HONESDALE, PA — There had been no official announcement as the Wayne County Commissioners met on the morning of January 26, but word had filtered down that none of Pennsylvania’s eastern prisons would be included in a state prison closure to be announced by Gov. Tom Wolf.

Waymart State Correctional Institution (SCI) had been put on a January 6 corrections department list of five prisons from which two were to be shut down to help close an estimated $600 million state budget shortfall.

The eventual announcement from the Corrections Secretary John Wetzel instead named SCI Pittsburgh, one older and larger. The closure was envisioned because a study said the state had some 6,000 unused beds in its prisons and Pittsburgh’s closure was said to translate to $81 million in savings.

“One of the key deciding factors was the relative strength of Allegheny County’s economy compared to other counties where prisons were also considered for closure,” Wetzel said in the announcement.

Wayne is a rebuilding economy. In recent years the county has lost about 1,000 manufacturing jobs from the closure or relocation of firms in Honesdale and Hawley, and Wayne’s number of dairy farms fell to 60 from a peak of 1,200 in the past, Commissioners’ Chair Brian Smith said.

At risk in Waymart were the jobs of some 685 employees; the majority, 390, are Lackawanna County residents, but the second largest group was 193 from Wayne. Aside from the direct economic impact to the employees and their families, closure would have had indirect impacts on businesses and institutions throughout the region.

That risk was very personal for Smith, who revealed that his son-in-law works at SCI Waymart and has a young family and a mortgage. “He gets to keep his house,” Smith said.

Two of the closure-candidate prisons are in the district of state Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20, and she expressed her relief in a statement. “This is a terrific example of communities, officials and citizens alike, rallying to safeguard their interests and stopping a shortsighted decision whose negative consequences would have rippled across the region.”

Wayne officials had documented the case they made at a January 23 hearing in Harrisburg, and Commissioner Wendell Kay appreciated the effort. “I want to thank the staff in the commissioners’ office and planning department. They made a compelling argument. The community was very involved: the Wayne Economic Development Corp. [WEDCO], the Chamber of Commerce of the Northern Poconos. We presented several very good reasons,” he said.

Commissioner Joseph Adams added his thanks to Baker and representatives Jonathan Fritz and Mike Peifer for their support. However, he warned that “this is going to be an ongoing process… We have to develop new reasons in future.”

Baker also spoke of future issues. “It is impossible for anyone to determine the length of this reprieve. Given the continuing fiscal distress confronting state government, and the prospect for action on additional legislation altering sentencing practices, we cannot count on this being the last round of prison closures.”

All that said, the commissioners learned about Waymart after returning from ceremonies in Hamlin for the opening of the first business structure in WEDCO’s business park there. Sutphen East, a fire apparatus manufacturer relocated to the park, bringing 42 jobs. The combination left Smith optimistic. “It’s been a good day for Wayne County,” he said.