SMETHPORT – The McKean County Planning Department will soon be
moving to a new location as part of an overhaul of the county’s
economic development services.

The office, headed by Director Debbie Lunden, is already making
the transfer to the Old County Home along U.S. Route 6 near
Sena-Kean Manor.

County officials said the long-standing department will join
forces with the fledgling economic development agency in a move
being dubbed as natural.

“It’s a good fit for us to be together,” Lunden said while
packing boxes at the department’s old location on the first floor
of the courthouse. “Having us, economic development and soil and
water conservation – another new department which will also be
locating in the same building – in one spot helps streamline the
process.”

In fact, according to Lunden, the department’s history includes
employees who were in charge of economic development.

“I’m excited we are going to have a full-time economic
development person,” Lunden said. “I have felt we’ve always needed
one. There has never really been a lead person to go out and meet
with companies, help with retaining jobs and work on
recruitment.”

On Tuesday, Commissioner Chairman John Egbert announced that
former Bradford Office of Economic and Community Development
Executive Director Ray McMahon will officially assume the role of
director for the economic development office, starting Tuesday.
McMahon will officially retire from his role with the city
today.

McMahon has more than 25 years of economic development
experience under his belt in Bradford. Officials said he will be
charged with bringing the county’s economic development departments
into line and draw money to the county by using his contacts in
Harrisburg.

County officials hope the department will lead to an expanded
tax base and help secure no property tax increases for several
years.

The two agencies, however, will remain as separate entities,
officials said. But, the staff of each department will work
hand-in-hand with each other. At this point, there are no plans to
add more workers.

“They (economic development) will be taking on the role that the
county has contracted with the OECD for economic services,” Lunden
said.

Until then, Lunden said her department – with assistant planner
Joanne Biehler – will be relocating to their new home soon,
although there was no official date set. Egbert said Tuesday he
would like the department to move as quickly as possible; the
current planning office at the courthouse will be turned into
offices for the public defender.

“We are this close,” Lunden said, placing her forefinger and
thumb close together. The new offices will be located in the
complex known as the Old County Home, and be situated in the large
building to the right of the Penn State Cooperative Extension
Office and behind the relatively new Children and Youth Services
building.

Egbert said both the planning and economic development agencies
will be located on the first floor of the building, with the second
floor currently uninhabitable.

According to Lunden, the new digs will have roughly the same
amount of space and will eventually go online electronically with
the rest of the county’s buildings and courthouse.

Lunden said in the meantime, attorneys looking to use maps and
other materials at the planning office will need to leave the
courthouse and travel to the new office; the same communication gap
will hold true with the county’s assessment office.

She said other counties – Elk and Potter – also have planning
departments separate from the courthouse.

“The planning office will be hooked up (electronically) with the
rest of the county offices,” Egbert said. “Once they are connected,
it will just become a big loop from the courthouse to the Old
County Home, to adult probation and back again.”

Lunden, who has been working in the office for 22 years, said
the department has been located at the courthouse since 1968 and at
one time touted four full-time employees.