NEW CASTLE Specter talks of funding effort

The money will be used to build on- and off-ramps on Pa. Route 60.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter says he is working to bring $1.5 million to the Millennium Park project.
Specter stopped in New Castle Tuesday to meet with Republican constituents on a multi-county tour.
Norman A. DeGidio, Lawrence County Republican Party chairman, said the senator answered questions about the war in Iraq, Medicare and Medicaid, and other matters during a breakfast before about 30 supporters at the Hudson Lunch on East Washington Street.
Specter met with reporters following his breakfast, pledging to get the federal money for the proposed 1,200-acre business park.
Other funding
Millennium Park has already been promised $15 million from the state and an additional $15 million from local municipalities, Lawrence County and Lawrence County Economic Development Corp.
Specter said his position as the third-highest ranking member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee should help secure the funding for the project. The money is expected to come from the Economic Development Administration.
The park, planned for the area between Kings Chapel Road and Mitchell Road, along Pa. Route 60, is intended to draw high-tech companies to the region.
Officials have said that a semiconductor plant with about 1,200 jobs has shown interest in the location.
Specter said the federal grants should help attract companies to the business park.
"It puts the 'Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval' on the project. It shows that the federal government checked it out," Specter said.
Linda Nitch, executive director of the LCEDC, said the grant is one of several federal grants that her agency has gone after for the Millennium Park project.
If awarded, the money will be used as match funding for state dollars to pay for on- and off-ramps on Pa. Route 60 to the park.
Other legislators approached
Gale Measel, Neshannock Township supervisor, said the Lawrence County group working on the Millennium Park project, which includes officials from the county and several townships, also approached U.S. Senator Rick Santorum and U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart of Bradford Woods, R-4th, for help getting the federal money.
Specter said they should know if the money will come to the Lawrence County project by Sept. 30 when the federal budget must be approved.