Dauphin County Commissioner Meeting February 11, 2015
Wednesday February 11, 2015 at 1:34 pm
By James Roxbury

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Dauphin county commissioners voted to award $6.4 million in local share gaming grants Wednesday morning.

Mark Stewart, solicitor to the gaming advisory board made a presentation to the commissioners explaining how the advisory board held a series of meetings over the course of five days in November 2014.

Stewart spoke of the long hours spent interviewing applicants and the process of how the board made final recommendations.

In this video Stewart talks highly of the advisory boards newest member Lawrence Cooney.

"He was a strong participant, he hit the ground running, participated fully during the public presentations, asked great questions."

Lawrence Cooney was absent for two of the five days of applicant interviews, here are some of the interviews he missed.

Whitaker Center.

Harrisburg Young Professionals.

Humane Society of Harrisburg area.

Lower Paxton Township.

Middle Paxton Township and Dauphin-Middle Paxton Fire Co. No. 1.

Middle Paxton Township DCIB.

Highspire Borough and Citizens Fire Co.

Highspire Borough DCIB.

Susquehanna Art Museum.

American Red Cross.

Dauphin County Library System.

South Hanover Twp.

Civic Club of Harrisburg.

Paxtang Fire Co.

Vision Resources of Central Pa.

Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg.

Susquehanna Township.

Hope Within Ministries.

Londonderry Twp.

Halifax Fire Dept.

Conewago Twp.

Presbyterian Apartments.

Catholic Charities.

Susquehanna Twp. Alumni Association.

Millenium Neighborhood Family Development Center.

AACA Museum.

Take a look at this second video of Stewart's presentation as he states how the advisory board felt Louis Verdelli's luxury $16 million apartment project was one of the strongest applications.

"The advisory board felt that was really an ideal situation."

Video from Gaming advisory board meeting November 13, 2014.

Louis Verdelli describes his luxury apartment complex Verde.

Louis Verdelli is a financial advisor at RBC Capital LLC. RBC Capital is the Bond Underwriter for he last three bond indentures issued by Dauphin County.

2014 Series $9,880,000

2014 Series A $8,200,000

2015 Series 19,425,000

Total___________________$37,505,000

Susquehanna Group served as Financial Advisor for the three bonds issued, Jay Wegner is a principal at Susquehanna.

Archive video of Wegner during the November 26, 2014 County commissioner meeting, Verdelli is seated behind Wegner.

You should all be commended.

How the gaming advisory board spins $6.4 million of grants into $81 million in related investment and the creation of over 1200 permanent or construction jobs.

Mark Stewart.

The person who has a job that gets retained, is pretty darn happy about it.

Take a look at this video of representatives from the M.S. Hershey Foundation.

By granting 25,000 thousand dollars to the Foundation the gaming advisory board claims an investment return of 6.9 million dollars, and 12 permanent jobs.

Updated to include additional video, text, and a correction of the grant award total.

 
Tags: Conflict, Dauphin County, Harrisburg, Jay Wegner, Local Share Gaming Grants, Louis Verdelli, Mike Musser, RBC Capital, Susquehanna Group