The Economic Development District approved the FY 2011 Public Works Program evaluation criteria and selection process.

The goal of the Public Works Program is to support long-term economic development through investments in public infrastructure and facilities necessary to generate private investments that provide higher-skill, higher-wage jobs. Each year projects are submitted to the EDD for review and the top tier of projects are then submitted to the EDA. Several of the projects prioritized by the EDD have been funded by EDA in the past, including the City of Renton South Lake Washington Infrastructure and the Port of Bremerton Marine Transportation Center and Marina Expansion. The application materials will be distributed next week, and will then be available at psrc.org. The EDD board will conduct its selection process at an extended meeting on November 3.

For more information, contact Eric Schinfeld at 206-971-3053 or eschinfeld@psrc.org.

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The Economic Development District enjoyed a presentation on the region’s Metropolitan Business Plan for energy efficiency.

As part of the Brookings Institute’s Pilot Program, PSRC has been working to develop a Metropolitan Business Plan for the energy efficiency industry to use as an investment prospectus when seeking funds from the federal government. A key component of the plan is the development of a center and demonstration network known as BETI or Building Energy-efficiency Testing and Integration. BETI would allow innovators who have successfully developed promising products to test them in real-world settings prior to launching them in the marketplace. Watch the presentation and discussion online at psrc.org.

For more information, contact Sherry Ambrose at 206-971-3051 or sambrose@psrc.org.

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The Economic Development District began discussing the update of the Regional Economic Strategy.

PSRC is preparing to conduct a comprehensive review of regional economic data to use as a basis for developing a new 5-year Regional Economic Strategy for the 2011-2016 period. The initial phase of this effort requires determining what data will be the most constructive in developing the new strategy in terms of what information is valuable to Prosperity Partners and PSRC members, new foundational issues that need to be addressed, and identifying the successes of the first process.

For more information, contact Chris Endresen at 206-971-3269 or cendresen@psrc.org.

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In other business, the board:
*Amended its budget and contract authority for Regional Economic Strategy development to include anticipated support from the Economic Development Administration and the required local matching funds.
*Approved the Presidential Appointments of Tom Knight, Chief of Staff at Joint Base Lewis McChord, as Alternate 5 and Jim Poss, President of BigBelly Solar, as Alternate 4. Presidential Appointments are non-voting members of the EDD Board.
*Discussed the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Initiative 1098.
*Received an information item on the Association of Clean Tech Incubators and Accelerators.

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