McKonly & Asbury Managing Partner Recognized as a Bloomsburg University 2020 Grimes Honoree

 McKonly & Asbury Managing Partner and Bloomsburg University alum, Kurt Trimarchi, class of ’94, was recently recognized as a 2020 Grimes Honoree at Bloomsburg University’s Alumni Awards Celebration.

On Saturday, October 10, 2020, the BU Alumni Association held its first ever Virtual Alumni Awards Celebration to celebrate the personal and professional accomplishments of these Grimes honorees, including their service to and loyalty and support of Bloomsburg University.

Since graduating, Kurt has remained connected to the Bloomsburg community, and when McKonly & Asbury acquired a Bloomsburg based accounting firm in early 2019, Kurt was especially excited to have the opportunity to serve the community from the firm’s third office location in the heart of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.

Montour Area Recreation Commission 2021 Lawn Care Invitation to Bid Application Terms and Conditions

Sealed bids for lawn care at the various properties managed by the Montour Area Recreation Commission (MARC) will be received by MARC at any time until 11:00 am on Monday, November 23, 2020. Bids will be publicly opened and read aloud during MARC’s regular November 23, 2020 meeting at 7:00 pm through the Zoom online meeting platform.

Specifications and bid forms may be obtained online at www.MontourRec.com or by submitting a request in writing or by telephone or email to:

Montour Area Recreation Commission PO Box 456, Danville, PA 17821 570-336-2060 or RStoudt@MontourRec.com

Each bid must be enclosed in a sealed envelope, plainly marked with ‘2021 Lawn Care Bid’, and mailed via the U.S. Postal Service to MARC at the address listed above. Sealed bids may also be hand-delivered to MARC on Monday, November 23, between 8:00 am and 11:00 am, at the Montour Preserve visitors’ center, 374 Preserve Road, Danville, PA 17821.

Bids may be withdrawn by bidders for any reason for a period of forty-eight (48) hours after the time of bid opening. After forty-eight (48) hours from bid opening, bids may not be withdrawn for a period of sixty (60) days.

Veterans Day Dinner Celebration with Geisinger

Geisinger thanks all of our veterans for their service to our country, and hopes you’ll join them for an appreciation dinner for U.S. veterans. Pick up your complimentary dinner via a drive-through arrangement on Thursday, November 12th. 

Reservations are required by Thursday, November 5th. Servings are limited, so reserve your meal today.

Complimentary for all U.S. veterans and one guest. You must wear a mask when picking up your meal.

To make a reservation at Geisinger-Bloomsburg, call 866-462-5127 or visit go.geisinger.org/VetsDinner/GBH.

To make a reservation at Geisinger-Danville, call 866-578-3427 or visit go.geisinger.org/VetsDinner/GMC.

To make a reservation at Geisinger-Shamokin, call 866-278-9806 or visit go.geisinger.org/VetsDinner/GSACH.

No-Cost Leadership Development Webinar

The Northeastern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center (NEPIRC) would like to extend an invitation to attend our live webinar on Leadership Development. This two-hour event is complimentary and is an excellent way to kick-start your leadership development initiatives.
The Leadership Development program helps individuals become stronger, more impactful leaders. While joining other managers and supervisors to discuss workplace challenges, attendees will explore topics that include self-awareness, power & authority, risk & failure and leadership style. Using self-assessment tools and experiential learning, attendees will examine their strengths and weaknesses while exploring best practices of exceptional leaders.

This seminar will be held on the following dates from 8 to 10 a.m.:
Monday, December 21st, 2020 
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2020

Attendees will receive the webinar link via email one to two days prior to the event.

To register, please visit nepirc.com/events.  Space is filling up quickly, so register today!

Incumbent candidates representing Columbia and Montour counties were ahead in election returns as of Tuesday evening. Congressman Dan Meuser, Senator John Gordner, and Representatives Kurt Masser and David Millard all lead in their respective races. In Columbia County, more than 8,000 mail-in ballots were yet to be processed with 3,300 in Montour.

Representative David Millard has won reelection in the 109^th State House District. According to Columbia County’s unofficial results, Millard has received 18,589 votes (66.44%), compared to 6,994 (25%) for Democratic challenger Bill Monahan, and 2,367 (8.46%) for Independent candidate Roger Nuss.

According to Press Enterprise, Representative Kurt Masser leads Libertarian challenger Ryan Bourinski 17,140 to 2,785 across all precincts for the 107^th House District in Columbia, Montour, and Northumberland counties.

