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We appreciate, and regularly tout, all the hard work many politicians and volunteers do to enhance the future of their individual municipalities. We see these efforts in big annual events like the Edwardsville Pierogi Festival, the freshly completed Plymouth Kielbasa festival, Hazleton’s FunFest and the upcoming Pittston Tomato Festival, to name a few.
We see it in events held over multiple weeks like the several successful farmers’ markets throughout the region, the newer “Rockin’ the River” concerts in Wilkes-Barre and the Y-Walk Wednesday outings, to name a very few.
And we see it, albeit more subtle, in the almost countless charities of all sizes that hold a wide range of fund-raisers, or apply for grants, donating the money to any number of community-improving causes, some prominent, some few people ever thing about.
So singling out a specific municipality isn’t a simple thing to do. We prefer, when dolling out praise, to stick to the old parental response of loving all children equally.
But Luzerne County has 76 individually incorporated municipalities, and different ones do things better than the others at different times. One of the advantages of having so many munis is that we have lots of opportunities to try new things on a small scale, and see if successes can be more broadly duplicated.
As an aside, that is one of the few advantages. Most of the time these days, the county at large is hobbled by having 76 municipalities with different governments. There is the very real problem of businesses and developers having to grapple with the different governments, different zoning boards, different regulation for larger projects that may cross county lines (or even simply involve a single muni, a school district and the county). There’s also a less tangible problem of provincialism, of individual fiefdoms more concerned with whats best for the single municipality that what might be best for the county or region at large.
But when it comes to that one advantage of seeing what succeeds and if it can be duplicated, we think one municipality has been shining a bit brighter, proving a bit more innovative, in recent years: Pittston.
The city made headlines this week when Department of Community and Economic Development Acting Secretary Neil Weaver visited to tout Gov. Tom Wolf’s “Investments in Communities” program. Mayor Michael Lombardo had a lot to show off, literally and figuratively. The literal one was the Tomato Festival lot. The other stuff included The Slope Amphitheater, Water’s Edge Condos, the Waterfront Warehouse conversion project and the newly established physical presence of Luzerne County Community College.
All of those projects were funded in part through DCED grants and the state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program. All told, Pittston has nabbed more than $9 million in RACP money since January of 2015. The city boasts a lot of visually appealing elements that show Pittston officials leveraged that money, as well with matching funds and developer support very effectively.
“The investments that have been made are paying dividends,” Weaver said. And while that was a predictable comment considering his political position, but we believe it is also earned. Pittston has been forging a brighter future with innovations that merit attention.
— Times Leader