The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About2007 - Annual Report r 12/3 1/07 To: Jack Sharpe, 2007 marks my fourth full year as executive director of the G.C. 21". Century Partnership. It has been my practice to write a year end report even though it has never been asked for or required. The following takes a look back at our activities for 2007 and I have included some personal observations and suggestions as well. Committees: The Education Committee has been meeting under the leadership of Alan Kohler. At its last meeting on 12/11 it was decided to contact various community, education and business organizations to determine how they have been connecting in regards to preparing students for the workforce. They are planning to have this meeting the first week in February. Possible outcomes might be identifying one or more organizations willing to take the lead in helping our schools better prepare students to meet the very competitive needs of the business community and or possibly the need to have a broad based forum to better identify needs and build community support. The Transportation Committee has prioritized their issues. Since Bob 'Thomas will be leaving the Partnership we need a new chair for this committee. 2007 saw some progress on several issues. The bridge over I-81 on 997 has been awarded to a contractor and will be expanded to 5 lanes over the next couple of years. There will be a traffic light installed on route 1 1 at Sunset to ease the difficulty of trucks coming and going to Letterkenny U.S. Senator Specter has been contacted re: the need for another 1-81 exit south of Chambersburg to handle the increased traffic resulting from the CSX bimodal facility as well as needs identified by the southwest corridor study. The Growth Management Committee presented their strategic direction to the Partnership in April. They have been meeting fairly regularly since but to date have not brought forth any specific recommendations. We may also be Faced with finding new leadership for this committee. The Business and Economic Development Committee has not been formed. It has been suggested that due to Mike Ross' efforts this committee may not be needed at this time. On the other hand if we had a committee it seems our Growth Management Committee would be in a better position to know what is going on and possibly suggest ways to pursue smart growth in the face of very sil4nilicant economic expansion. My personal feeling regarding the effectiveness of our various committees is mixed. We have, as noted, made some progress but in my opinion not nearly enough. I would like to see each of the committees put into writing what they think they can accomplish in 2008. Mission and Membership This is a sub topic of the visioning process and continues to constantly cause us to ask ourselves if we still are relevant or not. For the sake of brevity all I want to say here is I think it would be extremely useful to have a serious sit down with the Council of Governments ( COG). Maybe the time has come to discuss with them what more logically they should be addressing(things that the townships other government entities are interested in) and things we possibly we should bow out of. This comment is based on the reality that many of our townships are not actively participating in the partnership other than with their financial support. On the other hand there may be business and other organizations that we need to bring into our membership. I again suggest we think more about who else should be invited to join the partnership as well as dropping any that no longer make sense. My concerns here are several as follows: 1) we could not approve minutes or take action at two meetings this year due to low attendance 2) ten of our members missed more than 50% of the meetings, four of which missed 100% ( copy of report attached) I have two other suggestions regarding how we might have more impact and influence as follows@( repeat of what I recommended in 2006) 1) really encourage all the members to bring to each meeting where they see a need that the partnership might get behind!!!