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St. Robert Bellarmine students receive First Penance

Letter to the Editor: Fill state judge jobs by merit selection, not election, say Pennsylvania governors

To sway tech companies to locate in this part of Pennsylvania, let’s start speaking in a unified voice.

The “one-message, one-voice” strategy should, of course, resonate from top officials at the region’s chambers of commerce, but also among elected leaders in our governments, a Frontier Communications executive told the Times Leader’s Opinion Board last week.

“There needs to be a cohesive focus,” said Elena Kilpatrick, a Frontier vice president most recently based at its Dallas office in Luzerne County’s Back Mountain region.

She is correct to highlight the need for a well-coordinated effort, the sort of approach luring technology-related jobs to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Pennsylvania ranks 18th among the states in tech industry employment, according to a newly released report by the Computing Technology Industry Association, known as CompTIA. This state added 1,354 net jobs between 2014 and 2015, according to the report, a synopsis of which noted that the number is “expected to continue to rise in 2016.”

Locally, Kilpatrick credited business development gurus in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties for improving their cross-border communication in recent years and for creating “very good plans,” albeit a “bit heavy on the manufacturing side.” (Kilpatrick might be guilty of having a one-tech, uh, one-track mind on such matters, having served as Frontier’s general manager of Pennsylvania operations, where it’s all about the broadband. Only days ago, she was promoted to the Internet-TV-phone firm’s GM post in New York state.)

From our perspective, county government leaders appear to have lots of room for improvement on the tech issue. Frequently they vie for the posts by pledging to spur economic development, then spend their time in office attacking one another (witness, for instance, Lackawanna County) or seemingly preoccupied with unrelated issues (see Luzerne County).

Former Luzerne County Manager Robert Lawton was on the verge of sharpening the county’s emphasis on economic development, with a proposal in mid-2015 to restructure a trio of offices, but critics on council succeeded in chasing him out of town. The area’s municipal officials, meanwhile, generally don’t act as loud cheerleaders, let alone catalysts, for tech growth. Instead, they tend to get mired in day-to-day matters rather than big-picture goals.

Attracting tech firms to this region should be recognized as an imperative for its growth, its people’s prosperity, perhaps even its long-term survival.

Today the industry represents less than 7 percent of the state’s economy, according to CompTIA’s analysis. Workers in the field, however, received an annual average salary of $92,179 – “82 percent higher than the average private sector wage in the entire state,” the synopsis noted.

Our region’s industrial parks, while valued, probably won’t supply the skilled jobs of the future. Tech will.

Among the hurdles to bringing it here faster: a transportation network that Patricia Amendola, Frontier’s East Region communications manager, described as “a handicap.” Two few direct flights from Avoca to East Coast hubs. No passenger rail service.

Let’s get everyone on board. Let’s do what is necessary to pave the way for the arrival of more tech firms, the pay offered for those jobs and the people necessary to fill them.

Our region badly needs all three.

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Our Opinion: Tech industry growth requires coordinated effort in NEPA