SCRANTON — On the day Center City Print opened for business, owner Alex Molfetas remembers he had maybe $10 left in his wallet, $20 at the most.

It was the summer of 2012, and Molfetas had been dabbling in printing and kicking around the idea of opening his own shop when he convinced co-founder Kurt Effertz to jump on board.

The pair threw a fresh coat of paint on the walls of a vacant storefront at 119 Penn Ave. and Center City Print was born.

“We started with very basic machinery and equipment — garbage equipment — and slowly built it up from there,” Molfetas, 33, said. “It was all a lot of word of mouth at that point. We knew a lot of people in the community, and people decided to give us a shot.”

Less than six years after that decidedly humble genesis, Center City Print is on the brink of expansion. It will open a second location in Kingston next month.

For Molfetas, it has all been, to use one of his favorite words, crazy.

The shop owner grew up in Brooklyn, New York, a son of parents who were born in Greece but met and married after they immigrated to the United States.

By his own account, he excelled as a student but didn’t care much for school. His parents enrolled him in a medical science high school in New York, but he hated it. He dropped out and moved to Greece, where he lived with his grandmother for six months.

After his return to New York, he earned his GED and found employment in retail banking, working for subsidiaries of two Greek banks.

Molfetas enjoyed some familiarity with Northeast Pennsylvania because his family had a summer home at Lake Ariel. When he decided to go to college, he chose Lackawanna College — “Right next to the Greek church,” he observed — and he earned his associate degree in 2006.

He worked briefly for Fidelity Bank and considered pursuing a bachelor’s at Keystone College until Citigroup called and offered him a job. He returned to New York, where he worked for Citigroup in international equities from 2007 until he was laid off in 2011. He said he told his parents the next day he was going back to Scranton.

Molfetas attributes his interest in print in part to an uncle, who owned an offset print shop.

“I kind of hung around there, learned some stuff. ... So I always had a knack and love and passion for print and the arts and things like that,” he said.

Molfetas, who already owned the building at 119 Penn, said he had been doing light printing on his own, mostly menus and similar items, when he met Effertz in 2011 and asked him to do some design work.

“Our crazy journey began right about there,” he said.

While Center City Print’s offerings have evolved since those early days to include services such as web design and online marketing, its print products — everything from business cards to banners, brochures to yard signs — remain the core of the business, Molfetas said.

The shop may not be able to do everything an offset printer can do, but its digital capabilities allow it to work quickly and efficiently while keeping its prices competitive, he said.

Aside from some larger apparel orders, which Molfetas farms out to a friend in western Pennsylvania, all of the production is done at the Penn Avenue location.

The shop also doesn’t turn down any job as too small, Molfetas said.

“The majority of the bigger shops don’t want the walk-ins,” he said. “They don’t want the birthday invitations or the wedding invites or the baptism invitations, stuff like that. They don’t want to deal with a small startup that only needs a couple of takeouts a week just to get their feet wet, whereas that is our market, that is who we cater to.

“We do have larger clients who order 10,000, 20,000 or 30,000 pieces, but our goal is to be able to kind of service everybody and remain affordable.”

Although brick-and-mortar shops like his face increasing competition from online companies, Molfetas said Center City Print can almost always beat them not just on price, but also in terms of customer service and creativity. What you don’t want, he said, is for your card to look identical to the card of your business rival across town or even down the street.

“You are a unique individual. You should have your own identity. Your own vision should be put down on paper and that is where we come in,” he said.

The Center City Print shop in Kingston will occupy a storefront at 779 Wyoming Ave. and is expected to open during the second week of April. It will have the capability to do small print jobs, but the majority of the production will still take place in Scranton.

Molfetas said the business already has a number of clients in the Wilkes-Barre area “that are genuinely excited for us to come down there.” He considered siting the shop in Wilkes-Barre proper, but opted for Kingston as a more centralized location to serve the lower Wyoming Valley.

“We’re not cocky or conceited or anything, but you don’t know unless you try,” he said of the second location. “It seems like a worthy decision to expand the business.”

It also fits with the company’s philosophy of slow but steady growth, which in the past has usually meant the acquisition of a couple of new pieces of equipment each year.

“We’re in year six and we keep that mentality that, OK, we have a little bit extra. Let’s put it toward innovating and making something better and improving our performance,” Molfetas said.

Contact the writer: dsingleton@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9132

Wayne Bank supports school district

The bank is supporting the Greater Pike Community Foundation with a donation through the Educational Improvement Organization Program in 2018. Jenni Hammill, executive director of the foundation, accepted a check in the amount of $12,000. The gift was made possible as a result of the Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program offered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, acting through the Department of Community and Economic Development.

Scranton receives LendingTree ranking

The city was named No. 8 best place for first-time homebuyers in the recent ranking. Factors include average down payment amount, share of buyers using an FHA mortgage, average down payment percentage, percentage of buyers who have less than prime credit (below 680), share of homes sold that the median income family can afford (Housing Opportunity Index) and average FHA down payment as a percentage of average down payment for all loans.

Radisson wins Knot Best award

The Radisson at Lackawanna Station hotel was selected as a 2018 winner in the Knot Best of Weddings, an award representing the highest-rated wedding professionals as reviewed by real couples, their families and wedding guests on the Knot, the leading online wedding brand and app. This is the second consecutive year that the hotel has been selected for the Knot Best of Weddings.

