PD Opinion

March 14, 2010

Discussing the local ‘third rail’

This year is the 125th birthday of Wyoming Borough. It could be said it’s also the birthday of its sister borough, West Wyoming. When Wyoming Borough was founded in 1885 it consisted of two wards – the East Ward and the West Ward.

The borough was so constituted for 13 years. Then in 1898 the voters of the West Ward -- who by way of a historical aside were only men who owned property -- approved a plan to file a petition for separation from Wyoming “by reason of great political dissension.” The petition was submitted to a grand jury on May 2 in 1898. The grand jury issued a favorable report on the petition to Luzerne County Court and on June 23, 1898, the court decreed West Wyoming to be its own borough with the boundary line bewteen Wyoming being the Delaware-Lackawanna and Western Railroad right-of-way.

We bring this up because the with the anniversary of Wyoming’s founding we wonder if the boroughs wouldn’t be better off today if the court had ruled against that petition back in 1898. Not to pick on the Wyomings, but you know where we’re going.

Ah, yes regionalization again, it’s like a political “third rail” in these parts.

Yes, the fragmented political geography of our area is part of its charm, part of its uniqueness. But we can’t help but wonder whether an area with a population of only 50,000 can survive financially in the 21st century when it is divided into 14 independent municipalities, the smallest of which has a population less than 1,000.

There are little tokens, shall we say, to regionalization in place. Pittston picks up garbage in Hughestown and is talking with Laflin about doing the same there. Dupont representatives were at a Pittston meeting recently to discuss creating a regional compost plan.

Laflin provides police coverage to Yatesville. A few years ago a study on the West Side to gauge the feasibility of a West Side Police was abandoned after Wyoming dropped out. Maybe it’s time to revisit that.

Avoca/Dupont and Wyoming/West Wyoming have had a shared Little League for years.

Service clubs regionalize.

The American Legion baseball team is regional and, of course, so are the schools.

If the schools can do it, why can’t the towns

Tweet	Follow @TLnews