Senator John Gordner leads Democratic challenger Michelle Siegel 50,273 to 17,753 with 94 percent of 156 precincts in the 27^th Senate District counted.

Republican Congressman Dan Meuser lead Democratic challenger Gary Wegman 144,517 to 57,030 as of Tuesday evening.

Election results will not be finalized until at least Friday due to mail-in ballots.

From PA Chamber of Business & Industry

Governor Wolf signed dozens of bills into law last week, including several the PA Chamber has been following closely in the final weeks of session.

House Bill 440 (now Act 83 of 2020) expands Pennsylvania’s successful “Clean Slate” law that was supported by the PA Chamber and is helping to improve employment prospects for low-level former offenders in the Commonwealth. The new law allows for automatic sealing of a criminal history record if an individual has been unconditionally pardoned or fully acquitted following a trial.  It also expands eligibility to individuals who have paid all restitution, even if they have not yet finalized payment of underlying court fees associated with the conviction.

House Bill 716 (now Act 85 of 2020) creates a Joint Task Force on Misclassification of Employees within the Department of Labor and Industry to investigate the practice of employee misclassification and develop recommendations to reduce such practices. The task force will be in place for two years, and the PA Chamber will be engaged in the task force and tracking its work closely.

A PA Chamber-backed measure – H.B. 2370 (now Act 97 of 2020) allows for remote notarization. Early in the pandemic, a measure was enacted to provide for temporary remote notaries to allow for social distancing; and the new law now makes remote notarization permanent.

Other notable legislation that received the governor’s signature last week includes:

• H.B. 2438 (Act 98 of 2020) – Allows rural electric cooperatives to use existing infrastructure to deploy fiber lines for broadband.
• H.B. 1439 (Act 89 of 2020) – Ensures that those who purchase insurance are able to access coverage for addiction treatment already included in the health plan.
• H.B. 1696 (Act 92 of 2020) – Amends the state’s Insurance Company Law requiring insurance carriers that cover behavioral health to submit certain information to the state Department of Insurance to help ascertain compliance with the federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act.    

Another bill that earned the PA Chamber’s support became law today without the governor’s signature. Senate Bill 1199 (Act 106 of 2020) supports the investment, creation and deployment of personal delivery services – autonomous robots designed to deliver packages to consumers and from business to business, within a small radius. The new law encourages innovation and helps businesses overtime operational challenges, while continuing to allow for social distancing.

More than 425 businesses and organizations belong to the Chamber to receive benefits and support efforts to strengthen their businesses and the region. Increased membership allows the Chamber to offer additional programs and benefits, have a stronger voice in advocacy and be involved in more activities and initiatives. The Chamber welcomes Majik Rent-to-Own.

Majik is a family-owned business based out of the Lancaster area, that provides quality merchandise with flexible payment options and no long-term obligations with free delivery, setup, and pick-up. The newly relocated Berwick location carries home furnishings, electronics, appliances, and more.

For more information on Majik Rent-to-Own visit its website, Facebook page or call 570-752-4860.

From Zoom

From financial planning to fitness classes to food festivals, many of the in-person activities and meetings companies once relied on to generate revenue have all gone virtual. A new era of social distancing has entrepreneurs and small-business owners rethinking how they do business, and video opens up a wide world of opportunities to communicate and engage.

With Zoom, you can create a virtual experience that enables greater accessibility, improves customer service, and helps you build trust and credibility with existing and potential customers.

Win new customers with virtual consultations

Virtual consultations create an ultra-low barrier to entry that makes it easy for potential customers to engage with you without investing much time, money, or effort. A free virtual consultation can help you reach new audiences and gain customers you may never have had a chance to capture before.

Some tips for optimizing your virtual consultation:

• Make it short and simple

Prospective customers in the consideration phase don’t want to be burdened by long initial meetings before they’ve had a chance to decide if they want to do business with you. Advertise your virtual consultations as taking no more than 15-20 minutes. Let them know what they can expect upfront — a short walkthrough of their home, a quick discussion of their financial goals, a demo of your product — so they know how the time will be spent.

• Make it easy to join

Zoom integrates with tools like Google Calendar and Microsoft Office 365 so you can schedule Zoom meetings and send an email invite with the click of a button. To join a meeting, all your prospect has to do is click the meeting link in their email. There’s nothing to download, log in to, or sign up for.

• Make it engaging

Use features to engage prospects and help start a dialogue. For example, if you’re in the home renovation business, ask your prospective customer to share a photo of their home and use the annotation feature to circle, highlight, and take notes on screen as you talk through design ideas. Have photos of past projects at the ready so you can share your screen and showcase your customer success stories.

