Nitch promotes growth in Lawrence County

NEW CASTLE, Pa. – During Linda Nitch’s 31 years working in economic development in Lawrence County, she saw growth and improvement in Neshannock Township, New Castle and Ellwood City, Pa.

“There’s been great success in Neshannock Township,” she says. “The RIDC (Regional Industrial Development Corp.) park in Neshannock has several excellent businesses there.”

Millennium Park includes eight international companies, including Steelite International, which operates a warehouse. New Castle has had success redeveloping the former Johnson Bronze site, she notes.

One of the sites yet to be redeveloped is the former Shenango China property in New Castle. The property is owned by a Canadian company that has declined to sell. That remains a challenge for the city, Nitch said. The site is served by rail and along U.S. Route 422 with direct access to Interstate 376.

When Nitch began her career in economic development, there was more heavy industry in the region.

For example, Ellwood Quality Steel was located in New Castle and the Ellwood Group was interested in doing more business in the area.

“They knew they wanted to expand. So that was an opportunity,” Nitch says. “We also knew there were contaminated sites in the community that needed to be redeveloped.”

She mentions the former Johnson Bronze building, which now houses Richardson Cooling Packages and the Huston Group.

“That was a good project,” Nitch said. “It took several years to do. The city was in a state where they knew there needed to be more redevelopment in the industrial area.”

But the challenge was financing.

“We didn’t have enough dollars, and to this day we still don’t have enough dollars to do all the work that we need to do,” Nitch said. “The state of Pennsylvania has always been our partner. But it’s never had enough funding to support our communities with the kind of funding that we need to redevelop sites.”

Nitch cites Shenango Commerce Park and its users, including Berner International and New York Blower, as one of the successes.

She told a story about a meeting with the director of the governor’s action team that led to infrastructure improvements.

The director was sitting in her office. “All of a sudden he looks out and sees this truck from Altium Packaging coming almost at us,” Nitch says.

He asked why the truck was using the alley. Nitch and others explained that trucks couldn’t make the turn by the offices.

“That was the start of a million-dollar grant we got to improve things,” she says.

However, further improvements are needed, including greater cooperation between elected and appointed leaders.

“We can’t compete with each other. We have to complement each other,” says Nitch.

Top of the photo: Linda Nitch oversaw the redevelopment.

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