May 13—SOMERSET, Pa. — The Somerset County commissioners were able to get the final segment of an expanded U.S. Route 219 on PennDOT's schedule for completion in 2031 — a decades-in-the-making step.
The board has partnered with county neighbors on a plan to deliver high-speed broadband internet to rural areas, kept taxes unchanged over their four years in office and steered Somerset County through the the COVID-19 pandemic.
But it's how the county has responded to another nationwide obstacle — America's labor shortage — that has become the most talked-about issue in a 2023 election battle that has Republicans Commissioners Gerald Walker and Colleen Dawson and longtime Democrat Commissioner Pamela Tokar-Ickes facing primary challenges this spring.
Walker, Somerset's president commissioner who is seeking a third term on the board, and Dawson, a former county Republican Party chairwoman, are up against Somerset County Prothonotary Brian Fochtman and truck driver and Rockwood Area school board member Irvin Kimmel Jr. for two Republican primary nominations.
Tokar-Ickes is in a four-way race as well, with PennDOT retiree James Shepley, Windber Area school board President Mike Betcher and auto shop owner Don Bumbarger all vying for the two nominations on the Democratic ticket.
Fochtman and Kimmel are campaigning as a team for the two Republican commissioner nominations. They've disagreed with how the county has managed its recent investments and have backed county workers' calls for better pay as a way to bring in more workers.
"In my 10 years on the school district level ... we've always been able to give our teachers their raises within their contracts, while still being able to maintain our facilities," Kimmel said, arguing that county government can do the same. "We need to pay (our county workers) better to stay here."
Bumbarger, a Democrat, was among a few candidates who said a small tax increase "may" be needed if other ways can't be found to raise employee wages to an "acceptable level."
"No one likes tax increases," added Betcher, a fellow Democrat, but "sometimes you need to invest money to bring new money to the region."
He said economic development and fresh "creative" leadership can reverse the county's fortunes.
Tokar-Ickes, Dawson and Walker have been running separate campaigns, but they've each cited a need to take a measured approach to increasing county pay — starting with renegotiating union deals as they near their contract end dates, then adjusting pay for other workers in the same departments who are non-union.