Attendees had an opportunity to enjoy a relaxing and laid back late afternoon over music from a local band and delicious food from Lucy’s Craft Catering while also having an opportunity to hear some information about business growth financing and assessing net worth at April’s Business After Hours held at G.S. Woods Financial Solutions in Danville on April 17.

A local acoustic band, Damon & The Gregs, which includes a realtor from fellow Chamber member RE/MAX Edge, performed a series of 80’s selections throughout the evening. G.S. Woods owner Graeme Woods also gave a brief presentation about business growth financing.

Business After Hours provide regular opportunities to build business relationships while learning about the services offered by other Chamber members. The next Business After Hours will be held at Ken Pollock Ford Lincoln, located at 1120 West Front St., Berwick, on Thursday, May 9, from 4:30-6:30 p.m.  

More than 400 businesses and organizations belong to the Chamber to receive benefits and support efforts to strengthen their businesses and our region. Increased membership allows us to offer additional programs and benefits, have a stronger voice in advocacy and be involved in more activities and initiatives in our communities. The Chamber welcomes its newest member, Hilltops Services, LLC, to help us fulfill our mission.

Hilltops Services is an excavation, hauling and materials business that is locally owned and based in Bloomsburg. Founded in 1990, it provides excavation services, as well as sales and delivery of materials such as mulch, sand, stone, topsoil and much more. It can provide quantities from as small as one scoop of those materials to several dump truck loads, with discounts available based on quantity. Located at 105 Cross Rd. in Bloomsburg, HillTops Services is open Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Saturday from 7 a.m. – 3 p.m. It can be reached at 570-387-1772 or by email, or visit its website.

Jeff Emanuel, Foundation director

Jeff Emanuel, director of the Foundation of the Columbia Montour Chamber of Commerce, has been selected to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Business Leads Fellowship Program.  The program will consist of interactive classes taught by expert faculty on a variety of education and workforce topics, and includes a field trip to an innovative school. The agenda will include plenary classes, breakout classes, and is designed to provide grounding on the issues, as well as, practical tools that can be used to advance policies and programs in our communities. The first workshop focuses Fellows’ attention on early and K-12 education, as well as college and career readiness. The second workshop completes the talent pipeline with coverage of post-secondary education and a wide range of workforce development topics.

From ChamberChoice

On March 7, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a proposed rule increasing the minimum salary threshold for overtime-exempt employees to $35,308 from the current level of $23,660. Employers may recall prior proposed rulemaking under the Obama administration that would have raised the minimum salary threshold to $47,476. The Obama-era rule was never implemented due to litigation, but employers should prepare to comply with the new salary minimum salary of $35,308 if they have not done so already.

The increased salary level may require employers to classify currently exempt employees as non-exempt. Employers may need to review and evaluate who may be eligible for overtime based on the new federal rules. Also, employers may want to look into rescheduling their employees so that they do not sustain overtime hours. Employers can take many other actions such as hiring new employees to spread the workload so that each employee has less overtime or no overtime hours at all, cutting costs in other areas in order to afford overtime hours for their employees, or increasing the salaries of employees to surpass the new requirement.

Even employers who currently pay salaried, exempt employees in excess of the proposed minimum of $35,308 should use this proposed rulemaking as an opportunity to reassess compensation and employee benefits companywide. This is especially the case for employers located in states or municipalities where the minimum wage may be increasing or already has increased above the federal hourly rate of $7.25. Coupled with nationally low unemployment, these salary and wage floor increases mean that it is vitally important to offer competitive benefits packages in order to attract and retain workers.

Of course, the rising minimum salary threshold for overtime employees and federal, state, and local minimum wage requirements apply to employers regardless of what benefits they offer. For employers who are forced to increase compensation due to the increased salary threshold for overtime employees, this may mean that employers should seek out more affordable employee benefit options to minimize the total increase in compensation and benefits costs. Relatedly, employers should balance the increased benefit costs that may come with hiring additional staff (to minimize overtime hours worked) compared to the increased number of overtime-eligible employees if the employer chooses to not raise salaries to comply with the rule. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to complying with the proposed minimum salary increase, so employers should work with their benefits advisors, human resources professionals, and legal counsel when needed to determine the best way to proceed.

