Carr’s Sawmill was added to the family farming operation in 1983 by Dan Carr as a way to be more self-sufficient. Having a sawmill on the farm and sawing the family’s own logs into lumber makes work for when the weather is not suitable for field operations. It also serves to provide a local market method for forest products. The business operates a historic 100-year-old Frick sawmill manufactured in Waynesboro, Pa. Unlike larger commercial mills, Carr’s Sawmill stocks a large inventory of quality hardwood for retail sales to local woodworkers. For woodworkers that want their own logs milled to lumber, Carr’s can provide pickup service for the logs and return delivery of the lumber. Products and services offered by Carr’s include live edge hardwood slabs, framing lumber up to 2”x 8”-16’ (full dimension), and air dried native Pennsylvania woods including oak, ash, cherry, walnut, maple, pine and many other lesser species. Planning services are also available with lumber sales. Carr’s Sawmill has also donated lumber to numerous local non-profit projects over the years, and is active with the Central Susquehanna Woodland Owners Association (CSWOA), a local trade group. Being part of a family farm operation, Carr’s does not maintain regular business hours, but rather is open by appointment at customers’ request any time of day or day of the week. Located at 308 Dahl Road in Bloomsburg, it can be contacted at 570-204-0673. For more information about Carr’s Sawmill, visit its Facebook page, which includes several photos of the mill and its operations, as well as a few videos of explosive log splitting like the one below. Member spotlights are chosen via a random drawing from members that submit their business cards at a Business After Hours event. The next Business After Hours is scheduled for July 19 at the Columbia County Traveling Library, located at 702 Sawmill Rd., Bloomsburg. 
Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital recently opened an updated and expanded Maternity Center designed to create a family-friendly, comfortable space for expectant mothers, babies and their families.
The unit’s updates included more than doubling its previous space to create a new 6,385 square-foot postpartum unit, including eight large postpartum rooms and a nursery for infants and their families to recover and bond.
“Our goal is to provide a warm, comforting and homelike environment that lets the entire family stay together in one room to celebrate the birth of their new baby,” explained Lissa Bryan-Smith, chief administrative officer at Geisinger Bloomsburg. “We expanded the size of our patient rooms and bathrooms so moms and family members have plenty of space to be with their new babies. Our goal is to have babies spend 23 hours a day in the same room as their mother and to encourage family members to spend time there as well to help the family bond.”
The updated maternity unit is a low-risk, low-intervention option for women who want a family-friendly birth experience with the comfort of having a highly specialized medical center and neonatal intensive care unit nearby in Danville.
The unit is staffed by OB/GYN doctors, certified nurse-midwives and a dedicated support staff of registered nurses and licensed practical nurses. The Bloomsburg campus also houses Geisinger’s central region midwifery program.
“Some families don’t see the inside of a maternity unit until it’s time for the baby to be born,” explained Bryan-Smith. “So we invite our expectant moms and their families to schedule a tour of the maternity unit ahead of time so they can ask questions and get the personalized information they need to help make the upcoming birth as easy and joyous as everyone wants it to be.”
For patients interested in delivering their baby at Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital or scheduling a tour of the new Maternity Center, call 570-387-2474.
Geisinger Health offers two convenient birthing locations for expecting mothers in the central region with the expanded Bloomsburg unit and Geisinger Medical Center in Danville.
The Northeastern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center (NEPIRC) is offering a series of free leadership development seminars during the month of August, including one that will be held in Berwick.
Leadership development is applicable to all levels, in all industries. Become a stronger, more impactful leader and learn how to manage teams more effectively. These four-hour, no-cost seminars teach how to provide leadership in the midst of adversity and change. Using self-assessment tools and experiential learning, attendees examine their strengths and weaknesses while exploring best practices of exceptional leaders.
The seminar in the Columbia/Montour area will be held on Aug. 1 from 8 a.m. – noon at the Eagles Building Community Center, 107 South Market St., Berwick. For additional information, visit the NEPIRC Berwick training event listing.
Additional seminars are being offered on/at the following dates and locations:
Aug. 2 – Wilkes-Barre
Aug. 8 – Hazleton
Aug. 10 – Jessup
Aug. 15 – Towanda
Member News
Children’s Museum Hosts Special Needs Night
The Children’s Museum, 2 W. 7th St., Bloomsburg, will host Special Needs Night this Friday, June 23, from 6-8 p.m. Come to a fun night out for families with special needs. Enjoy a reduced number of visitors, space and freedome to explore at your own pace, adapted exhibits, a quiet area, fun craft and sensory activities and an opportunity to network with other families. Special Needs Night is a free event held quarterly.
