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enton Foundry would like to continue its informative articles. The subject matter over the next few newsletters will be each foundry department. The series will start with the Administrative side of the business. This is a diverse group of job responsibilities and personalities. The following is a list of those:

Sherry Steele in Payroll has been with the foundry since she was a young lady. She has an associates degree from the former Williamsport School of Commerce.  She processes as many as 250 payroll checks per week and excels at doing this flawlessly. That is 13,000 paychecks per year. She also takes care of health care  enrollment, training records and other tasks. Sherry met her husband John at Benton Foundry, and they have two nice young men as children.

Olivia Schechterly is relatively new to Benton Foundry. Olivia has a two-year accounting degree. She works in conjunction with long-time employee Debbie Clocker. Between the two, they did the following in processing last year.

Bill of Ladings 3,566
Invoices 5,078
Credit Memos 767
Order Entry Transactions 3,827

This is challenging as they deal with well over 200 customers, all with slightly different needs.

Elissa Romberger has been with Benton Foundry about a year and also comes to Benton Foundry with a two-year accounting degree. She makes sure all the bills are paid, and the payroll is funded. She processes 4,250 checks per year. Those checks are processed after matching  purchase orders, Bill of Lading receipts and credit card reconciliations for small purchases. Elissa handles the truck drivers as well. She has transitioned well into her recent new  position. Elissa is married and has two children.

Sheila Vansock recently took over the purchasing job on two days’ notice. She previously was the accounts payable person, so she is now on the other side of the transaction. She has two sons and three stepdaughters. She processes 563 purchase orders per year. She reviews inventories taken every two weeks  and responds by getting what we need in-house on time and using our truck for backhauls as much as possible. This job entails close work with the supervisors to keep the place running smoothly.

Human Resources is staffed by Annette Brown, a near 40-year employee, and Morgan Hoover. Morgan has her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Human Resources. She has worked in this field since graduation at a few different entities, so she comes to Benton well experienced. She relocated to Benton from Central PA with her husband, who is from the Benton area, and their two children. Annette & Morgan keep the foundry staffed with good people and keep everyone between the solid lines all going in the right direction on hiring, workman’s compensation, personnel issues and a myriad of other things. Annette is renowned for putting on the highly successful company picnic at Knoebel’s Amusement Park each year. Last year it was attended by 275 people.

In addition, there is IT support by IT manager Brian Bedosky and Marty Pelas. Benton has stuck with the tried-and-true IBM AS400 and Benton’s proprietary written software. In addition, Mike Modla, the controller is a Certified Management Accountant and Wilkes University graduate as is Marty Pelas our AS400 Programmer. Both had numerous jobs in the Wyoming Valley area. Brian was the IT manager of a major book publisher.

Inside sales currently consists of three people. Donna Remley who has been at Benton Foundry close to 40 years, Lynn Miller who has been here over 20 years and a “new kid on the block,” Trevor Kinsey. They work with current and potential customers from the inside. They also work closely with outside sales people, management and pattern makers. They quote jobs for new customers on a daily basis. There are a lot of moving parts involved in the sales aspect.

These people work behind the scenes to bridge the gap between the outside world and inside world of Benton Foundry. Benton Foundry has been blessed with good long-term people in these positions. A number of the aforementioned have been here for 20, 30 or 40 years. We always look to the future and try to have a smooth transition when people retire. Hopefully you have a better insight into what goes on in the office. Next article will cover Pattern Shop and Pattern Engineering.

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ohn Bowen passed away on January 6, 2025. John was the first and best salesman Benton Foundry has had. He knew where the big accounts were and knew how to cultivate them. If an account showed no promise, he quickly moved on. John was a product of what he called “the salad days” of the foundry industry of the 1960s and 1970s. John was previously an astute foundry manager as President of Tioga Foundry and General Manager of the large Ingersoll-Rand Waverly, NY Foundry. Upon leaving the IR Foundry, John stopped at Benton on his way back from Florida and had an impromptu interview with Fritz Hall and Tim Brown from which his job offer resulted. He continued to excel until his retirement in 2000. He loved his gin cocktails and playing the bagpipe in the Penn-York Bag Pipe group of Athens, PA. John’s term of endearment was when he called one “sunshine.”

John was married to his lovely wife Joyce, who complimented his style with grace. John was proud of his 3 sons. John loved his cottage in Nantucket and spent one summer driving a tourist bus when Benton was installing furnaces and did not want to sell more castings but rather service its existing book of business.

John was born in Montrose, PA and served proudly in the Navy starting in 1948. He was a free spirit, an outstanding foundryman and a real sales professional. John will truly be missed but he had a good life living until 94. RIP John Bowen!

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ou’ve no doubt heard a lot over the past several years about “gut health.” But what even is your gut? If you’re thinking it’s just the big soft area below your rib cage, you’re only partly right. The vast majority of your microbiome— the 100 trillion bacteria, fungi and other organisms essential to your health—is located in your large intestine. Up to 5 pounds of microbes play an enormous role in determining everything from your heart health to your brain health, from how much you weigh to how long you’ll live, from how happy you are to how well you’ll sleep tonight.

Much of it is located in a very specific place known as the cecum, a small sac at the entryway to your large intestine, near your right hip bone. Consider it like the Margaritaville of your microbiome; it’s where partially digested food gets blended with your body’s bacteria before moving on.

As we get older, the ecosystem within our gut gets older, too. Decades of questionable food choices, a lack of exercise, and exposure to antibiotics and pesticides—which are, after all, designed to kill off microbes—can leave our microbiome weakened. (Indeed, just by looking at the gut, researchers can tell whether a person is on a path to frailty.) The gut is the master controller of inflammation in the body. Weight gain, rising cholesterol levels, increased blood sugar—issues we associate with “getting older” – are, in many ways indications of our microbiomes becoming less and less healthy. This is good news, actually. Because if you know how to eat to protect your microbiome, you may be able to pump the brakes on these age-related issues and stay healthier and more robust for longer.

