Williamsport Chamber VP Shares Marcellus Experiences
VIENNA TOWNSHIP, Ohio – Oil and gas companies exploring the Utica Shale play are looking for the kinds of workers who built the Mahoning Valley who are “willing to work hard and in return for that be paid well,” said a business leader who witnessed the impact of the Marcellus play in Pennsylvania said.
“This is a good opportunity for this community,” said Jason Fink, executive vice president of the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce. Fink was the featured speaker at an open house Wednesday at Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport. He was invited to share his community’s experiences with the oil and gas development taking place in his area due to the Marcellus play. The even was presented by YNGAir Partners, a community group formed to support the airport, with assistance from the Western Reserve Port Authority, which operates the airport, and the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.
The Mahoning Valley is experiencing “some of the very early things” that Williamsport, Pa., went through back in the 2007-2008 time frame, Fink said
“Our community did not have an oil and gas industry prior to this development so it’s a new industry for us,” he said. At a time when the national economy “was pretty much tanking,” the new industry provided an opportunity for some of those in the community who were laid off to find work, he said. In fact, in 2010 Williamsport’s metropolitan statistical area was recognized as the seventh fastest-growing MSA in the country, he reported.
In the Mahoning Valley, the local labor pool will find employment within the industry, likely because of workers' skill sets. “The determination that they have from the steel industry fits well” with the mindset of the oil industry, Fink observed.
“It’s a new opportunity and with any opportunity you have to look at your operations to see if you’re positioned tto take advantage of it,” he said.
Some businesses such as rigging companies are “naturally positioned” to take advantage of the new industry and “able to do very well with it,” and others such as trucking and construction companies do well “because they already had the equipment these companies need,” Fink said.
He pointed to the example of a small plastics company that looked at some of the polymers it was mixing and came up with a liner mix now being used by the industry. That company is preparing to construct a new plant specific to the industry, he said.
Major energy companies such as Halliburton also are making their presence known in the Williamsport area. The oilfield services company initially looked at a 24-acre site where it had committed to employing 270 people, but subsequently acquired 55 additioinal acres. “They have developed the full 79 acres, they have employed 550 people and they anticipate employing up to 800 people,” Fink said.
Growth from the oil and gas industry, and interest from the energy companies, has spurred local efforts to improve aviation services and facilities there, he added.
Dan Dickten, aviation director at the airport, reported that $1.4 million in travel pledges toward a $5 million goal by the end of the year have been made through the Youngstown-Warren Air Service Initiative, an effort to attract daily service. “It’s become very clear that the airlines are not coming unless we have airline revenue guarantees that are available to them” and unless the community supports the airline service, he said.
Before the open house, members of the Western Reserve Port Authority’s board of directors rejected on a 4-3 vote a motion by Andreas Visnapu not to renew the contract of Rose Ann DeLeon, the port authority’s executive director. DeLeon, who was hired three years ago to focus on economic development, must be notified by a month prior to the expiration of her contact, Dec. 7, if the port authority doesn’t intend to renew the agreement.
DeLeon declined to comment on the vote, referring questions to the port authority board.
The port authority doesn’t intend to extend the current agreement but is in negotiations with DeLeon on a new contract, said Scott Lynn, port authority chairman. He called the motion – which board members Visnapu, Don Hanni III and Richard Musick voted for – “inappropriate” and said it didn’t come through the port authority’s committee structure, as motions normally do.
“Some people on our board like to handle things [and] make it a circus in there, where others want to see this agency run professionally,” Lynn remarked. He offered that he thinks DeLeon has “done a lot of great things structurally for our board, putting us in a position for some great growth in the next couple of years.” Lynn joined Scott Lewis, Jim Floyd and Richard Schiraldi in voting against the resolution.
Visnapu said he wanted “to make sure in a technical setting” that board members were aware of the approaching deadline.
“I’m not aware [of the negotiations]. You have to talk to the chairman,” Visnapu said. Part of the reason he made the motion was “so the chairman will understand that all the members want to know what’s going on.”
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.