PITTSTON — State Rep. Mike Tobash (R-125) has been looking for inspiration on how to revitalize the city of Pottsville, and he looked no further than Pittston.
Along with several Pottsville officials, Tobash visited the city to learn about its revitalization process and take a tour of Main Street.
He said he reached out to former city mayor Michael Lombardo after being told about how Pittston was restored to its former glory.
“We’re talking about community revitalization and I asked some of my colleagues and friends, just trying to get the word out, what communities do they see that are similar to Pottsville, Schuylkill County and communities where revitalization makes a difference,” said Tobash. “We landed on Pittston and, through a friend, I got the number of the ex-mayor, made a call and could not have found someone that was more receptive.”
After Pottsville officials arrived, they gathered in the John P. Cosgrove Community Center at the Pittston Memorial Library where Lombardo gave a presentation detailing the brief history of Pittston’s revitalization.
He talked about what actions were taken by city officials and organizations and showed photos of current businesses before and after they were refurbished, such as Napoli’s Pizza and Pittston Dentistry.
Lombaro also highlighted new additions to the city such as the Geisinger Careworks building and the Fidelity Bank building while also pointing out art projects such as the Inspiration Mural and Arts on Fire.
“We talked a little bit about planning out a road map on how to do (a revitalization) in terms of goal setting and putting together a group that is going to take a look at how you start what we started here,” he said. “Hopefully, that’s the biggest takeaway — how do you get there?”
After the presentation, Lombardo and Joe Chacke, executive director of the Redevelopment Authority, led Tobash and the Pottsville officials on a tour of Main Street.
They were shown the city buildings, storefronts and art murals, all of which Chacke said are vital in explaining the city’s growth.
“We showed them what we did and our success stories,” said Chacke. “We showed them the (business) signs, some of the rehab projects that we did and, obviously, the streetscape. So, we just shared our success stories with them.”
Tobash said, while touring the city, he noticed the similarities between Pittston and Pottsville, namely in the architecture.
Because of those similarities, he said it gives him hope he can help Pottsville duplicate what Pittston did in restoring buildings.
“The opportunity to come here and see the before and after leads me to believe, and energizes me, and makes me optimistic that we can save much of our magnificent architecture and improve what things currently look like, just like Pittston did,” Tobash said.
Tobash said he’s going to try to spread the word of Pittston’s success in hopes it will encourage others to do the same for Pottsville.
“Our next step is to work to expand concentric circles on the small group that came here to witness this,” he said. “I hope the people that are here will spread the word and add three more people themselves until we get a community that is willing, able and energized to do the work that we need to do to transform.”
