Area Code 570 Businesses Get Ready For 10-Digit Dialing

Pennsylvania in blue with Area Code 570 272 shown in red (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Area businesses are gearing up for a big change that will begin Saturday: 10-digit dialing instead of seven.

For Phil Rudy, owner of Circles on the Square in Wilkes-Barre, the change means 200 numbers need to be reprogrammed in his fax machine. He faxes menus from his deli on Public Square to 200 area businesses. Circles employee Bill Scholl has been reprogramming all the numbers.

Beginning Saturday, everyone in Northeastern Pennsylvania will have to dial 10 digits to make a local call.

“I hate it,” Rudy said. “I don’t understand why we had to go that way. Why do we have to dial 10 numbers for local numbers? I don’t know why you have to dial 10 numbers for your neighbor next door.”

Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/businesses-get-ready-for-10-digit-dialing-1.1554792

School Closings, Bradford County Gets Ready For Sandy’s Approach

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Bradford County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With the expected onslaught of Hurricane Sandy looming, shoppers on Sunday in Bradford County stocked up on groceries and the county commissioners signed a Declaration of Emergency.

“We’re taking the position that we don’t want to underestimate any part of this storm, and we’re trying to be very proactive at getting in front of this incident so everything is in place before we need it,” said John Ambrusch, the county’s emergency manager.

“Our public information officer is pushing out the information to all media outlets, and has made contact with all EMS officers and staff.”

In a prepared statement, the county warned the public that winds will gradually pick up during the day today and “are expected to become very damaging, at their peak intensities from Monday night into Tuesday morning.”

Read more: http://thedailyreview.com/news/school-closings-county-gets-ready-for-sandy-s-approach-1.1395302

Marcellus Shale Workers Create Housing Shortage And Rising Rents In Bradford County

Image via Wikipedia

In case you haven’t been following the development of the Marcellus Shale natural gas industry in Pennsylvania, here’s the latest.

The “gas boom” has hit Pennsylvania and energy companies are moving workers into rural areas of Pennsylvania that are not equipped to handle the large influx of workers. 

Today’s example is Sayre, PA.  Sayre has a population of 5,813 according to us 2000 census and is 2 square miles.  It is the largest town in Bradford County.  The greater Sayre, PA  Athens, PA & Waverly, NY area totals not quite 30,000 people.  It is Bradford County’s “city”.  This is an economically depressed area that once boasted an impressive manufacturing base.  Sayre was a big railroad town.  A bright spot is the Robert Packer Hospital and Guthrie Clinic which is a major employer in the area.

Along comes the “gas boom” and suddenly there are hundreds of people looking for apartments.  Now rents have skyrocketed based on “demand” forcing many local people out.  Finding an apartment is equivalent to finding hen’s teeth.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. is one of the companies drilling for natural gas.  They went from one well and a few dozen employees to 21 wells and 1,100 employees.  They are not the only company drilling!  While these companies try to hire locals, more than half of their employees live “out-of-state”.  They work 14 days on, 14 days off.  Most out-of-state workers fly home when they are off.

Chesapeake Energy came up with a great solution.   They built a $7 million dollar residential facility and training center in Sayre to reduce the strain on the local housing market.  The dorms will house 280 workers.  A cafeteria, recreation center and laundry facility are part of the fenced in complex.  Workers moved in last week.