Dime Bank donates to United Way

The Dime Bank received approval for a $14,500 tax credit through the Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program in order to contribute to the United Way of Lackawanna and Wayne Counties. The funds were split between two different United Way programs focused on building children’s success in school and throughout their lives.

Scranton business doubles space

The University of Scranton Small Business Development Center recently announced the grand opening of the new second floor of small business On&On History Recycled. Doubling its space with new vendors and artists, the second-floor grand opening took place March 3 at 1138 Capouse Ave., Scranton. The business, owned and managed by Meegan Possemato and Andrew Plane of Clarks Summit, is a marketplace featuring many vintage, handmade and repurposed finds, unique gifts and one-of-a-kind furniture.

SUBMIT BUSINESS BUZZ items to business@timesshamrock.com or The Times-Tribune, 149 Penn Ave., Scranton, PA 18503.

Luci Costa darts around her dress shop in South Scranton on a Wednesday afternoon.

The owner of Elizabeth’s Boutique, 724 Cedar Ave., moves quickly, and the conversation shifts even faster.

There’s always so much to do, especially at this time of year with proms and First Holy Communions, she says.

A high school semi is coming up Friday, she explains. She still has two dresses to finish up for that.

Oh, and did she mention she is getting ready for a fashion show March 31 at the Hilton Scranton and Conference Center?

“This is crazy right now,” Costa says.

A native of Brazil who arrived in the United States in 1985 to attend college in New Jersey, the effervescent 60-year-old with an easy smile and a boisterous laugh is part of an emerging class of business owners in Northeast Pennsylvania: the immigrant retailer.

In places like South Scranton, and especially along Cedar and Pittston avenues, it is easy to get a sense of the entrepreneurial energy that each new wave of immigrants brought to the growing Lackawanna and Wyoming valleys in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

These are different times and different circumstances, and the scale is certainly smaller, but Chrissy Manuel, revitalization manager for United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania, said the parallels are undeniable.

The neighborhood has developed into a hub for immigrant commerce, with new restaurants, grocers and other businesses popping up with regularity. Most of them are aimed at the Latin community, reflecting its growing presence in the city, but there are other cultures reflected as well.

“With the changing population in South Side, and in Scranton in general, these businesses are providing goods that a lot of our residents would have to do without or would have to go outside the city to get,” Manuel said.

In the beginning, most of those businesses tend to cater to people in the neighborhood who are from their country of origin, she said. Over time, as they become more comfortable with the community and the community with them, that base broadens.

“I think it’s very similar to what would have happened here in the early 1900s,” Manuel said.

Compared to many of its neighbors, Elizabeth’s Boutique is a long-established part of the South Scranton retail landscape.

Costa opened her shop in 2005, taking over a space previously occupied by a children’s clothing store.

She credits her longtime boyfriend with finding the location. A dedicated cyclist, he was out riding with a friend when they passed the then-vacant storefront on Cedar Avenue.

“He called and said, ‘Listen, I found you a place,’” she said.

She drove to Cedar Avenue to take a look and liked what she saw enough that she immediately removed the “for sale” sign. The next morning, she went to visit the real estate agent who was listing the property.

“I gave him $500 to hold it for me, and that’s it,” Costa said. “Then I’m here.”

Although she had never owned a shop before, Costa was not exactly new to the business.

Costa started making dresses in Brazil when she was 16, and she did the same after she arrived in the United States, using the money she made to pay for school.

“I was making dresses and then going door by door and selling them — ‘You like this? Oh, you like that? Let me make this one for you,’  ” Costa said. “But I don’t do that any more because we have all different designers and they make this for us.”

She glanced heavenward and crossed herself.

“Oh, hallelujah. Thank God,” she said. “It was like that — making and taking and go and show. Now I have everything here.”

Her shop stocks dresses and accouterments for all occasions, from high school functions such as homecoming dances and proms to first Communions, pageants and cocktail parties. She both sells and rents.

As the Latino population in South Scranton has grown, dresses and accessories for quinceanera, the Hispanic tradition of celebrating a young girl’s coming of age on her 15th birthday, have become an increasingly important part of what her shop offers, she said.

When she opened Elizabeth’s, most of her customers were Americans, said Costa, who became a U.S. citizen 26 years ago. Now, it’s a far more diverse mix.

It certainly helps, she said, that she can speak Spanish in addition to English and Portuguese.

As she talked, a customer from Stroudsburg who stopped in to try on and pick up the dress she ordered for a birthday party in New York exited a changing room and approached the counter to pay.

She and Costa engaged in small talk as they settled up.

Costa asked about the woman’s sister, who now lives in Texas. They both then had a good laugh when the shop owner briefly misplaced the credit card slip she had in her hand moments earlier for the woman to sign. She shuffled through items on the top of the counter before finding it again.

“OK, girl, you’re done,” Costa told the woman, giving her a hug. “Have a good time.”

She is a very good customer, Costa said after the woman left.

“She loves me. She comes back,” she said.

Then Costa smiled and added, “They all come back.”

She pointed out there are girls whom she outfitted years earlier for their first Communions who now return to buy their prom or semi dresses.