Delight customers with virtual classes and services

Virtual events may not offer the same type of interaction as in-person activities, but you can still create a rich and immersive experience over video. Here are a few ways to design a virtual event with maximum impact:

• Blend physical and virtual elements

Help your customers bring the excitement and convenience of your in-person experience home. This artist sells paint kits as an add-on to her virtual paint parties that are filled with all the supplies her customers need, and this restaurant in Melbourne delivers a box of ingredients to those participating in its Zoom cooking classes. Develop kits for upselling, or send a free gift as part of an all-inclusive event package.

• Design the environment and ambiance

Create an environment that allows you to present a polished virtual experience from home. If you’re a yoga instructor, play soft background music by lowering your noise suppression level. Personal stylists or decorators will want to have a well-lit space that shows off your design aesthetic, and if you offer financial services or consulting, create a branded virtual background that’s professional and distraction-free.

• Continue educating and engaging

Keep creating touchpoints to engage with your customers via video, whether it’s a weekly virtual coffee talk where they can drop in to chat about the latest products, an interactive class, or a webinar that you record and upload to your website as educational content.

The Pennsylvania Small Business Development Center was awarded a CARES Act funding grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration to help mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on small-business owners. Nine SBDC Centers have created partnership initiatives to expand specific industry sector education, training and business advising to address the issues faced by small businesses as a result of the pandemic.

These “Centers of Excellence” offer free webinars and workshops on various topics including business resiliency, digital marketing, e-commerce, and more. A schedule of programs and registration links is available here.

Civil, Social, Human Services and Healthcare Expo at Bloomsburg University

Bloomsburg University will be holding an expo to help connect employers with students interested in careers in the Social, Health, and Human Services & Non-Profit career fields on October 28 & 29 from 2-5 p.m. Recommended employers include: Health Care Providers, Non-Profit Organizations, Government Agencies and Residential Treatment Facilities. Primary student attendees are those majoring in Nursing, Allied Health Sciences, Exercise Science, Communication Studies, Languages & Cultures, Social Work, Sociology, and Psychology.

The standard registration fee includes your participation on both dates of the expo and our Fall Finale Bonus Expo in November. 

Upon registration, we will review the details you submitted for approval. At our fair, you’ll be able to engage with students in a variety of formats, including:

• Video, audio, and chat communication with students
• Group meetings with up to fifty students
• 1:1 meetings scheduled in advance or after a group session
• Share documentation with students ahead of time and have access to students who register to attend one of your sessions, resumes and contact information.

 Note: During registration, you’ll be asked to share the number of representatives who plan to attend the fair—up to 15 representatives per employer are able to participate in the fair. Each representative you register will be able to create their own unique schedule to engage with students. To learn more about these features check out this Handshake-hosted training webinar.

Employers are invited to discuss job shadowing, internship or employment opportunities with freshmen through graduate students and alumni. All expos are open and promoted to students from all majors and class years.

Although recruiting at Bloomsburg may look a little different this Fall, we are available to assist with all of your recruitment needs! Please review the toolkits provided by Handshake which will answer many of the questions you may have about participating in virtual events.

 If you have any remaining questions after reviewing the toolkits or need help registering for the event in Handshake, please contact our team at hireahusky@bloomu.edu.

Spooktacular Halloween Happening

A safe, socially distant, and FUN alternative for Halloween 2020!

Featuring a drive-thru reverse Halloween parade, a virtual costume party, yummy treats, food trucks, and two drive-in Halloween movies – the first at 6:30 pm will be Hocus Pocus (PG, 1hr 36mins) followed by Beetlejuice at 9:00 pm (PG, 1hr 33mins).

The suggested donation is $5 per car (though you are welcome to give more!). Proceeds will benefit participating nonprofits in their ongoing COVID-19 relief efforts.

The event starts with a reverse Halloween parade at 4 pm. Cars will drive around the Bloomsburg Fair Grounds along a parade route and see different scenes staged by local nonprofits and businesses. Individual bags of candy will be handed out to each kid at the end of the parade route.

You will then be directed to the drive-in movie area to enjoy two different Halloween movies at 6:30 pm and 9 pm! 

A virtual Costume Party will happen throughout the event. Take a picture of your costume and post it to your social media accounts and tag @UnitedWayCMC with the hashtag #Spooky2020.

Due to the pandemic, masking, social distancing, and state-mandated safety measures will be enforced.

