its way.Some of them became apparent as local leaders toyed with the idea of bidding to become a second Amazon headquarters.Erie is not a big city with a major international airport, and in certain types of competitions — attracting the biggest corporate headquarters, the

biggest concerts and people searching for a big-city lifestyle — it’s likely that Erie will always be considered too small.But one could hardly suggest that Erie is laying down on the job, waiting for the next wave to hit it.

Thousands of manufacturing jobs have left Erie since Kennedy arrived in Erie all those years ago, but in some important ways, he sees a community on the mend, a city in the throes of reinvention.

And while many of the jobs might pay less than the lost manufacturing positions, Erie has built a more balanced economy in recent years, reliant on thousands of jobs in retail and leisure and hospitality.

In 2017, during a year when the national retail sector lost thousands of jobs, Erie added a Boscov’s department store, new stores at the West Erie Plaza and several hundred new jobs.

A reinvented Erie Jon Meighan, a former GE Transportation manager, is reinventing himself as the owner of Lake Erie Rubber & Manufacturing.

Rebecca Styn is adding to the intrigue of downtown Erie with the recent opening of Room 33 Speakeasy, a Prohibition-themed cocktail and tapas bar.

Bliley Electronics is building components for NASA, while Donjon Shipbuilding and Repair is building and fixing lake freighters.

Scott Enterprises hopes to begin what will be a substantial splash this spring when it breaks ground for an eightstory Hampton Inn & Suites that is to be the first phase of a $150 million bayfront development meant to include restaurants, a skating rink, housing, offices and public space.

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Jim Martin can be reached at 870-1668 or by email.

Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNMartin.

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Nick Scott Sr., president of Scott Enterprises, said he’s excited about both his own family’s investments and about Erie’s trajectory in general.

“It’s really encouraging,” he said. “In all the years I have been around, it’s the most active I have seen the pot boiling in terms of investment and activity. It’s really commendable.”

Dennis Davin, Pennsylvania’s secretary of Community and Economic Development, shares that enthusiasm both for Erie’s bayfront development and as a place that has the potential to be an upand-coming community.

It’s easy to look at all that’s been subtracted from Erie in the past 20 years — the manufacturing jobs that have departed, the headquarters that are now someplace else.

The point is valid, but it ignores the energy and the money being poured into Erie day after day.

Kennedy can’t ignore it. He sees it all around him, and it has him feeling good about the future.

Erie Mayor Joe Schember is inclined to agree.

“I think we have a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity to transform this city,” Schember said. “I feel lucky to have been elected mayor at this point in time.”

Schember, who said he plans to focus on the creation of family-sustaining jobs, said he thinks many of the pieces are already in place, including recent funding from the state that will be used to help reconnect the city to its bayfront.

“We need to coordinate and we need to collaborate,” he said. “We need a shared vision.”

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Sunday, February 18, 2018

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Regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economic indicators

A brief look at the state of Erie County and Crawford County.

Per capita personal income

Electric rates

The more we make, the more we spend.

Lower rates mean residents have more cash.

Erie metropolitan area:

$44,772 in 2017

Penelec rates:

$96.97 in January

Manufacturing Erie County: 19,200 employment

Down $10.39 Based on 750 kilowatts per month.

At this rate, The customers stand verdict: to save more than $100 a year.

Natural gas rates

Manufacturing remains a key employment sector.

in December

Crawford County:

7,600

in December

The verdict:

Down from 19,500 in December 2016 Up from 7,500 in December 2016

Manufacturing jobs are not growing in Erie region.

Unemployment

Employment is one of the most important indicators of economic well-being.

The verdict:

Erie: 5.5%

in December

Down from 6.5 percent a year earlier.

Meadville: Down from 5.5%

in December

6.1 percent a year earlier.

Service employment

Service industries include fast food, banking, insurance and other jobs.

in December

Down $1.37 a month from February 2017.

Crawford County: Down by in December

Natural gas exploration has been good for consumers.

The verdict:

Erie

The verdict:

Crawford

Gasoline prices

Higher prices mean less money in our pockets.

100 jobs from 2016.

24,200

Based on 97,100 cubic feet used per year.

The verdict:

Up by 1,400 jobs from 2016.

Erie County:

106,600

National Fuel rates: $74.18

The average cost of a gallon of regular unleaded in the Erie area is $2.78 a gallon, an increase of 31 cents.

A solid gain is good news.

The verdict:

Erie, Crawford countiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; rates are down.

Customers are paying less than they did a year ago.

The verdict:

Up more than $4,000 from the previous year.

Flights

Park visitors

Visitors help drive local tourism.

Presque Isle State Park attendance:

4.09 million in 2017

Down from 4.35 million in 2016.

The verdict:

A rainy June put a slight dent in park attendance.

Employment at GE plant

Lawrence Park Township facility remains Erie County's largest industrial employer.

The verdict:

Sources: Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry; Erie International Airport; VisitErie; AAA; U.S. Census Bureau; GE Transportation; National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp.; Penelec; Presque Isle State Park

The number of people boarding planes at Erie International Airport is a reflection of business and leisure travel.

GE Transportation: 2,500

in 2017

Down from 2,900 in 2016.

Erie International Airport:

85,580 in 2017

Down from 87,568 in 2016.

The estimated number of local jobs has dropped over the past year

The verdict:

Fewer passengers hurts local economy GATEHOUSE MEDIA

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Top companies, industries in Erie, Crawford counties In 2017, state says Erie’s top employment sector became restaurants

By Jim Martin jim.martin@timesnews.com

Erie has always been a community that built things, from giant locomotives to tiny plastic parts.

And, for years, GE Transportation was Erie County's No. 1 employer, according to a quarterly list published by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.

But a second list — this one of the top 50 employment industries in Erie — paints a different picture of Erie today.

Erie's number one industry isn't plastics manufacturing or even government jobs.

As of the second quarter of 2017, Erie County's leading employment sector was restaurants and other eating places.

Second and third places belonged to elementary and secondary schools, followed by general medical and surgical hospitals.

The list of the top employers changed little between 2017 and 2016.

General Electric ranks as Erie County's top employer, followed by Erie Indemnity Co. (Erie Insurance), UPMC Hamot, state government, Walmart and Saint Vincent Hospital.

It seems likely, however, that next year will bring a reshuffling of that list.

At last check, GE Transportation and Erie Insurance were in a virtual tie with about 2,500 employees each.

But the two companies

are trending in different directions Erie Insurance, which has begun construction on a $135 million office building in downtown Erie, is growing and expects to add 1,200 employees over the next three years.

GE Transportation, which has cut staff by about 1,600 over the past two years, plans to cut another 570 positions by the middle of this year.

As GE Transportation continues to decline, a look at Erie County's top employment sectors suggests a shift has taken place in the local economy, a move away from manufacturing and toward what some call "the meds and the eds," with schools and medical jobs accounting for five of the top 10 industries.

Meanwhile, two of the top 10 industries involve building things. The county's fifth largest industry is plastics product manufacturing. The 10th largest industry is railroad rolling stock manufacturing.

The focus is different in neighboring Crawford County, which calls itself the Tooling Capital of the World.

Like Erie County, restaurants and other eating places rank as the top industry in Crawford County.

But metalworking machinery and manufacturing, which ranks as the 50th-largest industry in Erie County, is Crawford County's second-largest industry.

Jim Martin can be reached at 870-1668 or by email.

Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNMartin.

Erie Insurance is Erie County’s second-largest employer.

[FILE PHOTO CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Erie County’s Top 50 employers 1. General Electric Company

32. Saint Mary’s Home of Erie 33. Career Concepts Staffing Services Inc.

2. Erie Indemnity Co.

34. Port Erie Plastics Inc.

3. UPMC Hamot

35. Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine

4. State government

36. Lowe’s Home Centers LLC

5. Wal-Mart Associates Inc.

37. Welch Foods Inc.

6. Saint Vincent Hospital

38. Associated Clinical Laboratories LP

7. Federal government

39. Pleasant Ridge Manor

8. School District of the City of Erie

40. C.A. Curtze Company

9. Erie County

41. General McLane School District

10. Dr. Gertrude A. Barber Center Inc.

42. Lakeshore Community Services Inc.

11. Millcreek Township School District

43. Stairways Behavioral Health

12. Pennsylvania State University

44. Presbyterian Senior Care

13. Presque Isle Downs Inc.

45. Fort LeBoeuf School District

14. City of Erie

46. Harbor Creek School Distict

15. Country Fair Inc.

47. Sarah A. Reed Children’s Center

16. Lord Corporation

48. Northwest Tri-County Intermediate Unit

17. YMCA of Greater Erie

49. Northwest Bank

18. Gannon University

50. Parker White Metal Co. Inc.

19. Plastek Industries Inc. 20. Regional Health Services Inc. 21. Millcreek Community Hospital 22. Saint Vincent Med Ed & Research Inst 23. PA State System of Higher Education 24. Voices for Independence 25. Mercyhurst University 26. The Tamarkin Company 27. Infinity Resources Inc. 28. Wegmans Food Markets Inc. 29. Erie Homes for Children & Adults 30. Waldameer Park Inc. 31. Dr. Gertrude A. Barber In Home Services

Crawford County’s Top 10 employers 1. Meadville Medical Center 2. State government 3. Crawford County 4. Wal-Mart Associates Inc. 5. Crawford Central School District 6. Ainsworth Pet Nutrition LLC 7. Allegheny College 8. Acutec Precision Machining Inc. 9. Wesbury United Methodist Community 10. Penncrest School District Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Q2 2017

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WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN

By Jim Martin

Sunday, February 18, 2018

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2018

jim.martin@timesnews.com

There's no way to know for sure what the new year will bring or which events will leave a mark that will help shape the years ahead.

In 2017, a few examples might have been groundbreakings for big construction projects, Boscov's move into the former Sears store, or GE Transportation's decision to end locomotive production in Erie.

What are some of the events that could shape 2018?

Here are three possibilities.

1) Investments by the Erie Downtown Development Corp.

John Buchna, CEO of the Erie Downtown Partnership, isn't exactly sure what it will be or when it will happen, but he's confident the EDDC, armed with an investment fund of more than $20 million, will make its first investment in downtown Erie sometime in 2018.

He's betting the first move will be to buy a property that will be used to start improving the city's housing stock.

Buchna said he believes the EDDC provides something that's been missing up to now: an infusion of private money.

"I am thrilled," he said. "This truly is the missing link."

David Sherman, owner of Isaac Baker Menswear, is enthusiastic about a development group that will be free from the constraints and politics that can slow government down.

"I think the overall concept is phenomenal, " he said. "It's allowing someone to hopefully take a little more control of the property and what it's going to be used for."

Of course, political considerations never completely go away.

Steve Leeper, CEO of the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp., See 2018, K10

Saint Vincent Hospital, which is part of Allegheny Health Network, is investing more than $100 million in the hospital.

[FILE PHOTO CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

On Nov. 3, Karl Sanchack, at podium, and Erie business ofďŹ cials showed off the new headquarters for the Erie Innovation District, located on the lower level of 717 State St. in Erie. [FILE PHOTO CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

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2018 From Page K9

a group after which the EDDC is modeling its efforts, acknowledges there have been criticisms about the sometimes secretive manner in which his group conducts real estate deals.

The results, however, are hard to debate. Since 2004, the group has been involved with more than $1.1 billion worth of redevelopment and new construction projects that have helped transform one of Cincinnati's toughest neighborhoods into a growing, upscale community.

Tom Chido, owner of Chido's Dry Cleaners, recognizes there are political issues that will have to be considered as work begins in Erie.

He would like to see the group address the location of homeless shelters and social service agencies that might be making downtown a less attractive destination for some visitors.