Another visitor prepared to leave the shop, which meant another hug from Costa — along with a lighthearted sales pitch.

“Next time, bring your girlfriend,” she said. “Bring the little sister. Bring the cousin.”

Although she did some real estate work in New Jersey and enjoyed doing it, Costa said the dress shop is her life and she cannot imagine herself doing anything else. She recalled reading that 85 percent of people hate the job they do, but she is not one of them.

“I love my job,” she said.

Not that it’s without challenges, she said.

“Working by yourself — self-employment — is not easy,” Costa said. “I got there. I paid my dues, but it’s very tough. I take over here. I put over there, you know. That’s what I do.”

Tony Camacho can empathize.

Camacho, 30, opened Tortilleria El Buen Amigo down the street at 612 Cedar Ave. in August 2016. The small shop specializes in fresh-made tortillas, along with homemade tortilla chips, guacamole, sauces and Mexican grocery items.

“I was thinking it was easy, but it’s not,” Camacho said of operating his own business.

A native of Mexico, Camacho was 15 when he came to the United States with his father in 2002. His father’s brothers were already living in Scranton at the time, he said.

He found work in an Italian restaurant and, knowing he wanted to go into business for himself someday, starting saving as much money as he could.

The tipping point came one day while he was at his second job as a pallet builder. Sweaty and dirty, he decided if he were going to work that hard, it would be for himself and his family in his own business.

“The work was very bad ... and I stop and say, ‘I have to do something. I can’t stay like this for all my life. No, no, no,’  ” Camacho said.

He considered opening a Mexican restaurant or “maybe something Mexican and Italian because I know some Italian,” he said. In the end, he settled on the tortilla shop because no one else in the area was doing it.

“I always believed this was going to be good and, after one year and a half, thank you, we have a lot of support from the community,” Camacho said.

When he opened his shop, he focused mostly on the area’s Hispanic population, advertising only in Spanish, but he now realizes that was probably a mistake.

“I think, no, I’m doing it the wrong way,” he said, quickly understanding he could expand his customer base if he also advertised in English.

An invitation to sell his tortillas and sauces at the South Side Farmers Market, just down the block from his shop, led to invitations from other markets in the area.

Although the customers who visit the Cedar Avenue shop now are probably about equally divided between Hispanic and non-Hispanic, Camacho said, they no longer come just from the South Scranton neighborhood. People trek to his business from as far away as Wilkes-Barre, he said.

Earlier this month, Tortilleria El Buen Amigo opened a location in the Scranton Public Market in the Marketplace at Steamtown, where it operates Thursday through Sunday.

Camacho acknowledged it can be a little overwhelming at times.

“Sometimes I’m very stressed because I have a lot of things in my head,” he said. “Sometimes maybe I forget to order this or my wife is yelling, ‘You forgot about that,’ and I have to worry about it. I think that is the hardest thing.”

But Camacho said he is keeping his eye on the prize: a better life for himself, his wife, Belen, and their two children.

“Every opportunity I see that is going to be good I will try it because if I don’t try, I don’t want to say tomorrow, ‘Why didn’t I?’” Camacho said. “I always say that. It doesn’t matter if I lose or I win. I’m not scared to lose. I want to win, and I’m very sure I will.”

Contact the writer:

dsingleton@timesshamrock.com,

570-348-9132

WASHINGTON — Anthony Murria found power on Pennsylvania Avenue and plans to use it in November.

The Scranton High School senior, a sign decrying gun violence in his hands, was stopped Saturday by two women in a crowded Washington street while the March for Our Lives roared around him and the Beatles thundered from speakers.

The women, in neon shirts that read “Register to Vote with Me,” asked 17-year-old Anthony if he could vote. He said he turns 18 in June. They gave him a form to fill out. He did.

Then they put a sticker on him that read “Vote Like Your Life Depends On It.” Anthony plans to do just that in November’s midterm elections.

“Empowered,” Anthony said, when asked how he felt. “I feel like I can finally take the fight to Congress.”

On Saturday, 42 students from Scranton High School, mainly juniors and seniors, made their way to downtown Washington and marched with hundreds of thousands of people from across the country to call for an increase in gun control. The march came in response to last month’s deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where a former student shot and killed 17 students and faculty members. The teenage survivors became vocal and passionate advocates of gun reform and reinvigorated the national debate over guns. Marches took place all across the country Saturday, but the central march took place in Washington.

Scranton High School students Tricia Hemphill and Julia Georgetti asked history teachers Jerry Skotleski and Sean Curry to help organize a bus trip to the nation’s capital to participate in the march. The teachers agreed and left Northeast Pennsylvania on Friday. Their voices joined a tidal wave Saturday. The day was for the children, Curry said.

“This is your march,” Curry told the 42 students. “We’re the old guys from the generation that screwed it up.”

Large crowds of people holding signs crowded Washington early in the morning for the march.

“You kids vote and change this world,” a woman holding a green sign calling for a ban on assault weapons said to a passing group of high-school-age children.

“Working on it,” one of them replied.

Nadia Mahdavi, 18, a Scranton High School senior, carried a sign that bore the names of each person killed in Parkland. Overwhelmed by the sheer number of people Saturday, she hopes for legislation that tightens background checks.

