CRANBERRY TWP — Hotels, stores and restaurants in southwestern Butler County are hiring, but some managers say it is difficult to fill hourly or low-paying positions.

A big reason for this is the lack of public transportation, they say.

“The people that live in Cranberry and the surrounding areas, they don’t really want a job that pays $9 or $9.50 an hour, so a lot of the applicants we get are from Rochester or Monaca or Beaver and they can’t get here,” said Larry Gawel, area general manager for Fairfield Inn on St. Francis Way in Cranberry Township.

Gawel said that when advertising a job opening he has to include “not near a bus line” in the posting.

“We get a lot of calls from people who ask, ‘Is there any public transportation nearby?’” he said.

Because of this, the hotel has had to outsource some of its housekeeping work to a contractor from near Pittsburgh, he said.

The Hyatt Place on Emeryville Drive in Cranberry also uses a contractor for housekeeping because it can’t hire enough people, said manager Rick Saenz.

“At every hotel, if you go up and down (Route) 19, you’ll see ‘help wanted,’” he said.

Saenz said that people interested in housekeeping, front desk or breakfast cook positions usually live closer to Pittsburgh, but many of them don’t own cars.

Another possible explanation for the shortage of employees is that Cranberry continues to have business growth, said Amy Nichols, area manager of the Hampton Inn on Executive Drive.

“A few years ago there were five or six hotels in Cranberry, now there’s almost 20, so there are a lot more choices of employer,” she said.

The Hampton Inn has about 35 employees during peak season, though most of them live outside of Cranberry. Some drive from surrounding communities like Zelienople and some come from Pittsburgh, Nichols said.

Jennifer Daurora, director of operations for McGinnis Sisters on Route 228 in Adams Township, said that the store also struggles at times with staffing.

The store, which has about 80 employees, has fewer applications for openings than its Pittsburgh and Monroeville locations, which are in more densely populated areas.

One technique the store has for attracting employees is a referral program that gives incentives to employees for referring a friend or neighbor, Daurora said.

They also try to move quickly to fill vacant positions, she said.

“When we have a good applicant we always try to make an offer very quickly and hope that it works out,” she said.

Jim Boltz, executive director of the Pittsburgh North Regional Chamber of Commerce, agreed that transportation is the top reason for the scarcity of employees in the area.

“There are more jobs than can be filled with local talent. Residents of neighboring areas can’t get to those jobs without driving,” he said.

Because of the competition for employees and the expense of commuting, wages in the area have increased, Boltz said. Many employers now offer a starting hourly wage of $10 per hour for untrained positions.

John Paul, executive director of the Butler Transit Authority, said the authority is doing a study this year with the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission that will look at what service is needed in the county.

The authority hopes to get funds from the state Department of Transportation for a commuter bus line to take people from Butler, Evans City and Zelienople to work in Pittsburgh.

The study also may look at service for the Cranberry area, but any bus that makes multiple stops in Allegheny County would need to be run in partnership with the Allegheny County Port Authority, not the Butler authority, he said. Service in Cranberry also would require new facilities such as bus stops or park and ride lots.

The Port Authority offers two bus routes that take people from Pittsburgh to McCandless Township in Allegheny County, but there is no service to Marshall Township or anywhere close to the Butler County line, according to its website.

However, extending an existing route farther north along Route 19 is high on the agency’s to-do list.

In 2015, the authority received 1,600 requests for service from the public. Out of those, it took 85 requests and evaluated them, said Jim Ritchie, Port Authority communications officer.

Extending Route 12 into McCandless and Wexford was ranked third out of the requests, but it would cost $193,000 per year and would require the use of peak vehicles, which are all the buses used at peak rider times because those are limited.

“Any route extension that would require peak vehicles, we can’t do that right now. We’re maxed out in that area,” Ritchie said.

Act 89, a transportation bill passed by the Legislature in 2013, provided funding for transit authorities to restore service that had been cut or to extend existing service, but it does not provide funding for creating new service, he said.

Ritchie said lack of transportation to employment is an issue that many communities deal with in Allegheny County too. The Mon Valley, the North Hills and the Pittsburgh International Airport corridor have similar problems, he said.