Three Members Honored on Forbes’ America’s Best Employers List
Three Columbia Montour Chamber members were recently recognized on Forbes‘ 2017 list of America’s Best Employers. This annual list is broken down by size into categories — mid-sized (1,000-5,000 employees) and large ( > 5,000 employees). Williams, U.S. Gypsum and PPL Electric Utilities were all ranked on the large list. Williams came in at #22, USG at #114 and PPL Electric Utilities at #172.
U.S. Gypsum Wins Two Manufacturing Leadership Awards for Operational Excellence and Supply Chain Leadership
U.S. Gypsum, which is headquartered in Chicago and operates a manufacturing plant in Washingtonville, was recently recognized by the Frost & Sullivan’s Manufacturing Leadership Council with two prestigious awards. USG earned an award in the “Improving Operational Excellence” category for its Lean Six Sigma program achievements, and USG Mexico earned an awards in the “Supply Chain Leadership” category for optimizing its import logistics and distribution programs.
MePush President Earns New Certification
Art Ocain, President and COO of MePush, recently earned a certification from Microsoft for “Implementing Microsoft Acure Infrastructure Solutions.” This certification is given to anyone who passes an exam, which validates a candidate’s ability to implement web apps, virtual machines, cloud services, storage, Azure Active Directory and virtual networks.
Recent BTE Production Recognized and Profiled in Industry Magazine
The Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble’s recent production of Gunpowder Joe was featured in last month’s issue of American Theatre, an industry publication. The play was about Joseph Priestley, who was recognized as being the person that discovered oxygen and who settled in nearby Northumberland after emigrating from England in the late 18th century. The play was written by Anthony Clarvoe, who also penned this piece, and who was the first outside writer to be commissioned a piece for BTE.
Hamilton Dental Care to Host Open House at New Office Location
Hamilton Dental Care will celebrate the recent opening of its new location at 2 Audubon Court, Bloomsburg, with an Open House on Thursday, July 13 from 4:30-8 p.m. The public is invited to bring the family for a fun night of food and prizes. Attendees can tour the new office and meet the friendly staff. Kids will enjoy face painting and balloons by The Balloon Man, Lanny Lee. Adults can register to win a variety of prizes and baskets. All new patients that schedule during this event will receive a 50% savings off their new patient exam. A door prize of free whitening will also be given away to one lucky winner.
More than 500 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, Just a Drop Essential Oil, to help us fulfill our mission.
Just a Drop is the business name for the local independent wellness advocate, Bloomsburg native Diana Leighow, that is affiliated with dōTERRA, a company founded in 2008 that produces and distributes, either directly or through its more than three million wellness advocates, Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade (CPTG) essential oils. CPTG essential oils are naturally occurring compounds found in seeds, bark, stems, roots, flowers and other parts of plants. Diana can be reached through email or phone at 570-849-0019. Also, check out Just a Drop’s Facebook page.
The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business & Industry is urging employers to contact House members in their area early this week to urge support for H.B. 18, important legislation related to prescription drug and opioid overuse and abuse among injured workers in Pennsylvania, which the House is scheduled to consider Tuesday, June 20.
House Bill 18 would implement a prescription drug formulary – which are standard in hospitals, regular healthcare, Medicare and other public insurance programs – to help ensure appropriate patient care and address over-use of prescription drugs. The bill is necessary because Pennsylvania is facing a prescription drug and opioid abuse epidemic, and seems to struggle particularly with respect to injured workers. As we reported last week in Sentinel, in a recent study of opioid prescriptions among injured workers in 25 states, Pennsylvania ranked third, with opioid use in the Commonwealth measuring 78 percent higher than the median study state. The flexible approach offered through H.B. 18 facilitates more efficient care for typical patients, allows exceptions for unique cases and addresses the outlier cases of over-prescribing.
Prior to a vote by the House Labor and Industry Committee last week, the PA Chamber and a coalition of business, medical, construction, energy and local government groups sent a memo to the committee urging support for the measure because it will help injured workers in Pennsylvania avoid problems too often associated with prescription drug use and get healthy and back to full function and employment as soon as possible.
