Happenings in Pittsburgh!! (York, Butler, Carnegie: credit, relocation, debt)

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Pop City - KCRS helps companies stay healthy; doubles workforce and hires 41

Robinson Township-based KCRS Inc., purveyors of unique productivity software that enables large Fortune 500 companies to better care for its employees, will double the size of its 41-member workforce in the next two years.

KCRS recently obtained financing to promote its flagship product, PIHMS, or Productivity Improvement and Health Management Systems, a web-based tool that gives large and small global companies the ability to track and analyze absenteeism among its employees.

“Our patented process is a business process, not just software,” explains Patrick Kalnas, founder and president. “If one employee who closes deals is off for an extended period, a company loses revenue and relationships. We can get people back to work more efficiently and safely, reducing absentism by 10 to 25 percent.”

KCRS will hire workers in the fields of software development, customer service, quality assurance, database development, and project managers, Kalnas says. The company started as a business consulting firm 12 years ago and evolved into helping companies help their employees.

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wow, take a look a this proposal to Harrisburg, you'll be shocked!! I haven't crunched the numbers personally, but I've already heard several people hailing it as an excellent idea and several others showing a bit more caution. I don't think it will ever pass unless the public is shown a real advantage, though.

Pa. tax plan shifts burden to consumers, wage earners

HARRISBURG -- A state senator from Eastern Pennsylvania has come up with a startling proposal on tax shifting, one that would virtually eliminate school property taxes in many districts by significantly raising the sales tax and personal income tax rates.

Under the plan of Sen. James J. Rhoades, R-Schuylkill, Pennsylvania would have the highest sales tax rate in the nation by far -- 9.19 percent in 55 counties and 10.19 in two of them, Allegheny and Philadelphia. The state sales tax is 6 percent now in most Pennsylvania counties, but it's 7 percent in the two largest counties.

Under the Rhoades plan, the personal income tax rate also would jump significantly, to 4.36 percent from the current 3.07 percent.

Mr. Rhoades, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, wants the proposal to go before voters in a referendum in November 2008.

Raising those two taxes would generate $9 billion in additional revenue, Mr. Rhoades told a news conference yesterday. That would permit the elimination of school property taxes for both homeowners and businesses in 305 school districts. In the other 196 districts, property taxes would be cut by an average of 96 percent, he said.

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This would be good news for our friends on the North Side.

Pop City - Giant Eagle considering Manchester site on Pittsburgh's North Side

Giant Eagle is pursuing a site on Pittsburgh’s North Side. Located at the intersection of Fulton St. and Western Ave. near the base of the West End Bridge, the 2.3-acre parcel could become home to a much-needed Manchester grocery store, as well as Pittsburgh’s first Giant Eagle Express.

“It’s a new neighborhood grocery concept that’s meant to fit in to urban and rural areas, where there isn’t a big box,” says Dick Roberts, with Roberts Communications. “It varies depending upon the neighborhood and property.” Giant Eagle launched its “express” concept in May in Harmar. The store features a drive-through pharmacy and gas pumps.

Plans for the Giant Eagle Express have been presented to the Manchester Citizens Corporation (MCC). “The store would be between 12,000 and 15,000 square feet, similar to Trader Joe’s in size. It’s a nice hybrid between convenience and their 40,000 square-foot full-service stores,” says Tom Hardy, with MCC. “They came early on and presented their plans. We gave our input and we support a grocery store on that site.”

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Pop City - Schwartz Technical Plastics opens North American operation in Ambridge; hiring 25

Schwartz Technical Plastics, a leading German manufacturer of industrial plastic components, is moving its North America base of operations to Ambridge and will hire 25 people.

Schwartz has been operating in North Carolina since 1999 but decided to move to Pittsburgh after a devastating fire, says Bernd Nussdorfer, president. “North Carolina was a little off our main market. The proximity here to so many companies in the steel industry--not to mention the high quality of life and the expertise of the regional workforce--clearly put Pittsburgh ahead of the competition.”

The jobs will include sales, office support staff and manufacturing people, Nussdorfer says. The company has signed a 10-year lease for 20,000 square feet of office and plant space at the Ambridge Regional Distribution and Manufacturing Center in Beaver County.

Schwartz manufactures heavy-duty, cast nylon plastic that is used as a substitute for metal in the construction and manufacturing industries. The industrial grade resin is used in cranes, elevators, and paper mills.

