The final list includes 137 projects, categorized as “priority,” “recommended,” or “reviewed.”
“PDAC serves as a model for how a community can come together to review important projects that can bring investment and opportunity to the Dayton Region,” said Sue Edwards, Wright State University president and PDAC chair. “The process allows community leaders to evaluate projects and establish a list of regional priorities that helps the region to speak with one voice when working with state and federal officeholders and other decision-makers.”
The ideas touch on all walks of life, but they might be understood as focused on areas like defense, health care, quality of life and other needs, like workforce.
“This continues to be a major focus for local businesses, so you’ll see a lot of projects looking to address this (workforce),” said Shannon Joyce Neal, the coalition’s vice president of strategic communications.
Other areas of focus include digital transformation and microelectronics.
“This is another growing sector in the tech/defense world,” Neal said of microelectronics. “And you can see multiple organizations trying to leverage that potential growth. As the name implies, these are the tiny processors that everything runs on nowadays, and we are working to boost domestic production.”
Some of the proposals deemed priorities include:
- A $250 million Silicon Heartland National Campus, proposed by the Midwest Microelectronics Consortium. The idea is to build a campus near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to assist with digital transformation and semiconductor fabrication and prototyping.
- A $12 million Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance National Center of Excellence at Wright State.
- Fairborn is asking for $11,787,585 to help build a two-story, 40,000-square-foot “Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF)” building to support defense contractors for secure, private work. The SCIF would be situated directly across from Wright-Patterson’s busy gate-12A, not far from National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) and Air Force Materiel Command headquarters, both of which are a short drive from that gate.
- In Beavercreek, $41 million is requested at Interstate-675/Grange Hall Road to modify an existing partial interchange to a full interchange.
“The Dayton region’s PDAC process provides an opportunity for elected officials and other potential funders to learn about and evaluate our community’s priorities,” said Jeff Hoagland, president and chief executive of the coalition.
Although the coalition helps guide the process, neither the coalition nor anyone associated with PDAC awards funding, leaders with the organization have emphasized.
More information on PDAC, and the list of proposals, can be found at: daytonregion.com/local-business/advocacy/pdac.
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