"My basic thoughts are that it's kind of exciting," he said of the efforts being planned for Erie under the guidance of Erie Insurance CEO Tim NeCastro.

"I appreciate the amount of energy it takes to get something like this going, let alone the money," Chido continued.

At the end of the day, he thinks downtown Erie is worth the effort.

"I think the right people are working together on this," he said. "It's still our economic center. It's still our government center. It's still important that we try to do something."

UPMC Hamot is investing more than $100 million in its Erie hospital. [JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

while seeking to become Erie’s 48th mayor, Joe Schember promised to make a different and lasting impact if elected.

Schember, who was sworn in on Jan. 2, is not wasting any time regarding that pledge.

Schember’s fledgling administration is already working on a number of short-term priorities, including a new city grant program aimed at helping small businesses; a proposal to resurrect citywide tax breaks for construction projects; and a comprehensive community outreach plan to help better explain Erie Refocused— the city’s comprehensive, multiyear development plan— to residents.

“I expect to be a leader who is open and involved, one who is getting input from people and who is visible in the community,” said Schember, a retired banker and former member of Erie City Council.

Schember said his leadership as mayor will be rooted in engagement, accessibility and transparency.

His focus is job creation and aggressively enacting Erie Refocused, which addresses the city’s future needs in terms of transportation, housing, land use, economic development

Jim Martin 2) The effect of leadership changes On the campaign trail,

and other areas, to combat decades of systematic decline.

Further, Schember said his administration will forge a plan to equip city police officers with body cameras soon.

Schember said he plans to regularly attend Erie City Council meetings and meet with citizens, local business and community leaders and rank-and-file city employees frequently to hear their suggestions on how the city can improve the ways it does business.

“We will be getting out in the community, even door to door, to reach people who don’t go to meetings to get their feedback on what we should be doing,” Schember said.

At his Jan. 3 inauguration, Schember said he wants to “build opportunity, restore hope and transform Erie” with the public’s help.

That journey, for Schember, is underway.

Kevin Flowers 3) Effects of the Highmark, UPMC split Erie County residents have been relatively unaffected by the corporate battles between Pittsburghbased health-care giants

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Highmark and UPMC. That will soon begin to change.

Until now, patients have been able to choose the Erie-area hospital and physicians they want to see, unless they had a narrow-network health insurance plan such as Highmark's Community Blue or UPMC Health Plan's Partner Network.

The arrangement was part of a consent decree negotiated by Highmark, UPMC and the governor's office.

That all changes on July 1, 2019, when the consent decree expires. Starting that day, Highmark subscribers will no longer have in-network access to UPMC Hamot, its offices or employed physicians.

Those with Highmark's Medicare Advantage plans might have an additional year of in-network access, depending on the results of a case now being argued in state Commonwealth Court.

"I know many local employers hope the two sides reach some sort of deal and extend their contract," said Jeffrey Evans, an employee benefits consultant with Northwest Insurance Services. "But I don't see that happening."

Hamot President David Gibbons confirmed the consent decree will expire during his remarks at the January Eggs 'N Issues briefing at the Manufacturer & Business Association.

"It will definitely happen," Gibbons said.

Instead of working to extend the deal, Highmark and UPMC have invested more than $100 million dollars each into their Erie hospitals to entice more people to choose their respective health systems.

Saint Vincent Hospital, which is part of Highmark's Allegheny Health Network, is undergoing a $115 million

construction project that includes a new emergency department, operating rooms, and Women and Infants Center.

UPMC has committed $111 million to build a sevenstory patient tower at 104 E. Second St., where the Hamot Professional Building currently stands. The tower will include intensivecare unit rooms, and space for an expanded medical imaging and emergency departments.

In addition, the two hospitals have agreed to divide cancer services and end their agreement to run the Regional Cancer Center, a free-standing outpatient cancer center.

They also have begun talking with area insurance agents and employers, explaining what will happen and trying to convince them to sign with their respective insurance carriers.

Employers are reluctant to choose one plan or the other because they don't want to force their workers to switch doctors or hospitals, Evans said. Many businesses will have to select a plan affected by the consent decree's expiration by the end of 2018, because their contracts run annually.

Insurance agents and employers are asking Highmark and UPMC Health Plan to offer side-by-side plans, which will allow each employee to choose their insurer. Officials from both health plans said they plan to offer more side-by-side plans, but Evans said he hasn't seen that yet.

"I only have one client, a large employer, who has side-by-side plans," Evans said in December.

"The employees have a lot of interest but the carriers want to do a replacement, not side-by-side."

David Bruce

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Erie Times-News | GoErie.com |

Sunday, February 18, 2018

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Erie Times-News | GoErie.com

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com |

Sunday, February 18, 2018

ERIE 2018: POSITIVE SIGNS

PIECES OF ERIE

ARE OUT OF THIS WORLD

In a testing lab at Bliley Technologies in Millcreek Township, a technician uses tweezers to pick up a gold-plated quartz crystal that will be used in a oscillator that will become a component in a space, telecommunications or medical device when critical control of electronic frequencies is needed.

[CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Bliley Technologies makes parts of satellites, aerospace equipment

By Kevin Flowers kevin.flowers@timesnews.com

D

avid Stout’s work travels— big time.

The 38-year-old is a senior research and development engineer at Erie’s Bliley Technologies, 2545 W. Grandview Blvd., a privately owned manufacturer of low-noise frequency control products that has operated in Erie since 1930.

The company’s products, including precision-cut crystals and oscillators, which help control electronic frequencies, are integral components in communications satellites, microwave communications equipment, medical devices and aerospace/ avionics technology currently being used across the globe and in space.

See PIECES, L5

In the engineering lab at Bliley Technologies, CEO Keith Szewczyk, 43, shows off two types of oscillators the company makes that are used in devices for space, telecommunications, medical and other applications.

[CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Online extras See more photos at Bliley Technologies in Millcreek Township: GoErie. com/Photos

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Advancing medical technology

Charlie Baker, left, chief engineer, and Nathan McCutcheon, product manager at Cybersonics, demonstrate an ultrasonic lithotripsy machine they manufacture at their Harborcreek Township business. [JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Cybersonics an industry leader in blasting kidney stones

By Jim Martin jim.martin@timesnews.com

K

en Louie, a professor of economics and director of the Economic Research Institute of Erie, counts himself as an optimist, even in the face of sobering news about the decline of traditional manufacturing in Erie County.

It's a perspective built on more than a cheerful disposition.

Louie said he believes there's a bright future for smaller, advanced industries that leverage technology, invest heavily in research and development, and employ trained workers in the fields of science, engineering, technology and math.

From an economist's perspective, a community can never have too many of these advanced technology jobs, which pay an average of $80,000, about double the national average.

"Over time, we are making advances in this area," Louie said, explaining that the number of these mostly small, high-tech companies continues to grow in Erie.

Few of them are household names, but some â&#x20AC;&#x201D; like Cybersonics, which is located in Knowledge Park on the campus of Penn State Behrend â&#x20AC;&#x201D; are key players in their industries.

Cybersonics, which employs 30 people and has annual sales of about $10 million, builds medical devices that use ultrasonic or highfrequency sound waves.

Its most popular device, derived from a rock drill that Cybersonics developed for NASA, is a lithotripsy system used for breaking up large kidney stones.

While other companies makesimilarproducts,Cybersonics,which exports much of whatitbuilds,"hasbecomethe market leader," said Geoffrey Bond, president and partowner of the company.

Here's one way to measure the volume of the machines it builds: Charlie Baker, the company's chief engineer, said the company sells a set of stainless steel probes each time a procedure is performed using one of its machines. Typically, he said, that's about 30,000 sets of probes a year.

That's a lot of probes, and it is a reflection of Erie's slow evolution toward it being a technology center.

Statistics show Erie's progress in that regard.

Louie said a 2015 Brookings Institute study found that

Transducers are assembled at Cybersonics in Harborcreek Township. The transducers are a part for the ultrasonic lithotripsy machines that the company manufactures. [JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS] Chris Pierce, a technician at Cybersonics in Harborcreek Township, assembles a transducer for an ultrasonic lithotripsy machine.

[JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Online Extras To see Erie TimesNews photos and video from Cybersonics: GoErie.com/ photos and GoErie. com/videos

12,000 Erie County workers could be classified as working in advanced technology.

Although they represent just 9 percent of the total workforce, they account for about $2 billion or 15 percent of Erie's gross domestic product.

Bond said Erie presents certain challenges for a high-tech company with international customers.

Bringing those customers into town or visiting them often involves a two-hour drive to a larger airport.

"For a medical device company, there are benefits to being in an area like Minnesota or San Jose or Austin, Texas. Boston would be another one," he said. "You get that sort of critical mass.

There is a lot of knowledge

that gets transferred, along with a beer after work. We miss that type of support."

But Erie does have its advantages, including a low cost of living, Bond said.

The Knowledge Park location means access to hiking trails, the college library, gymnasium and, most importantly, students and faculty.

"We have had their students working for us as interns, which gives them some good experience, and we have hired some of them after they have graduated. I think it has benefited both of us," Bond said.

Louie said statistics from one particular sector, computer and electronics manufacturing, show Erie

is growing at an impressive rate. Between 2001 and 2015, Erie's output in that sector increased by more than 300 percent, compared to a 235 percent increase nationally and 177 percent for Pennsylvania.

Erie might never replace thousands of lost jobs at GE Transportation, Steris Corp. or International Paper Co. But the latest numbers, Louie said, suggest Erie has the ability to adapt that's equally as strong as our industrial past.

"I'm optimistic," Louie said.

Jim Martin can be reached at 870-1668 or by email.

Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNMartin.

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com |

Sunday, February 18, 2018

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Retailing holds steady in Erie County A new big-box store, Boscov’s, is one bright light in local shopping picture.

By John Guerriero Contributing writer

Retail sales and employment haven’t gone to the dogs in Erie County.

In fact, you could say that the dogs are going to retail, at least when it comes to pet supply stores.

Getting your dog cleaned in a store is one of the many ways brick-and-mortar retailers are counteracting the effect of Amazon and other online shopping outlets.

“It’s hard to get your dog washed online,” said Mike Zavasky, 65, of Millcreek Township, the owner of two Pet Supply Plus franchises — one at the renovated West Erie Plaza in Millcreek Township and the other at the Giant Eagle plaza, at 4121 Buffalo Road, Harborcreek Township.

Erie County is bucking a nationwide and state trend when it comes to the vitality of the retail market. And the employment statistics bear that out.

In a time when big-box retailers such as Sears, Kmart, Macy’s and Toys R Us are closing stores and more than 100,000 retail jobs have been lost across the country — including 4,700 in Pennsylvania — Erie County added 500 retail jobs in 2017, raising the total to 15,600.

The county’s total employment numbers include about 2,000 jobs at the Millcreek Mall complex, a number that balloons to about 2,600 employees for the holiday shopping season, said Joe Bell, spokesman for the Niles, Ohio-based Cafaro Co., the parent firm that owns the mall complex.

It seems that in the Erie region’s upper Peach Street shopping district and other places, retail bounces back even when it takes a hit.

For instance, when the Sears store at the Millcreek Mall closed, big-box retailer Boscov’s not only renovated the space, but added 26,000 square feet to what is now a 180,000-square-foot shopping experience offering everything from clothes to an old-fashioned candy counter. A Sears Hometown Store opened at 7200 Peach St. to help fill a void left by Sears.

And Macy’s and Toys R Us, both at the mall complex, weren’t among the stores that the giant retailers announced for closings. (However, Babies R Us, at 6680 Peach St., is one of the 182 stores closing

Boscov’s, at the Millcreek Mall, opened in October 2017. Here, Kristin Myers, at left, fills a fudge order for Dolores Griswold, at the store’s candy counter. [FILE PHOTO CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Erie residents Allan Mitulski, 62, left, and wife Donna, 61, shop at Pet Supplies Plus with Buster, their 2-year-old miniature schnauzer. [GREG WOHLFORD/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

nationwide as part of Toys R Us’ bankruptcy reorganization plans, and Bon-Ton announced Jan. 31 it would close its Millcreek Mall location.)

