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Thursday, May 07, 1998     Page:

Hashing out our future over bacon and eggs
   
What came first to Wyoming Valley, economic stagnation or the exodus of our
college graduates?
    Like most chicken-or-egg questions, that one is hard to untangle and not
worth the effort. But working on both sides of the conundrum- attracting new
industries while training our students to fill the needs of those industries-
   
is the only way to address our region’s nagging problems of high
unemployment and population decline.
   
That is precisely the topic of the latest Greater Wyoming Valley Leadership
Forum scheduled for 7:45 a.m. Friday at the Genetti Hotel and Convention
Center in Wilkes-Barre. The breakfast forums bring together community leaders
and interested citizens for non-partisan discussions of issues vital to our
region’s future.
   
And few issues are as vital as the one on Friday’s agenda: Is Northeastern
Pennsylvania preparing its people for the jobs new companies are bringing to
the region?
   
One of those new companies, ALLTELL, has 42 technical positions open right
now. The challenge is finding local talent to fill them.
   
“There are a lot of great job opportunities in the area,” said ALLTELL’s
human resources director Sharyn Torrisi. “You don’t need to relocate to a
larger city of the area to find a rewarding job. We need to get this message
out to parents, students and teachers so that people can be prepared and have
the right skills to fill those positions.”
   
Friday’s forum, featuring ALLTELL Vice President David E. Fritz and Luzerne
County Community College President Jon Larson, couldn’t be more timely.
   
A recent report showed the three four-year colleges in Luzerne County have
less than 200 computer majors, while local businesses expect to have 548
openings in the computer field in the next two years.
   
Recognizing the importance of training our students for the high-tech jobs
of th