Finding and keeping employees is a problem facing many industries right now and local government is no different.

Carbon County Commissioner Wayne Nothstein said several offices under the county’s umbrella, namely Children and Youth Services, the sheriff’s department, and the Carbon County Correctional Facility, are all facing a dire need for steady employees.

“Children and Youth is down at least five employees,” Nothstein said during Wednesday morning’s “State of the County” event hosted by the Carbon Chamber and Economic Development at Blue Mountain Resort in Lower Towamensing Township.

“We constantly are hiring in the sheriff’s office, sending them to training and they come back and go to other counties or get hired by police departments that pay a lot more. It’s been a struggle not just for the county, but many of our businesses when it comes to competing with Lehigh or Northampton County, for example, when it comes to wages and benefits.”

Lack of manpower and how to keep qualified employees in Carbon County was a theme running throughout Wednesday’s event. Brent Borzak, Carbon Career and Technical Education Institute director, said the school is working hard as a pipeline for local businesses and industries.

“Through our cooperative education program, a lot of our students go out and work their senior year instead of being in their tech labs,” Borzak said.

“Our jobs can’t be outsourced. When our students graduate, they will have family sustaining and community building jobs. If you want a haircut, you’re not going to China. If you need to get your car fixed, you’re not going to India. All of the careers we train for at our school build communities. You can in fact live, work and play in Carbon County.”

Emergency services, Nothstein said, is another area where good help is getting hard to find. Carbon County, he said, is down from a peak of seven ambulance corps to four with just Palmerton, Lehighton, Lake Harmony and Mahoning Valley remaining.

“Fire company volunteers are close behind,” Nothstein said. “We had 300,000 at one time in the state and now we’re down under 50,000.”

New buildings

It wasn’t all doom and gloom from Nothstein’s perspective as he updated the audience on county projects, several of which have reached or are near completion.

“The renovation of 76 Susquehanna St. in Jim Thorpe is complete with our juvenile and adult probation moved in there,” he said. “The 44 Susquehanna St. building looks great and blends in with our downtown. The public defender is on the second floor and currently sharing space with the fiscal department for Children and Youth. Election officials are back on the first floor.”

The county’s new Emergency Operations and Training Center in Nesquehoning should be completed by September.

“A dedication and 9/11 memorial program is planned for Sunday, Sept. 11 at 1 p.m.,” Nothstein said. “We will have one of the few training centers that includes a police training facility. The burn building will have four burn rooms. The whole project is about $10 million and it’s coming along nicely.”

Other government updates

While state Rep. Doyle Heffley was in Harrisburg on Wednesday morning as the legislature aims to adopt a budget by its July 1 deadline, his district manager Timm Berger highlighted some recent news.

“We bring state funds back to Carbon County for road projects and infrastructure,” Berger said. “Right now, there are several projects going on including the new bridge and third lane projects along Route 443. We also had a meeting with PennDOT, the state police and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission regarding safety concerns at the slip ramp on Route 903. There are solutions being worked on to make that a safer intersection.”

U.S. Congressman Dan Meuser attended his last “State of the County” event as a representative of Carbon County, as redistricting moved the area from the 9th District to the 7th District now represented by Democrat Susan Wild.

“National security and economic development are two of our biggest focus points right now,” Meuser said. “The world wants us to have a strong economy and a strong military because countries are choosing teams. One team is made up of non-freedom loving and tyrannical countries and the other team is the United States and the European Union side. If we don’t have strong American leadership, the other team is going to win.”

Meuser defended accepting earmarks, which he described as “discretionary spending of a very small percentage that members of Congress get to allocate for the interest of constituents in their districts.”

“If I refuse earmarks, I may as well just be a lobbyist who has to go beg Pete Buttigieg for funding for my district,” he said. “It makes no sense. In the last few months, we did get $2.5 million for Jim Thorpe Memorial Hall. They are going to move the police in there, renovate it and it’s going to look really nice.”

Health system updates

Both St. Luke’s University Health Network and Lehigh Valley Health Network had representation at Wednesday’s event.

John Nespoli, president of St. Luke’s Carbon campuses, said a comprehensive 24/7 center for behavioral health will be opening at its Lehighton campus today.

“We think it’s the first of its kind in our state where someone can walk in 24/7 and be assessed and treated in a warm, comfortable environment for behavioral health issues,” Nespoli said. “It is going to be staffed with mental health providers and crisis workers and, instead of going to an emergency room, there will be somewhere to go specifically geared toward behavioral health.”

Nespoli also noted the medical mall that will be opening in Jim Thorpe at the site of the former Dean Anthony’s Banquet Hall and lauded the Women and Children’s Center open at 555 Delaware Ave. in Palmerton.

“The Women and Children’s Center is a first of its kind for our region,” he said. “We have five OB/GYN practitioners there. They’re coming from the best medical schools in the country. We’re very fortunate to have that in our community.”

Christine Biege, LVHN-Carbon president, said the network’s new hospital in Mahoning Township is off to a great start with patients already giving rave reviews.

“A patient told me the other day she never wants to leave and it’s the nicest hotel she’s ever been in,” Biege said. “Not exactly what we were going for, but we’ll take it.”

The $78 million, 100,578-square-foot campus on Route 443 opened earlier this month with 17 different specialty offices, 20 inpatient and 16 emergency room beds.

“A large quantity of patients were leaving the area for the care they can now get here and they really do want to be closer to home,” Biege said. “I think the great thing about our hospital is it was built with room to grow and I think you’ll be seeing that soon.”

Biege said future plans include an intensive care unit, additional medical-surgical beds and additional office space.