Make me a match

Driving past the persistently undeveloped Pike County Business Park for the past six years, it has been impossible not to speculate on the reasons for its apparent failure. Had Pike Industrial Development Corporation (PIDCO), the owner, simply misjudged the possible demand for the space? Were businesses just not interested in coming into the area? And in particular, could it be that the local workforce is not sufficiently trained to satisfy most business needs?

As documented on page 1 of this newspaper, it turns out that the explanation for the still-empty plot of land appears to be much more superficial, if Jim Cummings, the consultant who has been working with PIDCO, is to be believed. The only thing slowing progress is a lack of expertise on the part of the owners in wending their way through the tangle of regulations and permits, followed by a similar lack of experience at attracting and making deals with potential tenants. But in Cummings’ opinion, that is not because there is anything intrinsically difficult about bringing businesses to the new location. Particularly heartening is Cummings’ observation that workforce quality should absolutely not be a hindrance.

What is especially interesting to note is that Cummings not only feels that the proximity of Scranton to the park is more than adequate, but that workforce could even be attracted from New York City once the right businesses are in place. This opens up some interesting possibilities for Sullivan County, which doesn’t really draw labor force from Scranton but is as close or closer to New York City than Pike.

When wrestling with the problem of bringing better-paying businesses to Sullivan, one of the standard obstacles cited is the lack of education in the workforce. And it is certainly the case that many residents are inadequately trained and that every effort must be made to provide them with the skills they need to make a good living. In addition, it must be stressed that any solution that involves bringing in businesses whose jobs are all taken by outsiders would be unacceptable, leaving residents just as badly off as before.

But it is worth noting that Sullivan County has a significant pool of second-home owners and vacationers who would just love to move here permanently if only they could get a decent job. Moreover, to the extent that second-home owners already have houses here, having them move in would not entail massive new development.

What if there were some way to broker a marriage between part-time residents, on the one hand, and businesses that could be persuaded to make their homes here if they were confident of the quality of the workforce? As noted above, if all the jobs went to the erstwhile out-of-towners, it would be no help at all. But it is possible that any such businesses would have plenty of jobs left both for residents who already have a high level of skills and for newly trained residents coming out of local programs like the Monticello ATTAIN lab. In the ideal scenario, working with part-timers who are now living in New York City to help attract businesses would just be priming the pump for what would become a continuing process of local job creation.

It is admittedly baffling to figure out the logistics of doing such a thing. But it seems a shame: there is a reservoir of people who already have houses here, who would like to live here permanently and have a relatively high skill level on the one hand, and a reservoir of high-quality businesses who would like to move all or part of their operations off expensive urban real estate on the other. It seems as though it ought to be possible to get both sides together and to do so in a way that would benefit everybody in the area. Surely it is, at least, a direction that might be worth looking into.

Dr. Punnybone

The Wrong Side of the Law