KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette Tim Keohane, director of Penn State SBDC, left, speaks at the award ceremony for the SBA Eastern Pennsylvania District Office 2026 Blue-Collar Small Business of the Year Ceremony at CSSi, Inc., in Muncy.

Small businesses, particularly those blue collar types of careers throughout Lycoming County, were recognized during a recent U.S. Small Business Administration award ceremony for a Muncy-area commercial boiler repair shop.

CCSI Inc., on John Brady Drive, was the recipient of the 2026 Blue-Collar Small Business of the Year Award by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Its CEO Patrick Snyder was overwhelmed by the recognition, which he credited to his hardworking team and family members.

And officials there spoke volumes about the critical role small businesses such as CCSI play in the nation’s economy and other benefits and factors that drive up job creation and opportunity in rural Pennsylvania.

“Small businesses, such as CCSI, play a vital role in our community, impacting not only the economy but also playing a key factor in the quality of life we enjoy,” said Jason Fink, president and CEO of the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce.

He noted while everyone is excited about the Wawas, Chick-fil-A’s or Bass Pro coming into the community, it’s CCSI, Ralph S. Alberts, Country Store Meats, The Village Baker and Mr. Sticky’s – types of businesses that “truly define our Lycoming County community,” Fink remarked.

“These are the ones that you’ll find sponsoring the local Little League teams, the 5Ks, the firemen’s carnivals, school programs and a host of other activities.

“We know the owners as they live in our community,” Fink said. “They attend the Fourth Fridays, the school plays, football games, the festivals and other events. Small businesses, owners and employees, are truly the lifeblood of our community and any community across this country.”

Number of small businesses

On the blue collar side, like CCSI, it’s about 400 small businesses in the community.

Those range from one or two employees to around 50 employees.

Fink said the chamber gets asked all of the time about how many small businesses are in Lycoming County.

“I can tell you I always respond that it is a difficult answer … because there are so many different standards used in being able to define a small business,” he said.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) has various factors in being able to identify those figures. It ranges from those on the manufacturing side averaging less than 500 employees, and those in retail services in the neighborhood of $140 million of sales.

“In our market those are big businesses,” Fink said. “If somebody employs 250 employees that is a big business in our market.”

Using those definitions, the chamber looks at businesses of 50 and under, typically, considered small businesses.

“If you’re looking at the retail-end side of it, it is about $20 million and less in a sales economy from that side.” “You look at it, the number I found looking on Google, we have about 2,700 small businesses in Lycoming County,” Fink said. CCSI is one of those.

“I grew up in a family of blue-collar workers,” Fink said.

“It resonated with me a lot,” Fink said of Snyder’s story of traveling around for work. “On my father’s side of the family, my grandfather worked for Sun Oil,” Fink said. “He worked on pipelines and retired at the age of 55. When he retired he started up his own business. He was in the excavating and earthwork business. When he passed away, Fink said his aunt took over the business.

“My uncle was also in the pipeline business and my dad worked in highway construction,” Fink said, adding that it gave him an appreciation for blue collar work. “My brother does the same thing,” he said. “He is in construction trade business,” he said, adding he had an appreciation for the trades and actually wished he had that skillset and do the work that folks such as CCSI do across this country and at small businesses every day.

Watching the traveling that Snyder did for the boiler business reminded Fink of his father’s work, including when he traveled to West Virginia and other parts of the country for the construction trade and running highway equipment.

Small businesses are

measured with metrics

“As part of our federal guidelines we track metrics of clients that we work with,” said Timothy Keohane, director of the Penn State Small Business Development Center.

Among those are when someone starts a business, as in the case of CCSI, when a business is purchased, the number of jobs created and various aspects related to economic development milestones.

“As we celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday, we honor the legacy of strong entrepreneurship that built this nation and is revitalizing Main Streets and rural communities,” said Steve Dixel, district director, SBA Eastern Pennsylvania District Office.

During the award presentation the administration was celebrating National Small Business Week to honor the “job creators, innovators, and builders who anchor America’s economy and its communities,” he said. It was the first time this award has ever been given on behalf of the U.S. Small Business Administration in the nation’s history, Dixel noted.

CCSI received citations of achievement and recognition from the state House of Representatives, state Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives.

“I would argue that blue collar America is really one of the most important parts of why America has been the greatest country in the world for the last 250 years,” said state Rep. Joe Hamm, R-Hepburn Township.

Other than the military, Hamm placed blue collar workers at the same level on what makes this nation the greatest on earth in its 250 year history.

“It is the blue collar workers who literally drive the nation forward, drive this Commonwealth forward, and drive our local communities,” Hamm said. “They are the ones providing the family-sustaining wages and the jobs that keep people here in our communities.”

Matthew Wise, District Director for state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Loyalsock Township, noted how Yaw is the chairman of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. A few years ago, the Center released a report that estimated that all of the rural counties in the Commonwealth would see a decline in population by the year of 2050, but there was a caveat to that – which was – “unless we do something,” Wise said.

Wise turned his attention to Snyder and the CCSI team.

“Pat and his team checked all of the boxes,” Wise said. “You moved here. You provide jobs here and you are providing a service to the area that is not only going to benefit these businesses and residents that are here but also keep it local.”

James May, regional director for U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Dallas, in the 9th Congressional District, noted Meuser is a senior member of the House Committee on Small Business.

He said he often hears the congressman speak about small businesses and their impact on national, state and local economies.

May also offered a personal reflection on the impact of such business on his sons, one of whom went to college and joined a company where he has a career in innovative and industrial design and another who joined the military out of high school, returned, and is employed in the construction trade. The one brother, who is in a management position, is astounded at the job security, income and lack of debt the other brother has who is in the blue collar construction job, he said.