Pittston City reviews 2021, looks ahead to 2022

PITTSTON – “2021, for us, was an excellent year and it was a good financial year.”

Mayor Michael Lombardo declared when speaking on the city’s finances as 2021 ends and 2022 begins.

“Given all the circumstances, we can summarize 2021 with public safety first,” Mayor Lombardo said. “As the year progressed and we were able to lighten up some restrictions, we were able to have some events like the Tomato Festival, the bridge event, Pittston Prohibition, Shop with a Cop, etc.”

Lombardo is starting his fourth term first being elected in 1998 serving to 2006 before stepping down to take part in raising his twin daughter’s with wife Susan.

He ran again successfully being elected from 2018 to present. His latest run as mayor was separated by the administrations of mayors including the late Joseph Keating (2006-2009), Donna McFadden-Connors (2009-2010), and Jason Klush (2010-2018).

Since 1998 under the guidance of Lombardo, Keating, McFadden-Connors, Klush and Lombardo again, the downtown area has undergone a transformation with new curbs, sidewalks, street lighting, and storefronts.

Housing has increased, neighborhoods have been cleaned up, city parks refurbished, sewer systems improved and construction projects that has helped bring the City of Pittston back to being a focal point of northeastern Pennsylvania.

Financial stabilization continues

One goal Lombardo achieved going into 2018 was to improve the city’s economic status which was achieved by his team of Joe Moskovitz, city administrator and David Hines, city operations coordinator.

In 2020, Moody’s Investors Service gave the City of Pittston a Baa3 investment grade rating.

The Baa3 investment grade rating was based principally on the city’s experienced leadership team and its priority on economic revitalization. The rating agency also acknowledges the recent revenue generating strength of the city as an attribute. An investment grade rating offers the most advantageous debt structure.

With the new rating, the city has more financial leverage than ever before.

Lombardo would like to improve on the city’s financial rating as well as creating a larger slush fund.

“We want to continue in 2022 to stabilize the finances of the city,” Lombardo said. “I don’t say that because we’re in bad shape, I want to say that from a position where I want to get into really great shape. I want to bump up to the next level in the credit rating, I want us to have over a $1 million reserve fund, I want us to clean up 100% of our pension arrears and we’re almost done with that.”

Housing

The mayor is happy with the continuation of his 100 Homes Initiative where Stauffer Point has added 26 more homes and continues to add units each month.

Residential lofts have been added downtown and the Steeple View project on Church St. was completed in late 2020 and 35 units were filled by early 2021.

With the acquisition of the former Pittston Hospital, Lombardo feels 2022 will see progress made on the direction they will see the project head.

“We need to figure out what this project will look like, what will it be,” Lombardo said. “It will be mixed use and will have a huge impact on the Oregon section of town.”

Another acquisition that took place in 2021 was the purchase of the Presbyterian Church located on Broad St. The tentative plans are to initially stabilize the building and prep it for a permanent home for the Greater Pittston Historical Society as well as adding a second floor for housing for three to four lofts and also a stage area for theater groups.

Stabilization work continues at the Fort Pittston School at the corner of Main and Parsonage Streets. Lombardo and his staff are looking into securing the over 100-year old building as an historical site which could bring in extra funds necessary to revitalize the building for additional housing.

Downtown Pittston

The downtown continues to flourish with two more restaurants coming in 2022. Canteen Central will open its doors along with a new Mexican restaurant located next to the Knights of Columbus.

One of the biggest ambitions and projects for the city is the continued effort to complete streetscaping along Main St. to the Duryea line.

According to Lombardo, those plans will see logistic movement in 2022 with actual construction bids coming in for the first two phases of the project.

“It’s been very complicated at the north end of town,” Lombardo admitted. “We have had to deal with 56 plus driveway permits to deal with, getting to straighten out Main St. near the Convenient Mart, and it’s a $5 million to $7 million project and very close now.”

Although frustrated the Junction end of streetscaping has lagged behind, he’s excited to finally see some movement in keeping his promise of an entire Main St. completely done over.

“I think our new projects moving forward will be multiple story buildings,” Lombardo admitted. “We have to get back to the look of Pittston decades ago when Main St. was lined with three to five story buildings. Downtown space is at a premium and you need to build up.”

One such future project will be at the corner of Oak and Main Streets. Initially the housing and commercial front building was earmarked for two or three stories, but Lombardo has been rethinking the project to make a five-to-seven story building.

A downtown multilevel parkade, which was previously conceived a few years ago, may possibly be back on the table in the next year or two in aiding parking for downtown.

The location of a future parkade has not been determined but Lombardo said he and his team would review locations when the time comes.

Neighborhood progress

According to Lombardo, permits are up in the city, property values continue to rise, and neighborhood sweeps will continue into 2022.

Blight in the city is slowly being cleaned up and the city’s latest initiative Monthly Matters, where city officials and employees take on a project each month, will continue into 2022.

“We’ve been making strides in the city all with no tax increase to residents,” Lombardo professed. “That is a statistic I’m personally proud of.”

Looking into 2022

Along with continued construction, whether it is housing or commercial, Lombardo wants to keep the city moving forward.

Another project that has been on the backburner is the addition of a theater in the downtown area.

The new American Theater, as the mayor calls the project, will need to find a home and there have been several areas under consideration including the current location of the Greater Pittston Ambulance Assoc.

Lombardo said the city has been in negotiation talks with the owner of the Triangle Motel located at the south end of the city on Main St.

“It’s no secret we’ve been talking to the owner,” said Lombardo. “We think that location would make a great spot for putting the ambulance association.”

If plan that comes to fruition, that would make way for the current ambulance location to be razed to make way for a theater.

A secondary location would put the American Theater next to Fuji Restaurant. One project Lombardo would like to see downtown would be a microbrewery.

“One of the things I really want downtown is a microbrewery,” Lombardo said. “I would like to roll out a great initiative would be a competitive process and give someone a grant up to $100,000 towards the project. I’d have to have Joe Chacke (the city’s Redevelopment Authority executive director) would have to vet out what that would be.”

The Open Space’s Art Academy project is still online with a lot of the second floor of the building studded out with electrical and drywall. An elevator will be installed sometime in 2022.

Lowe’s building supply company donated a large sum of money to the project as the result of Pittston being the recipient of Lowe’s 100 Hometowns campaign where only the City of Pittsburgh along with Pittston were the state’s only two selections.

“We are about 65% complete on that project and I’m waiting for the HVAC and the rest of the drywall to be completed,” Lombardo confirmed. “That project should be done in the next few months.”

Every new potential construction project, Lombardo sees an opportunity for more retail space as well as residential units.