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One S. Church Street, Suite 200, Hazleton, PA 18201 |
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CAN DO News
News and information about CAN DO for the community, investors, volunteers and board members.
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The CAN DO Student Action Committee, a group of high school juniors and seniors from throughout Greater Hazleton who serve as non-voting members on the CAN DO Board of Directors, recently marked its 40th anniversary and held an initial meeting for the 2017-2018 fiscal year.
During the meeting, the group of eight seniors and eight juniors focused on learning their roles and responsibilities as Student Action Committee members, including attending CAN DO’s bi-monthly board of directors meetings. The group also began the planning process for its two signature events, “Operation: CAN DO” and CAN DO Community Christmas.
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State Representative Tarah Toohil discussed workforce development initiatives to ensure that today’s student population is prepared for careers in the industrial sector at the latest Humboldt Park Association meeting, which was held at American Eagle Outfitters.
Rep. Toohil spoke about having a greater focus on promoting job availability in Greater Hazleton and joining together with the Pennsylvania CareerLink® office and regional businesses to provide students with the necessary skills they need to enter the workforce. This fall, Toohil will host the annual Jobs For You career fair at the Hazleton Area High School. The event gives students a look at jobs that are available for those interested in directly entering the workforce after graduation.
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CAN DO, Inc. announced a limited-time interest rate incentive for Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority (PIDA) loan applications as well as terms and conditions for current and future PIDA interest rate policies.
PIDA announced a new 2 percent interest rate policy regarding loans that apply to real estate, machinery and equipment, working capital, and pollution prevention projects. For PIDA loan applications received on or before December 31, 2017, borrowers will receive a 2 percent interest rate fixed for the full term of the loan.
Under this incentive, PIDA loans can be used under the following terms: Real Estate (15-year term), Equipment (10-year term), and Working Capital (12-month term). Eligible applicants can borrow $35,000 for every job retained and/or $50,000 for every job created within three years of closing of the loan. Applications can be submitted through CAN DO, Inc.
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Butler Township officials hosted a groundbreaking on Wednesday at the future home of the Butler Township municipal building and police station on Site 11 in the CAN DO Corporate Center in Drums.
The $4 million building project includes a 13,500-square-foot facility that will house Butler Township’s police station, detention area, administration building and zoning office and an additional 4,300-square-foot police storage garage. Township officials expect to move into the new facility in February of 2018.
Butler Township officials finalized the purchase of the five-acre lot on Site 11 in the Corporate Center late last year. Butler Township was looking for a location that would help it better serve the township’s growing population in terms of emergency response time and convenience when conducting municipal business.
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PPL Electric Utilities continues to add smart grid automation on its system to increase reliability.
Smart grid improvements have been a major factor in allowing the utility to reduce the number of outages by 30 percent since 2007. The next five years are expected to bring another 15 percent improvement.
The company reports about 4,600 smart grid switches have been installed across its service area since 2012, when the first smart grid pilot project launched in the Harrisburg area. Now, there are smart grid devices nearly everywhere on the utility’s system which covers all or part of 29 counties in central and eastern Pennsylvania.
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Humboldt Park Association members learned about the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce’s 2017 Wage and Salary survey and Service Electric Cablevision’s business packages for phone, high-speed internet and cable during the association’s recent meeting at McCann School of Business and Technology in the Humboldt Industrial Park.
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CAN DO, Inc., announced updated interest rate options for Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority (PIDA) loans for the 2017 second quarter and program enhancements for machinery and equipment loans and financing for eligible real estate costs. The new rates are in effect for loan applications received through June 30, 2017.
The first program enhancement increases the lending limit for machinery and equipment loans funded from the PIDA-Machinery and Equipment Loan Fund (MELF) account from $400,000 to $1.5 million. The lending increase applies to projects where PIDA is financing machinery and equipment acquisitions for eligible manufacturing, industrial, biotechnology, and computer related service enterprises. A 50 percent match is required. Loans funded via the PIDA-MELF fund are subject to the job retention/creation requirements of one full-time job retained for every $35,000 loaned and/or one full-time job created for every $50,000 loaned.
The second enhancement involves loans that are used to finance eligible real estate costs such as acquisition, construction, or renovation projects. In addition to the customary 15-year term loans with a regular 15-year amortization, PIDA is now offering a 10-year loan term with payments based on a 20-year amortization period and a balloon payment due at the end of the 10-year term.
If a borrower chooses the 10-year term/20-year amortization option, the borrower will be required to pay off the loan in full at the end of the 10-year period or refinance the remaining balance with a lending institution outside of PIDA.
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Humboldt Park Association members learned about an Industry Partnership grant for the Logistics and Transportation sectors that’s valued at more than $50,000 and received the latest updates to the Humboldt Industrial Park’s Emergency Preparedness Plan during a meeting earlier this month at McCann School of Business and Technology in Hazle Township.
Pennsylvania CareerLink® Luzerne County Administrator Christine Jensen announced that PA CareerLink® Luzerne County, along with the Luzerne/Schuylkill Workforce Investment board, recently received a $55,000 Industry Partnership Grant for the Logistics and Transportation industry that will provide businesses in those sectors with partial funding for training in high-priority occupations. As a result of the grant, employers can receive up to a 65 percent cost reimbursement on training programs for their existing workforce.
The grant is available to train employees in a variety of positions, including light and heavy truck and tractor-trailer drivers, maintenance and repair workers, forklift operators, bus and truck mechanics and diesel engine specialists, industrial electricity operators, industrial motor controls operators and programmable logic controllers. The grant is available through June 30. Funding is also available for the manufacturing industry.
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The Packaging Wholesalers, a wholesale retailer of packaging supply chain materials to distributors, held a grand opening celebration and ribbon cutting Thursday for its 300,000 square foot facility at 63 Green Mountain Road in the Humboldt Industrial Park.
This is the company’s third location nationwide, joining its corporate offices and flagship location outside of Chicago and a second facility in Dallas, Texas. Between the three facilities, the company now has more than a million square feet of distribution space and the ability to support customers nationwide. According to its corporate website, The Packaging Wholesalers selected the Humboldt Industrial Park location because the proximity to Interstates 80 and 81 will allow for distribution to 50 percent of its customers within three to four hours.
CAN DO President and CEO Kevin O’Donnell said The Packaging Wholesalers is the latest company to see the impact of opening a facility in Greater Hazleton. “We are excited to welcome The Packaging Wholesalers distribution center to Humboldt Industrial Park. The company is the latest in a long line of tenants to our parks that have seen the benefit of expanding to Greater Hazleton to take advantage of the prime access to the various interstate shipping routes. They are a thriving company and we look forward to their continued success here,” O’Donnell said.
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International Paper’s box plan in the Humboldt Industrial Park in Hazle Township recently marked its 40th year of operation. The facility opened on December 13, 1976 as an Inland Container plant.
CAN DO President Kevin O’Donnell said, “On behalf of everyone at CAN DO, I would like to congratulate International Paper on celebrating 40 years of operation in Hazleton. As one of Humboldt Industrial Park’s original companies, International Paper has been a great asset to Greater Hazleton and we look forward to having them be with us for many years to come.”
