CHAMBERSBURG – As you travel around Franklin County, there are definitely areas that are obviously growing, both in houses and businesses.

In Waynesboro, SESCO has received a $2 million loan from the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority to purchase the former TE Connectivity building on Grant Street.

Mike Ross, president of the Franklin County Area Development Corporation, explained, “TE Connectivity back in 2023 announced that they were going to vacate their Waynesboro operation, and they gave notice and by the end of 2024, they had done that. So the building has sat vacant. Dave Souders, who has a company called SESCO, and they do wire harnesses for off road construction vehicles and a number of other related kinds of manufacturing. He currently has operations in Mont Alto and in Quincy, and this presented an opportunity for him to consolidate those two operations at the former TE Connectivity building, and it gives them growth into the future. It’s really well conceived in terms of the timing. He’s been looking for a long time. In fact, we’ve been working with Dave, probably for the last 20 years, because we’ve known for a long time, he’s been looking at how he can grow. Ironically, here it’s bringing him almost back to where he started. He started over in the Wharf Road Industrial Park, in the early 80s and now he’s come back to Route 316.”

The business is retaining 87 jobs.

Ross said, “I think there’s going to be job growth over the next three years, but he has not committed to a specific number. When you apply for state funding, typically, there’s a job retention, job creation criteria that goes along with that. If you over project your job creation, you can be penalized. But if you just say, look, at the end of three years, we’re going to have the same number of people then as we do now, that that can work, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Has the lack of a state budget affected small businesses?

Ross said, “I’m hearing it more, I think, from the public sector, where folks who depend on state budgets. My guess is we’re going to start to hear from school districts across the state, especially those who are financially strapped, who are going to possibly have to borrow money to support operations. So I think that will ultimately be one of the catalysts that drive the legislature to get this done. Legislature has one constitutional responsibility, that’s it. Pass a budget. It’s like Christmas comes the same day every year. Okay? It’s July 1 every year. To get to this point, we forgot, and so we’re going to do post Christmas shopping, you don’t do that with the budget. I mean, just get it done and move on. It makes an argument, in some ways, that there’s pros and cons, but I would love to see a two year budget cycle. This is absolutely irresponsible.”

Small businesses certainly don’t get away with being more than a month late.

Ross said, “You don’t get away with your taxes. I mean, if you missed the deadline, you get penalized. And you can have 52 legitimate reasons why you may have missed the deadline, you still get penalized. There’s no penalties here. I’m disappointed that we’re not where we’re supposed to be. This happens every year. I don’t know when the last time we had a budget on time.”

Michele Jansen of NewsTalk 103.7FM pointed out, “I think before the last election it was on time. I think it was two years ago, but it’s usually the year where the election is, they’re more compelled to get it done on time.”

Ross said, “It would be interesting because usually it’s, well, we didn’t get it done on the 1^st, but we got it done like the 3^rd or the 4^th, so we will consider that on time, right? But it’s not on time. Again, postmark your check to the IRS or to the state treasury the day after it’s supposed to be postmarked, and you’re going to get whacked with a penalty.”