DURYEA — When one of Duryea Mayor Keith Moss’ nine siblings suggested he follow her example and move from Duryea to Alaska, Moss made his feelings about his Luzerne County hometown clear.
“She said to me, ‘You can be a firefighter here and you can start out as a driver for $52,000 a year,’” Moss said. “I said I’d just rather stay here in Duryea. That’s where my heart and soul is, here in Duryea Borough.”
Moss, 54, has put that heart and soul into fulfilling the duties of the borough’s mayoral office since 2001, but it’s only the latest in a long line of service-oriented positions he has held.
Moss’ dedication to the community of Duryea inspired the Sunday Dispatch to name him the 2016 recipient of the Joseph Saporito Sr. Lifetime of Service Award.
The first time the Sunday Dispatch presented the award was in 2000, when Saporito’s widow Yolanda “Dolly” Saporito, since deceased, and sons, Carlo and Atty. Joseph Jr., accepted the award on his behalf. The award is named and presented in Saporito’s honor.
Nominees for the award must have dedicated a lifetime of service with the intention of making a difference in the Greater Pittston area. The editorial staff of the Sunday Dispatch accepts nominations from the community before making a final decision.
Moss, who has experience presenting awards as chairman of Pennsylvania State Mayors’ Association’s Mayor of the Year Award Committee, said receiving the Saporito Lifetime of Service Award is “a great honor.”
A lifetime in Duryea
The youngest son of junk man George Moss and stay-at-home mother Arlene, Moss was born on Jan. 17, 1963. Moss grew up on Wright Street in Duryea and spent his free time away from Duryea Elementary playing at Healey Playground, being a member of Boy Scouts of America and attending picnics hosted by local community groups like Germania Hose Company.
Later, in 1983, Moss took his first service-oriented position when he joined the hose company, located a block from his childhood home, as a volunteer firefighter. Moss is a past president, vice president and trustee of the hose company.
“I always wanted to be a fireman,” Moss said. “Every time the siren went off, you could hear it at my house.”
To earn a living, Moss worked alongside his father before taking a job driving for Wyoming Sand and Stone in 1989. It was around that time his uncle, John, began steering his nephew toward the political arena.
“I never had a thought of being mayor or being involved in politics whatsoever when I was a child,” Moss said. “My uncle was the one who convinced me. He was a councilman and he said, ‘I think you’d make a good councilman in the town, Keith. I’ll help you out, teach you the ropes of what it is to be a councilman.’”
Moss decided to run for and was elected to Duryea Borough Council in 1992.
Mayor Moss
Moss said he got to work in tandem with the borough’s police force as a firefighter, but as a council member, he got to know some members of the force personally, particularly the late Police Chief Leonard Ash. The two used to sit in the Duryea Borough Building and talk about the police department. It was during one of those conversations, Ash inspired Moss to take the next step in his political career.
“One day he said, ‘Why don’t you run for mayor. it would be a great thing,’” Moss said. “That’s what really inspired me to run for mayor — to work with him.”
In 2001, Moss ran a successful campaign for the mayorship of Duryea. It was a big year for both Moss, who married his wife Patricia, and the borough of Duryea, which celebrated its centennial. Moss was excited to take office during the celebration and oversee commemorative events like the Centennial Clock installation in front of Duryea Borough Building.
Moss had a grip on most of his new office’s duties — oversee the police department and create its budget, be a tiebreaker at council meetings and act as the borough’s public relations department — but some aspects of his new job description came as a surprise.
“A mayor can do wedding ceremonies, and I do a lot of them,” Moss said. “A mayor does the swearing in of any borough officials, too, and that was unexpected.”
In September 2011, the Duryea mayor’s office took on even more responsibilities when an impending flood forced Moss to issue an emergency disaster declaration.
The flood of 2011
Moss was on vacation in New Hampshire when he was notified there would be a meeting at Luzerne County Emergency Management about possible flooding caused by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. That began what he called a non-stop 72-hour effort to minimize damage to Duryea.