Limits of online shopping Bell said that while online shopping is popular and will continue to grow, its impact on brick-andmortar stores “kind of gets overblown.”

In 2016, the latest year for which he said statistics were available, Bell said 8.5 percent of retail sales were transacted online. Bell said

he’s sure there was some growth in 2017, but there’s no reason to believe the numbers were significantly greater.

But he added, “The best retailers at our mall complex embrace online shopping as just one more way to serve the customer.”

Bell said the mall complex continues to succeed, in part, because it’s adapted to shoppers’ changing habits.

It’s become more of a onestop area to buy clothes and other merchandise, eat a meal, get your hair cut or styled, and enjoy entertainment, among other options.

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Highlighting that point, Round 1 Entertainment is scheduled to open late this summer, with the entrance at the mall’s Promenade.

The Round 1 Entertainment concept includes a mix of bowling alleys, billiards, arcade games, ping-pong, a restaurant/lounge area and private party rooms.

Bell said Anthony Cafaro Jr., co-president of the mall complex’ parent firm, has made this comment about online limitations: “You can’t meet your best friend for lunch on your smartphone.”

Erie is also bucking the nationwide trend thanks to its location, drawing shoppers from northwestern Pennsylvania, northeastern Ohio, western New York and Ontario, according to both Bell and John Oliver, president and CEO of VisitErie, the Erie region’s tourism promotion agency.

Pennsylvania’s tax-free clothing sales are a draw for shoppers from Ohio, New York and Ontario, Oliver said. The tax break is part of VisitErie’s advertising pitch in the Cleveland, Buffalo and southern Ontario markets.

And shoppers in Warren, Bradford, Meadville and other Pennsylvania towns visit Erie for its many retail options, he said.

A helpful hand But it takes a personal touch for retailers to succeed.

“We know online is trending, but I think the customer likes to come into a brick-and-mortar store.

We have co-workers who are happy to wait on them and happy to take them to the product, and explain the different benefits of it,” said Tony Georgetti, 48,

store manager at Boscov’s, which opened Oct. 5 at the Millcreek Mall and employs about 165 people, not counting holiday seasonal help.

“We’re happy to be here and we’re happy with the overall response," Georgetti said. "We see a lot of traffic at the mall, and it was very strong at the mall over the holidays."

Oliver said that Boscov’s helps draw more shoppers here who might have been unfamiliar with the Reading-based, family-owned chain with 45 stores.

At Pet Supplies Plus, the personal touch also helps to connect with customers and their pets.

“The pet industry is a little unique compared to anything else,” said Dino Sorbara, 45, of Erie, store manager at the West Erie Plaza location.

“We get to know them and their pets. So they’re happy to see us, with a smile on our face,” Sorbara said. “You get that personal interaction you will not get from a computer.”

Zavasky said customers can talk to knowledgeable salespeople who understand the products and the differences between them, talk about their pet’s experiences and needs, find items in the store for them and carry merchandise to their cars. “They greatly appreciate the interaction they get when they come into our stores,” said Zavasky, retired executive vice president of insurance operations for Erie Insurance. He retired in December 2012 after working 36 years for the company.

“I failed retirement. I wanted something that was engaging and fun to do,” he said.

Part of that engagement and fun occurs when birds, cats, snakes, lizards and dogs come into the store with their owners. “Anything on a leash or in a cage,” he said.

Zavasky said his stores, which employ a total of about 36 people, also help five rescue shelters in the community with fundraising, supplying food at discounted prices, sponsoring events for them and hosting adoptions at their stores.

“We’re here in the community to be part of the community,” he said.

That’s a treat in the dog-eat-dog world of comparing brick-and-mortar to online retailing.

John Guerriero can be reached at johnguerrierowrites@gmail.com or on Twitter at twitter. com/JGuerriero814.

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com |

PIECES From Page L1

For example, equipment made by Bliley— in Erie— was aboard NASA’s New Horizon’s satellite when it captured images of Pluto in July.

Like most of the company’s 140 employees, Stout often handles projects for the military, government or private vendor contracts he can’t discuss outside of Bliley’s state-of-theart 64,000-square-foot testing and manufacturing facility.

Stout says it’s cool and meaningful work.

“The thing that really gets me excited is that we’re designing products that go into platforms that have a purpose,” Stout said. “They’re helping the world.

“For example, we’re working on a project right now that involves a satellite constellation that will ultimately provide internet access to rural areas all over the world,” Stout said.

“I’ve done stuff that has gone into the B-1 bomber and radar equipment for battleships.

“We’re trying to make the world a better place,” Stout said, “and really, that should be the goal of any engineer. To try and help people.”

Bliley’s website claims the company is among just a handful of U.S.based companies that manufactures crystals and oscillators within the same facility.

That “vertical integration” allows Bliley’s engineers to work closely with production employees to offer unique designs to customers, said Keith Szewczyk, Bliley’s

In a clean room, technician Kerry Kala calibrates gold-plated quartz crystals used in Bliley oscillators.

[CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

43-year-old director and chief executive.

“What we’ve done is taken the crystal side of things and scaled it up the radio frequency chain. ...

So we are designing more than just the crystals now.

We design master reference oscillators and some other things (for satellites),” Szewczyk said.

Crystals are minerals that have an extraordinary ability to store, transmit and transform energy. Oscillators are small devices that generate electric currents

Sunday, February 18, 2018

L5

or voltages.

Bliley is now designing additional parts for what are known as cube satellites, or “CubeSats,” Szewczyk said.

Packed with various instruments, CubeSats resemble a Rubik’s Cube— but they are a bit larger— and are actually smaller satellites which work together in clusters to facilitate radio and other types of communications.

“In the past, we would have just designed the crystals that would go into a box that goes into the CubeSat,” Szewczyk said. “What we did was we moved up the chain, which creates more revenue and more sales opportunity for Bliley.”

Szewczyk, who formerly managed and recruited engineers for GE Transportation, would not discuss Bliley’s annual sales figures or other financial data about the company.

Both Bliley and a whollyowned subsidiary, Erie’s Sunburst Electronics, are owned by Erie lawyer and businessman Roger Richards, who purchased the companies in 1998.

Heather Kahle, 52, has worked at Bliley for more than 20 years. She inspects and finishes crystals.

“You’ve got to make sure everything is where it should be, that the plating is good and that there are no flaws,” Kahle said.

She admits that working with thousands of parts a day— some barely larger than a pinhead — is an exercise in concentration.

“Sometimes your mind can wander,” Kahle said.

“You have to focus.”

Kevin Flowers can be reached at 870-1693 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/ETNflowers.

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Girls inspired early in science and engineering

By Sarah Grabski sgrabski@timesnews.com

Ten-year-old Gianna Collins won't hesitate to tell you what she wants to be when she grows up.

A scientist.

The Northwestern Elementary fourth grader lit up as she talked about learning about the solar system and the Earth while she was working on a building challenge with classmate Emily DeForce, 9, during a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math workshop

at Penn State Behrend in mid-January.

Collins is one of a number of young girls in Erie County who have been encouraged to show interest in a STEM field.

See GIRLS, L9

Northwestern Elementary School fourth graders Emily Deforce, 9, left, and Gianna Collins, 10, participate in a STEM-based project during a ďŹ eld trip to Penn State Behrend. [JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Online extras See video of Northwestern Elementary students participating in STEM activities at Penn State Behrend: GoErie.com/Videos

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com |

GIRLS From Page L8

Monica Caldas, GE Transportation's chief information officer for global services and digital solutions, has been one of those doing the encouraging for at least the past five years across the county.

"We want them to learn about what it means to be in STEM, to keep them engaged and to reduce intimidation and show them what's possible," Caldas said. "It's about giving them the support they need."

Caldas helped form a GE day camp in 2011 for middleschool girls called GE Girls.

The camp, which has been in Erie since 2012, partners with local school districts and Behrend to teach girls the importance of STEM with hands-on activities centering around robotics, electronics, materials properties, plastics, chemistry, wind energy and more topics.

The results of these types of efforts might now be revealing themselves.

According to the American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2016, out of the 15,239 people in Erie County who hold bachelor's degrees in science and engineering, 34 percent of them are women.

That number is up slightly from 2012 statistics from the same survey that indicated 33 percent of those who hold a bachelor's degree in science and engineering are women.

Nationally, 40 percent of the total number of people who hold degrees in those fields are women, according to 2016 statistics.

That comes as no surprise to Karinna Vernaza, interim director of Gannon

Karinna Vernaza, interim dean of Gannon Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s College of Engineering and Business, took a group to the annual Society of Women Engineers conference in Austin, Texas, in October 2017.

[CONTRIBUTED PHOTO]

University's College of Engineering and Business.

Vernaza, who has been with Gannon for 14 years, said she has seen an increase in the number of female students showing interest in biomedical engineering over the past five years.

"We have pretty high enrollment in those areas, and I have to say the ratio is more women than men now," she said. "There are possibilities, mostly in rehabilitation and other research areas."

Sarah Ewing, dean of the College of Health Professions and Sciences at Gannon, agreed.

"Anecdotally, I would say we have a higher population of females coming in really committed to pursuing a bachelor's in biology or chemistry," she said. "It's exciting for me."

Nicole Shamitko-Klingensmith, a team leader for analytical services at Lord Corp. in Summit Township, is able to experience it firsthand.

"Our team is about 50/50," Shamitko-Klingensmith said. "It's four women and five men."

But there is also a harsh reality in Erie that accompanies the higher numbers of females pursuing degrees in science and engineering.

Maybe it's not necessarily the fields and their makeup that are changing â&#x20AC;&#x201D; maybe it's the potential job market in town that is transforming.

"The reality is that our students don't really stay in town," Vernaza said. "The landscape is changing from that perspective. We used to have students stay locally and work for companies like GE, but that doesn't happen really a whole lot anymore."

GE Transportation has laid off around 1,600 workers in the past two years and has plans to lay off around 500 more this year. But the company, which employed as many as 18,000 people at its height in Erie, remains one of Erie County's largest employers with about 2,500 employees.

"I have to tell you right now as we look at the number of engineers in town, there's a lot that is changing," Vernaza said. "Even Lord did a layoff.

When we look at engineering, those two were some of the bigger companies that hired

students from us."

Lord Corp. eliminated 19 non-production jobs at its plant in Summit Township in October. In 2015, the company eliminated 92 jobs in Erie and Crawford counties. It now employs about 675 people, said to a company spokesman.

Shamitko-Klingensmith, who was hired in 2015, actually moved to Erie after graduating from West Virginia University to take a job at Lord with her husband.

"There are opportunities here (in Erie)," she said. "I know in academia, there are opportunities in the STEM fields, and Erie is also important in the plastics industry. ... Of course, Lord is a great company for those in STEM fields."

Vernaza said she travels annually with a group of femaleGannonstudentstothe Society of Women Engineers conference so they're able to see opportunities nationwide and not just in Erie.

"Females in engineering are a hot commodity," Vernaza said. "Not only is it exposure for them to see all of these companies like Keurig, Lockheed Martin and more that they could work for, it's been very successful in getting internships for them, too."

One of those students is Maggie Rutkowski, 21, a Gannon University junior in industrial engineering. Rutkowski, who used to dream of staying in Erie after she graduated, isn't so sure anymore.

Rutkowski's family owns Industrial Sales and Manufacturing, 2609 W. 12th St., a company that specializes in the production of bearing caps and industrial products.

