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BY PATRICK SWEET
STAFF WRITER
HAZLETON Northeast
Pennsylvania employerswant to get their foot in the
Marcellus Shale door.
A gas company representa-
tive andthe executive director
of thePennsylvaniaManufac-turers Association gave pre-
sentations Tuesdayoutlining
the economic impactgenerat-
ed bythe natural gas industry.
They appeared at a roundta-ble hosted by the Northeast
PennsylvaniaManufacturers
andEmployers Association in
partnership with the NEPA
Energy IndustryPartnership.David Taylor, executive
director of the Pennsylvania
Manufacturers Association,
said the growth of the gas
industry will be an incredible
stimulant for the local econo-
mies.Its a wonderful opportu-
nity, Mr. Taylor said. All we
haveto dois not screw itup.
Theres going tobe a lot of
Pennsylvania steel and Penn-sylvania hardhats needed to
buildthose pipelines.
MikeNarcavage,manager
of corporate development for
C h e s a p e a k e E n e r g y,explained howthe companys
drillingoperations work and
how the industrycan benefit
the area economically.
Mostof the jobsgeneratedby the growing industry, he
said,will be service-oriented
with approximately3 percent
in the manufacturing field.
Everything from catering to
trucking will see significant
growth.Many of the attendees
wanted to know more about
the gas industry in order to
promote their businesses.
Tom Vogel, president of
Easton-based ACR Products
Inc.,was interested in spread-ing information about his
cleaning services and prod-
ucts business.
Work progresses as excavators dig in the 900
block of South Washington Avene in Scranton,where a McDonalds
restaurant is being rebuilt.
When completed, the restaurant will feature a
remodeled interior and a double drive-through
similar to the areas first completed double drive-through
McDonalds that reopened on the ONeill
Highway in Dunmore in May.
Remodeled McDonalds coming in South Side
Bank will pay theconvention centerauthority morethan $300,000in
five-year deal
BY MATTHEW HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
WILKES-BARRE TWP.
A Scranton-based bank will
paythe Luzerne CountyCon-
ventionAuthority morethan
$300,000 over five years to
attach its name to a ticket
office at the Mohegan Sun
Arena at Casey Plaza, the
authoritysaid Tuesday.
Pennstar Bank, a subsid-iary of NBT Bancorp Inc.,
headquartered in Norwich,
N.Y., finalizedthe deal during
an event about noon next to
the box office onthe eastern
sideof the arena.
We c o nt i nu e t o b e
impressedby what theauthor-
ityhas done withthisfabulous
facility, said Tom Capone, a
senior vicepresident andarea
executivefor thebank.He said
it continues to attract quality
entertainment.
Under the deal, the bank
will pay a $60,000 lump sum
annually over the first three
yearsof thedeal,an amount
that will increase to $80,000
in the final two years, saidDavid Palermo,chairman of
the authoritysnaming rights
committee. In total, the
authoritywill receive$340,000
fromthe agreement.
Theyget a lotof exposure
inside thearenawith signage
and such, he said. Thats
pretty much thedeal.
Also, Mr. Palermo said the
arenaand Pennstarwill share
customer lists for targeted
marketing,and the bankwill
include materialsin someare-
na promotional materials.
The deal goes into effect
July 1.
Pennstar President and
CEODaveRaven saidthe are-
nas reputation for bringing
in top-flight attractions and
its b rand ing ties to the
Mohegan Sun casino were
attractive.
This is oneof thepremier
entertainment venues in the
Northeast,and being affiliat-
ed with it is extremely posi-
tive,he said.
Contact the writer:
[email protected]
Pennstarname onarenasbox office
BY DAVID FALCHEK
STAFF WRITER
MOOSIC A health care
communications companyopened an office in the area
andplans to hire50 employeesthis month and another 50
workers bythe endof theyear.
BocaRaton, Fla.-basedTMSHealth leased 11,000 square
feet of space at Glenmaura
Plaza in Moosic andplans to
double that space by the endtheyear. The companyis host-
ing a job fair today from 10
a.m. to 3 p.m. and Thursday
from4 to8 p.m.
The companyprovidesmar-
ketingand salessupport tothehealth care industry. For
example, the company pro-vides consumer support for
pharmaceutical or medical
device manufacturers han-dlingin-bound customercalls.
Site d irector Michele
Halkyer said the company
picked Northeast Pennsylva-niabecauseof thehealthcare
sectorsstrength andthe num-
ber of other health care-spe-
cialized customersupport call
centers anddata facilities.
