Greene County OKs grant agreement for new incubator
After years of planning, Greene County’s new business incubator is nearly open.
At its meeting Thursday, the county Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a grant agreement with the Benedum Foundation to assist in operating the incubator, which will be located in the Silveus Building in downtown Waynesburg. The two-year agreement is retroactive to June 22.
Board Chair Jared Edgreen said the grant will allow the county to hire a manager for the incubator and to fund equipment and programming.
“The hope here is really to foster help for current small business in Greene County and new startups, if they’d like to,” he said. “Very excited about it.”
The manager position is still being advertised on Indeed. Vice Chair Betsy McClure said interviews for the new position should be underway next week. Whoever is chosen as manager will be in charge of enacting the business plan approved by the board earlier this summer, which Waynesburg University eHIVE prepared.
The new incubator could launch later this month or in early September, depending on how much notice the new manager has to give to their current job, McClure said.
About 22 office spaces will be available across the three floors of the building, while the basement could potentially be used as a makerspace, Edgreen said.
“If we could get three or five (businesses), I’d be happy with that in the next six months,” McClure said.
Ahead of the opening, there will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony with tours for the public, Edgreen said.
“There’s a lot of interest and buzz with it, and we want to continue it rolling,” he said.