“Just common-sense gun laws,” Nadia said.

Anthony said he can understand that some people enjoy shooting assault-style weapons but believes they should be left at the shooting range.

“I don’t understand why you feel the need to have that much firepower in your homes,” he said.

The students picked through the crowd slowly and with great effort to try to find a spot where they could listen to Saturday’s speakers. Anthony, Nadia and fellow seniors Abigail Coyle, 18, and Kaylonna Bavonese, 18, settled on the United States Navy Memorial on Pennsylvania Avenue. Amplified voices, dripping with anger, bounced off the buildings.

Next to four Scranton students, John Bohn, 63, of Alexandria, Virginia, marveled at the turnout and the momentum the march had.

“It will matter if the kids get registered,” Bohn said, then clapped Anthony on the shoulder when he learned he would vote in November.

Contact the writer:

jkohut@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9144;

@jkohutTT on Twitter

SCRANTON — Local students became voices for peers they never met and victims of gun violence.

They made powerful pleas Saturday for politicians to change laws and for gun violence to never come to Northeast Pennsylvania. They said, “Never again,” echoing the vow of young activists who attended a march in Washington on Saturday in the wake of the Feb. 14 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The Scranton March for Our Lives swelled through the city from Olive Street to Lackawanna County Courthouse Square, filling downtown streets with chants for change. The march began about noon at the Olive Street Pavilion with a host of students from schools including Scranton, West Scranton and Dunmore high schools, South Scranton Intermediate, Riverside Elementary East, Old Forge Elementary and Marywood University, addressing a crowd of hundreds.

PHOTOS: March for Our Lives in Scranton

“I’ll rise up. I’ll rise unafraid,” sang T. Brown, a Scranton High School sophomore, opening the march with Andra Day’s “Rise Up.”

The students, including Shaina Johnson, a freshman at Marywood University, told stories of students affected by gun violence.

“Eighteenth century laws can’t regulate 21st century firearms,” said Johnson. “If you have a gun and you have a child, which would you rather lose?”

The crowd listened intently, some sniffling while holding back tears during moving performances, including Roy Gonzalez’s rap he wrote for the event, or Yesenya Fox’s rendition of Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah.”

“As kids of the future, shouldn’t our lives come first?” spat Gonzalez.

Pink hats from the Women’s March on Washington stuck out in a crowd sprinkled with handwritten protest signs expressing sentiments such as, “Guns Have Evolved Why Hasn’t the 2nd Amendment?” and “Snapchat Streaks not Kill Streaks!”

West Scranton High School freshman Molly Dougherty spoke standing alongside her classmates Camdyn Lewis and Ava Decker. Last year, the students made a documentary about the prevention of gun violence and won C-SPAN’s National Student Cam documentary contest.

“Gun violence prevention is something everyone agrees with,” said Molly, adding Scranton is not immune to violence.

“We learned a solution is not simple,” she said. “Maybe it’s ... walking up to a kid who sits alone at lunch and inviting them to sit with you. Smiling and saying hello to someone you’ve never spoken to who may have different views, listening and getting to know them. Being kind.”

Jessica Lavelle, 20, and Megan O’Kelly, 32, teach at a day care center in Newfoundland, where recently the controversial World Peace and Unification Sanctuary held an AR-15 rifle blessing ceremony. Lavelle and O’Kelly both protested the ceremony.

They brought their student Jada Morris, 11, to Saturday’s march in Scranton.

“I feel really bad. It’s heartbreaking the students had friends who died,” said Jada about the Parkland victims. “I’m here for them.”

MaryKate Cadden’s 9-year-old brother recently came home from school excited to share something that happened there, she told the crowd.

“He found the best spot to hide in his elementary school,” the Scranton High School student said.

Like MaryKate’s brother, many of the speakers talked about lockdown drills at their schools that wouldn’t be required if the mass shootings stopped.

Kelis Perkins, from South Scranton Intermediate, and Mia Arrington, from Old Forge Elementary, were among the younger students to speak.

“It could have been me or my school,” Kelis said of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting where 26 people, mostly children, died. Since then, “the only thing that changed is we are more afraid to walk into school.”

To those who say the students are too young to grasp the gun violence issue, Kelis responded, “I do understand.”

Mid Valley High School seniors Selena Olmedo, 18, Madelaine Pegula, 17, and Sarah Johnson, 18, and sophomore Keli Pegula, 16, marched to Courthouse Square.

“I think it’s important to protest for what we believe in,” said Sarah. “I feel like a lot of change is going to happen.”

“There has to be a change,” added Selena.

The Mid Valley students were proud of their peers who marched Saturday.

Sarah Heisey, 23, is studying at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine to be a pediatrician.

She, along with three fellow first-year medical students who attended the march, view gun violence as a public health issue.

As a future doctor, Heisey wants to help children.

“I don’t want to treat kids for gunshot wounds,” she said.

The Scranton march, organized by a group of civic-minded adults including Sara Solfanelli, Amelia Suraci and Maureen Campbell Gilheaney, was just one of many demonstrations across the nation Saturday. Students from Parkland pushed for the March for Our Lives in Washington, and communities around the world, like Scranton, came out in solidarity with their cause.

