Business View Magazine | December 2018

336 337 for its hundred-year-old stormwater system to the Sanitation Authority.“They bill residents $6 a month and commercial buildings, up to $15,000 a year. That’s taken the burden off of us, completely.” After Mastrangelo’s first five years as mayor, the city had stabilized its finances.“Right now,we have about $7million in the bank, divided into three accounts: the general fund,money to service debt, and for pensions,”he notes. Lately, its approach has been to bring new businesses into town to stabilize the community by adding new jobs.“In the last three years, Pennsylvania approved a medical marijua- na program and they divided up the state into six parts,”Mastrangelo remarks.“They allow 12 permits throughout the state and we were fortunate enough to win one of the medical marijuana facilities in the northwest region.They’re operating, right now and started harvesting their first crop in June.They’re going to be adding 100-150 new jobs.” Other new or expanding NewCastle businesses NEWCASTLE, PENNSYLVANIA include the BenWeisman Scrap Yard, a $26 million investment that is expected to hire about 75 new employees; the Riverplex, a bankrupt building that the city was able to buy for $1.25 million, then offer to Refresh Dental, an Ohio company that moved in with 75-100 new employees; Ellwood Quality Steel, a legacy company in NewCastle that is in the process of completing a $60 million addition to its plant that should bring in another 25-30 good-pay- ing, full-time positions; a new Speedway gas station; and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC),which bought the local hospital, spending $31 million in upgrades and another $40 million to reduce its debt. NewCastle’s Department of Community and Eco- nomic Development is run byTammi Gibson,who has been with the city for over 23 years. Its mandate is to apply for, receive, and earmark funding from various sources to support local development proj- ects.“Since the mayor’s been here,we’ve gotten a lot