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Consultants meet to explore opportunities found in area

For the third year, consultants from various sectors of manufacturing participated in a site consultant familiarization tour sponsored by the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce and the Department of Community and Economic Development.

As part of the tour, the group was given the opportunity to meet and hear from officials with the Lycoming Economic Development Foundation, SEDA-Council of Government’s Joint Rail Authority, the Lycoming Valley Rail Road, UPMC Susquehanna, RETTEW Associated and Lycoming and Penn colleges. There were a total of nine site consultants and two businesses represented on the tour.

“Today’s our first day of touring,” said Jason Fink, president and CEO of the local Chamber of Commerce. The group toured various departments at the Pennsylvania College of Technology, including plastics, welding and fabrication and manufacturing engineering technology.

He noted that the site to FAM tour was kicked off over the weekend as the group attended championship games at the Little League World Series.

“Now we getting into sharing more about what we want them to know about our community beyond Little League baseball,” he said.

“The fact that we’ve got great industry here, we’ve got a great support system here for being to address their employees needs. The hospital network system, the quality cultural assets that we have like the Community Arts Center, the wonderful colleges, not just Penn College, but Lycoming College. “ he added.

He shared that one business representative, who had to leave the tour early, indicated that he wanted to return later this year.

“They want to revisit to be able get a better understanding of some components they have because they’ve seen some stuff that they already like and they want to learn more about (them),” Fink said. Also participating in the tour was, Jared Grissinger a project manager with the Governor’s Action Team at DCED. Grissinger said that his job is to work with companies seeking to expand and move into the state. His department works with the site selectors who represent a company which is looking to expand.

“This is a good opportunity for us to have some one-on-one time with them and really showcase a region and be able to tell that story with the backdrop of Little League,” he said. “It’s a great selling point. It’s a great area. So to be able to bring these folks through and now somebody that I may be working with in Chicago or Texas, we have face recognition, name recognition. That’s helpful. It helps us to do our job a lot better,” he added.

Mike Quint, managing director of Newmark, Knight, Frank in Dallas, was on the tour representing his company which represents clients nationwide in the commercial real estate field.

“I’m here on the familiarization tour. I’ve never been to Williamsport or this part of Pennsylvania before,” Quint said.

“I’m trying to understand what this community is, how I might have clients who might want to locate to this part of the world,” he said.

Although Quint questioned why the average wages in the area are lower than the state average, he was quick to note that what he had seen at Penn College is a positive for the area.

“What excites me about Penn College and what I’m seeing is all of this technology,” he said.

He said that one of the difficulties facing the community is keeping the graduates in the area once they have been trained in the technology. “How can you create industry and keep it here in this community and growing this community as well as opposed to creating great talent and exporting elsewhere across the United States,” Quint said.

Fink explained that he sees the talent available in the community as one of it’s greatest assets that would attract businesses to the area.

“It’s one thing to be able to show these site consultants what we have here. We have great youth here. But, the fact if we can get these industries to come here because of what we have, the knowledge base we have here. That’s the key thing now for these companies, finding those youth to take on the jobs. To get them aware that we’ve got these regional assets here. This is the important thing to me. The more that we can capture industry-wise, to be able to say, employ our people…we’ve got a wonderful, skilled asset here, our local people,” Fink said.

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