Cigna Healthcare on theScranton-Moosic line, Vax-
serve in Scranton, BencoDental in Pittston Twp. and
TMG Health in Dunmore
employthousands combined.Health careis such a sig-
nificantand important indus-
try here that we knew we
wouldfind a talented, special-ized labor pool, Ms.Halkyer
said. We know we will be
successfulhere.
Theres another connec-
tion: TMSs chief executive
officer, Guy Amato,is a cous-in of former race care driver
Joe Amato andhas familyinthearea.
P o si t i on s t o b e f i l le d
include customer servicepro-fessionals, registered nurses,
human resources profession-
als andclerical and supervi-
sory jobs. Customer serviceposts pay $10 to$15 per hour
based on experience, Ms.
Halkyer said. Ideal candi-
d ates would hav e b eeninvolvedin customersupport
relatedto health care.
Ms. Halkyer expects the
first group of 50 to start paid
training by mid-July and thesecond group to be hired by
years end.TMS is privately held and
hasother facilitiesin Johns-
town and Pittsburgh.F o r i n f o r m a t io n o n
employment at TMS,call 800-
2 4 5 - 0 0 9 0 o r v i s i t w w w.
tmshealth.com.
Contact the writer:
[email protected]
Health support firm brings jobsCompany expects to hire 100 by
end of year at Moosic site
BY DAVID FALCHEK
STAFF WRITER
The state Public UtilityCommission will hold two
publichearings on whethera
natural gas pipeline system
serving gas wells should be
dubbeda utility.Houston-based Laser Mar-
cellus Gathering Co.hopes to
becomea publicutility, a move
thatwouldsubjectit to regula-
tion, butalso gives it eminentdomain to siteits pipeline.
Administrative Law Judge
Susan D. Colwellwill preside
over the hearings in Susque-hanna County on July7. The
first willbe at1 p.m. atGreat
BendHose Company 1,Church
and Tannerystreetsin Great
Bend.A secondwillbe held at7 p.m. at American Legion
G a r d n e r - W a r n e r
Post 154, Elk Lake Road in
Montrose.
Laser Marcellus seeks acertificate of public conve-
niencefor a proposed $37mil-
lion,30-mile gatheringpipeline
to collect thenaturalgas fromwells in theregion.The certifi-
catemay holdimplications for
landowners on the pipeline
route because it would give
Laser Marcellusthe optionofpublic condemnation, where a
board would determine com-
pensationfor thelandowner.
The outcome of therequest
could change the way ease-ments are negotiated. The
PUCs decision will be a test
case that couldopen the door
for other gathering pipelinesystemsin theMarcellusnat-
ural gas play.
State Reps. Phyllis Mundy,
D-120, Kingston, and Karen
Boback,R-117, HarveysLake,sent letters tothe PUCoppos-
ingthe designation.
A collection and gathering
systemis essential to develop-
ment of natural gas produc-tionin theregion.
PUC sets hearings on gas pipeline proposal
BRIEFS
Housing marketstill struggling
WASHINGTON Thehousing market may be onthe verge of taking
anoth-er plunge that could weak-en the broader
economicrecovery.
Sales of previously oc-cupied homes dipped inMay, even though
buyerscould receive governmenttax credits. And nearly athird of
sales in May werefrom foreclosures or otherdistressed properties.
Thatmeans home prices couldsoon be heading down af-ter stabilizing
over the pastyear.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Grads starting
job hunt early
FRESNO, Calif. Newcollege graduates are get-ting the message
abouthow tough it is to find jobsthese days.
Theyre starting jobsearches earlier, looking
outside their fields and go-ing to graduate school tobecome more
marketable.
All that work appears tobe paying off: Almost 25percent of 2010
collegeseniors who started theirob hunt before graduation
found employment by thetime they finished school up from about
20 percentlast year,according to a sur-vey by the Bethlehem,
Pa.-based National Associationof Colleges and Employers,a nonprofit
organization.
McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
J&J jumps into
diabetes market
TRENTON,N.J. John-
son & Johnson is grabbingfor a share of the huge,
fast-growing market for diabetesdrugs,announcing a pair
ofpartnerships Tuesday thatcould produce novel medi-cines for the
disease.
The agreements, withcompanies in Sweden andCalifornia, to
develop newdrugs for Type 1 and Type2 diabetes come just daysbefore
J&J is to release re-sults of midstage humantests of another
promisingdrug, called canagliflozin,likely to be its first
diabe-tes medicine.
