STEUBENVILLE - To avert a possible loss of state grants that have funded the "Burb of the Burgh" marketing effort, Progress Alliance is looking for alternative sources of funding for the coming year.

Executive Director Ed Looman told the Community Improvement Corp. Board of Trustees gathered Tuesday at the Franciscan University of Steubenville that $35,000 in Temporary Assistance to Needy Families funds have been used for the program, along with a local match. He said state budget cuts could mean the money won't be available for the next year.

Looman noted the campaign's effectiveness was on display during Thursday's Corridors of Opportunity event held in Weirton by Progress Alliance and the Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle. Visitors from Pittsburgh were remarking about the short amount of time it took to get to the event from the city and many commented about being in the Burb of the Burgh, he noted.

"We have to find a way to continue without that TANF money," he said.

Jefferson County Commissioner Thomas Graham, a member of the CIC board, emphasized the cuts aren't being made at the county level.

The fundraising committee continues to have a goal of 50 members for the CIC board by year's end, according to CIC President Ken Perkins. He said membership is at 38 now. The minimum dues to gain a seat on the CIC board and have a say in the operation of the Progress Alliance economic development organization is $2,000 a year, Perkins said. The membership is open to businesses and individuals, he said.

David Skiviat, vice president of finance for the university, provided an update about the upcoming fall semester at the university, which employs 430 and provides an economic impact of $181 million a year to the area, according to its own economic survey from 2005. The annual payroll is $18.5 million and the annual budget is $50 million, he said.

Skiviat said enrollment is anticipated to stay at slightly less than 2,500 students. He said with the university's purchase of the former Parkview Circle public housing complex, now renamed Assisi Heights, the university will be able to accommodate 189 additional on-campus resident students in the fall. He said a total of 1,400 students now can live on campus.

Skiviat said more than $1 million in commuter grants are being made available to area students.

He said 11,000 visitors will have come through the campus for summer religious conferences, and an additional 30,000 high school students around the nation will have attended a regional "Steubenville" conference during the summer. Conferences are held in a number of locations around North America, including Atlanta, St. Louis, Denver, Spokane, Wash., and Nova Scotia, Skiviat said, all including the name of the city.

Cynthia King, Southern Ohio partnership specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau, asked CIC members to sign up to serve the census in any of a variety of ways, from displaying census materials in their place of business to joining a committee making plans to ensure every Jefferson County resident is counted.

King emphasized the 2010 Census will include just 10 questions and take less than 10 minutes to complete. She said the questions are less intrusive than what is asked on a credit card application.

She noted families with college students need to know their student is counted where he or she attends college, not at their home address.

King confirmed the bureau will be opening an office in Toronto in October that will oversee census operations in counties along the Ohio River as far south as Washington County.

She said residents need to know what being counted means to their community.

In Cincinnati from 2000, she said a study estimated her neighborhood on the city's North Side was undercounted by 1,937 people. Figuring that each uncounted person represents about $2,263 in federal funds not received, Cincinnati missed out on $4.3 million in federal allocations in the past decade.

"Our goal is that by March you can't go a block in Jefferson County without hearing about the Census," she said. Census forms will be mailed in March with a goal of having them filled out and returned by April 1. If residents fill out the form and mail it in, no one will be knocking on their door for follow-up contact.

(Giannamore can be contacted at pgiannamore@heraldstaronline.com.)