Pike County officials highlighted the county’s strong growth and a plethora of developments aimed at benefiting residents at a dinner Thursday.
The state-of-the-county dinner at the Inn at Woodloch Pines featured the county commissioners, planning and economic development staff and key tourism, hospitality and healthcare officials.
Their presentations generally showed a county on the march.
“Pike County is the fastest growing county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” said Mike Sullivan, executive director of the county Economic Development Authority. “That's a big one, it's important to realize how much we are growing.”
Sullivan said census estimates show the county’s population grew by 4.6% between 2020 and 2023. Surrounding counties in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and grew by 1.5% or less or lost population, he said.
On the downside, the county’s 4.1% unemployment rate remains higher than the state’s 3.4%, he said. The county attracts many former New York and New Jersey residents who sold their homes and moved to Pike for cheaper accommodations, but more than 20% of residents work in hospitality jobs and the same proportion works in retail jobs, compared to fewer than 10% in each nationwide.
“What I'm saying here is not an indictment against any industry, but we have to get a better mix,” Sullivan said.
Other speakers addressed different aspects:
- County Commissioner Ron Schmalzle updated plans for two urgent-care medical centers and a small hospital. Pike remains the only Pennsylvania county without a hospital or urgent-care center.
Northwell Health, a New York-based health system, is expected to open the urgent-care centers next year. One will open across from Wallenpaupack Area High School, Schmalzle said. The other will be next to the Weis Market in Dingman’s Ferry in Delaware Township.
Schmalzle said the county, Northwell Health, the Lehigh Valley Health Network and Community Hospital Partners are still collaborating on opening a micro hospital, similar to one Lehigh Valley operates in Macungie.
The commissioner said he and fellow Commissioner Matt Osterberg scoured the East looking for someone to expand local medical care and eventually found Northwell Health.
“Northwell is absolutely thrilled to be here opening these immediate care sites, and eventually going on to what we hope to be the larger micro hospital project,” said Hillel Dlugacz, regional vice president of ambulatory operations for Northwell.
- Bob Kiesendahl, Woodloch Pines’ food and beverage director, outlined Woodloch’s plan to build the first cancer respite care center in the country in Lackawaxen Township.
For many years, Woodloch has hosted families with members suffering from cancer, giving them a chance to vacation for free. The resort does this in cooperation with The For Pete's Sake Cancer Respite Foundation.
Construction on the $25 million, 20-room center is expected to begin in May, said Kiesendahl, a cancer survivor himself.
- Osterberg highlighted the county’s May opening of a new veterans’ affairs office in Shohola Township. He also talked about the county creating a veterans support fund in conjunction with the Greater Pike Community Foundation.
“We want to be sure that it enhances the expanded services, assists with training and education, assists with employment opportunities,” he said “Many people come home from their (military) service and they need help readjusting into everyday life after they've served our country.”
- Commissioner Christa Caceres outlined plans to expand shared-ride service into Lehman Township along Winona Falls Road with the help of the Monroe County Transit Authority.
The services will allow people “without dependable transportation in that area to go to medical appointments, the grocery store and connect with other buses to go deeper into the county if necessary,” Caceres said.
- Chris Barrett, president and CEO of Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau, called Woodloch “the envy of every hospitality company in Pennsylvania and in the United States,” but warned the post-COVID-19 pandemic tourism boom is ebbing.
“Although we expect 2025 to be fairly strong, we are expecting that there will be some slowdown,” Barrett said. “The slowdown is in the amount of what the guest spends. Once they get here, they still visit, but they just spend less because there is less disposable income.”
The visitors bureau, the Pike County Chamber of Commerce and the county Economic Development Authority co-sponsored the dinner.