"Erie is one of my favorite cities in the world," Rutkowski said. "When I was a freshman, I wanted to go work for my family business (after graduation) and Gannon has started giving

Sunday, February 18, 2018

L9

me options and I realized I can literally do anything with this degree. I don't know exactly where I want to end up."

Even so, she expects to face challeneges.

After all, according to a Pew Research Center study released in January, 50 percent of women in STEM jobs said they experienced a form of gender discrimination in their workplace.

Caldas said she encountered this during a coding course in college.

"There were all of two girls in the class. One of the guys looked at me and said, 'Don't worry, we'll code for you, you just do the design because that's what you're good at,'" she said. "I looked at him and thought, 'I'll show you.'"

This is why manufacturing companies have made the push in Erie to attract women to the fields of science and engineering through programs like GE Girls and Lord Corp.'s school industry program.

"It's to break down this stigma that surrounds the science and engineering fields," Shamitko-Klingensmith said. "You show them that science and math don't have to be hard. They can be fun."

The way to combat STEM gender bias at a young age is by teaching girls and their families how to foster an environment that is welcoming and open to STEM activities, Caldas said.

"In my career, I've experienced situations where people have doubted my ability because I am a woman. Do I know enough technically to operate this system?" she said. "My attitude has always been 'I'll show you.' And I always do."

Sarah Grabski can be reached at 870-1776 or by email. Follow her on twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNgrabski.

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GE Transportation

LOOKING FORWARD

Scott Slawson, president of Local 506 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America at GE Transportation. [JACK HANRAHAN/

Rafael Santana was named CEO of GE Transportation in October 2017.

[CONTRIBUTED PHOTO]

Alan Hamilton, general manager of systems engineering at GE Transportation. [CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

By Jim Martin jim.martin@timesnews.com

It seemed a year ago that GE Transportation’s 100-year-old Erie plant had weathered every storm that bad luck and the whims of the marketplace could send its way.

In just five years, Erie was stripped of its status as the corporate headquarters of GE Transportation, a $5 billion GE business, and was replaced

by Fort Worth, Texas, as the company’s primary locomotive production site.

And in the midst of a historic sales drought, 1,600 of Erie’s highest paid manufacturing jobs were eliminated in 2016.

That was only a taste of the uncertainty that 2017 would bring to a company that had been Erie’s largest employer for longer than most of us have been alive.

Late July brought the announcement that the company planned to end locomotive production in Erie, eliminating 570 jobs. Manufacturing would continue, but the long history of building locomotives here would end.

Even after the union failed to come to terms with the company over concessions that might have saved some jobs, GE made clear that it was staying in Erie. Engineering, research and hundreds of production workers would remain.

Then the other shoe fell.

In November, John Flannery, CEO of parent company General Electric, announced the company would sell GE Transportation, a business that dated back to founder Thomas Edison.

As this is written, GE Transportation and its Erie plant, which still employs more than 2,000 people, is in limbo.

In all of this uncertainty, Scott Slawson, president of Local 506 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America at GE Transportation, sees opportunity.

On that point, he shares something in common with management,

including management at the company's very highest levels.

By the time he was named CEO, Rafael Santana had been with General Electric for 17 years, including eight years with GE Transportation, three of those years in Erie.

Santana, who worked most recently as CEO of GE Latin America, had been in his new job less than two weeks when it became clear that his role would not be that of caretaker.

Flannery had announced to the world that the business Santana now led was for sale.

But Santana, who received a flurry of congratulatory calls from old colleagues in Erie after being named to the top post, shows no outward signs of concern.

"I'm optimistic about this business, the opportunity that lies ahead, the chances to reconnect with amazing friends and colleagues," Santana said in a recent conversation with the Erie Times-News.

Encouragement came recently in the form of an order for 200 locomotives from Canadian National Railroad, and a pair of deals worth more than $900 million with Kazakhstan’s state-run railroad, Kazakhstan Temir Zholy or KTZ. Those contracts include the delivery of 300 shunter locomotives — small locomotives typically used in rail yards or to make short hauls.

Slawson isn’t dwelling on the fact that the company plans to build those CN locomotives in Fort Worth.

He’s hoping some of that work finds its way to Erie.

“At the end of the day you can only build so many,” he said of the Texas plant.

And while the shunter locomotives will be built in Kazakhstan, the bulk of the engineering work has been done in Erie, said Alan Hamilton, general manager of systems engineering for GE Transportation.

Hamilton said Erie's status as the larger of two worldwide engineering centers — and home to nearly 500 engineers — is one of the things that gives him confidence in the future of the Erie plant.

The other is its leadership position that's developed over the last 20 years. Hamilton believes that makes GE Transportation an attractive franchise, whether it becomes part of another company or is spun off as its own entity.

"We are in the driver's seat," he said. "We are the global leader. There is a lot of hope because we are in this position."

If things have to change, Slawson favors the option of spinning GE Transportation off as its own freestanding business and offering stock through an initial public offering or IPO. Would Slawson invest in that company?

“I buy GE shares now. I would probably buy the IPO,” he said. “In the grand scheme of things, it’s a great division. It’s always the first or second most profitable.”

How does the future look for the Erie plant?

“This could ultimately be better for Erie but right now it feels like a bad situation, mainly because we don’t know," Slawson said. "Each possibility is fraught with issues. When you merge with another company or somebody buys a major stake, that changes the dynamics. You see situations where they clean house and get rid of management and you have to build a rapport again. Those changes take time.”

Jake Rouch, executive vice president of economic development for the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership, knows one thing for certain: The outcome couldn't be more important.

"I don't want to wish any of it away," Rouch said of the remaining jobs at GE Transportation. "They are an invaluable economic force and employer in Erie County. Whatever we can do as a community ... we want them here."

Jim Martin can be reached at 8701668 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNMartin.

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Sunday, February 18, 2018

ERIE 2018: NEXT STEPS

This is a panoramic view of Erie from the top of the Bicentennial Tower. [SARAH GRABSKI/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

COMMUNITY PLANS AIM TO

ADVANCE ERIE

A status update on Emerge 2040, Erie Refocused and Erie Downtown Partnership Master Plan

By Matthew Rink matthew.rink@timesnews.com

C

ity, county and downtown stakeholders continue to advance multi-year plans aimed at reshaping the local economy with the ultimate goal of making Erie a better place to live, work and play.

Three of these plans— Emerge 2040, Erie Refocused and the Erie Partnership Plan — are in different stages of implementation and are moving at different speeds.

Here is a breakdown of each plan and some of the accomplishments made under each.

Emerge 2040

Post-it notes are shown Feb. 1, 2017 on a map of the City of Erie that was in a conference room at the Erie County Planning Department, located above the Erie Maritime Center on Erie’s bayfront. Members of the Erie Refocused planning team have identified public and private-sector projects to revitalize the Erie region, especially the downtown State Street corridor. [CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

A crowd at Perry Square listens to the music on June 8 during the Downtown Erie Block Party. [JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Emerge2040 was unveiled publicly in March 2015. It is the product of Destination Erie, a three-year, $3 million study.

It includes 42 priorities for the Erie community over 25 years, including creating a regional housing court; updating the master plan for waterfront development; enhancing job training and public transportation; providing better access to early childhood education; and improving recreational, medical, dental care and healthy eating options.

In 2017, the Emerge 2040 steering committee put on hold its search for an executive director. Previously, that post was held by Anna Frantz, who left to become the first executive director of Our West Bayfront.

The steering committee meets monthly to push the plan ahead.

“We are there to support the efforts in the community to move it forward,” said Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper, a member of the steering committee. “The discussion we had that gained so much excitement (at the January meeting) was the Blue Zone Project. You can point right to the Emerge 2040 plan and where that recommendation is — not specifically Blue Zones, but the concept it is bringing.

It is still being utilized, it is still being driven, but it is still very much a collaborative effort of many, many different entities around the table.”

The Blue Zones Project is a well-being and health initiative that works with communities to adopt nine traits, called the Power 9, that it has identified as being beneficial to helping people live longer, healthier lives. Erie could become the 43rd Blue Zones community.

However, after the most recent Blue Zones meeting some participants wondered how the program would be financed.

In 2017, Erie County Council approved a Cultural Heritage Plan, which outlines how to preserve and maintain historic structures in the county in an affordable way over the next five to seven years. The plan was developed with the assistance of Preservation Erie. It follows a recommendation of Emerge 2040: to use Erie’s history, cultural institutions and natural resources to create the foundation of a cultural, recreational and tourism economy across the county.

See PLANS, M3

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Pittsburgh: A template for moving forward Our neighbor to the south offers an example as Erie rebuilds its economy

By Jim Martin jim.martin@timesnews.com

PITTSBURGH— A giant dough mixer sits unused in a corner of Google’s offices in the Pittsburgh community of Larimer.

The mixer is a relic, a reminder of when this building at Bakery Square was a Nabisco bakery built in the closing days of World War I. A few miles away, closer to downtown Pittsburgh, sits the Southside Works, a $300 million office, entertainment and residential complex — complete with movie theater and Cheesecake Factory restaurant— built on top on what was once one of Pittsburgh’s largest steel mills.

The two projects are symbols of a Pittsburgh that reinvented itself after difficult times when the steel mills closed in the 1970s and the 1980s and thousands of jobs were lost.

But Dennis Davin, a former director of the Allegheny Department of Economic Development who serves now as secretary of the state Department of Community and Economic Development, sees it as something more.

He sees the rebirth of Pittsburgh as a template Erie can follow as it moves from an economy built on its industrial past to one that is more diversified and has more stable jobs.

And more importantly, Davin sees signs that change has begun in Erie.

During visits to Erie over the past year and in a recent interview with the Erie

Bakery Square, opened in 1918 as a Nabisco bakery near Pittsburgh, is home today to shopping and offices for numerous clients, including Google. [CONTRIBUTED/WALNUT CAPITAL]

Times-News, Davin has repeatedly praised local leaders for doing the one thing they can to leverage limited government resources to help Erie overcome issues with high unemployment and poverty to become a success story in much the same way that Pittsburgh transformed itself into a community that’s on the short list to become home to Amazon's second headquarters.

That something, Davin said, it to agree on a set of common priorities and to express those priorities to officials in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C. with one voice.

Davin said he has seen that happen as Erie officials and business leaders have rallied around the cause of bayfront revitalization and joined forces to fund the Erie Downtown Development Corp.

There’s no going back, no way of knowing how some other approach might have worked, but over the past year or so, Erie has brought home millions for Scott Enterprises' Harbor Place Development and money to redevelop the former Family First Sports Park.

And during Davin’s most recent visit to Erie, accompanied by Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Secretary Leslie Richards, the state announced millions in investments that will help improve the Bayfront Parkway and open access between the city and its waterfront.

It’s an example of improving Erie’s access to what could be its greatest asset.

Davin saw something similar happen in Pittsburgh. The rivers that flowed through Pittsburgh were an invaluable asset

to the steel industry, but when the steel mills closed those same waterways proved to be an asset to developers.

Erie’s collective mindset— from its political, community and business leaders— help give Erie its best possible opportunity.

“Erie is in a good place right now,” he said. “There is a plan. There is a strategy. It is clear what the goals are. It’s clear what the asks are. You have everyone speaking with one voice.”

It was an approach that served Pittsburgh well and helped bring it back from the depths of hard times, Davin said.

“Pittsburgh was as low as you could get,” he said. “(Success) was about staying on message, coming together and sticking with it. Not everybody gets along with everyone else.

But as long as there was a message that this is what Pittsburgh wants to do.

We were all focused and all saying the same thing.”

Pittsburgh still faces challenges, areas of blight and high crime. But the transformation, built on its strength as a medical, banking and high-tech center, is hard to question.