This event is brought to you through a collaboration with The Berwick Theater and Center for Community Arts, Bloomsburg Children’s Museum, Bloomsburg Fair Association, The Exchange, and United Way of Columbia and Montour Counties.

Veterans Day Dinner Celebration with Geisinger

Geisinger thanks all of our veterans for their service to our country, and hopes you’ll join them for an appreciation dinner for U.S. veterans. Pick up your complimentary dinner via a drive-through arrangement on Thursday, November 12th. 

Reservations are required by Thursday, November 5th. Servings are limited, so reserve your meal today.

Complimentary for all U.S. veterans and one guest. You must wear a mask when picking up your meal.

To make a reservation at Geisinger-Bloomsburg, call 866-462-5127 or visit go.geisinger.org/VetsDinner/GBH.

To make a reservation at Geisinger-Danville, call 866-578-3427 or visit go.geisinger.org/VetsDinner/GMC.

To make a reservation at Geisinger-Shamokin, call 866-278-9806 or visit go.geisinger.org/VetsDinner/GSACH.

No-Cost Leadership Development Webinar

The Northeastern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center (NEPIRC) would like to extend an invitation to attend our live webinar on Leadership Development. This two-hour event is complimentary and is an excellent way to kick-start your leadership development initiatives.
The Leadership Development program helps individuals become stronger, more impactful leaders. While joining other managers and supervisors to discuss workplace challenges, attendees will explore topics that include self-awareness, power & authority, risk & failure and leadership style. Using self-assessment tools and experiential learning, attendees will examine their strengths and weaknesses while exploring best practices of exceptional leaders.

This seminar will be held on the following dates from 8 to 10 a.m.:
Monday, December 21st, 2020 
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2020

Attendees will receive the webinar link via email one to two days prior to the event.

To register, please visit nepirc.com/events.  Space is filling up quickly, so register today!

The Montour County Commissioners have awarded an additional $179,241 in financial assistance to 22 small businesses negatively impacted by COVID-19. The second grant round results in a total of $564,109 being provided to 53 businesses. An additional $135,450 was provided to 21 non-profit organizations that serve the county. The funds were provided through the COVID-19 County Relief Block Grant from the CARES Act.

Guidelines for the small business program were developed by a committee chaired by Commissioner Trevor Finn and included representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, Columbia-Montour Visitors Bureau, Danville Business Alliance, DRIVE, and County Planning Commission. The Central Susquehanna Community Foundation administered the application process.

From PA Chamber of Business & Industry

 State Department of Labor and Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak provided an update on how his department is handling unemployment compensation payouts amid a wave of jobless claims resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The hearing focused on ongoing problems that have marked the last several months – department delays related to determinations on UC claims; claimant difficulties connecting with the department; and continued delays to modernizing the state’s aging UC computer system.

According to a story on the hearing by Capitolwire, Sec. Oleksiak encountered tough questions from several members on the committee who shared stories of constituents in dire financial straits due to not having received any UC payments since the spring. Oleksiak agreed that such delays – which he estimated represent around 3 percent, or 50,000 claims – are “unacceptable” and are being held up due to fraud concerns and unresolved eligibility questions. He also said that L&I has worked to remedy the backlog by increasing the number of staffers handling claims; hiring an outside firm to gather claims evidence and help hearing examiners make determinations; installing plexiglass partitions to accommodate more staffing; and upgrading work-from-home software for other department personnel. Despite these efforts, many committee members urged further action to help address dire cases that are reported to their office.

In regard to the ongoing and long-delayed upgrade to the state’s UC computer systems, Oleksiak said there is no set date to go live with the new system, and that the most recent delay was advised by the federal Department of Labor.

According to a Pennlive story, Sec. Oleksiak was also asked whether the department is prepared to handle more challenges, including in the event of another business shutdown. State Rep. Kate Klunk stated that she has sent a number of Right-to-Know requests to the department in order to gain an understanding of how much communication occurred prior to the business shutdown order in March, and to gauge how ready L&I was to handle the onslaught of people put out of work. Oleksiak replied that the department will answer Rep. Klunk’s questions and added that the department is doing an internal review of its handling of the situation. Klunk said, “We need to make sure that if this happens again that we are ready to go and can deliver for the people of Pennsylvania.”

The Town of Bloomsburg has issued a reminder to businesses located in the Town regarding current state guidelines for events and gatherings. The maximum allowable attendees for indoor and outdoor events is now based on the maximum occupancy of the venue. Businesses are also reminded that they may call the police if a customer refuses to wear a face covering and leave a business.