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This may not seem like a big deal, but as a former resident of the Flats at SouthSide Works, it is.

Bike Pittsburgh » Blog Archive » Birmingham Bridge is getting bike lanes!

Cyclists using this popular commuting route, that connects the neighborhoods of the Southside, Oakland, the Hill, Uptown, and Downtown, will be in for a surprise when the Birmingham Bridge reopens. During it’s partial closure in PennDOT’s rehabilitation work, Bike Pittsburgh met with PennDOT officials to discuss bicycle improvements. We recommended to PennDOT that they install buffered bike lanes, try to calm traffic, create safe crossings across the interchanges, make the transitions to the connecting roads better, and create a debris buffer for the weekend’s broken beer bottles to collect. With these needs in mind, PennDOT District 11 sent out their engineers to see what they could do. PennDOT recognized the need for these improvements and soon incorporated them into the design.

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Rock on Art Institute of Pittsburgh for receiving best University web site!

Best University Website Awards

Judges from 27 countries reviewed more than 2400 entries from 40 countries for this year’s competition.

Sites were judged according to design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, copywriting, and ease of use. The Art Institute of Pittsburgh website ranked nearly 9 points higher than the competition average for 2007.

AIP's site was designed by Sean O’Brien, under the creative direction of Norman Huelsman, both 2003 AIP alumni.

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How odd. USAir recently released a disgruntled quarterly report outlining how their market in Pittsburgh has dipped below 40% for the first time in USAir history. Could this be an initiative to regain that lost market? Maybe a better initiative would have been to not remove your hub in the first place!! :P

Pop City - $25M US Airways center now under construction at Pittsburgh International Airport

A new $25-million US Airways flight operations control center is now under construction at Pittsburgh International Airport. The 60,000 square-foot facility will employ 600 aviation professionals and serve 1,400 daily US Airways’ flights.

“From the Pittsburgh perspective, we got a lot of support form the state--they provided a nice financial package. The property was a very good value and investment for US Airways, and the professional personnel that was already here was also a factor,” says JoAnn Jenny, with the Allegheny County Airport Authority. “There are 450 who work here now. Once the Pittsburgh and Phoenix centers are combined, as many as 150 new jobs could be added.” Salaries at will average about $40,000 per year.

Project architect is George Halkias with Downtown-based L. Robert Kimball & Associates. Contractor is Mascaro Construction. The new facility control is expected to be completed in 2009. The new construction follows US Airways' February announcement that Pittsburgh had been selected over Phoenix and Charlotte as the location for its new flight operations control center.

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Pop City - Medrad maintains steady growth in medical diagnostics; hiring 100

MEDRAD, a global provider of medical imaging technology and high tech medical devices, continues its steady growth and plans to hire an additional 100 employees this year.

Total employment at MEDRAD has grown to 1800 worldwide, with 1400 employed in the Pittsburgh region, says Wyman Lee, vice president of human resources. MEDRAD is targeted to hit revenues of $550 million by the end of 2007, having grown at an annual rate of 15 percent over the past 10 years.The company has maintained an 8 percent rate of employee growth the the past five years.

New hiring includes jobs in engineering, operations, manufacturing, field sales, service technicians and customer service. MEDRAD opened a new 125,000 square foot corporate facility in the TECH 21 Research Park this summer in Cranberry Township and will complete a new disposables manufacturing facility that is under construction in Saxonburg, Butler County in 2007.

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Pitt's up to their olds tricks, again - curing world diseases - those rascals!!

Pop City - Pitt breakthrough indicates superprotein might fight cell death

Necrosis -- which describes chaotic, irreversible cell and tissue death and is associated with everything from heart disease to Alzheimer's -- might be controlled by a powerful protein called SRP-6, Pitt reports this month on the cover of the scientific journal Cell.

Pitt scientists were studying proteins called serpins -- SRP-6 is one -- suspecting they might help protect cells against stresses such as heat or lack of oxygen. They tried manipulating the serpins in mice, but weren't getting results, so in a last-ditch, money-saving effort, they used worms.

"It's a very important discovery, and it's the beginning of something that may translate into human disease," said Guy Salvesen, professor and director of the cell death research program at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in San Diego.

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Two articles in a row about environmental-friendly Pittsburgh! We certainly the old steel mill town, anymore!

Green meetings discover enviro-friendly Pittsburgh

A lot of people are going to be talking green this week in Pittsburgh, where four conferences focusing on a range of environmentally friendly practices(...)
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