The Pittsburgh that lives in memory was a city of strong backs that transformed iron ore into steel that helped build a nation.

The Pittsburgh of today is successful in a way that attracts technology companies and has repeatedly earned the city a ranking among the most livable cities in America.

Erie might never again be the city that was home to the American Sterilizer Co., big paper plants, shingle factories and a GE Transportation plant that employed as many as 18,000.

But like a growing list of people who believe in the community, Davin said he sees a successful way forward for Erie.

There will likely be stumbling blocks, he warned.

It happened in Pittsburgh. In the early 2000s, when the region seemed to be getting back on its feet, US Airways moved its hub out of Pittsburgh, eliminating more than 13,000 jobs.

There is only one thing to do in times like those, Davin said.

“Don’t let the negatives get you down,” he said.

“Stay together and keep pushing.”

Jim Martin can be reached at 870-1668 or by email.

Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNMartin.

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com |

PLANS From Page M1

Another Emerge 2040 recommendation is “protect the rich cultural and environmental resources found in Lake Erie and on Presque Isle and elevate their international profile” by seeking national and international designations.

In 2016, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries accepted the county’s application to have Presque Isle Bay and the waters of Lake Erie added to NOAA’s inventory of potential marine sanctuary sites. Such a designation would protect the hundreds of shipwrecks in these waters, and promote Erie as a diving, tourism and educational location. It’s the first time in two decades that NOAA is considering new areas for the designation. According to NOAA, “Sanctuary designation is a separate public process that by law, is highly public and participatory, and often takes several years to complete.”

More information:

www.emerge2040.org Erie Refocused The city’s new Mayor Joe Schember checked off one recommendation of the 10-year plan by creating the position of planning director.

Kathy Wyrosdick, who previously served as director for the Erie County Department of Planning, will hold the

same post with the city.

Meanwhile, the Erie Downtown Development Corp., an equity fund created by Erie Insurance for the purpose of improving downtown Erie, has raised $21.5 million since August. Erie Insurance made the initial investment of $5 million. The Erie Community Foundation, Gannon University, UPMC Hamot, ErieBank, Northwest Bank and a private individual have each donated $2.5 million, and Marquette Savings Bank has given $1.5 million.

The city’s land bank, which was formed to take possession of vacant, blighted and/ or tax-delinquent properties and put them back into productive use, has adopted bylaws and could have a source of revenue to proceed with its work now that Erie County has formed its own land bank. The latter exists primarily because state lawmakers in October allocated $1 million of the county’s $11 million of gaming revenue for the creation of a land bank. The county could channel some of its revenue to the city’s land bank through an intergovernmental agreement. Schember had previously talked about dissolving the city’s land bank, but in recent weeks he’s said that the city has unique problems regarding blight and that keeping the city’s land bank makes sense.

In December, the city realized another funding boost to help advance the plan when state officials committed $30 million to connect the bayfront

across the Bayfront Parkway to downtown Erie. Erie Refocused calls for the creation of an “iconic connection” between the bayfront and downtown within 10 years. The money will pay for design and construction of improved links for vehicle traffic, pedestrians and bicyclists across the parkway.

Those accomplishments follow a busy summer in which code enforcement sweeps in the bayfront neighborhoods generated more than 1,100 notices of exterior property code violations, and in which residents stepped up to buy vacant lots from the Erie Redevelopment Authority.

Erie Downtown Partnership Master Plan The downtown master plan, unveiled in May 2016, has been implemented into Erie Refocused. It outlines improvements over a 70-block area. The six goals laid out in the plan include the establishment of four districts, which run from the bayfront to the railroad tracks just south of 15th Street. The districts are bound by Sassafras Street on the west and Holland Street on the east. The districts are the Bayfront District, Perry Square District, Renaissance District and the Union Station District.

Other goals include improving the overall physical environment; aggressively pursuing economic development opportunities; adding market-rate housing; See PLANS, M5

Sunday, February 18, 2018

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Peter Burton, 49, left, president of Burton Funeral Homes, and his sister and company vice president Karen Burton Horstman, 52, right, will operate Quinn Funeral Home with help from current Quinn funeral director Bill Lyden, 61, center. [GREG WOHLFORD/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Funeral homes stay alive Burton and Quinn funeral homes are example of businesses adapting, merging

By Ed Palattella ed.palattella@timesnews.com

This is not the time to write the obituary for the Quinn Funeral Home, which is 142 years old.

It is not going away.

But it has changed owners.

The Quinn home, which has been in business since 1876, has merged with Burton Funeral Homes and Crematory, which also has been in business in Erie since 1876.

The Burton business purchased the assets of the Quinn home, which will remain in operation under that name.

"We have been around 142 years and so has it," said Peter Burton, president of Burton Funeral Homes. "It just makes sense for us to work together to better serve our families."

Bill Lyden, who has worked as a funeral director at the Quinn home since 1982, sold the business, which he owned with his wife, to Burton Funeral Homes in a merger that took effect on Jan. 1.

Lyden will stay on at the Quinn home, which he bought in 2002 from funeral director Jack Quinn, now deceased.

"If something would happen to me, I know the Quinn name will live on," said Lyden, 61. "We are just trying to keep two old names going."

The Burton and Quinn homes are the oldest funeral businesses in Erie County, which has 26, all familyowned, Peter Burton said.

The arrangement between the Burton and Quinn homes, which Peter Burton said is the first of its kind in Erie County, represents a form of innovation and forward-looking thinking in a profession that has existed for ages.

The arrangement also represents a strategy for survival at a time when the rising number of cremations, which are less expensive than burials, has made business more difficult for smaller funeral homes, such as Quinn, which Lyden says has handled 100 to 120 funerals a year at its building at 728 W. Ninth St. The cremation rate in Erie County is nearly 75 percent, much higher than the national and state rates.

Nationwide, Burton said, "the smaller firms are starting to merge with the bigger firms to help make ends meet."

Burton Funeral Homes, which operates a crematory and four funeral homes in Erie County, handles about 500 funerals a year, though Peter Burton said its market share has remained at 16 to 18 percent a year over the past 100 years, "no matter how hard we work."

He said the merger allows Burton Funeral Homes to expand its market share while

keeping "the Quinn name and brand alive."

"It is still a very caring business," Burton, 49, said of operating a funeral home.

"But people are not asking for as much as they did in the olden days when everyone was buried."

Cremations more popular Nationwide, the cremation rate rose above 50 percent for the first time in 2016, when it hit 50.2 percent, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. It does not yet have figures for 2017.

In Erie County, where about 2,500 people die on average a year, the cremation rate is nearly 75 percent, Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook said. In Pennsylvania, the coroner must sign off on cremations, and Cook said he issued authorizations for 1,858 cremations in 2017 out of about 2,500 deaths, or 74.3 percent. Cook said the county cremation rate was 7 to 9 percent in the early 1980s.

"It was primarily for the poor," he said. "But over time it has just grown and grown."

Cook said he believes cost savings and changing religious attitudes are the primary reason the cremation rate in Erie County is so high.

"Follow the dollars," he said.

The National Funeral Directors Association put the nationwide median price for a funeral with cremation, including an urn, at $6,260 in 2016, compared to $8,755 for a funeral with a burial, including a casket and vault.

The cremation rate at the Burton Funeral Homes is about 55 percent, Peter Burton said. Lyden said the rate at the Quinn Funeral Home is 30 to 35 percent, and he said the lower rate is due to the home's traditional client base of IrishCatholic families.

Religious denominations nationwide have taken a less stringent stance to cremations, leading to the increased rate, said Kathleen Ryan, executive director and general counsel of the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association. She said the cremation rate in Pennsylvania, which has 1,600 funeral homes, is about 40 percent, and that it started a marked increase five to seven years ago.

"Cemetery costs have gone up; the Catholic Church is not necessarily against cremation as it once was; and it is more accepted socially," Ryan said.

The Roman Catholic Church long has accepted cremation, though it prefers burial. The Vatican reiterated that stance in 1963, when it said burial is preferred but that cremation is not "opposed per se to the Christian religion."

Online Extras See video of the Quinn Funeral Home's Bill Lyden talking about the merger with Burton Funeral Homes: GoErie.com/Videos

In 2016, in its most recent comments on cremation, the Vatican said burial is the way "you show a greater esteem for the dead," but said Catholics may be cremated as long as their ashes are kept in a "sacred place," such as a church cemetery, and not scattered or kept in urns at home.

In Pennsylvania, Ryan said the rise in cremations and the larger number of funeral directors nearing retirement have made mergers of funeral homes, like that between Quinn and Burton, more common.

"It is not happening every day, but I hear about it more often than I did five years ago," she said.

On the national level, "I don't think it is a national trend. I think it is a practical trend that is happening in a lot of smaller communities," said the past president of the National Funeral Directors Association, Bob Biggins, of the Magoun-Biggins Funeral Home in Rockland, Massachusetts, south of Boston.

"The profession is in the midst of change," he said.

"A lot of that has to do with cremations."

Biggins also said fewer funeral directors are getting licensed, leaving a gap when older directors retire.

"If you are a smaller firm looking at both of those factors," he said, "you are looking to colleagues to join forces to be more viable and better serve your communities."

A close relationship Burton Funeral Homes' Erie location is at 602 W. 10th St., a block from the Quinn home, where families now will be able to use Burton's other locations: two in Millcreek Townshipâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; one in the Belle Valley section and the other on West 26th Street â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and one in Girard.

Burton Funeral Homes also owns Ericson Memorial Studios and Erie City Memorials.

The merger gives the Quinn families "more options," Peter Burton said.

Lyden said he has no immediate plans to retire. Though he and his wife sold the Quinn business, name and property to Burton's, he will remain as supervisor of the Quinn Funeral Home. The sale of the Quinn home's real estate, for $300,000, to Burton Funeral Homes occurred in mid-January, according to Erie County

property records. The rest of the terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"I'm here as long as I want to be here," Lyden said. "We are still going to operate it as the Quinn Funeral Home. Things are still going to be the same as they have always been."

He said the Quinn home will keep its current pricing structure and honor all its prearrangement orders. But Lyden said the merger will allow other staff members to take calls for him and allow the Quinn home to use Burton Funeral Homes' services.

"I might even be able to get an evening off," Lyden said with a laugh. "Peter is trying to make my life easier."

"He has been a one-man show," Burton said of Lyden.

"We give up a lot to be on call 24 hours a day. We hope he can travel and do some things he has wanted to do. I hope he can really enjoy life with our help."

Burton operates Burton Funeral Homes with his sister, Karen Burton Horstman, 52, the company's vice president.

They are the fifth generation of the Burton family to run the business.

Jack Quinn, Lyden's mentor and the longtime owner of the Quinn Funeral Home, represented the third generation of the Quinn family to run the business. Quinn, 81, died in 2009, seven years after Lyden purchased the Quinn Funeral Home. He and Jack Quinn became full business partners in 1991, nine years after Lyden started at the Quinn home.

G. David Burton, the father of Horstman and Peter Burton, died in 2012 at 77. He and Jack Quinn "were good friends," Peter Burton said, and he said Burton Funeral Homes often borrowed cars and other equipment from the Quinn home in a pinch. The longtime relationship made the merger easier, he said.

"It is all about people," Burton said of the funeral business, "and you want to have the right people."

"Jack treated me like a son," Lyden said of his longtime boss, "so I wanted it to be in good hands."

Lyden said Peter Burton made him an offer of a lifetime.

"No one is knocking on your door asking to buy funeral homes," he said.

As for when he will step away from the business, Lyden said retirement is definitely in his plans â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but he not set a specific time for his departure.

"We will be here at least a while yet, God willing," Lyden said.

Ed Palattella can be reached at 870-1813 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNpalattella.

