Lycoming County Company Doubles Staff; Credits Shale Boom For Expansion

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

December 5, 2011 | 2:06 PM

The Williamsport Sun Gazette profiles another company benefiting from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale boom:

Allison Crane & Rigging, 2817 Lycoming Creek Road, expanded from 100 employees to 200 in a year because of the increased need of workers for the gas industry, Larry Allison Jr., part-owner, said. Three years ago, the company had 75 employees.
Allison said most of the workers are used for water trucks and cranes. Two people are needed on every crane and Allison said some places have people on duty in cranes 24 hours a day and seven days a week. The reason for the extra person on the crane is for one to signal to the rigger where he should go.
…Along with the growth of employees comes an increase in the equipment the employees use. Allison said that by the end of the year, they will have purchased 12 new cranes, which will bring them up to 27 cranes. They also purchased 20 new water trucks.
“We’re growing and we’ll continue to grow,” Allison said.

Allison told witf reporters about his company’s shale-related success this spring, but refused to be interviewed on tape. At the time, he said he was worried about tipping off competitors. Apparently the Marcellus Shale cat is now out of the bag.