Stable Tax Rate, Paulsboro Port, Light Rail Extension, Increase in Sewer Capacity, and Influx of New Business Cited as Keys to Growth
  Gloucester County’s leaders painted a brighter-than-bright picture of what’s in store for the county in the year ahead at the County Chamber’s sixth annual State-of-the-County breakfast this month.
  While acknowledging that job losses at Sunoco, the USPS distribution facility, and Valero have been “setbacks,” Freeholder Director and State Senate President Steve Sweeney opened the breakfast by predicting that the County will “be the lightning rod of economic development” in the region and the state.
  “We’re so well positioned to make jobs happen,” Sweeny said, pointing to the County’s stable tax rate, the new port facility in Paulsboro, an investment of $1.5 billion by LS Power, a memorandum of understanding with Greenwich for another new port facility, the extension of light rail from Camden to Glassboro, and the increase in sewer capacity created by an agreement between the County utility authority and its counterpart in Salem County.
  Referring obliquely to his increasing clout in Trenton, Sweeney assured the overflow audience of 300 at Rowan University that “we’re going to build the light rail here in Gloucester County…we’ll get the other $1.5 billion (that is needed to finance the project).”
  Sweeney was followed to the podium by Rowan President Don Farish who continued the cavalcade of good news with references to the new medical school that is planned as a cooperative effort between the University and the Cooper Health System, the 20% increase in enrollment over the last two years, the $18 million in funded research that the University now attracts annually, and plans to move ahead with the second building at the University’s South Jersey Tech park later this year.
  Farish also referenced discussions regarding the addition of schools of architecture, pharmacy, and hospitality management and interest in the University’s west campus (Intersection of Routes 55 and 3222) for a new national swim center and a 5,000 seat area that could become home to a minor league hockey ream.
  Acknowledging that the swim center and arena are “not done deals,” Farish said he was heartened by the interest that the University is drawing. “We’ve been told we’re the best site on the East Coast” for one of the five new training facilities that are being planned across the country, Farish noted.
  He also pointed to the imminent arrival of a delegation of educators from Oman who have targeted the University as a potential model for the expansion of higher education in that Middle Eastern nation.
  Farish also reminded the audience of the University’s plan to become “increasingly economically independent of the state” in response to the realities of the state’s ongoing financial crisis.
  Freeholder Joe Brigandi continued the ”good news,” citing the County’s relatively strong position (compared to its neighbors) in terms of industrial vacancies and spotlighting new relationships with Bentley Trucking, Kimberly Clark, Sears, and H.H. Gregg as evidence of the County’s attractiveness.
  Brigandi also referenced the investments by both the Virtua and Kennedy health systems in new facilities in Washington Township, which he valued at more than $71 million.
  He also reported on the status of Rowan Boulevard, noting that 500 units of student housing have been opened with another 300 on target for August. Those openings, in combination with the planned September opening of the Barnes & Noble and a summer 2011 opening for the planned hotel and first mixed-use building all point to significant progress, said Brigandi.
  The Freeholder also cited solar field projects in West Deptford and Monroe as well as a planned University of Pennsylvania Health System presence in Woodbury Heights as additional evidence that the County continues to move in the right direction.
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Written By: Mike Willmann
Pictured: Russell Davis, Gloucester County College; Laura Steinmetz, American Red Cross pictured with State Senate President Steve Sweeney; Assemblywoman Celeste Riley and
Pamela Grilts, American Red Cross