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com |

New job opportunities continue in health care Addition of marijuana facility, UPMC operations center are examples of growth

By David Bruce david.bruce@timesnews.com

UPMC looked north when it needed a second business operations center.

The one located near the health system’s headquarters in Pittsburgh was thriving, but UPMC officials didn’t think that region could sustain another center, especially since Highmark also had opened one in the area.

“The market was beginning to get saturated,” said Mary Beth Jenkins, UPMC Health Plan’s chief operating officer. “We looked at Erie and saw there was a growth opportunity.”

The UPMC Operations Center opened in the fall at 380 E. Bayfront Parkway and currently employs 57 full-time workers. Jenkins expects to hire another 75 to 100 people by the end of 2018 and eventually have about 300 employees at the center.

About half of the employees at the center work as customer service representatives, claims examiners and enrollment specialists for the health plan. The rest work for the health system, handling customer/patient questions, and scheduling appointments and office visits.

The average wage is around $32,000 a year, with benefits, Gov. Tom Wolf said when the center opened in May. The center is one of the latest signs of health-carerelated job growth in Erie at a time when manufacturing jobs are leaving the region.

Sharon Lane, a customer service representative at the new UPMC call center, fields phone calls. [JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

“Health care is certainly a significant economic driver in this region,” said Scott Miller, dean of Edinboro University’s School of Business. “Between health care and education, those are the big drivers for us, especially with the decline in manufacturing.”

About 29,100 people in Erie County worked in education and health services in December 2017, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

It’s an increase from 26,700 people in December 2007.

But there can be drawbacks when health care is a primary job creator in a region, Miller said.

One is that there is a finite number of people in a region who require medical care. In order for a hospital to increase its business, often another local hospital must lose patients because patients want to receive medical care near home.

“The only ways you increase business otherwise is if your population is growing or your population is getting sicker, and we

don’t want that,” Miller said.

“Or if you are able to recruit patients from outside your region.”

Erie’s two largest hospitals, UPMC Hamot and Saint Vincent Hospital, have excelled at bringing in patients from elsewhere in northwestern Pennsylvania and adjoining counties.

However, relatively few patients from outside the region go to them as destination hospitals as they do with the Cleveland Clinic, Roswell Park in Buffalo or UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh.

Another drawback with health care is that the industry doesn’t have the same ripple effect on other businesses as manufacturing does, Miller said.

“That’s because health care doesn’t require as many tangible products,” Miller said. “Manufacturing needs raw materials. Service industries like healthcare don’t need nearly as many raw materials.”

But the UPMC Operations Center is proof health care does create some ripples.

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Jenkins said one reason why the center was placed in Erie was because of gains UPMC Health Plan has made in the region. It now has nearly 69,000 customers in Erie County.

“We’ve had great growth in the northern tier, specifically Erie,” Jenkins said.

“Now with the acquisition of UPMC Chautauqua (the former WCA Hospital in Jamestown, N.Y.), we expect that growth to continue.”

Another small ripple is the anticipated opening of a medical marijuana dispensary in Erie.

GTI LLC, a Chicago-based company, expects to employ between 15 and 20 workers when the dispensary opens in late March at 2108 W. Eighth St, said Pete Kadens, the company’s CEO. He spoke to about 400 people during a town hall session at the Zem Zem Shrine & Banquet Facility in Millcreek Township.

Many of those in attendance were interested in applying for the jobs. GTI has received licenses from the state to grow and dispense marijuana for medical purposes under the new Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Program.

The question is how many of these jobs will be good enough to support a family, Miller asked.

“Some of them obviously are, such as the physician jobs,” Miller said. “But I want to know how many of those types of jobs will there be? Can they support a community like manufacturing did?”

David Bruce can be reached at 870-1736 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNbruce.

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PLANS From Page M3

improving transportation, circulation and connectivity, and designing and implementing an aggressive promotional campaign.

John Buchna, executive director of the Erie Downtown Partnership, said there are about 137 recommendations in all in the downtown master plan, and that a dozen of them have already been accomplished.

Buchna said the Erie Downtown Partnership is working more closely with the Erie Regional Chamber & Growth Partnership, Visit Erie, the Perry Square Alliance and other groups to improve collaboration on downtown efforts.

Buchna also pointed to the work the Erie Downtown Partnership is doing with the Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority. The agencies are trying to establish a market or grocery store in the first-floor parking deck space of EMTA’s new facility.

As for work within the four districts, volunteer groups assigned to each district met twice in 2017 and will continue to meet this year.

More information: www.icareforerie.com Matthew Rink can be reached at 870-1884 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.

Twitter.com/ETNrink.

M6

Sunday, February 18, 2018

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Erie Times-News | GoErie.com

Their job is to create jobs Some of the people spend their working hours with organizations that aim to create, bring or keep jobs in this region

By Dana Massing dana.massing@timesnews.com

Scott Ticer, 59 Director Erie Technology Incubator at Gannon University 900 State St. www.erietech.org

Scott Ticer has worked for a startup in Silicon Valley and as a consultant to help turn around companies in Dallas. He said he’s experienced successes and failures and believes that he can help startup companies determine what might work and what might not.

“This is art, not science,” he said, adding that it takes a lot of luck but the harder you try, the more success you have.

Born in Oklahoma and raised in Texas, he married an Erie native and after years of living in the South and West, they bought a summer home in Fairview Township.

That led to a permanent move here and Ticer became director of the incubator about five months ago.

He said his in-laws waited 30 years for his wife to come home. Entrepreneurship, to him, is a way of keeping young people from leaving Erie.

“We need to create opportunity here in Erie for all the kids to stick around,” said Ticer, the father of teenage twins.

Launched in 2008, the incubator’s focus is to help high-tech companies get off the ground, develop a product and create revenue, he said.

The incubator currently houses 15 companies, which pay rent and represent fields including medical technology, digital media and manufacturing automation.

One has grown from a single employee to more than 10 in 18 months, Ticer said.

Through the incubator, clients have access to a team of experienced people ready to help a new or growing business. Ticer said that after having had success, it’s meaningful to him to help steer startups in the direction of their own achievements.

Rick Novotny, 59 Executive director Erie County Redevelopment Authority 900 State St. www.erieredevelopment.com

When Rick Novotny worked in the restaurant business decades ago, he knew that a bunch of cars in the parking lot was the sign of a good place to eat. He applies the same approach to the economic development he’s been doing for 30 years: Buy an old building,

fix it up, make it available for businesses that want to start or grow, help with financing and one day you’ll see a bunch of cars in the parking lot.

“You can say, ‘I helped with that,’” Novotny said.

“It’s about creating jobs.”

As head of the Redevelopment Authority, he works with boards of authorities under it to move their missions forward.

“It’s coming up with new and innovative ideas of how to do projects,” Novotny said. Another task involves strategizing solutions to satisfy economic needs in the community.

His Redevelopment Authority helps with financing and real estate.

“We manage more than $25 million in revolving loan funds,” he said.

That might include lowinterest financing for a small company that needs to buy equipment to expand or a municipality that needs a piece of equipment or access to tax-exempt financing for a nonprofit.

“We manage about 700,000 square feet of industrial space,” Novotny said.

The authority also has 60 acres of industrial land available to attract new businesses here or help existing businesses grow.

Beth Zimmer, 53 Managing director and co-founder Innovation Collaborative 1001 State St., Suite 907 www.startuperiepa.com

Beth Zimmer said she “got very frustrated with the dichotomy that Erie was an amazing place to live, work and play” while she was watching the economy decline.

Historically, economic developers had focused on keeping businesses here and growing them and trying to attract new ones to come here, she said.

“But we forgot that encouraging startups truly is a key to building a vibrant and healthy economy,” Zimmer said.

So in late 2014, she helped co-found Innovation Collaborative, a nonprofit of which she is the sole employee working with a board of directors and volunteers.

She described the collaborative as the backbone support organization for the entrepreneurial ecosystem here.

“Anybody with an idea can reach out to us,” Zimmer said.

Innovation Collaborative has programs to help people learn to think and act entrepreneurially and to help people with an idea vet it and learn the mechanics of launching and running a business before they mortgage their homes to get it started, she said.

“We work to make sure people with ideas know there is a support system to help them start and grow,” Zimmer said.

She said Innovation Collaborative is itself a social impact entrepreneurial.

“We’re not making any

money but we’re making a difference in the community,” she said.

Brian Slawin, 47 Portfolio manager and regional director Ben Franklin Technology Partners 5340 Fryling Road, Harborcreek Township cnp.benfranklin.org

Brian Slawin remembers life as a struggling technology entrepreneur in St. Louis looking for someone willing to listen to him for just five minutes.

“I made a promise to myself if ever I was in the position I could (help other entrepreneurs), I would,” he said.

After selling the technology company he eventually ran, he moved to Erie and the Ben Franklin Technology Partners, where he has been helping entrepreneurs for two years.

Affiliated with Pennsylvania State University, Ben Franklin Technology Partners invests in technology startups and small manufacturers to help provide sustainable employment, said Liz Wilson, 60, director of marketing. She said applicants need some cash of their own to match the investment in their protectable intellectual property.

Paybacks from successful projects help provide funding for new startups.

Slawin looks for experience, passion and commitment in the people who contact the northwest region office for help.

“We always look at the people first,” he said.

Next is their idea, with consideration of whether it is innovative and can be helped by the Ben Franklin resources.

Slawin said the goal is to get people’s ideas out of their basements and into the market.

T.J. King, 37 Director of Erie region Bridgeway Capital 1001 State St., Suite 1400 www.bridgewaycapital.org

T.J. King began working in commercial lending when he was 24 and spent six years with Bank of America in Ohio and two with Huntington Bank in Mercer County.

In January 2012, he made the move to the Erie office of Bridgeway, a nonprofit community development financial institution that specializes in working with small businesses and providing financing and business education.

“It’s more rewarding,” he said of his current job, adding that the banks couldn’t always

provide money for startup businesses.

Bridgeway also aids existing businesses that want to expand, such as a daycare whose owner needed financing to purchase its building, King said.

But he doesn’t just want to “lend individuals money and walk away,” King said.

That’s why Bridgeway offers education and provides entrepreneurs and startups with opportunities to learn about marketing, website development, human resources and similar topics.

He said the delinquency rate on the loans is less than 1 percent, and money that is paid back can be put into the community again.

King said Bridgeway has the capital to lend, having done a little more than $10 million worth of lending in Erie County since 2012. It just needs to find the businesses, he said.

“Every loan we do, there’s a story to it,” he said. “It’s helping someone achieve their dream of owning a business.”

Jake Rouch, 52 Vice president, economic development division Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership 208 E. Bayfront Parkway, Suite 100 www.eriepa.com

Born and raised in Erie, Jake Rouch said he has deep faith in the region’s potential and personally admires entrepreneurs and loves solving problems.

He combines all that in his work with the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership, which he described as the premier business networking and economic development organization in Erie County.

The chamber, which has more than 800 business members, tries to promote business here, connect businesses to the resources of the economic development system and get new business opportunities in Erie, Rouch said.

“We work with every conceivable business type and size,” he said, adding that the chamber believes all businesses create wealth and jobs in the community.

Rouch and his colleagues can point businesses toward land or buildings or lowinterest loans. He said the chamber can help businesses identify new markets and meet their workforce needs.

“What’s keeping you up at night?” is a question chamber officials ask company owners, Rouch said.

He said that 90 percent of the time, the chamber can connect a company to a resource in the community that can meet the needs of the business. Rouch also said the overall cost of doing business in Erie is extremely competitive, and there’s the ability to grow here.

Dana Massing can be reached at 870-1729 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at twitter. com/ETNmassing.

