Company news in the Lehigh Valley

http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-business-companynews-0928-20120927,0,3782673.story FROM THE MORNING CALL Nurture Nature Center awarded NOAA grant Nurture Nature Center Inc., a nonprofit organization in Easton with a focus on flooding problems, has been awarded a two-year $160,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to fund a social science study about weather decision-making. Nurture Nature Center's project will help the National Weather Service to comprehend how people living in the Delaware River Basin understand and use their flood forecast and warning tools in understanding their flood risk and how they could be improved to better motivate flood preparedness and warning response by the public. The project, "Flood Risk and Uncertainty: Assessing the National Weather Service's Forecast and Warning Tools," supports NOAA's new Weather-Ready Nation initiative, designed to help the nation become better equipped to prepare for and respond to weather emergencies. For this project, the center will partner with the National Weather Service Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center and the Weather Forecast Offices in Mount Holly, N.J., Philadelphia and Binghamton, N.Y. The Nurture Nature Center will also collaborate on the project with Burrell Montz, a social science researcher from East Carolina University with expertise in flooding and natural hazards. The Nurture Nature Center will organize a series of four focus groups among individuals living in the city of Easton, and the more rural community of Lambertville, N.J. Nazareth Center for the Artsreceives Chamber grant The Nazareth Center for the Arts was presented with a check for $2,000 from the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber's Main Street Lehigh Valley Foundation on Sept. 10 in recognition of the completion of its interior and exterior illumination project. The reimbursement covers more than half of the expense of the installation of the lighting project. The check was presented to the committee volunteers by Chamber Foundation Grant Committee Chairman John Hayes, president of AFC First Financial Corp., and Marlyn Kissner, executive vice president regional chambers. The Nazareth Center for the Arts is the gateway to the historic downtown Nazareth district one block away. Housed in the old borough firehouse built in 1902, it sits on the edge of Section Eight housing on both sides of the block. Illuminating the interior and exterior space of the building allows for a safer, more visible venue for the community as well as helping to beautify the gateway to the town's downtown business district. The Chamber Foundation's MSLV Initiative aims to improve every main street in the Lehigh Valley through targeted investments in facade improvements, streetscape designs, sidewalk beautification and other enhancements to the physical appearance of its downtowns and urban centers. Nazareth is one of 18 communities that received a portion of the Foundation's $2 million in community revitalization projects in municipalities across the Lehigh Valley.