Contact the writer:

kbolus@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9100 x5114;

@kbolusTT on Twitter

Whether converting would-be trash into someone else’s treasure through donation or selling things at their disposal to supplement their own lifestyle, area shoppers have discovered great value in thrifting, reselling and consigning.

Alan Miller, a 26-year employee of the Salvation Army who works as store supervisor at the River Street thrift store, has watched every aspect of the business transform in his 13 years at the East Mountain location — from the clientele that comes in to buy the deeply discounted, gently used clothing, furniture and decor to the look of the space itself.

“(There) is the spectrum … there’s a section of people who have a need, and it helps them a great deal to provide for their families. On the other hand, they’re not the only customers we have,” Miller said. “We also have folks looking for antiques. I see people pulling up in their Lexus. It’s not your grandma’s Salvation Army anymore. It’s a whole different thing. The stores have come a long way in appearance and marketing.”

Like many modern retailers, the Salvation Army takes advantage of social media, posting unusual or hard-to-find items and sharing special sales and events to its Facebook page to pique interest in customers.

Every article is screened for quality and usability after it’s dropped off by donors or collected from drop box sites, Miller said. The River Street store puts out 3,600 new items every day, so the inventory stays fresh and looks different even to daily visitors.

“If you’re just starting out, there’s no need for brand new. It’s the biggest secret,” he said. “Everybody wants a bargain. Every day brings a different bounty of donations, and we’re absolutely grateful for everything we get. We try to be the best steward of those things. We don’t take it lightly.”

The average shopper can find complete men’s and women’s ensembles for $9, while a full outfit for kids might be $5 or $6. Miller said he’s seen a “definite uptick in traffic for the last 6 or 7 years because of the economy,” and noted that Wednesdays, aka Family Days, when almost all of the store’s merchandise is half-off, are unquestionably the busiest time of the week.

Kevin Darcy of Scranton is one of the Salvation Army’s daily customers. The 38-year-old “well-known picker” scours the racks for fun, vintage T-shirts and anything else interesting that catches his eye.

“I do it because I appreciate this stuff and think there’s someone out there that also appreciates it. It’s placement, finding it a home,” said Darcy, who also frequents thrift stores from Honesdale to Wilkes-Barre. “It’s a hobby. It’s not for money, but for fun. A lot of times it fills a void in someone’s utensil drawer or T-shirt collection. There’s always a story to come out of here — things you miss, things you almost had, people you run into.”

An increase in consignment and resale shops in the area has caused a dip in donations, Miller noted, and while proceeds from Salvation Army stores benefit others through the organization’s community programs, people looking to not only unload their unwanted clothes but also make some money back have more options these days.

“It has gotten tougher on our end because with so many entities, the pie is cut into more pieces,” Miller said.

Brittney Chiccarine, a keyholder at Style Encore Dickson City on Commerce Boulevard, explained how her store’s business model differs even from traditional consignment. At Style Encore — which carries clothing, shoes and accessories for women in contrast to its sister stores in the same plaza, Once Upon A Child, which sells toddler and baby items, and Plato’s Closet, which caters more to young teens — sellers come in to have their wardrobes appraised based on condition and brands, which can range from designers like Tory Burch and Ann Taylor to in-house labels from Target or Kmart. The store says yes or no and offers individuals a cut — usually about 30 to 40 percent — of what it will resell the items for (up to 90 percent off what the same item goes for at the mall, she said), which is paid to sellers on the spot. Most who bring in clothes are also reciprocal shoppers, Chiccarine said, from the “interview girls” looking for professional attire to generations of grandmothers, moms and daughters shopping together.

“We’re seeing a bigger shift in people trying to get a buck to put toward their own purchases, and it feels good to them to purge and clean out their closets,” she said. “They try here first, and if we don’t buy, they’ll donate. We also donate for them sometimes, because they don’t feel like driving around to find the donation boxes.”

On a recent afternoon, 33-year-old Julianne Marianelli of Moosic came to Style Encore with a bundle of clothes on what she estimated was her 25th trip in as a reseller. Oftentimes, Marianelli buys clothes she wears only once or else never before she discovers they don’t fit anymore, so she brings them in for quick cash to save up for other things she wishes to splurge on, like the Louis Vuitton bag she’s currently working toward.

For other resellers, more money can be made if they have patience. Beth Rosenfeld, owner of both Esther’s and Miriam’s consignment boutiques at 734 E. Drinker St., Dunmore, which sell women’s and children’s designer labels and furniture and decor, respectively, explained that resellers bring their high-end items to her stores where they receive a 50 percent cut — paid out monthly — but only if they sell within three months. After that, owners have 10 days to reclaim their goods before Rosenfeld donates them.

“With true consignment, you take your chances. You could make more, but it’s not instantly gratifying. You’re going to wait,” Rosenfeld said. “Let’s say you’ve had this lamp you’re tired of and bring it to me, and someone else sees it and says, ‘That’s the exact piece I’ve been looking for.’ Now you’ve made money on something you didn’t love, and the next person is thrilled.”

Rosenfeld said she sees more and more women bringing in their unwanted items since she first opened in her original location on South Blakely Street eight years ago, and finds herself surprised at the demographic that most often takes advantage of consignment.

