CHAMBERSBURG – In a well-attended event sponsored by the Franklin County Area Development Corporation, President Mike Ross provided the State of the Economy review at a recent luncheon at The Orchards.
Some 225 business and community leaders from Franklin County and the surrounding region came together for this annual event which reviews development in the past year and prospects for the year to come.
Since 1986 the Franklin County Area Development Corporation has promoted economic development in the county. Over this period the organization brought 1,050 projects worth more than $3.4 billion in capital expenditure and over 61,000 jobs to Franklin County.
Ross noted this event “is a great opportunity to highlight the continuing story of Franklin County – what’s been done, and what’s coming for 2025, which we expect to be a good year”.
He reiterated their core strategies – retention and expansion of existing businesses, selective attraction of new businesses to diversify the economy and offering business start-up assistance.
Last year saw $275 million in capital investment, nearly $1.3 million in economic incentives, over 1,000 jobs created and visits from 62 prospective companies. Some of the highlights were a substantial expansion of Martin’s Famous Pastry Shoppe, a 15-year lease for 250,000 square feet of warehouse space by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a large building purchase by J&J Pallets, a new shipping facility at Letterkenny Army Depot and a 2.5 million-square-foot facility in Greencastle for Walmart, among others.
The underlying basis for all this development is a particularly attractive set of circumstances. With a population of 158,630 projected to surpass 160,000 by 2027, a geographic location within one day’s drive of half the North American population, and a great transportation infrastructure, the county has great advantages over other locations.
Franklin County enjoyed the benefits of long-term diversification efforts. It ranks second in the state in a variety of agricultural products and has taken steps to preserve 19,500 acres of agricultural land. This is an important segment in an economy that reached a gross domestic product of $7.5 billion with manufacturing and healthcare leading the way.
This growth shows up elsewhere. Jobs were up by 2 percent to over 62,000, and the growth rate was better than state averages. Meanwhile, unemployment was at or below 3 percent all year. Median household income was up from 2023 to nearly $75,000.
The year 2025 was introduced with a comparable array of development efforts in a variety of areas including local investments in several industrial properties.
Ross noted several factors on the horizon which would bear watching:
• A $15 minimum wage on small businesses and non-profits which could have a chilling effect documented elsewhere.
• Recreational use of marijuana, which is advertised as generating revenue but has less discussed safety and liability concerns.
• Tariffs, depending on how they are implemented, can have impacts on both trade balances at the macro-level and consumer prices at the micro-level.
• Reshoring’s objective of bringing home manufacturing and other jobs also begs the question whether we have the infrastructure for a large increase in capacity.
• Immigration and how it is dealt with has an impact on labor availability in many industrial sectors.
Ross also made observations on the workforce, leading with the effects of artificial intelligence on both work and learning. He suggested the future of work in this region of Pennsylvania would mainly be in the areas of healthcare, manufacturing, information technology with related science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills being in demand, along with transportation and warehousing.
Before closing his remarks, Ross took a moment to present two FCADC President’s Awards to recognize individual leadership and contributions to the community. The two award winners this year were former State Representative Paul Schemel and Franklin Financial and F&M Trust’s CEO Timothy G. Henry.
With this, he transitioned to the long-standing issue of early childhood education on future workforce quality and productivity, turning the program over first to Andrea Heberlein, executive director of the Pennsylvania Early Learning Investment Commission, and then Annette Searfoss, CEO of First Start Partnerships.
Heberlein quoted from a study that the economy would suffer a $6.65 billion impact because of the pandemic on childhood education. She reported that inadequate childcare options in Pennsylvania have large and long-lasting impacts which bear on working parents, employers and taxpayers. Findings of the commission can be found at their website. For more information on resources and toolkits to support families in the workforce readers may click here.
Searfoss spoke from the perspective of a childcare provider organization. She listed her organization’s vision as ready children, stronger families and vibrant communities and their mission to partner with families, schools and communities to ensure each child arrives ready for kindergarten. She reported two successful Early Learning Center school district partnerships in recent years: the Waynesboro and Chambersburg area school districts. For more on the organization’s activities, readers may go to its website at First Start Partnerships.