And the health care giantsoon will begin testing an
experimental artificial pan-creas, which would regu-late insulin
and blood sug-ar levels together, undera joint project with the
Ju-venile Diabetes ResearchFoundation.
Walgreen profits
take dip in 3Q
NEW YORK WalgreenCo., the biggest U.S. drug-store chain, said
Tuesdayits profit sank 11 percentin the third quarter be-cause of
higher costsrelated to the nationshealth care rules and its$623
million buyout of ri-val Duane Reade.
Those costs, CEO GregWasson said, convergedwith a weak economy,
low-er reimbursement ratesand fewer new low-cost ge-neric
drugs.
The Deerfield, Ill., compa-ny reported net income of$463
million, or 47 centsper share, in the threemonths ended May 31.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ELLEN F. OCONNELL / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Mike Narcavage, manager of corporate development at
Chesapeake Energy, explainswater usein theMarcellusShale area
during Tuesdays Northeast Pennsylvania
Manufacturers and Employers Associations roundtable
at the Top of the Eighties in Hazleton.
Employers seek pieceof gas drilling boom
MICHAEL J. MULLEN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Stocks decline again as home sales drop offBY TIM PARADIS
AP BUSINESS WRITER
NEW Y OR K Stocks
dropped for a second day
Tuesday after homesales fellunexpectedly and the White
House said it would fight a
court rulingthatliftedits banon offshoreoil drilling.
The Dow Jones industrial
average fell149 points,its big-
gestdropin about twoweeks.
Treasury prices climbedafter demandfor safeinvest-
ments rose.
The National Association
of Realtors reported that
sales of existing homes fell
2.2percentin May. Thereport
surp rised analysts who
thought sales wouldget a lift
froma homebuyer taxcredit.Sales fell to a seasonally
adjusted annual rate of 5.66
million from a revised 5.79millionin April.
Homebuilder Toll Broth-
ersInc. slid3.2 percent, while
Hovnanian Enterprises Inc.
fell3.5 percent.Oil stocks fell after the
administration said it would
appeal a judges decision to
overturna six-month banon
deepwater oil drilling in the
G u l f o f M e x i co . B a ke r
HughesInc., a supplier of oil
drilling parts and services,
fell 4.4percent,whileoil-ser-vices company Halliburton
Inc. fell3.9 percent.
It was the second straightday that the market gave up
early gains to endlower. The
selling intensified shortly
before 2 p.m. Eastern time,
when the benchmark Stan-dard & Poors 500 index fell
below 1,111, itsaverage finish
of the past 200 days. Many
professionals who use techni-
cal factors in their buying
and selling decisions consid-
er the 200-day moving aver-
age, asits called, tobe a pre-
dictor of the markets direc-tion. The drop below 1,110
hastened the markets slide
because computer programskicked in and drove more
selling.
Without much tangible
information to sink your
teeth intoinvestors aregoingto rely on technicals and
right now the technicals
b roke d own, said J ack
Ablin, chief investmentoffi-
cerat HarrisPrivateBankin
Chicago. There are a lot of
extreme emotions rightnow
and not a lot of informa-
tion.The slide cameas the Fed-
eral Reserve held the first
part of a two-day meeting atwhich its expected to keep
its benchmark federal funds
rate in the current range of
zero to 0.25 percent. The Fed
is maintaining low ratesbecause high unemployment
andweaknessin the housing
market have held back an
economicrebound.
Christian Hviid, chief
market strategist at Gen-
worth Financial Asset Man-
agement in Encino, Calif.,
said traders are concernedthat theFedwill issuea more
pessimistic viewof the econ-
omy in the statement thataccompanies its decision on
interest ratesWednesday. He
said expectations for the
economy in the second half
of the year might have beentoo high given that borrow-
ingis stillrestrictedand that
consumer spending is still
weak.
DOW
10,293.52-148.89
NASDAQ
2,261.80-27.29
S&P 500
1,095.31-17.89
30-YR T-BONDS
4.10%-.06
CRUDE OIL
$77.21-.61
GOLD
$1,239.90+.20
6-MO T-BILLS
.17%+.01
EURO
1.2268-.0056 q q q q q pp q
BUSINESSBUSINESS THE CITIZENS VOICE JUNE 23, 2010 A2A2 THE
CITIZENS' VOICE WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 2010
