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Chance Aluminum has finalized the purchase of some land in the southern part of Lycoming County to build a unique plant -- a plant that will create hundreds of jobs.
Lycoming County's commissioners and leaders should be commended for their diligent efforts on this transaction. Every resident of our county should appreciate the addition of 300 to 400 jobs to our economic future.
We hope our county's leaders -- and municipal and state leaders, and leaders within private enterprise and private organizations -- continue the important work of recruiting new industries and new employers to locate their operations here.
As we have also editorialized, allowing the construction of new housing to meet the needs of potential employees of these new endeavors also is important. Our county, again, has taken that issue seriously -- which we greatly appreciate.
The sustainability of Lycoming County requires these efforts. At the risk of using a cliche, we truly are at a fork in the proverbial road.
One course of action would be to bring jobs and housing -- a healthy variety of blue-collar and white-collar jobs, capable of meeting the needs of a variety of workers. New housing in our communities needs to be just as diverse as well -- able to fit the needs and budgets not only of affluent workers but the working class as well.
The addition of jobs and housing allows our communities to succeed the way they should -- through the hard work and initiative of people, contributing to our economy and to our society.
One course of action would be to neglect this need for housing and jobs. To allow younger people to feel the need to leave our region to find their future, allowing the burdens of supporting our police, our firefighters, our parks and public services to fall on an ever-shrinking pool of taxpayers. And as the tax burdens rise, to watch as more and more working families find it necessary to move to more promising communities in more promising states.
We believe it should be obvious which course of action is necessary and which would be disastrous.
We are thankful our county's commissioners and leaders recognize and understand that reality and are working with private industry to address what Lycoming County needs.