(not all of them are on a committee) 2) Start communicating more with the general public (P.R) not only regarding our meetings and activities but enlisting their support and ways they make this area a better place to live. Finances: The organization ended the year with a $26293 cash balance, up $5605 from the enol ctf last year and significantly over year end balances of around $8,000.00 five ycars ago. We have been able to do this by maintaining our dues structure while at the same time cutting the cost of insurance, accounting fees and office supplies. We also have been earning interest in a money market account. I have suggested we find a better use of this cash or start reducing our dues or both. c Chambersburg Transit Authority (CTA) There is still no word from the feds regarding their investigation. This does not change the fact that there remains a real need for public transportation in this area. I would hope the Partnership would continue to find ways to exert it's influence in this area. Southwest Connector Study: This project has yet to break ground on any of the ideas proposed and is unlikely to do so in 2008. The direction it is going is to widen route 30 west to 5 lanes and, have two lanes east and one west on Loudon. There is also a plan to construct a roundabout on 995 at the intersection of Leafmore and Tollage Hill. McCormack Taylor has been hired to complete a point of access study regarding another 1-81 exit south of Chambersburg. It is now up to the various municipalities to decide when, how or if they are going to do any of these. The partnership's Transportation Committee can play a KEY ROLE IN THIS PROCESS. FRANKLIN COUNTY WILL HAVE TO GET SOME OF THESE PROJECTS INTO PENN DOT'S 12 YEAR PLAN. Community College: According to John Boozer he seems optimistic that the area is getting closer to having the services of an affordable and accessible community college. What more can we or should be doing as well ? Speakers: Attached is a list of the speakers we had this year. It has been a pleasure to serve another year as executive director and look forward to the year ahead. I would greatly appreciate any direction, evaluation or suggestions. Barry Drexler,Executive Director Word( p'ship annual report) Greater Chambers ' ui�g Century Partnership,. h7c. 241st cen, a rt:--s r's ap ljgsxcussd Ab�sanssa rn,e 5-ci 2007 a ve n v Hictf�s -OOK Marva Greater Chambersburg 21st Century Partnership, Inc. P O. Box 1061, Chambersburg, PA 17201 2007 MEETING DATES & RECORD OF SPEAKERS AND TOPICS PARTNERSHIP BOARD LARGE PRINT: executive committee small print MONTH NAME ORGANIZATION TOPIC 1/11/2007 1/22/07 GREG COOK; GUILFORD TOWNSHIP 2/08/2007 2/26/07 DERRICK DONNELL; PA. CAREER LINK 3/08/2007 3/26/07 JOHN WETZEL; F.C. PRISON WARDEN 4/12/2007 4/23/07 JOANNE COCHRAN: KEYSTONE HEALTH 5/10/2007 5/28/07 PHIL TARQUINO: GREEN SPACE 6/14/2007 6/25/07 OPEN DISCUSSION 7/12/2007 7/23/07 GROWTH MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS 8/09/2007 8/27/07 NO SCHEDULED MEETING 9/13/2007 9/24/07 DAVE JAMISON: GREENE TOWNSHIP 10/11/2007 (did not meet) 10/22/07 LT.SCOTT PA.STATE POLICE 11/08/2007 11/19/07 PROFESSOR TED ALTER: ISSUES FACING RURAL PENNSLVANIA 12/13/2007 12/24/07 NO SCHEDULED MEETING ATTENTION PARTNERS:IF YOU WANT TIME ON AGENDA PLEASE LET BARRY KNOW AT LEAST ONE WEEK PRIOR TO MEETING -Planning for Positive Change -Establishing Effective Relationships -Mobilizing Resources for Results Greater Chambersburg 21st Century Partnership, Inc. P.O. Box 1061, Chambersburg, PA 17201 PLUM_ CIALVOMP_ARJ_S0_N 12/31/2007 aescripWrt 2007 2007 2007_ 2008- Actual Aclual B_dget_-Buffet DgE.emIxff_ Dec.YTD Year Year Be i n"n C h 2 4 --�' -t--a--.�_ ��1_ X4513$_ ZOOM 2-6291. R kende; Chambersburg 3850 3850 3850 Guilford 2825 2825 2825 Greene 2650 2650 2650 Hamilton 1925 1925 1925 St. Thomas 1250 1250 1250 —__-sub-Total 4_ 1250- 12500 12600_ CADC 200 200 200 CASD 200 200 200 DCI 200 200 200 Summit 200 200 200 C. of Arts 100 100 100 Franklin Co. 200 200 200 LIDA 200 200 200 Interest 65 1101 1000 700 Total Revenue W 14901 14800 14500 Ex ense- Exec. Director 750 9000 9600 10800 Insurance 236 236 235 250 Printing 11 100 100 Meetings 0 500 0 P.O. Box 40 40 40 Postage/Office 9 100 50 Conferences 0 100 3000 Other 0 4725 2000 Total Expenses 9U_ 9296 15400 16240 Ending Cash 26293 26293 20088 24553 ca3r111WA-0-0c l :921_ 59,5_ -6"_ -174__ 2007 budget -Planning for Positive Change -Establishing Effective Relationships -Mobilizing Resources for Results 12/19/2007 Hi Jack , Here is the list of hings I wanted to talk about when you get time . 1) My annual report ( will e-mail to you) 2) Need to have nominating committee (replace Bob Thomas) 3) Agenda for January meeting (lots of business to conduct in addition to important speaker) * have invited the COG * do we want to invite the press ? * the speaker is coming down Sunday night, should we offer to pay for room and other travel expenses(no precedent) 4) Membership by law changes 5) Growth Management leadership(you indicated you wanted to pool the partnership regarding the direction for this committee) 6) Manny Diaz situation 7) Education plans for" Connections"meeting Feb. 6th. Please give me a call when you have time . Thanks, Barry