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com |

Sunday, February 18, 2018

M7

Crawford manufacturers have history of landing on their feet

Matthew Peterson, a mechanic at ChipBlaster, assembles a high-pressure coolant system at the company.

[PHOTOS BY JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

repaired train cars and later manufactured the tools that they needed.

“There were a lot of MEADVILLE — Greg highly skilled people Antoun left his job as an here in a kind of human inspection supervisor at capital bubble,” Antoun Lord Corp. in Erie and said. “The zipper wasn’t founded his own cominvented in Meadville pany in the Crawford but came here and was Business Park in Meaddeveloped here because ville in 1994. of the skilled workers that The company origiwere here. It was a highly nally made parts for the skilled process to make aerospace industry, often the progressive dies to for Lord. make zipper parts from a “A lot of the parts coil of wire.” we started out making Talon Zipper began were in exotic, hard-tomass producing the new machine metals. So we fastener in Meadville in started trying to develop the early 20th century. an understanding of The zipper went from how failures occurred in being a novelty to being a machining the metals. global phenomenon in 10 That understanding led years, Antoun said. us to actually produce “Older folks here say equipment for other there was no Depression companies making in Meadville because the parts,” Antoun said. demand for zippers was ChipBlaster Inc. now so high,” he said. sells high-pressure Talon in its heyday, cooling systems and through a robust metal-cutting technoloapprenticeship progies worldwide. gram, developed a pool The company built of thousands of highly a plant across the road skilled toolmakers. By the from the business park time the zipper company and leased an addiwas sold and production tional 20,000 square moved from Meadville feet in the park. It built beginning in the 1980s, a 24,000-square-foot toolmakers found work addition last year while in the growing plastics retaining most of its molding industry. leased space.

“When Talon sent “The business park has all those guys adrift, been our safety valve,” basically, they started Antoun said. “When hundreds of small shops we’ve needed more space and worked on their we’ve been able to get own,” Antoun said. more and not have to “Then when times were build immediately while bad, they worked for adding production.” someone else for a few In the past 10 years, the years. All those small company added some 35 businesses were reaching employees, for a workout, grasping and fighting force now numbering for work, and adapting. around 100.

Now a lot of people who ChipBlaster is one of had been making molds a number of Crawford are using the molds to County manufacturers make things. They’ve that have kept and even taken toolmaker skills in a added jobs while counwhole other direction and terparts in the region and to a level above.” nationwide closed or laid Foreign customoff employees. ers gained a decade ago There were 7,500 when the weak dollar manufacturing jobs in made American prodCrawford County in ucts more affordable November 2015 and 7,500 overseas continue to buy in November 2017. from Meadville firms, Manufacturing jobs including ChipBlaster, as in Erie County fell from the dollar strengthens, 22,500 to 19,500 over Antoun said. those same two years.

“We have the best Crawford County quality and the best techmanufacturers have a nology,” he said. “People history of adapting to specify our product in closings and change, describing what they Antoun said. want.”

Manufacturing in Meadville began when the Valerie Myers can be city was a major railroad reached at 878-1913 hub about the time of the or by email. Follow her Civil War. Thousands on Twitter at twitworked for the railroad, ter.com/ETNmyers.

By Valerie Myers valerie.myers@ timesnews.com

Greg Antoun, president at ChipBlaster, is shown with the high-pressure coolant systems the company manufactures.

Online Extras To see Erie Times-News photos from the ChipBlaster plant in Meadville: GoErie.com/photos

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Sunday, February 18, 2018

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Erie Times-News | GoErie.com

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com |

Sunday, February 18, 2018

ERIE 2018: LIFE HERE

WHAT ERIE LOOKS LIKE THROUGH TOURISTS’ EYES

The Ravine Flyer II is one of the attractions at Waldameer Park & Water World that draws visitors to the region. [GREG WOHLFORD/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Visitors share their thoughts after coming to the city for first time

By Kara Murphy Contributing writer

A

mobile phone app brought Chrissy and Ray Johnson off Interstate 90 and into Erie.

The two, who live outside of Knoxville, Tennessee, were looking for a place to spend a day before heading on to their final destination, Niagara Falls.

Chrissy Johnson researched what lay ahead of them on the highway on TripAdvisor — an app that crowdsources reviews of hotels, restaurants and destinations — while Ray drove.

“We were looking at places near the lake, and Erie was one place that looked like there was more than one thing to do,” Chrissy Johnson said. “There’s that state park; I can’t remember what it’s called. It looked like a good choice.”

They ran into a complication straight away: It happened to be Roar on the Shore weekend.

That dashed their hopes of finding a spot on the water to stay, but they finally found a

Visitors come to the Erie region to relax at Lake Erie and Presque Isle State Park, shown here in August, but social media and internet searches are helping tourists find more sights in the area.

[GREG WOHLFORD/ ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

room in a hotel near I-90.

They spent the whole next day in Erie, dodging motorcycles, going on an outing with Erie Food Tours (5 stars on TripAdvisor), visiting wineries (Arundel Cellars: 4½ stars), and driving out to “that state park” or, as locals know it, Presque Isle (4½ stars).

“Oh yeah, that’s what it was called,” she said. “There were people flying kites out

there, and we walked around the lighthouse (4½ stars). It was really nice.”

Thousands of visitors come to Erie every year. For many of them— like the Johnsons— it’s their first time in the region.

Kelley Karns, who owns Erie Food Tours, said about half of her business is tourists and the other half Erie natives.

“I didn’t realize what a destination spot Erie is until I started this business,” she said. “A lot of people have been here before, but I also get a lot of people who are aware of Erie but didn’t know it as more than a stop off the highway or beyond Peach Street. They’re always See VISITORS, N2

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Sunday, February 18, 2018

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Erie Times-News | GoErie.com

What kind of first impression does Erie make?

Researchers offer outsider perspective on what makes communities work

By Kara Murphy Contributing writer

Erie welcomes thousands of visitors each year, many of whom have never been to the Gem City before.

Trying to see the city through these outsiders’ eyes is an important part of John Oliver’s job as president and CEO of VisitErie.

“We want them to come back. That’s the key,” Oliver said. “That’s why it’s important that their first impression is, ‘There is a lot to do here. ... We need to come back here again.’

That’s the ultimate.”

VisitErie has focused recent efforts on digital marketing, including developing the Hello Erie app. The organization also

has more than 50,000 Facebook “likes,” is an active presence on Twitter and Instagram, and even produces YouTube videos.

A video about the Lake Erie Ale Trail racked up more than 48,000 views.

In addition, VisitErie also hosts non-traditional media, like bloggers and radio DJs — all designed to get the word out about what Erie has to offer.

All of those kinds of efforts make a difference, said Andy Northrop, a Michigan State University educator. He runs a program through MSU called “First Impressions: Assessing Your Community For Tourism.” Cities accepted into the program agree to have MSU researchers descend on their community to help them learn about their strengths and weaknesses through the eyes of first-time visitors.

Northrop said about 30 percent of his researchers’ study is done online by checking to see what information potential visitors might find about a community even before arriving.

“If communities don’t have accurate websites or up-to-date websites people get a negative first impression quickly,” he said.

“That kind of thing can’t be an afterthought.”

But his researchers also spend time doing what all tourists do — visiting attractions, recreating, shopping, dining out and staying at hotels. Their experiences there — the good, bad and ugly — are eye-opening for the local communities.

“It’s always interesting to hear someone else’s perspective because you see what you see every single day and you don’t think outside the box,” said Dana

VISITORS

The Lake Erie wine region, including this vineyard operated by the Lake Erie Regional Center for Grape Research and Extension in North East Township, is a draw for out-of-town tourists.

[CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

be willing to do — she’d like to stay on the water.

“It was beautiful, a really pretty area,” she said. “I would’ve liked to have had the opportunity to spend more time there.”

From Palm Beach to Lake Erie It was a Google search that led Kimberly Jones to Erie. In late September, Jones and her co-workers

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locals to be able to rattle off all sorts of suggestions about what to do when they meet a tourist here. Our local residents can be the greatest sales force for the community, so we’re trying to remind people of how special Erie is.”

Kelly Karns, the owner of Erie Food Tours, said she considers it part of her job to act as an ambassador for Erie — even with the locals on her tour. About half of her customers are tourists and half are Erie residents, she said.

“My job is to have my love for Erie be contagious,” she said. “We have a lot to offer here, and even people who live here sometimes aren’t aware of everything there is to do downtown, or know the richness of our history. It’s my job to share that, to get them excited to learn and experience more.”

Online extras

so that was cool!” ); Like My Thai, which the group visited as part of the Erie Food Tour (“I like Thai food and that was the best I’ve ever had.”); Union Station (“I would have liked to have sat outside there and have a pint”); and Presque Isle, which the group took a drive around before heading back to Chautuauqua.

“None of us had been to Erie before and we had no idea what to expect,” Jones said. “Well, actually, I was expecting an industrial kind of town. But it didn’t end up being that at all.

There seems like there’s a lot of culture there — that was definitely a pleasant surprise.”

See owner Rebecca Styn discuss her new venture in a video in front of the “secret entrance” to Room 33 Speakeasy: GoErie.com/Videos.

From Page N1

surprised — pleasantly — at our downtown area and the history here and the diversity of the restaurants.”

One common question she gets from visitors: Why isn’t there more to do on Erie’s beautiful bayfront?

“I always tell people it’s on its way,” she said.

“I know we’re working towards that, and I’m excited to see that happen.

We have this beautiful lakefront, and people don’t understand why we don’t take better advantage of it.

But I tell them it’s coming.”

Johnson said if she came back to Erie — which she’d

Walker, the director of the downtown development authority in Imlay City, Michigan, which worked with Northrop’s team in 2017.

“When you’re trying to bring in visitors, nothing is more valuable than actually understanding the perspective of outsiders,” Northrop said. “You want to understand what people are looking for and what their perception is. People who live in a community day in and day out tend to glaze over their assets.”

The impetus behind a promotion called “Be a Tourist in Your Own Backyard” was to remind locals of what a great town Erie is, Oliver said “The whole concept behind that is to get locals behind what we have here, because I think our locals can do a whole lot in selling Erie,” Oliver said. “We want

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traveled from West Palm Beach, Florida, to Chautauqua for a corporate retreat at a cottage owned by her company’s owner on the Institution’s grounds.

An online hunt for something to do nearby as a group led them to Erie Food Tours.

Among the highlights that she still remembers a few months later: The outside view of Erie Insurance Arena (“I love hockey,

Kara Murphy is a freelance writer in Erie.

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com |

Sunday, February 18, 2018

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Sunday, February 18, 2018

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Erie Times-News | GoErie.com

Downtown bars provide foundation for further investment If you look down State Street and all you see is bars, investors say what you really see is groundwork.

By Jennie Geisler jennie.geisler@ timesnews.com

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Have you had a drink on State Street lately? A lot of people have. And more are on their way.

Tonight after work.

Saturday after an Otters game. Wednesday before a concert at Erie Insurance Arena.

This is not your old State Street. New and stalwart watering holes have survived and thrived side by side to the point that on a busy weekend night, it can be tough to find a stool anywhere north of 14th Street.

Room 33 Speakeasy, 1033 State St., Erie, opened in January. [FILE PHOTO GREG WOHLFORD/ERIE TIMES-NEWS] “A rising tide raises all ships,” said Derek Smith, 33, owner ofBourbon Barrel, 1213 State St., adding he doesn’t look at other bars as competition, but as part of a downtown renaissance. “Getting people to the area is the key.”

A quick mental jog down State Street takes you past newer places — 408 Bar and Grille, Jekyll & Hyde’s Gastropub, McCoy’s, Voodoo Brewery, Room 33 Speakeasy (which opened just last month), and U Pick 6 Tap House.