“When I opened, I thought my customers would be in my age group — their 40s — but it’s women in their 60s who really understand it, even though it can be hard explaining the difference between what’s vintage and what’s just old. But the younger crowd is slowly starting to get it.”

Contact the writer:

pwilding@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5369;
@pwildingTT on Twitter

SCRANTON — He wore dusty black boots, worn blue trousers and a brass-button-adorned overcoat to match.

The man in uniform pinched a tattered cigar between the pointer and middle fingers of his right hand as he stood over a map depicting the southeastern United States and western Mississippi. His look conveyed that of a man fresh off a battlefield, but out of his own time. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had arrived in Scranton.

“I’d like to welcome you to 1865,” he said to dozens of people gathered in the basement of City Hall.

For a few hours Saturday afternoon, the area around the Grand Army of the Republic Museum and Library was transformed into another era, and Gettysburg resident Kenneth J. Serfass into Grant. Serfass talked about the Vicksburg campaign, a monthslong affair to capture the Mississippi city.

Vicksburg held great strategic importance for both sides in the Civil War. Situated on the Mississippi River, the city was one of the last Confederate bastions on the vital waterway and a link to rebel states on the other side of the river. If Grant’s forces captured it, that tie would be severed, the Union would control the river and the Confederacy would be cleaved in two. Southerners dubbed Vicksburg the “Gibraltar of the West.” President Abraham Lincoln remarked on Vicksburg’s key position on the river that the war could not be won until “that key is in our pocket.”

Using the maps and props signifying gunboats, cities, army units and more, Serfass told the audience of Grant’s efforts to capture the city. Obstacles included swampy terrain, rebel resistance, Vicksburg’s position on a bluff and more than 40 days of siege operations before the city capitulated on July 4, 1863.

The surrender came the day after the end of the Battle of Gettysburg. At the time, many considered Vicksburg’s fall as the event that sealed the Confederacy’s fate, Serfass said.

“For those of you who think that Gettysburg is the true turning point of the war, and I’m not disrespecting Gettysburg, the fight there is extremely important, but it wasn’t a key, strategic point like Vicksburg itself,” Serfass said.

By 1865, Grant commanded all Union forces fighting in the field against Confederate armies as the Civil War ground toward Northern victory. He accepted the surrender of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House that April. In 1869, he became the 18th president of the United States.

For Serfass, a retired Marine gunnery sergeant, a fascination with Grant started with a bout of chickenpox when he was 8 years old. Home from school, he passed the time by reading a book assigned for a report about the general turned president. Grant became his hero and has served as an inspiration over the years, Serfass said.

“He appealed to me because he weathers all kinds of criticism and meets all kinds of obstacles and he finds a way around them,” Serfass said.

Serfass now has about 50 books on the general and has performed as Grant across the country since 2009. He stayed in character throughout most of his time in Scranton on Saturday and peppered narratives about troop movements and strategy with observations about other generals, plus anecdotes and details about Grant.

The general smoked — and inhaled — up to 25 cigars a day by the time the war ended, Serfass said. The man who led Union armies to victory almost resigned earlier in the war. After the 1862 Battle of Shiloh, Grant nearly quit the army after losing his command. Only the intervention of another legendary Civil War figure, Grant’s close friend and subordinate William Tecumseh Sherman, prevented the departure. Grant’s adversaries in gray often were former comrades and friends. Grant and the commander of the Confederate garrison at Vicksburg, a Pennsylvania native named Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, had served side by side in the Mexican-American War.

Hal Myers, president of the local Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Association, met Serfass a few years ago at Gettysburg and was impressed with his knowledge of and likeness to the general. His visit Saturday was the first living history presentation at the museum, said Myers, who would like to add others the future. Performances like Serfass’ are a great way to convey history in a more tangible way, he said.

“You’d think you were sitting here talking to General Grant,” Myers said.

Serfass presented as Grant twice Saturday afternoon, once at 1 p.m. and again at 3:30. About 100 people attended between the two — an audience ranging from children to seniors.

Lynn Manheim of Factoryville attended the latter performance. She learned of the presentation from a flyer at the Abington Community Library and decided to come. She learned things about Grant’s personality from attending and liked that the show featured interactive elements.

“I really enjoyed that we could ask questions during the presentation,” she said.

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The Civil War museum in the basement of city hall, 340 N. Washington Ave., is open on the first and third Saturdays of the month from noon till 3 p.m. Appointments can also be made to visit the museum.

With every pysanky class Tammy Budnovitch teaches, she ensures that the Ukrainian craft passed down to her continues.

“There are so many traditions that our ancestors have brought over that are dying out,” she said.

Pysanky is a Ukrainian tradition of decorating eggs using wax and dye. Typically, the eggs are created around Easter, but they also are made for life celebrations such as births and weddings, said Budnovitch. Even at funerals, eggs are put in caskets to keep away evil spirits, she said.

She learned the craft from her mother and grandmother, starting with krashanky, a similar egg-decorating tradition, and then pysanky. Then, about seven years ago, as a fundraiser for the 125th anniversary of her church, SS. Cyril & Methodius Ukrainian Church in Olyphant, Budnovitch and her mother brought their craft to the public.

“It’s very dear to my heart,” she said.

The word pysanky comes from the Urkrainian word pysaty, which means to write, Budnovitch said. Designs are written in wax and then the egg, which symbolizes life, is dipped in a light-colored dye. The wax is then melted off and the final design revealed.

