In Rick Suder's job as senior planner for the Bedford County Planning Commission, he's had to learn to juggle many projects at one time. One day he may work with a Community Development Block Grant sewer line project in Everett; another he's deep into reviewing sewage planning modules for a large housing development. He could be working in transportation planning one morning and by the afternoon providing technical assistance to municipal officials. "I like the variety and the fact that every day there's a different kind of challenge depending on what I'm doing," he says. A Bedford County native, Rick grew up in Alum Bank and attended Chestnut Ridge High School. He spent two years at the Penn State University - Altoona campus as a liberal arts major, but still didn't have a career goal. Working with a counselor at the college, Rick decided to pursue a degree in facilities planning, programming and management at the PSU main campus.

As part of a summer internship in 1982, Rick worked for the Planning Commission to to survey the county's offices to study a possible consolidation. He returned again to the county as a consultant to study a proposal for the county to purchase the former AT&T Building. He finally was hired as a planner in 1986. "As planners, we've got to be able to combine lots of different disciplines - work with engineers and architects, understand and be able to interpret technical regulations - and be able to look down the horizon at the future." Rick says. Perhaps most important is being able to work with a variety of people - citizens, municipal officials, professionals. "Having good communication skills is key," he says. "You've got to be able to process and analyze a lot of information and then be able to communicate that information to others. "Understanding with regulations is getting more arduous every year. It's our job to communicate exactly what they say in a way that anyone can understand. Needless to say, that's not always easy - but it can be satisfying," he says.

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