The Bourbon Barrel, 1213 State St., Erie, is one of the And just a block or so eating and drinking establishments bringing vibrancy to way, places including to the downtown. [FILE PHOTO/ERIE TIMES-NEWS] Cloud 9 Wine Bar & A couple leaves the Tap House, 333 State St., Erie. [GREG WOHLFORD/ERIE TIMES-NEWS] Tapas and Lavery Brewing Co. than vacancies. (The recently at the Bourbon Barrel, He said he and Styn things, different things And if you think newer places are) on the opened which opened in 2015, have talked about that maybe Erie’s never there’s too many, higher side.”

Room 33 encouraged Styn every working together on seen or needs to see.” consider what’s still He said that in other Speakstep of the way. He even sending customers to thriving: Brewerie at cities that have revitaleasy, a showed her his second each other.

Jennie Geisler can be Union Station, 1201 ized their downtown Prohifloor when she was “As one example, if reached at 870-1885 Kitchen, Docksider, areas, it started with bitionlooking for a place to they go to Rebecca’s or by email. Follow her Styn Calamari’s Squid eating and drinking themed put Room 33. establishment, hers on Twitter at twitter.

Row,Molly Brannigans, establishments. cocktail “Rebecca and I have closes at midnight. Ours com/ETNgeisler.

Plymouth Tavern, Sher“It’ll balance with and tapas establishworked together on is open till 2 (a.m.)” He lock’s and Park Place, additional retail,” ment. She wanted to be multiple events in the suggested, perhaps, a for starters.

Buchna said. “It’s a part of the fun. past,” Smith said, deal where a Room 33 While some might foundation to grow the “I want (Room 33) adding they’ve done customer could leave +%''"&($, gripe about all the viseconomy.” to become a premier fundraisers for nonthat spot and get into ible growth being “bars” He points to the other venue in Erie and to profits and singles Bourbon Barrel without with all the attendant draws to downtown: aid in the revitalizaevents. a cover charge at the negative connotations, Erie Insurance Arena tion,” she said. “This is “We threw her husdoor. “Or maybe where John Buchna, chief events, sports, the going to be more than a band a birthday party a Bourbon Barrel receipt executive Bayfront Convention bar. It’s meant to be an and that relationship gets something there for officer of Center, Warner Theater experience.” kind of grew into a them. We don’t know the Erie and the Erie PhilharRoom 33 is hidden singles meeting singles yet, but if we work Downmonic, and the Erie behind a moving event we did together. together, we’re all going town Playhouse. bookcase at 1033 State We hosted more than the same direction,” he Partner“This is a natural pro- St. Inside is a dark, 150 to 200 singles. It said. ( 4;92 ,98%*%;# ship, gression of downtown sophisticated lounge was a great evening, a The Bourbon Barrel 3+!9+;0 ' 62"'/ urges development,” Buchna with 1930s decor with lot of socializing last is stretching the idea .)7%+$ : -8;%7%;# ,%**"< 1+7%2)+&"+; Buchna patience. said. “Pittsburgh has upscale food and drinks year, fall 2017.” of what a bar is as : 5"9*0 62)7%<"< “There seen an influx of eating and a separate cigar He sees Room 33 as well. Smith recently : $ /$ > 8 AB ( 2 ' has to be a balance in and drinking establishroom. part of the family. worked with the Film % 3 ;$ A 8 6 the downtown econments in downtown.

“I have a passion “As people reinvest, Society of Northwestomy,” he said. “What It adds to offerings of for event planning that’s a winning forern Pennsylvania on - ! = 8 -? ( C ( 2 ' we see happening is the downtown. Bring new and bringing people mula for success in the a dinner-and-movie <"A/(B & quality of establishopportunities to better together, and I marketplace. Anyseries on Wednesdays 7 C " @ AB ( - 2 # ments is improving. the community.” wanted to contribute thing Bourbon Barrel called Film Grain. : A8$ That is a good sign, Rebecca Styn, who an additional offercan do, I don’t see it as “It’s not just about there’s improvement in works for the Erie Man- ing to the downtown competition, I see it as being a bar,” Smith employment. It’s better agement Group, also experience.”Smith, collaboration.” said. “It’s so many cool .%%( ,2#8)/! 4/26

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Erie Times-News | GoErie.com |

Sunday, February 18, 2018

N5

From farm to your breakfast table Some of the milk shows up on shelves as Meadow Brook milk. Other milk appears under differBy Matthew Rink ent Dean Foods brands, matthew.rink@ like Reiter Dairy, which timesnews.com is sold in Ohio. All Dean Foods milk products Since 1932, Meadow carry a “Dairy Pure” Brook Dairy has been label, which Chase refers bringing ol’ Bessie’s milk to as an “over brand.” to the breakfast table.

Then there’s priBut plant manager vate-label milk, which Mike Chase, who’s been accounts for about 40 in the business since percent of Meadow 1984, says most people Brook’s business. Those don’t know all that goes are the off-brands sold into the business. exclusively by certain “People don’t really grocery stores. know how their milk gets In all, 85 different to them,” he said. products — or SKUs, for Each week, Meadow “stock keeping units” Brook’s 120 employees — are made right at turn raw milk from dairy Meadow Brook’s facilfarms into 500,000 gality at 2365 Buffalo Road. lons of consumable whole, Another 188 items — skim, 1 percent and 2 including eggs, butter, percent white milk, which TruMoo chocolate milk is bottled in half-gallon and tea — are delivered and one-gallon containfrom other production ers and then distributed sites to Meadow Brook. throughout Pennsylvania, From there, they are Ohio and New York. distributed to stores and

other businesses.

That explains the back-end of the business, which brothers Leroy and Lloyd McGarvey started in 1932. Dean Foods has owned Meadow Brook since the mid-1990s.

Milk, of course, starts with cows on dairy farms big and small. Meadow Brook relies on milk from Dairy Farmers of America and Dean Direct Milk.

Dairy Farmers of America is a co-operative.

“A co-op is a different animal,” Chase said.

“It takes a number of farmers and it groups them together so they have an outlet for their milk. It guarantees them a price.”

Milk is delivered to the plant in 6,000-gallon tankers. About 20 tankers deliver to the plant each day.

A sample of the milk is tested in a lab for bacteria, antibiotics and butter

Timeline: Meadow Brook Dairy 1932: Year company founded by Leroy and Larry McGarvey.

1955: Glass bottles replaced by paper cartons.

1959: Stores and institutions make up a third of the business. Home delivery makes up two-thirds of business.

1979: More than 95 percent of business is stores and institutions. Only 4 percent is home service.

1994-1995: Meadow Brook acquired by Dean Foods.

These bottles have two labels, one on the front and another on the back.

Clear, or non-pigmented bottles, are for privatelabel brands and have only one label on them.

The type of bottle used makes a difference. Fluorescent light penetrates these clear

containers, changing the taste of the milk. Though the difference is subtle, Chase says branded milk tastes better.

Butter cream, the byproduct from the production process, is sold to other companies to make products like heavy whipping cream.

Meadow Brook is considered a “streamlined dairy” because it only makes half gallons and gallons of milk.

Smaller portions — like the quarts and pints that might be delivered to a school cafeteria — and chocolate milk, are made at a Dean Foods facility in Sharpsville.

“It’s quite an undertaking to get a gallon of milk to the store,” Chase said.

Matthew Rink can be reached at 870-1884 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/ETNrink.

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fat. Milk with antibiotics is discarded, as is any milk where the concentration of butter fat is too high.

From the tanker, the milk is cooled to about 34 degrees and stored in a 40,000gallon silo until it can be pasteurized. Then it’s put through what Chase calls an “HTST,” for high-temperature, short-time system. The milk is heated to 161 degrees for 15 seconds.

After the milk is cooled down again, it is bottled, capped and crated.

Meadow Brook buys its half-gallon containers from a third-party vendor, but makes its own one-gallon containers in-house. Using resin, the plant makes about 85,000 pigmented and non-pigmented jugs each day.

What’s the difference?

Pigmented jugs are used for branded milk only.

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N6

Sunday, February 18, 2018

|

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com

LIFE LESSONS

Online Extras See video of Wilson Middle School teacher Amanda Vickey talking about consumer science: GoErie.com/Videos These Wilson Middle School eighthgrade students took part in a family and consumer sciences class earlier this academic year. From left are Bryleigh Paluchak, 13; Madison Cruz, 14, and Torreuna Roberts, 14. [CHRISTOPHER

Erie School District, emphasizing careers, brings back classes in consumer science

By Ed Palattella ed.palattella@ timesnews.com

At 14 years old, Madison Cruz said she likes learning about “how to be responsible with your money” and “how to create and balance a budget.”

Her classmate Bryleigh Paluchak, 13, said she enjoys learning about bank accounts, and how to gauge “your needs and wants,” including when you should spend and when you should save.

And another classmate, Torreuna Roberts, 14, said she has become interested in “how to invest your money and how to put it in a bank.”

The three girls are in eighth grade at the Erie School District’s Wilson Middle School, 718 W. 28th St. They gained an understanding of personal finance in a new class on consumer science — once known as home ec —that the Erie School District launched this year at its three middle schools: Wilson, with 679 students; East, with 696; and Strong Vincent, with 776.

The 11,500-student district had such elective classes years ago but eliminated them as its budget crisis intensified.

The district is adding classes to go along with

the reorganization of schools that was part of its financial recovery plan — a recovery that got a huge boost with last year’s guarantee of an additional $14 million in state funding.

At the middle and high schools, the district is offering a variety of courses designed to help students choose careers and to learn everyday skills. The district, for example, is creating the Marine Maritime Academy for high school students interested in shipbuilding and similar careers. And the district brought back consumer science, in which students learn everything from how to manage household accounts and pay taxes to how to run a washing machine and mend a shirt.

“They will be able to apply it in the future— if not now, then in the near future,” said Amanda Vickey, who teaches consumer science at Wilson. “They will use it for the rest of their life.”

The Erie School District renovated Vickey’s classroom this year to include sewing machines, a washer and dryer, stoves and a refrigerator. Lowe’s donated time and materials for the work, district officials said.

Along with instruction

MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

about chores, cooking and healthy eating, the students in the class get financial literacy lessons, which include discussions on how to get a job and how to take care of their earnings.

“There is the career aspect of it,” said Wilson’s principal, Don Orlando. “A lot of it starts with the finances.”

The district is getting help to deliver its lessons. The middle school students are learning about financial literacy using a curriculum developed by EverFi, an educational technology company based in Washington, D.C. Northwest Bank partnered with EverFi to bring the media-interactive curriculum to the students at no cost to the Erie School District. The NHL is also a partner with EverFi. The goal is to get students a financial education as early as possible to help them make “smart financial decisions,” Jim Martin, Northwest’s regional president, said in announcing the partnership with EverFi in March.

The Erie School District intends to expand the consumer science classes, including the financial-literacy component, to its elementary

schools and enhance those programs at the high schools, said Bea Habursky, the district’s assistant superintendent. She said the district centered the initial focus on the middle schools because of its new emphasis on career education at that level.

The district wants students to leave eighth grade knowing what type of magnet school programs they want to

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pursue at the district’s two high schools. The offerings include college prep classes and performing arts courses at Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy and vocational and engineering classes at Erie High.

“We want to give as much opportunity as possible in our middle schools across the board,” Habursky said.

Torreuna Roberts, one of the eighth-graders at

Wilson, said she is glad for the chance to learn about financial literacy, including investments, and other aspects of consumer science, such as choosing healthy foods.

“It was a new experience,” she said.

Ed Palattella can be reached at 870-1813 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at twitter. com/ETNpalattella.

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Erie Times-News | GoErie.com |

Sunday, February 18, 2018

N7

N8

Sunday, February 18, 2018

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Erie Times-News | GoErie.com