Mayor Brown reaches out to Wilkes-Barre’s growing Latino community

WILKES-BARRE — What happened Wednesday night in the basement of the Firwood United Methodist Church won’t stay there as far as Andy Castillo was concerned.

Castillo, the owner of Andy’s Barber Shop on Hazle Street, attended an outreach program Wilkes-Barre Mayor George Brown presented to members of the city’s growing Spanish speaking community in conjunction with the Latinos Working Together in NEPA.

The hourlong program, facilitated by the organization’s Francisco Gonzalez who translated for Brown, covered a host of topics from obtaining permits for construction and renovations to job openings and the correct way to put recyclables out for curbside pickup.

“This is something that is not just influencing the people that are here. They’re going to go out of here and talk to their families and other people that they know and give that wisdom out. So it just doesn’t stop here,” Castillo said.

Castillo and others, such as Laura Nivar, appreciated the effort Brown and members of the city’s Health and Code Enforcement departments made to explain the ins and outs of dealing with City Hall and the city’s rules and regulations.

Nivar of West River Street had moved from New York approximately a year and half ago and was still getting used to the Wilkes-Barre way of doing things.

“This is something I was looking forward to,” Nivar said.

Eliesel Perdomo, who has WBMultiservice & Tax Solutions, Inc. on East Chestnut Street, took in what was offered and gave back some advice as well.

The program was helpful in terms of providing information that Perdomo said she and others don’t know. But the city can do a much better job of getting the word out, she added.

“They need to hire people who speak not only Spanish, other languages because the city has the lack of that. I go (to City Hall) so many times and I do speak English, but I can see my people struggling over there. They have to have Hispanic people because we are growing and we are voting which is important too,” Perdomo pointed out. “We’re supporting the mayor in so many ways.”

Brown noted the city does translate posts on its Facebook page into Spanish and has one person in City Hall at limited times who speaks Spanish. He encouraged them to apply for jobs as firefighters, police officers, Department of Public Works employees in order to increase their numbers in the city’s workforce.

“It was a benefit to the 40 people that were here tonight and that’s what this is all about. That’s what I should be doing as the mayor is coming out here and talking to people,” Brown said.