TABLE OF CONTENTS
Click on the following links for the complete story:
At its meeting on November 28, the Chamber’s Board of Directors elected a slate of officers for the Chamber for the coming year. The officer nominations approved by the Chamber Board had been developed and recommended by the organization’s Nominating Committee.
Elected as Chamber officers for 2012 were:
• Chair of the Board – Randy Ebersole (Ebersole, Inc.)
• Chair-Elect – William M. Mulligan (Good Samaritan Health System)
• First Vice Chair – Margie Yohn (BeYohnd Mail Processing)
• Member-At-Large – Ed Coyle (Buzgon Davis Law Offices)
• Treasurer/Corporate Secretary – Rodney Seidel (First National Bank of Fredericksburg)
• Immediate Past Chair – Willie Erb (E & E Metal Fabrication, Inc.)
• President & CEO – Larry A. Bowman, CCE
These individuals will assume their officers’ positions effective January 1st. Best wishes and congratulations to these 2012 Chamber officers.
Officials at Fort Indiantown Gap are seeking proposals from firms interested in operating an auto repair and service care center at the Gap. For further details and a copy of the Request For Proposals, interested businesses should contact: USPFO for Pennsylvania, DMVA, Bldg. 0-48, ATTN: P & C, Room 242, FTIG/Annville, PA 17003-5003. Phone: 717-861-8213. Electronic requests can be made by sending an e-mail to shiva.k.bongu@us.army.mil. The deadline for requesting a copy of the Request For Proposals is Wednesday, December 21.
Lebanon Valley Chamber members and their employees are eligible to participate in a residential electricity cost-savings program available through First Energy Solutions, a division of First Energy Corporation, which is the parent company of Met-Ed. Enrollment in the program will provide participants with a five percent savings on the electricity generation portion of their electric bill. For information on enrolling in the program, contact the Chamber at 273-3727.
The fiscal challenges facing many of Pennsylvania’s Third Class cities and a growing number of townships in the Commonwealth is the focus of a Sustainable Cities Alliance that has drawn the support and involvement of the Lebanon Valley Chamber. The Alliance, which is comprised of local chambers of commerce and other organizations from across Pennsylvania, has produced a white paper that provides guidance on solutions for Third Class cities’ issues in the areas of pensions, binding arbitration and economic development. The Lebanon Valley Chamber’s resolution of support for the Sustainable Cities’ objectives was approved by the Chamber’s Board at its November meeting.
Among the recommendations outlined in the Alliance’s white paper addressing issues facing Pennsylvania’s Third Class cities and many of its townships are, in the area of pensions:
• Authorizing municipalities to offer an optional defined contribution plan and encouraging municipalities to place all new hires into such a plan.
• Adopting new benefit levels, rules, contributions and rates for all new hires.
• Prohibiting the inclusion of overtime and/or longevity in salary calculations.
In the area of binding arbitration, the Alliance recommends:
• That consideration be given to a municipality’s “ability to pay.”
• Instituting “last/best” offer as part of the arbitration process.
• Ensuring the neutrality of arbitrators.
• Instituting a legitimate appeals process.
• Sharing the cost of arbitration.
Regarding the area of economic development, the recommendations of the Alliance include:
• Expanding the Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA) program to non-profit properties.
• Creating “Urban Redevelopment Zones.”
• Removing impediments to and supporting shared services.
The Chamber’s resolution of support notes that Pennsylvania has 53 cities of the Third Class, including the City of Lebanon. Many of these cities, the resolution states, serve as the economic hub of their regions and sub-regions across the state.
The Chamber also points out in its resolution that, as important as Pennsylvania’s Third Class cities are to the economy and quality of life in the state, almost all are faced with significant fiscal challenges and are struggling with structural deficits. Many of these challenges, the Chamber advises, are related to the issues of pensions and binding arbitration and the need for enhanced economic development incentives, all of which are addressed in the Alliance’s list of recommendations.
The Chamber and the other members of the broad-based Sustainable Cities Alliance will be working to secure enactment of their recommendations by the General Assembly and Governor to support of the future fiscal health and viability of Pennsylvania’s Third cities and townships.
Among the other chambers of commerce in the Alliance are the Harrisburg, Lancaster, Lehigh Valley, Greater Pittsburgh, Reading, Wilkes-Barre and York Chambers.
The Lebanon Valley Chamber is pleased to welcome the following businesses and organizations as the newest members of the Chamber. These employers, whose membership applications were approved by the Chamber’s Board of Directors at its meeting on November 28, are: 4 Points Food Service Technologies (Lebanon); Aptus Control Systems, Inc. (Palmyra); Harry W. Fenton, Lawyer (Lebanon); Inspired Images Art & Photography (Lebanon); Martin Luther King Family Life Center (Lebanon); and Visual Strategies (Lebanon).
We’re proud to have each of these businesses and organizations as part of the Chamber, and we encourage you to call on these and all other members of the Lebanon Valley Chamber first whenever you’re in need of a product or service they offer.
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the “Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act,” which would restore balance to labor laws being advanced by the National Labor Relations Board. The proposed Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act would prevent the NLRB from implementing its proposal to fast-track union organizing elections. Under the NLRB’s proposed change, union elections that once took weeks could now be held within 10 days. This would fail to provide employers with sufficient time to communicate their position on unionization and collective bargaining.
The proposed WDFA would also codify criteria that the NLRB has historically used for determining the appropriateness of a proposed bargaining unit.
Governor Corbett recently signed legislation to promote Pennsylvania producers, processors and marketers of agricultural products and commodities seeking to use the PA Preferred trademark. Act 78 gives the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture the authority to enter into licensing agreements with those wanting to use the PA Preferred label. The legislation allows producers of Pennsylvania agricultural products to better reach consumers in the marketplace, promoting the growth of the industry and agricultural jobs. Participation in the promotional program is voluntary, and licensees pay for their own promotional materials. The license term is one year and is renewable. Thanks to State Representative Mauree Gingrich for providing this information.
As has been mentioned in a number of previous Chamber hardcopy and electronic newsletters, the Chamber’s mailing address has changed to 604 Cumberland Street, Lebanon, PA 17042. While we have continued to still have the PO Box 899 address available to receive mail since the Chamber’s relocation to our new Cumberland Street address this past spring, the Chamber’s use of the PO Box will end effective December 31st of this year.
We are asking that, if you have not already changed the Chamber’s mailing address in your system to the 604 Cumberland Street address, you do so before the end of this year. |
