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WILKES-BARRE — On Feb. 8, Visit Luzerne County, the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber and the City of Wilkes-Barre brought in a consultant to assist them in developing a “brand” for the county.
The consultant’s name is Roger Brooks. And he did a pretty good job in explaining how good branding can turn the economic fortunes of a town, city, or state around — for the better.
But with all due respect to Mr. Brooks, his opening “observation” that Luzerne County has a lot of trash all over the place was, well, garbage. He said it gave off an unsafe feeling. More garbage.
Now I am certain Brooks did see some litter here and there, but by no means is there an epidemic of trash all over the place. That “litter-aly” just isn’t true.
As far as that brief portion of Brooks’ presentation goes, my advice would be to throw it away.
You see, Mr. Brooks lives in Peoria, Arizona. I’ve never been there, but I have been to Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, and I’ve visited the Grand Canyon. I have seen Sedona and Kingman, where they have an amazing railroad display. And I have been to Bullhead City and I have stood on a corner in Winslow.
Weather doesn’t affect Arizona all that much. They don’t have to salt the roads or fill potholes. So maybe they have more funding to keep the place spotless.
All that said, Northeastern Pennsylvania did not deserve to be dumped on by Mr. Brooks.
And to be fair, Brooks really didn’t dwell all that much on his “observation” that we had a lot of trash around — or that we had way too many leaves from the fall still lingering on the sides of streets.
But since he began his presentation with that, a lot of people were stunned. I know I was.
And that is a shame because the presentation was very positive. It highlighted much of what is good about this region. Without going into detail, we all should know this area does offer a lot for families, businesses, and visitors, which was the whole point of the presentation and the idea that finding our “brand” would make us different — better — unique, even.
Ted Wampole is the executive director of Visit Luzerne County. Ted is a good guy who is still new to his tourism job. Ted wants to do all he can to make things better for us and future generations.
Ted told me that he thought it was important for community stakeholders, and the media, to hear what Brooks had to say regarding his observations from a tour throughout the county that was conducted the day before the presentation.
“Because tourism can be the ‘front door to non-tourism economic development,’ we undertook this project to showcase what differentiates us from other areas,” Wampole told me. “In other words, what do we have that the people we are hoping to attract can’t get or do closer to home?”
Brooks spoke for about 90 minutes on the county’s assets, including our many trails and state parks, historical venues and the great variety of international ethnic restaurants, just to name a few.
Wampole said some ideas include taking advantage of the wide variety of trails available, not only hiking, biking and paddling trails, but also ones that incorporate whitewater rafting, beer wine and shine, historical architecture, historical places, brew and pizza, farmers markets and more.
Brooks also mentioned, as he called it, “attraction of curb appeal,” and how we should try to pay closer attention to what people see as they visit our area.
But the bulk of his presentation, Wampole said, was spent on pumping up the crowd in attendance on what we have the potential to become if we all work together, including government entities, chambers of commerce, businesses, residents, etc.
“I believe everyone in attendance left feeling better about our area and our future, maybe even having a better appreciation of what there is to do in our area,” Wampole said.
Wampole said he came away from the time spent with Brooks knowing that his faith, confidence, and enthusiasm in our county is stronger than ever.
I agree. And I know Brooks saw Luzerne County as a place with much potential, despite the fact that many of its residents fail to appreciate all that we have and, sadly, often speak poorly of good old NEPA — especially to the outside world.
Wampole suggests we all start telling our story, creating a new positive image, and move on to the next greatest chapter in the history of Luzerne County.
Sounds like a pep rally, but that’s where we need to begin.
We’ve had enough of the other garbage.