The eggs are either hollowed out or the insides left to dry out, she said.

Designs are not random and have both religious and cultural meaning, she said.

Lines encircling eggs signify everlasting life, Budnovitch teaches. Triangles symbolize either the Holy Trinity or the elements air, fire and water.

Dots can mean the constellations, sun and stars or, in the Catholic religion, Mary’s tears when her son, Jesus, was on the cross, Budnovitch said.

Colors have meaning too — lavender stands for patience, power and royalty, while pink means success or contentment. Four or more colors on an egg symbolizes happiness, peace and love.

Ukrainian women traditionally created the eggs while the men worked in the fields or tended to property.

“If you make one egg today and that’s all you make, at least my tradition is moving forward,” Budnovich told her class of students at the Lackawanna Historical Society on Saturday.

For details, visit Pysanky by Tammy on Facebook.

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Shoppers love a deal, which is one reason discount stores remain popular retail destinations.

Many discount stores change their selection frequently. Shoppers don’t know what they’ll find when they venture out. Each trip to the store is a search for a bargain.

As retail stores struggle, discount stores are thriving.

In Northeast Pennsylvania, shoppers looking for discount retail have options: Aldi, Marshall’s, P&R, T.J. Maxx and Harbor Freight are among the discount retailers banking on the region.

Here’s a look at what some of those stores do to keep prices low and shoppers coming back:

P&R Discounts

Bone broth perfectly illustrated the P&R shopping experience for Kevin Dougherty. Browsing the shelves at the Edwardsville location, he came upon a container selling for $1.

He checked a price for the same product on Amazon: $15.

Dougherty, 57, of Wilkes-Barre estimates that P&R and Aldi, another discount store, account for about 90 percent of his spending on groceries. He shops other stores for specific items he can’t find at P&R and Aldi.

“You can’t really always find what you’re looking for at P&R, but you’ll always find something interesting, and it’s so cheap that it’s worth taking a risk on,” he said. “They have such a weird array of bizarre products that you always find something you’ve never heard of. It can be strange, but it’s a lot of fun.”

P&R Discounts is family-owned with just two locations, one in Edwardsville and another in Eynon. The store has a large grocery section, but it also sells clothes, cleaning products and more. The store’s goal, according to its Facebook page: “Make Food Affordable Again.”

Aldi

The American edition of the discount German supermarket uses a variety of methods to keep its operating costs low, which translates to lower prices for customers.

It starts before you even step in the door, when you insert a quarter into a shopping cart to unlock it. When you bring the cart back, the key on another cart pops the quarter out of your lock. The system means employees don’t have to spend time hunting down abandoned carts.

A typical supermarket might carry about 30,000 items. An Aldi market has far fewer products, and many are its own brand. A smaller inventory allows for a smaller store, which saves on rent and electricity

Customers must bring their own bags or buy renewable ones from the stores, and they also bag their own groceries, another trick for lowering costs.

Those details don’t bother John Snyder, 50, of Swoyersville, who frequents the supermarket’s Kingston branch. In fact, he said, the requirement to return your cart yourself means he doesn’t have to worry about getting his car dinged by an errant cart. The store doesn’t have as many items or the same selection of high-end products as, for example, his local Wegman’s, but it’s useful for a quick trip depending on what he needs.

“Usually, I come in here for certain items because budget’s important,” Snyder said.

T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods

T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and Home Goods are owned by TJX Companies. The off-price retailer has its own methods for translating lower costs into lower prices.

Prices are generally 20 to 60 percent lower than department and specialty store prices on comparable merchandise, according to the company’s website.

The company takes advantage of deals wherever it can find them. That might include department store cancellations, a manufacturer making too much of a product or a closeout deal when a vendor wants to clear merchandise at the end of a season. Some of its merchandise is manufactured specifically for its own stores.

T.J. Maxx’s buyers look for all sorts of goods. If a wholesale deal is available, the company negotiates a low price and passes the savings on to customers. The result is an ever-changing variety of items at its stores from several deliveries each week. There are no walls between different departments, which lets a store grow or shrink a merchandise category to respond to availability and changing tastes.

Store managers often don’t know what’s coming in until they open the delivery truck.

Harbor Freight Tools

Harbor Freight Tools has locations in Wyoming and Dickson City. It offers tools and more at prices that can be up to 80 percent less than other tool retailers.

It came in handy for Dougherty, who moved to a new apartment and needed some tools to hang pictures and complete other small projects.

He saw a flyer for something he needed and gave it a shot.

“That’s another place you go to, you find stuff you didn’t know you needed, you don’t know if you’ll really need it, but it’s a dollar, so why not buy a big bag of metal clamps? It’s a lot of fun,” he said.

“Sometimes you don’t need a $100 drill. Sometimes you just need a $20 drill and you don’t have one, and Harbor Freight’s a great place to get stuff like that.”

Gabe’s

Gabe’s sells clothes, shoes, accessories, bath and beauty products, home items and other merchandise.

The company buys odd lots, overrun orders and other shipments to stock its shelves. Stores get deliveries four to five times per week. The buying process means merchandise might be available in only one size, color or style, which contributes to the appeal of a search for a good deal.