This article gives a basic overview of recent regulation as in effect on the date of the newsletter. Please be aware that the determination of the requirements and the application of these rules to each employer may differ due to a number of variables. Nothing in this article should be construed as legal advice.

Remember a loved one, honor a veteran, record your family’s name for posterity, or display your business name with an engraved brick or paver in the Court House Plaza in Downtown Bloomsburg. Downtown Bloomsburg Inc. is now accepting orders.

From Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy

Nearly every U.S. state saw an increase in clean energy jobs in 2018, with an anticipated 6% job growth in 2019. Read here about the latest impressive growth of clean energy jobs in America, including the top 10 states in the county. Pennsylvania ranked fourth for growth in clean energy jobs by percentage from 2017 to 2018.

Good for the economy. Good for the environment. Every day, Chambers of Commerce are discovering the positive opportunities for economic growth associated with affordable clean energy. If you are interested in discovering more about these opportunities, please contact Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy via email.

• Commonwealth Health – Berwick Hospital Center‘s free six-week educational series, “Six Weeks to Better Health,” wraps up this evening, April 17, from 5-6 p.m. at the Hospital’s Conference Room 1 and 2, located at 701 East 16th St., Berwick. Tonight’s session is on Advanced Directives and Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST). For more information, see the flyer, and to RSVP, call 570-759-5337.

• Danville Child Development Center’s April 2019 newsletter is now available. 

• There will be a free showing of the 2018 documentary about the life and legacy of Fred Rogers, titled Won’t you be my Neighbor, next Tuesday, April 23, from 7-9 p.m., at the Berwick Theatre and Center for Community Arts, located at 110 Front St., Berwick. This event is being presented by the United Way of Columbia and Montour County. For more information, see the Facebook event page. 

• PA CareerLink Columbia/Montour Counties will host its annual job fair on Thursday, May 2, from 1-5 p.m. at Columbia-Montour Area Vocational-Technical School, located at 5050 Swpeenheiser Dr., Bloomsburg. The entire event is open to both the general public and students. Employers interested in attending as an exhibitor/vendor should register online. For more information, see the flyer. 

• Representatives from the Berwick Area High School and girls’ basketball team presented the Central Susquehanna Community Foundation with a check for $1,687 to support the Steven Mark Nastelli Scholarship Fund, which awards scholarships to Berwick Area High School graduating scholar athletes attending post-secondary education. 
  

  (L-R): Pamela Hegland, Berwick Area High School assistant principal; M. Holly Morrison, D.Ed., CSCF president and CEO; Megan Dalo, Berwick girls’ basketball captain; Sierra Miedaner, Berwick girls’ basketball captain; Kara G. Seesholtz, CSCF chief advancement officer; and Bill Phillips, Berwick girls’ basketball coach.

  The donation was raised during the Lady Bulldogs Steve Nastelli Alumni Basketball Game. More than 200 people attended to cheer on the former players and coaches. The game was established by Coach Bill Phillips and his staff and is held each year.

Pennsylvania’s craft breweries would have to pay six percent sales tax on every beer served at a tasting room or brew pub starting July 1 following a 2018 ruling by the PA Department of Revenue. This change comes after a 2012 interpretation that on-site beer sales were tax exempt. After hearing concerns from area craft breweries, the Chamber is calling for legislators to provide fairness with other bars and restaurants regarding the assessment of the tax (see the letter sent to local state legislators).

Most beer is currently taxed at the wholesale level. For example, if a craft brewery sells a keg or case to a local restaurant, the sales tax is assessed on the keg or case. However, under the 2018 Dept. of Revenue ruling, the brewery would have to collect the sales tax on every pint or bottle sold to a customer at its own tasting room or brew pub, resulting in significantly more tax being collected. This would put the brewer at a significant disadvantage in which a pint, bottle or growler of beer would potentially cost more at the place it was brewed than at a bar, restaurant or retail establishment down the street.

