Rep. Parke Wentling (R-Crawford/Erie/Lawrence/Mercer) recently hosted a House Majority Policy Committee hearing in Greenville to listen to testimony on how to advance the economy in Northwestern Pennsylvania.
Testifiers included Tony Kaper, Hall Technical Services vice president of operations; Tony Miller, Mercer County Career Center administrative director; Donald Perry, Matt Perry and Tyler Perry, Compliance Environmental Services partners; Kara Wasser, OhanaLink Technologies CEO; and Rod Wilt, Penn-Northwest Development Corp. executive director.
Topics of discussion included lack of necessities, developing an educated and skilled workforce, establishing funding to help businesses grow, addressing the labor shortage, and population decline.
Since 2010, Mercer County’s population has dropped 9.7 percent.
“Without targeted economic development programs and assistance to aid smaller, rural counties in Pennsylvania, we will continue this downward spiral in population and economic opportunity in these very important agricultural and manufacturing-centric parts of Pennsylvania,” Wilt said.
“Those of us working in career development and labor have been preparing for the skills gap created by baby boomers leaving the workforce for several years,” Miller said. “The pandemic has forced this group out of the workforce even sooner than expected. This gap in the workforce is again compounded in our region due to decades of population loss and brain drain, college students leaving our region and not returning after they graduate.”
Wentling’s district covers portions of Crawford, Erie, Lawrence and Mercer counties.