Important step toward business park approved – maybe

By TOM KANE

STERLING, PA — The long struggle to create a business park in Sterling Township may have ended.

The multi-million-dollar project to bring business and jobs into Wayne County through the proposed business park has been plagued by opposition from some of the Sterling Township supervisors since it was first introduced.

However, that all may cease with the recent approval by the township supervisors of the sewage module plan proposed for the site by the Wayne Economic Development Corporation (WEDCO). The supervisors approved the plan and agreed that it should be submitted to the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

“The approval of the sewage module was significant in that the module is now in the hands of the state agency,” said WEDCO Executive Director Mary Beth Wood. DEP will now review the technical aspects of the module.

However, as a condition of the approval, the supervisors included a statement that they are not convinced that the clause relating to “social and economic justification” should be approved. State regulations require this justification for projects that will affect the flow of water into a stream.

The sewage plant discharges into the Wallenpaupack Creek.

One supervisor, Carol Butler, who has often spoken against the project, was especially insistent that the submittal to the state should include the supervisor’s disapproval of the inclusion of a social and economic justification statement.

The site of the business park is at the intersection of Routes 191 and 194. Efforts to create the park began in July of 2003 with the awarding of $40,000 from the Economic Development Agency (EDA) and a $50,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Council (ARC). These grants were followed by the purchase of 252 acres and a guarantee from Wayne County of $2 million.

On the following December, the Commonwealth Financing Authority approved a total of $4,550,000 to the park.

Despite these grants and the wide approval by Wayne County businesses and the state, Sterling Township supervisors fought the project from the beginning.

“We expect this process will take us well into 2007,” Wood said.