City of Easton Mayor Sal Panto, left, attentively listens to City of Pittston Mayor Michael Lombardo’s welcome speech at the Cosgrove Room of the Pittston Memorial Library on Tuesday.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
City of Pittston Mayor Michael Lombardo, far right, along with his administration, leads a tour of the city for City of Easton Mayor Sal Panto and his team.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
City of Pittston Mayor Michael Lombardo leads a walking tour for members of the City of Easton’s administration through the Art Loop Trail. From left: David Allen Hines, Pittston CFO; Easton Mayor Sal Panto and Mayor Lombardo.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
City of Pittston’s deputy administrator and main street manager, Mary Kroptavich, talks about the Tomato Festival to the City of Easton’s administration, including Mayor Sal Panto, right.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
City of Pittston’s Redevelopment Authority executive director, Joseph Chacke, front right, explains the future seven-story Market & Main project to Easton’s Mayor Sal Panto, far left, and his team of administrators.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
PITTSTON — With the renaissance the City of Pittston has been going through over the past 25 years, other municipalities have take notice. Over time, several of those municipalities visited and toured the city under the leadership of Mayor Michael Lombardo.
On Tuesday, Aug. 12, the City of Easton, Pennsylvania, led by Mayor Sal Panto and his administration, visited Pittston, which included staff department meetings and a tour of the Downtown area.
Mayor Lombardo and Mayor Panto have been friends for many years, including their time together as members of the Pennsylvania Municipal League (PML), a nonprofit, nonpartisan association that represents and supports cities, boroughs, townships, and home-rule municipalities across Pennsylvania.
Mayor Panto has been a two-time president of PML and Mayor Lombardo served one term.
Upon arrival, Mayor Lombardo and his staff welcomed the team from Easton at the Cosgrove Room at the Pittston Memorial Library.
After introductions, the Pittston team took the Easton team on a tour showcasing various locations and landmarks along the way.
“It’s always a great opportunity to showcase the city,” Lombardo said. “In the past, we’ve had Mayor Pacifico (City of Altoona) and Mayor Slaughter (City of Williamsport) visit, so I love to have kind of what I would call that organized ID exchange. The other thing that it really does is, for us, and particularly our staff, I think we lose sight of some of the things that we do, and we achieve it, and I don’t mean that the pat ourselves on the back, but it’s always a good refocus because people from other areas recognize those efforts.”
Lombardo was able to showcase the Tomato Festival ground, The Slope Amphitheater, the art work that is all over Downtown, the rebuilding of Main Street, the streetscaping project including sidewalks, curbing and period lighting.
The tour stopped at the future site of the seven-story retail/business/house structure at Market and Main Streets. The project will also house the over 600-seat American Theatre.
Next on the tour was the future site of a four-story parkade and green space for outdoor shows.
Before heading back to the library, the final stop was the 150,000 sq. ft. Waterfront Warehouse building, which houses 26 rental units, shops, exercise facilities, a coffee shop, bakery and restaurant.
Once back at the library, departments broke off for workshops and discussions.
“When we got back to the library, we had lunch then broke off into groups to discuss projects from each city,” Lombardo added. “I believe my staff came away feeling like it was really a fruitful experience. We will schedule a visit of our staff to Easton and discuss things like their strong Main Street program, redevelopment, and art scene to name a few.”
Mayor Panto and his staff found the trip to Pittston both enlightening and enjoyable.
“We loved our trip to Pittston,” Mayor Panto said. “We really appreciated the Mayor’s staff exchanging with our staff. It’s really good for us to learn what other towns and cities are doing and what we are all doing. Pittston has a lot going and when we got back, we said “wow” they have a lot going on with their projects. We thought we had a lot going on with our economic development, but I think they have more than us.”
The City of Easton, like Pittston, also has festivals; the Garlic Festival and the Bacon Festival are coming up in October and November. Bacon Fest is a two-day event attracting roughly 90,000 people for the outdoor event.
Other similarities are: increased police force numbers, city taxes held for over a decade, both cities’ governments are under Home Rule, and each city relishes in artwork.
Mayor Panto, now in his seventh term as mayor, fifth consecutively, is known for his stance on fiscal stability, public safety, and economic revitalization.
He has championed projects like revitalized parks, waterfront improvements (with $4 million in local investment and $850,000 in state grants), and economic development, leading to hundreds of new jobs and over $800 million in public/private investment.
“Mayor Panto is one of my favorite people and Easton is one of my favorite cities in the Commonwealth,” Lombardo said. “It’s really worth seeing and a lot of what they’re doing, I would hope to do and replicate and, you know, whether we’re small or bigger like them, everything is scalable and sizable.”
As of this year, Easton has a population of 30,507 and is growing at a rate of 1.62% annually.
The City of Pittston’s population is 7,776 with a growth rate of .25%, which has been a steady increase since 2020.
