By Becky Polaski

Frank Lee Patterson, President of the Pennsylvania Alliance For Cooperative Innovation, Bill Shuffstall, Extension Educator for the Penn State Cooperative Extension, and Timothy R. King, Founding Member of the PA-AFCI and President of Geothermal Energy Systems, Inc., gave a joint presentation during the City Council meeting on Monday evening regarding strategies for funding and implementation with regards to public/private partnerships.

Patterson explained that the purpose of the Alliance is to serve member needs by helping communities secure funding for necessary projects.

"We're not getting in the way of 'for profits' or 'non profits'," noted Patterson. "We're helping them do their job."

He also added that the purpose of the presentation was not to persuade Council members to vote on anything, but to simply provide them with information to see if a partnership might be right for St. Marys.

The City of Warren has joined in such a partnership and several other communities are in the process of doing so.

Next Shuttstall presented background information on public/private partnerships.

Following his part of the presentation, King then detailed the current program and how these partnerships can be utilized to expedite accomplishing projects.

"The City of Warren obviously is the first community that stepped into this," said King. "The scope expands almost every week in Warren. We started with one very simple project and there are now four plus projects that are being discussed within their City Council."

He added that revitalization groups and big businesses within the Warren community are also starting to take an interest in the program.

Projects are implemented at the State level, but occur within specific regions of the state: southeast, southwest, central, northeast, and northwest.

It would cost the City $500 a year to join the State Alliance. However, communities would also be charged if they initially expressed interest in a project but then decided not to participate after the Alliance decided that the project was a viable option.

By becoming a Charter Member of the Alliance, the City would supposedly be able to generate more revenue and also accomplish more projects.