Election Day is just around the corner, Tuesday, November 7th. In the past, the emphasis was simply getting the voting citizenry to get to the polls. It seems lately that there is more trepidation than anticipation when it comes to our annual practice of democracy in action.
In light of this, it is good to know that we have someone at the helm who knows how to move the ship. It is one thing to be paddling a canoe, and it is another thing to be navigating an ocean liner. Lycoming County is something in between. With a budget of over $100 million and 500 plus employees, it is quite a sizable organization. For the past four years, the board of commissioners consisted of Republican Scott Metzger (chairman), Republican Tony Mussare (vice-chairman), and Democrat Richard Mirabito (secretary). Mussare served three terms, and Mirabito served two terms, which leaves Metzger as the only one who is running with any experience.
Scott Metzger has been chairman of the board of commissioners, and by most observers, he has navigated the challenges of the county rather well. The county needs more employment opportunities, and to that end, land from the landfill was prepared for new factories, and it attracted the Indiana-based Digger Industries to build a new factory, which has hired some 150 local employees.
Housing is also an important need, and to that end, the commissioners have been working hard to free up unused property from the golf course for developers to build additional housing. Providing job opportunities and affordable housing will be attractive to students who are graduating and could stay in the county instead of having to go elsewhere.
Increasing the working population will help hold the line on taxes, which has been a real challenge for the commissioners. One of the ways that they have worked is to cut budget costs, and the commissioners led by Scott Metzger have accomplished some amazing savings of late. They were able to terminate the lease to Sharwell Building, which was the location of the Lycoming County Children and Youth Services, which will be a saving of $43,000 a month. They also have sold Executive Plaza for $3.56 million and are moving all county offices across the street to the Third Street Plaza at 33 West Third Street. This county building has been used for a number of various departments, such as Voting Services, but it also has been the location for the Lycoming County Wellness Center. This center is for county employees and their families for a wide range of medical needs. It took some courage to initiate this project as it is the first of its kind in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. But since it has gone into operation, the Wellness Center is providing more medical coverage at a lower price for more people. In fact, it is saving the county hundreds of thousands of dollars in employee medical coverage.
One accomplishment that this board worked through with great difficulty was a county-wide bridge bundling program for 17 defective bridges in the county. That same attitude of firming up infrastructure was evidenced in the commissioners’ desire to use ARPA funds from the federal government to shore up infrastructure in the county. When US Senator Bob Casey visited the county in September and saw how the county was dispersing the ARPA funds, he commented that it should be a model for other counties in Pennsylvania.
Scott Metzger is a solid public official, and the man looking to be at his side is Marc Sortman, a three-term township supervisor for Loyalsock Township. He has 30 years of business experience and has a ‘business’ focus, which means that success depends on meeting a market demand by providing a good product at an affordable price. Sortman has proven this is a good way to run government, treating it like a business rather than a “tax-and-spend” government. Evidence of this was helping lower property taxes twice as a township supervisor. At the same time, Sortman has assisted the township in business and housing growth.
Marc Sortman has also shown that he has a good reputation, evidenced by his service on advisory boards for the First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania and Hope Enterprise’s Maxwork. He may be a rookie to county government, but he should not be intimidated by it either.
Tuesday, November 7th, is just around the corner. There are four candidates on the ballot for commissioner: incumbent Republican Scott Metzger and three new candidates, Republican Marc Sortman, and two candidates highlighted in the October 4th edition of this column, Democrat Mark Mussina and Democrat Denitra Moffett. The directions say, “Vote for no more than TWO.” Choose wisely — our future depends on it.
