Down River

By John Lipez

Wawa and a Rutter’s?
You may recall a week ago this column touched upon the possibility of a Wawa convenience store at the Routes 64-150 intersection in Mill Hall. Here’s another possibility to come to light:

Are you familiar with the York County-based Rutter’s chain? Rutter’s is relatively low profile across the state when compared to the ever-burgeoning Wawa and its Altoona-based competitor Sheetz.

According to Rutter’s website, the privately held company (run by third and fourth generation family members) has an agricultural background that goes back over 270 years in York County. It now operates 85 convenience stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia. Closest one to us is along the Benner Pike between State College and Bellefonte.

The company opened it most recent store earlier this year in the southcentral Pennsylvania town of Orwigsburg (with pay starting at $17.50 an hour; whoa). And now, the Down River moles tell us, Rutter’s checking out a site at the Woolrich/McElhattan exit of Route 220. Stay tuned for more on that.

This new convenience store stuff is all conjecture at this point and these things take time and sometimes never come to fruition, as in the unfortunate demise of the Renovo Energy Center project, nine years in the making, tens of millions of dollars spent, then gone.

*****
As for the Renovo Energy project:
It was borderline wake-like, the session held last Friday at the Good Neighbor Craft House in Hyner, the topic (for the most part) federal energy policy.

Renovo Mayor Gene Bruno came across almost crestfallen at the loss of the $1-billion Renovo Energy Center project referenced above.

Mayor Bruno openly lamented what could have been done with project taxes for the Keystone Central School District, Clinton County and his home borough of Renovo, a community he returned to almost a decade ago after many years teaching and coaching at downriver towns. .

He talked of a $500,000 investment project sponsor Bechtel Corporation would have made to the borough, money he said could have gone towards cleaning up dilapidated structures in the borough and providing funding for the borough police department. He noted the struggles the area faces, a downsized UPMC Lock Haven faclity and a Bucktail Medical Center plowing forward in challenging health care times.

And this: “One of the saddest things is… the town is seriously shrinking. Our kids are graduating in June, grabbing their diploma and moving out. We were looking at the possibility of a ray of hope.”

Mayor Bruno, this is where Renovo is today, this is where Clinton County is today and all of rural Pennsylvania for that matter. If you can figure out a way to solve the population decline over much of the state, let us know.

Western Clinton County had a shot at a major economic breakthrough with the REC project, but it was shot down by but a handful of local residents and environmentalists from afar. Let it be said that yes, we should be concerned about the environment and not enough of us are. But REC supporters built a strong case that the project benefits far outweighed its negatives. As one speaker last Friday noted, the energy industry has made significant steps in limiting emissions in recent years. And the community saw that proposal as maybe a last chance at reversing the ongoing economic downturn ever since the railroad pulled out a long, long time ago.

Mayor Bruno, there is one more ray of hope out there short term. That would be the Keystate Natural Gas Synthesis plant proposed for the far reaches of West Keating Township, with Renovo about as close a town as any.

That project would provide, if it can come to fruition, far more jobs during the construction and operational phase than the Renovo Energy plant would have. It’s still a while off, but project developer Perry Babb told Down River last week to look for a positive update on its status soon. Babb told Friday’s assemblage that there appears to be a renewed interest in Harrisburg, what with a new governor and all, in seeing these energy projects to completion.

Let’s hope that’s the case, and with proper environmental safeguards, Keystate becomes a reality. Once again, it’s all about hope.