A combined total of $7.5 million in Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grants was awarded to three Erie County projects, according to Sen. Dan Laughlin (R-Erie).
Three million dollars of that funding will be going to the Presque Isle Gateway District, in Millcreek Township, to improve the streetscape of West 8th Street. This is in addition to a $500,000 RACP grant received earlier this year to improve the gateway district.
“This funding continues the effort to produce a distinctive and high-quality gateway district to Presque Isle that will create a quality location that drives economic development to serve both residents and visitors,” said Laughlin.
Another $3 million grant was awarded to the Erie Zoological Society to construct at the Erie City Zoo a new veterinary center.
“The new center will have animal treatment, quarantine and isolation spaces, along with surgical and medical imaging suites, all of which will ensure the zoo’s animal get the best of care,” Laughlin said, noting the building will also include veterinary offices, drug and medication storage and limited public viewing space.
The Pennsylvania State University’s Behrend College is the recipient of the third grant: $1.5 million in funding to help with the construction of the eighth building – to be called the Center for Manufacturing Competitiveness (CMC) – at the Knowledge Park Research Facility in Harborcreek Township. The new construction is a continuation of Penn State Behrend’s “Project Resolve,” an initiative that works to reduce the environmental effects of plastics.
“The new CMC will host a plastics laboratory, a metal-casting laboratory and free space available to local manufacturers,” said Laughlin. “The facility ill also be the home to Erie County’s only fully-serviced, heavy-haul battery test facility for locomotive, marine and mining purposes.”
RACP is administered by the Office of the Budget for the acquisition and construction of regional economic, cultural, civic, recreational, and historical improvement projects. RACP projects are authorized in the Redevelopment Assistance section of a Capital Budget Itemization Act. They must have a regional or multi-jurisdictional impact and generate substantial increases or maintain current levels of employment, tax revenues, or other measures of economic activity.
