Category: Projects
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An Engineering Perspective
Published first on the Progress News, February 14, 2022 When the ORA acquired the former Fuchs property in Emlenton, we were fortunate to partner with the skilled Environmental Engineering team at Moody & Associates. With their decades of experience in brownfield work, the Meadville-based firm has been helping us document and plan a remediation strategy to Read more
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Redevelopment Planning
Published first on the Progress News, February 7, 2022 Ever wonder how Redevelopment projects are prioritized and planned? For those not involved in the behind-the-scenes strategy sessions involved in redevelopment work, it can sometimes seem like decisions are made somewhat arbitrarily, or opportunistically. Frankly, sometimes it seems like that to those of us in redevelopment, too! But there Read more
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More Solar Opportunities
Published first on the Progress News, January 17, 2022 Continuing the conversation from last week, let’s look at a few more redevelopment opportunities in the field of solar energy. From conventional residential solar panels to research on new gizmos and gadgets, there is quite a bit coming up with which homeowners, landowners, business owners, organizations, and Read more
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2021 End of Year Review
Published first on the Progress News, December 20, 2021 It’s nice sometimes – especially when things feel overwhelming and hectic or when the pace of progress feels too slow, or both at the same time! – to stop, look around, and appreciate everything that has been accomplished so far. It always manages to give a Read more
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December Project Updates
Published first on the Progress News, December 6, 2021 Since we’ve been talking a fair bit recently about “what will be” and “what can be,” I figured it’s about time for a “what is” update! We’re fully into the grant-writing season, so unfortunately a lot of “what is” is…boring paperwork. Exciting for the potential it holds for Read more
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Regional Redevelopment Connections
Published first on the Progress News, November 15, 2021 I often get asked what exactly redevelopment is, or what kind of projects we are involved in, and it can be challenging to succinctly describe what goes on in a very wide-ranging field! One benefit of the creation of our regional coalition is that it offers Read more
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What Is a Regional Growth Cluster?
Published first on the Progress News, November 8, 2021 In the last column, I mentioned the creation of a regional coalition of redevelopment partners. I threw out some soundbites like “innovation ecosystem” and “regional growth cluster,” and you may be thinking, “okay, but what does that all Mean?” The idea of banding together for the Read more
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An Update and Exciting News
Published first on the Progress News, October 25, 2021 Fall is firmly here, and with the change of seasons comes a flurry of updates in local Redevelopment! You may have noticed that I’ve been pretty quiet the last few weeks, but it certainly wasn’t because things had slowed down. Quite the contrary, in fact! I took my Read more
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First Harvests
Published first on the Progress News, August 9, 2021 As we settle into the long, sultry days of late summer, many of us are enjoying a bumper crop of delicious fruits and veggies from our gardens. The River Roots Community Farm, located on the grounds of the AC Valley School District complex in Foxburg, is no Read more
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Completed, A Round of Phase 1 Assessments
Published first on the Progress News, August 2, 2021 Happy August! If you’re like me, you’re wondering where the year has gone, as 2021 certainly has been a busy, event-filled year for many of us. For community-focused work, especially, there just never seem to be enough hours in a day! In towns and cities all Read more
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Winds of Change
Published first on the Progress News, July 19, 2021 | Guest column by ORA President, John Philips Summerfest 2021 is over, and memories were made as families, friends and foreigners gathered and mixed as a community. If that was the intent, Summerfest 2021 was a roaring success. Hats off to Emlenton and all who worked Read more
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River Roots Community Farm Ribbon-Cutting
Published first on the Progress News, May 24, 2021 It took two tries, but with the second snip of the giant scissors on Saturday, May 15th, the multi-colored ribbon was cut and the River Roots Community Farm was officially open for growing! The day was a joyful end to an extremely busy few weeks, and Read more