He contacted The Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad and warned of the eventual flooding of nearby Coxton Yard train depot. He issued the aforementioned declaration, which gave him temporary operational control of Duryea, and began working with other government officials to inform residents to prepare for possible flooding.
When he received confirmation that Duryea would be hit with enough precipitation to flood, he told residents to leave.
“That morning, emergency management said we were definitely going to flood,” Moss said. “We came back and started having people move out and tried to do what we could with sandbags. We just got inundated with water because there was a piece of dyke missing in Duryea — that was one of the major causes of us getting flooded.”
Moss said 139 homes in the borough were totaled in the flood and cleanup lasted in excess of two weeks. Along with overseeing cleanup and doing his mayoral duty for the affected citizens of Duryea, Moss also played host to a number of politicians who visited the borough in its time of need — including former Vice President of the United States Joe Biden.
“That’s the biggest honor as my challenge of mayor, to meet with the Vice President of the United States,” Moss said. “Governor Corbett (former Pennsylvania governor) came here to the borough building and he and I walked hand-in-hand down Main Street and then we met up with Vice President Biden down at Chittenden Street.”
Tackling today’s Duryea
The piece of missing dyke Moss blames for the 2011 flooding of Duryea has since been replaced, but today the borough faces another threat: drugs. Moss said Duryea police recently shut down two meth houses, residences where the illegal drug methamphetamine is produced, and he sees “more and more drugs” within his jurisdiction.
“When you see something like that, you say to yourself, ‘Why do you want to be mayor of a town with meth houses?’ Well, I want to clean it up,” he said.
Moss has allies in his war against drugs in Duryea — chiefly, the police force. Recently, Officers George Brazdzonis and Charles Swisher received national recognition for twice reviving a man who had overdosed in the borough, a victory in their fight to save lives. He also said officers are encouraged to do things like play basketball with kids at Community Park, located behind the Duryea Borough Building, as a bonding experience.
A focus on creating a close community for his constituents is one of Moss’ goals moving forward. He helped arrange Duryea’s involvement in National Night Out, an event that promotes community-police camaraderie, as well as the borough’s Halloween party.
Duryea resident Margaret Guarnieri said she doesn’t know her mayor personally, but she appreciates his focus on the people of the borough.
“He’ll always go out of his way to speak to people and acknowledge people,” Guarnieri said. “He’ll always ask how my children are doing. He’s not one of those once-you-vote-you-don’t-matter mayors.”
Moss is also working to revive the borough’s business district.
“I’d like to see Main Street grow and bring some businesses in,” Moss said. “I’m working on a couple things right now, but it’s really hard. Mike Lombardo (Pittston mayor) is a really good friend of mine and I’d like to have him come up and teach us a little bit on how he had Pittston grow. Duryea could grow just like Pittston — Duryea is in between Old Forge and Pittston. Old Forge is booming. Pittston is booming.”
Extracurricular activities
Come May, Moss will have to be reelected if he wants to continue his initiatives.
If he’s again voted into office, he’ll reach the 20-year mark as Duryea mayor — an accolade he can add to his current roles as treasurer of Duryea Lions Club, president of Duryea Borough Sewer Authority, vice president of Greater Pittston Cultural Coalition (the organization responsible for Pittston Riverfest) and president of Luzerne County National Recreation Trail (the trail behind Cooper’s in Pittston City), including a now greatly-reduced role with Germania Hose Company and his continuing membership with Pennsylvania State Mayors’ Association. Despite his seemingly full plate, Duryea Borough Manager Carolyn Santee said Moss doesn’t skimp on his duties as mayor.
“If anyone comes here with a complaint, he will try to help them out,” Santee said. “He gets to know everyone in the town and he is very helpful.”
Moss’ mayorship and volunteer work is in addition to his full-time job as a maintenance firefighter at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport in Avoca — everything is done after he leaves work at 4 p.m. or on Sundays and Mondays, his days off.
“It was tough at first, but you adjust to it,” Moss said.