Therefore, the Chamber is supporting proposals that would also assess the sales tax for craft breweries at the wholesale level rather than the serving level.

The Chamber’s Board of Directors recently voted to oppose a plan by Governor Tom Wolf that would more than double the state’s minimum wage by 2025. As part of his 2019-2020 budget proposal, Wolf is calling for an increase in the minimum wage to $12 an hour in 2019, with annual increases of $.50 per hour to get to $15. The tipped wage would also be eliminated. Board members expressed concerns about the impact on non-profit organizations and service businesses, as well as the potential ripple effect to consumers.

A report by the Independent Fiscal Office estimates that a mandated increase to $12 would lead to minimum wage employees seeing a reduction in hours and the loss of 33,000 jobs throughout the Commonwealth.  The report also concludes that this proposal will result in a ‘more difficult entry into the labor market for inexperienced workers, especially part-time high school and college students.’  The PA Chamber of Business and Industry has long advocated for policies to help low-income families without risking jobs.

The letter sent to Senator Gordner and Representatives Kurt Masser and David Millard notes that, with low unemployment rates, there are many unfilled job openings in our area with starting wages well above the minimum wage. Also, such a dramatic increase could put Pennsylvania at a disadvantage in retaining and attracting employers.

From Penn State World Campus

Note: Employees of all Columbia Montour Chamber members, their spouses and dependents are eligible for a 5% discount on tuition through the PSU World Campus.  

When Anisa Sadat received her master’s degree from Penn State in 2018, it marked the conclusion of an odds-defying, educational journey that began decades ago in Afghanistan.

Sadat had finished the degree online, through Penn State World Campus, while working full-time. She traveled with her husband and two children to attend Penn State’s commencement last May, and her family watched as the wife and mother crossed the stage wearing her graduation robe.

None of it would have been possible in her home country of Afghanistan, where women do not have the same opportunities as men.

“It’s a great sense of honor to be able to inspire so many other girls and women in the country where I was born,” said Sadat, 34, the first woman in her family to go to college. “Besides the professional and career advancements this degree has helped me achieve, as a woman, I feel empowered, independent and limitless.

“Now every girl and every woman in my family wants to go to college, work and be independent in a country where culturally the existence and survival of a woman is directly linked to a man.”

Growing up in Afghanistan, Sadat’s educational opportunities were limited: Under the Taliban, girls’ schools were closed, women were no longer able to work, and her future looked bleak. But in order to allow Sadat to go to school, her father defied social stigma and moved the family to Pakistan.

“I felt like I was always very lucky to have a dad who always wanted me to go to school and continue my education,” Sadat said. “He used to say that in any male-dominated society, a man will always survive, but a woman with no education and no independence will never survive.”

The move cemented a lifelong love for learning in Sadat. After later moving to the United States and getting her undergraduate degree, Sadat still found herself wanting more.

“I was looking for a program that would help me as a woman,” Sadat said. “Women are not equally treated as men in the workplace, and as a woman, you have to study something that not only helps you but also helps other women.”

Sadat decided the organizational development and change master’s degree would be the best fit for her. With her husband in Afghanistan while she was in New Jersey with the kids and working, Sadat didn’t have the time to add driving to and from a campus for classes.

But World Campus allowed her to study at home and use what she learned in her coursework in her day-to-day life.

“What I learned not only helped me in my professional life, but it really helped me even in my personal life,” Sadat said. “How to manage my relationship, how to use my emotional intelligence talking to my husband and talking to my kids. You are becoming a better person and you learn something every day.”

Today, Sadat works for the U.S. Department of Defense in a role that encourages veterans to utilize the GI Bill.

“I think everyone’s job should be to motivate and empower people to seek knowledge, seek education, and go back to school, because education is the only way out of a lot of trouble,” she said. “The key to solving every problem is education. It helps you get to a better place.”

Visit the Penn State World Campus website for more information about learning online.