CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — Clarion County Commissioners on Tuesday morning approved a letter of support for the PA Wilds Center project for Entrepreneurship on behalf of its coalition partner Armstrong Trails.
(Photo courtesy TrailLink/MoonPup104)
PA Wilds’ proposal was selected as a finalist in EDA’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge to supercharge the economy.
Chris Ziegler, executive director of Armstrong Trails, told commissioners the East Brady Tunnel project could receive $5 million if they are awarded the grant.
“The grant will allow parking, interpretive signage, and the trail surface inside the tunnel,” Ziegler said. “Some of it will include additional on a liner. We’re going to do interpretive signage in the alcoves, and that’s where we want to tell the story of Clarion County. There are approximately 35 of those alcoves.
“I want to utilize that and educate people. I want to do a lot on the history of the area.”
Completion of the entire project should be done by the end of 2023, according to Ziegler.
The PA Wilds region is a finalist in the $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge (BBBRC) by the Economic Development Administration (EDA). The regional application, submitted by the PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship (PA Wilds Center) on behalf of Coalition Partners, includes a Clarion County project spearheaded by Armstrong Trails. The PA Wilds coalition will advance to Phase II and compete for up to $100 million in American Rescue Plan funding to develop and scale the outdoor recreation industry cluster in the PA Wilds.
The East Brady Tunnel was identified as one of the PA Top Ten Trail Gaps, and according to Ziegler:
– Serves as connective tissue to the other component application within the PA Wilds region;
– Activates an economic driver towards the rebirth of communities from distressed coal towns to Outdoor Towns (River and Trail Towns);
– Creates resilient communities through tourism with business/job growth, private investments, and sustainability;
– Will be the driver for other trails to close their gaps;
– Provides recreation opportunities within 10 minutes of every Pennsylvanian.
More than 500 applicants submitted proposals for Phase I of the BBBRC challenge, and only 60 were selected to move on to Phase II. Finalists have until March 15 to submit their full proposals. A total of 20 to 30 of the regional coalition finalists will be selected for funding in September 2022. Successful applicants will have five years to complete their projects.
The PA Wilds coalition application, spearheaded by the nonprofit PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc., proposes five projects to support the outdoor industry cluster in the region, including 1.) strategic recreation infrastructure development; 2.) workforce development; 3.) entrepreneurial ecosystem expansion; 4.) cluster sustainability and resilience; and 5.) profile raising to attract private investment.
The application includes six “Coalition Partners” that would spearhead recreation infrastructure construction projects and many other local organizations that would assist in carrying out the cluster development over the next five years through subcontracts with the PA Wilds Center.
“We have the greatest concentration of public land in the Commonwealth here in the PA Wilds region,” says PA Wilds Center CEO Ta Enos. “That is one of our competitive advantages, especially coming out of COVID, as Americans flock to outdoor recreation experiences in record numbers. We also have 17+ years of partnerships and strategies around this work as a rural region. Our goal is to use both to build a more resilient rural economy.”
The BBBRC challenge is assisting communities nationwide in their efforts to build back better by accelerating the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and building local economies that will be resilient to future economic shocks. The BBBRC is the largest economic development initiative from the U.S. Department of Commerce in decades.
Phase I of the Build Back Better Regional Challenge invited coalitions to apply for funding to implement a collection of three to eight distinct but related projects in their region. Projects needed to be in coordination with industry and community partners and aligned around a holistic vision to build and scale a strategic industry sector.
In Phase II, finalists will compete for significant implementation assistance. EDA will award 20 to 30 coalitions, each up to $100 million. These awards will assist communities in executing ambitious plans to supercharge their regional economies across a variety of strategic growth sectors. The deadline for Phase II applications is March 15, 2022.
