PA Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 38

August 8, 2008

Grants fund cake, condos, too / Gov. delivers $15M for projects

BILL O ’ BOYLE boboyle@timesleader.com

HAZLE TWP. – Ed Rendell’s bus pulled into Luzerne County on Thursday and the governor dropped off nearly $15 million in funding for four projects.

All four are private development projects being helped by tax funds.

Rendell stopped at George Weston Bakeries in the Humboldt Industrial Park in Hazle Township to open an Entenmann’s cake facility, bringing a check for $9.2 million for the plant that will employ more than 200 people.

Two Wilkes-Barre projects received state funding: $4 million for the renovation of the former Stegmaier Bottling plant and $1.5 million to make over the former Murray Complex on Ross Street.

Jordan Gilmore Inc. received $91,000 for its new office building at the Landing Pointe Office Park at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport.

“Here in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties, with today’s announcement, we will have invested $653 million in new state funds since 2003,” Rendell said. “The counties now have 10,200 more people working than in January 2003, and unemployment has dropped in both counties.”

According to state records, the unemployment rate in Luzerne County in 2003 was 6.5 percent and it was 6 percent in Lackawanna County. At the end of 2007, those rates dropped to 4.5 percent in Luzerne County and 4.3 percent in Lackawanna.

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