Imagine your gut as like a tiny national park filled with thousands of diverse species that work together to maintain balance. About 85% of those species are beneficial to your health. If we don’t properly feed and nurture our gut, that balance can get thrown off; the diverse network of species begins to decline, and a coterie of unhealthy bacteria – including E.coli and H. pylori (which causes ulcers) – can start to take over. When that happens, chronic inflammation takes hold.

HOW YOUR GUT EXPLAINS YOUR LIFE

If you think that sounds bad, well, you’re right. Because, by controlling inflammation, a healthy microbiome plays an enormous role in just about every bodily system. For example, when your gut is balanced and healthy, you are more likely to:

• Control your weight
• Reduce your Alzheimer’s risk
• Boost your longevity
• Impact your happiness

That’s more than enough reasons to make gut health a priority. So how are we doing? Really, really bad.

HOW TO HELP THEM HELP YOU

Here’s the thing about these 100 trillion buggers in your belly: They get hungry. And more and more and more, we’re simply failing to feed them well.

When we eat whole foods, especially fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds and legumes, those foods pass through our digestive tract and down into our colon, where the microbiome chomps away at the natural fibers that come with these plant foods, and in return creates a variety of anti-inflammatory compounds that help lower our risk of all those age-related problems cited above.

Processed food that have been stripped of their fiber – think white rice, white flour, chips, fast food and the vast majority of products that come in boxes and bags – are digested and absorbed quickly by the stomach and small intestine. They seldom even make the full journey down through the gut to the colon. A 2023 study found that when we eat a fiber-rich diet of whole foods, our microbiomes absorb more than 100 calories a day, and in some cases as much as 400 calories – calories that quite literally passed your lips but never made it to your hips. When we eat processed foods – which make up a whopping 60 percent of calories in the American diet – more of those calories go to us, not our microbiomes.

And when we don’t properly feed our microbiomes, they can’t be as effective at protecting our health. A 2022 study in JAMA Neurology found that adults who consumed 20% of their calories from ultra-processed foods showed faster rates of cognitive and executive function decline compared with those who ate lower amounts. By contrast, another study published the same year found that those 60 and older who ate the most fiber-rich foods showed greater cognitive function than those who ate the least.

It’s not just the amount of fiber we eat, it’s the variety. Research by the UC San Diago Center for Microbiome Innovation found that the greater variety of plants your diet holds, the healthier your microbiome. Those with the healthiest microbiomes were people who ate at least 30 different types of plants – vegetables, whole grains, fruits, nuts, seeds and legumes – a week.

Just as we can tear down our microbiomes quickly, we can rebuild them rapidly. Simple steps like adding different fruits to your salad , eating the sides that come with your meal or throwing some grilled veggies on your sandwich can help get you to your goal.

Once you’ve learned to maximize the variety of plants you eat, you will have learned how to maximize the diversity of microbes in your gut. And that will make them, and you, happier and healthier, for life.

~ Stephen Perrine
~ AARP Bulletin May 2024

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early exterminated by fur traders in the 1800s, southern sea otters that recolonized California’s Elkhorn Slough after hunting was banned are now thriving and their recovery shows how a single top predator can rescue a collapsing ecosystem. Following six years of field work in the 7-mile-long estuary, a team of scientists from several U.S. and Canadian institutions reports in Nature that the disappearance of otters had triggered an explosion of the slough’s marsh crab populations. “Crabs eat salt marsh roots, dig into marsh soil, and over time can cause a marsh to erode and collapse,” says lead author Brent Hughes, a Sonoma State University biologist. Otters have a voracious appetite for crabs, and in the decades since they began recolonizing Elkhorn, erosion along its creek banks and marsh edges has slowed by up to 90 percent, the team reports. Today, the estuary is home to the state’s largest concentration of sea otters. “It would cost tens of millions of dollars for humans to restore these marshes,” says senior author Brian Silliman, a Duke University marine biologist. “The sea otters are stabilizing them for free in exchange for an all-you-can-eat crab feast.”

~ Marc Chamberlain
~ National Wildlife—Winter 2025

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rving Wolfe, Sr. worked as a squeeze manual molder at Benton Foundry in the 1970’s. He then returned in January 2020. Irv worked in the Grinding Department on Night Shift doing Air Helmet Maintenance until his retirement in Oct 2024. Irv lives in Shickshinny with his wife, Georgene. He enjoys working outside in his garden and his yard. He also enjoys spending quality time with his family and friends. We wish Irv a long, healthy and happy retirement.

Congratulations Irv!

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est Buy and its Geek Squad, along with Amazon and PayPal are the companies scammers most often impersonate, based on reports to the Federal Trade Commission from those targeted. When it comes to dollars stolen, consumers say they’ve lost far more money to scammers pretending to be from Microsoft and Publishers Clearing House than any other business.

Here are the firms most often impersonated in scams, and the amount of reported losses in 2023.

~AARP Bulletin

The Eagles Mere Toboggan Slide in Sullivan County PA has been a cherished winter attraction for many generations. The Toboggan slide was created by the volunteer fire company back in 1904. In February 2025 the slide was reopened bringing excitement and memories back to many. The slide hasn’t been opened for 11 long years due to unseasonably warm winter temps. People of all ages come from miles around to enjoy the experience. The rented toboggans can race down the hill at speeds up to 45 MPH! Also available on site is a snack shack where visitors can buy hot cocoa, refreshments and souvenirs. If you get cold waiting in line, there is a heated building to warm up in.

Check out their website www.eaglesmeretobogganslide.com.