Reimagining a more diverse economy in Beaver County
In the spring of 2017, about 70 people packed into the First Presbyterian Church in Beaver to begin reimagining the county’s future by placing sticky notes on a map.
The suggestions were all over the place — water taxis; mushroom mining; more young people; a sports complex; kayak rental — which was the idea behind diversifying the regional economy.
“We needed to move out of just choosing a single industry,” whether it’s steel or plastics, said Joanne Martin, who organized the group along with the League of Women Voters.
The meeting took place in the shadow of the Royal Dutch Shell announcement that it would begin construction on a massive petrochemical complex in Potter Township. Many of the people who Ms. Martin volunteered with at the Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community, an anti-fracking group, were alarmed by the idea of a petrochemical hub in the region.
At the time, economic development efforts were heavily invested in getting Shell and others to locate in the area.
Ms. Martin said concern about the plant wasn’t her motivation — not her main motivation, at least — for starting ReImagine Beaver County, which is now part of ReImagine Appalachia.
When some participants said they should focus on ways to shut down the cracker plant, she disagreed.
“I said, ‘no we don’t. We’ve got to create better jobs.’ ”
There were three visioning sessions that year and ReImagine Beaver County’s loose plan was to pull together its findings and take them to local officials, asking them to create a green economy task force.
But when the time came, Ms. Martin said there was a general feeling that these ideas wouldn’t get “the money, attention, research” they deserved. So she shifted gears.
If the group didn’t feel like bringing their ideas would have impact, Ms. Martin said, they figured they should come with actual projects in hand.
For the past year, she’s been running a miniaturized and parallel economic development effort to what’s happening at the county’s official level.
Recently, her group has zeroed in on the idea of developing an eco-industrial park. Maybe it will have an incubator, maybe an algae farm, or a manufacturer of some sort. Maybe the occupants will own it, like a co-op. She doesn’t have a site selected yet. The next step would be to commission an economic feasibility and impact study, and then use that information to find investors.
“I would be told that I’m crazy, and I would consider myself crazy, if I said we could transform this county through a community-led initiative,” Ms. Martin said. “I think what is realistic is if we launch a couple of projects that could prove there is support, we could draw the attention of local leaders.”
She believes the financial underpinnings of petrochemicals are wobbly and headed for retreat on their own. Her group wants to have alternatives on the ground for when that happens, she said.
Although ReImagine Beaver County has been around for several years, Lew Villotti, president of the Beaver County Corporation for Economic Development, had never heard of it. He’s only been in the post for 10 months, he noted.
The concept sounded like something he could get behind if there is capital interested in making it happen, he said.
“One of the reasons I was brought on board was to look at other parts of economic development,” not just the industrial side, Mr. Villotti said.
“But it has to be cost effective,” he added.