Following a $20 million cut to child care line items in the 2016-17 state budget, the spending plan passed earlier this spring in the House would reduce funding another $28 million. The proposed cuts would dramatically increase the waiting list for services and force families to make tough decisions on child care and possibly staying at home to take care of children. As proper child care and early childhood development have been shown to provide a solid foundation for developing social skills and life-long learning, the Chamber is asking Senate and House members to not only sustain, but consider increasing funding for child care.
Funding for child care is important for many reasons, including:
- The proposed cuts to the Child Care Services and Child Care Assistance appropriations would eliminate services for more than 10,000 children and increase the waiting list for these services to 19,000 – the highest level in the state’s history.
- This funding supports child care subsidies for low-income working families, which allow parents to work while their children are in safe and stable child care. These cuts include:
- a $10 million reduction that would negate the proposed expanded enrollment of 1,800 children on the child care waiting list;
- the further reduction of $40.2 million in state funds that would mean the elimination of 6,885 children from the current program; and
- a $12.7 million cut to the Child Care Assistance line item that provides for child care subsidies for families receiving TANF and SNAP and will potentially impact 2,018 low-income children receiving subsidies through this line item.
The Governor’s budget proposal includes a $35 million increase for child care to begin to reverse this trend. Budget negotiations continue through June and both House and Senate leaders have said they will have a budget to the Governor by June 30.
On Tuesday, June 13, Chamber President Fred Gaffney issued comments in support of the Atlantic Sunrise Gas Pipeline Project at a hearing of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The hearing, held at the Bloomsburg High School, was specific to permits related to water obstruction and encroachment and erosion and sediment control. Pending approval of the permits, the project is expected to begin construction later this summer.
The Atlantic Sunrise Project, coordinated by Williams, will expand the Transco gas pipeline system with a new pipe approximately 185 miles long connecting the existing pipeline just north of Columbia County to southeast Pennsylvania. The project will allow more efficient transmission of Pennsylvania’s Marcellus natural gas. Construction will be divided into seven sections, and is expected to take one year. The economic impact for just Columbia County is estimated at $85.5 million.
The Chamber’s research indicates that modern pipeline technology provides among the safest methods of transporting natural gas. The Chamber Board previously passed a resolution supporting the expansion of Pennsylvania’s natural gas transportation and distribution pipeline infrastructure. Specific to this project, Williams has demonstrated its concern for property owners and the environment with the adoption of more than 400 route modifications affecting more than 60 percent of its original route.
More information on the DEP permit process is available on the agency’s website.
More information about the Atlantic Sunrise project is available here.
Chamber members enjoyed the opportunity to learn about the many and sometimes complex things that individuals need to do and remember when approaching the Medicare-eligible age of 65 at the Chamber’s bimonthly Learn at Lunch event, held at Wesley United Methodist Church on Tuesday, June 13 and presented by PPL Electric Utilities. Jacqueline Lucas, community relations representative at Geisinger Health Plan, gave a presentation that went over when and how to enroll in Medicare, coverage options, differences between Medicare Parts A, B, C and D, and the timing involved in collecting social security and how that can run concurrent with Medicare benefits.
If you weren’t able to make it to this presentation but would like some additional information, GHP representatives are available to do individualized home visits to people at or near the Medicare eligibility age. Contact Jacqueline by email for additional information or call GHP member services at 1-800-498-9731. The Medicare and You handbook, published annually by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is also a valuable resource for those interested in learning more about this important subject of healthcare for retirees.
The next Chamber Learn at Lunch is scheduled for Tuesday, August 8 at noon and will feature Mike Atchie from Williams, who will talk about the mobile app that is currently being developed by Williams for workers that come into our area from outside to work on the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline. The app will feature information and listings of local businesses in order to encourage the patronage of local businesses. He will also speak about the current state of the pipeline project. Location is TBD.
First Columbia Bank & Trust celebrated the opening of its new community banking office at 400 Walnut St. in Danville (Rt. 11) last Thursday morning, June 8, with a ribbon cutting. Several local dignitaries and members of the business community, including Columbia Montour Chamber President Fred Gaffney, were in attendance to cut the ribbon on First Columbia’s newest branch, its 14th location, and first in Montour County.
For additional information on the new branch, including photos from the ribbon cutting and grand opening, visit First Columbia’s Facebook page.