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PENNTAP named PEDA Economic Development Partner By Dana Bauer
	Penn State’s Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PENNTAP) has been named the Pennsylvania Economic Development Association’s (PEDA) Economic Development Partner of the Year for 2000, the first year for the award.   “PENNTAP is such a well-entrenched part of economic development in Pennsylvania. It was an obvious choice,” said Rich Scotti, PEDA communications specialist. “PENNTAP often partners with our other organizations, and a lot of PEDA members work with PENNTAP in their daily jobs.”   PEDA is a professional organization of regional, county and state economic developers, utility executives whose primary responsibility is area development, industrial development authority directors, operators of industrial incubators, chamber of commerce executives and municipal directors of development.   During PEDA’s fall conference, PENNTAP was honored for innovation in helping businesses statewide improve their competitiveness, implementation of technical assistance programs for small companies that do not have their own resources, and an economic impact in Pennsylvania of $9.9 million over the last year.   “PENNTAP has been extremely responsive to our needs in Mercer County,” wrote Larry D. Reichard, executive director of the Penn-Northwest Development Corp., in a letter of recommendation. “PENNTAP conducts its assistance in a professional manner, and most importantly, delivers quality service in support of business, industry and economic development needs.”   “PENNTAP is certainly a team player, always willing to collaborate and cooperate with other service providers in bringing the right resources to help clients, and has always gone the extra mile to help,” wrote Dave Hendricks, director of economic development, health care and education at Verizon Communications.   William Desciak, executive director of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center, added, “The backbone of PENNTAP’s program is the personalized service provided by their engineers. These engineers meet with companies, help to define scientific and technical problems or opportunities and then provide potential solutions.”   PENNTAP is a federal, state and university partnership that provides free technical assistance and information to businesses in Pennsylvania.