Summit Takeaways for 2020 (South Central Assembly 2012 Summit)

Workshops participants summarized essential points with 2020 in mind. These are beginning points from which the Assembly will work. Others are welcome to borrow from this list or to collaborate or join with the Assembly as we address them.  

Agriculture & Rural Issues
  • Market the region … regionally.  Stop the internal competition now. Markets are global. 
  • The pace of innovations will accelerate. Use this reality to promote the region’s entrepreneurial spirit. 
  • Target agriculture and downtowns. Global markets require local niche markets that mandate an understanding of sustainability and a detailed knowledge of local needs.
  • Pair workforces in agriculture. Older and younger farmers need to be linked, and resources, knowledge, and capacities shared.Community

Community Health Care
  • Insurance trusts are self-supporting.
  • Encourage use of technology in health care systems such as Skype for remote and rural doctor visits.
  • Apply lean values especially in controlling costs in waiting rooms for emergencies and regular doctor visits.

Community Planning/Parks & Recreation 
  • Local recreation resources may be better achieved through extensive partnerships.
  • Make use of utility corridors for enhanced and inexpensive new recreational resources such as linear parks and rail trail connectors. 

Economic Development
  • Forging Industry partnerships is critical for investing in workforce development.  
  • The 21st Century economy cannot thrive in an 18th century political system.  Reforms, mergers, and services sharing are needed.

Energy & Environment
  • Energy savings analysis and investments will drive resource savings and environmental protection.
  • Incentives for low energy use buildings in new construction and rehabilitation need to be expanded and new means imagined.

Housing & Community Development
  • Housing and development practitioners must use local resources more fully with the underlying knowledge that state and federal resources are disappearing.
  • Tax Credits are an underused investment tool, in particular, the historic tax credits and 4% credits. 
  • Highlight best practices and extend training options regionally.
  • Prioritize regionally and locally to maximize housing and services delivery systems.

Infrastructure & Transportation
  • Use technology to approach infrastructure and transportation services, especially through items such as highway occupancy permitting.  
  • Create a regional multi-modal entity to promote and cause coordinations faster and more efficiently.
  • Provide training and support to green infrastructure initiatives such as pervious concrete and the use of storm water for irrigation.

Local Government & Municipal Services
  • Share service delivery by planning strategically.  
  • Promote intergovernmental cooperation agreements.
  • Consolidate local pensions. There are 3,200 in PA, which is a very expensive and inefficient system. 

Saving Cities & Schools
  • Promote the issue of the plight of urban schools and that the fates of the cities and their schools are linked.
  • Explore curriculum mixes to piggyback on state viability standards. Use these means to make city living a more viable option.
  • Examine the range of cyber options in education.