Dollar stores

The latest big addition to downtown Wilkes-Barre’s shopping is a Dollar Tree store that opened last year..

Dollar Trees dot Luzerne and Lackawanna counties, with more than a dozen locations within 25 miles of Scranton. Dollar General and Family Dollar also have multiple locations in the region.

Dollar stores are proliferating across the country. Dollar General plans to open 900 stores next year.

Contact the writer: bwellock@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2051,

@CVBillW on Twitter

Early in December, at the height of the holiday season when online shoppers flock to websites to buy goods, a man in a dark jacket and a blue hat with ear flaps walked onto a Birney Avenue porch in Scranton and swiped packages worth $640.

The thief has not yet been identified.

A man who was with him, whom police identified as Avery L. Searcy, 29, 1013 W. Lackawanna Ave., would be charged within a few days with criminal conspiracy and receiving stolen property.

Video surveillance from a camera at the home helped identify Searcy. A camera is just one thing people can use to keep deliveries safe as they shop online.

Consumers do their shopping online at a growing rate of 8 to 12 percent per year in the United States, said Abhijit Roy, D.B.A., a marketing professor at the University of Scranton. The decline of brick-and-mortar giants highlights how increasingly comfortable people are shopping online.

Any sort of online activity, such as shopping, puts a person at risk for identity theft. Once a package arrives, consumers then must also prevent it from being stolen off their porches.

General practices can help mitigate the dangers of both.

“A lot of it comes down to cyber hygiene at the individual level,” said Christian Beckner, senior director of retail technology at the National Retail Federation.

Nothing someone does online is entirely private, but certain steps can keep critical information away from prying eyes.

That involves refraining from clicking on links from suspicious emails and keeping away from providing your Social Security number or credit card number to a website without authenticating it. Looking for a padlock in the http field of a website address assures that the site is secure.

Thieves out to steal personal or financial information may also make use of information people have publicly available on social media pages to craft more authentic emails loaded with malware, Breckner said. For example, they can look at someone’s friends list on Facebook and then send an email posing as a friend.

With these types of email scams, the goal is to get a victim to click on a link that installs software onto their computer that can monitor keystrokes or send screenshots of a computer screen to the thief.

Using that information, a thief could gain access to credit card or bank account information.

Breckner and Roy strongly suggested only doing business on a secure Wi-Fi network, not one that is open to the public.

Only shopping on a retailer’s actual website, or a trusted third-party site like Amazon or eBay, are recommended. Fraudulent sites can try to entice potential victims with deals that are simply too good to be true, Roy said.

Credit monitoring alone is not sufficient to mitigate the consequences of identity theft but can be useful in adding an extra layer of protection, Breckner said.

Also recommended is regularly updating a computer’s operating system, which may be an annoyance, but helps fix flaws hackers seek to exploit to their advantage.

Roy also said he believes it is smarter to use credit cards for online purchases rather than debit cards because there is no way to control the outflow of money from a compromised debit card.

Theft can happen anyway, though. Last year’s data breach at credit bureau Equifax, which exposed the personal information of 143 million people, highlights that.

“As the online market grows, we’re going to have more and more of those instances and we have to be more vigilant at every level,” Roy said.

Once an item is bought and shipped, the next step is to get it off the porch and inside the home safely.

On that December day, the thief on Birney Avenue stole two suitcases, a Bluetooth speaker and a gas valve. City police are still looking for the thief, Capt. Dennis Lukasewicz said, but surveillance cameras the victim had installed helped capture the man he was with, Searcy.

The Police Department posted a video clip to its Facebook page, “Be Part of the Solution,” and a tip from the public identified Searcy.

A picture of Searcy police found in records searches matched a still of him on the surveillance video. They also found one of the stolen suitcases when they visited his home, according to a criminal complaint.

He was still wearing the sneakers he wore during the theft, police said.

Package thieves sometimes follow delivery trucks and steal packages shortly after they’ve been dropped off.

The city Police Department recommended that people require a signature on all deliveries and ask that the delivery person ring the doorbell or knock on the door.

A package recipient can also have a package delivered to an alternate destination, like an office or a relative’s house, if they know that they won’t be home when a package is scheduled to be delivered.

Packages also don’t have to be left on the porch. Recipients can leave detailed instructions for delivery people and request that packages be dropped off in a shed or in a garage, for example.

It is still a good idea to insure packages anyway, authorities said. A victim should also file a police report should a package be stolen.

As for Searcy, his case seems to be winding down. He admitted in an interview with detectives that he was there at the time of the theft and received one of the items that had been stolen, forming the basis for the misdemeanor charges against him.

He applied in February for the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program, a probationary program that, if completed, will drop the charges and expunge them from his record.

However, charges against him were still pending as of mid-March.

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LYNETT: We’ll get right up into the questions now. Compare shopping now to the way we shopped in the past. What are the most significant obstacles facing the retail sector and how are retailers are staying relevant?

McGRATH: We believe that shopping habits have always existed in an evolutionary and omni-channel experience. Today it’s more robust than ever — mobile apps, e-mail marketing, social media. And we see it moving forward to continue to be an evolutionary and omni-channel, in which both Internet and retail bricks and mortar will continue to coexist.

We can point to some real-time examples, one being Amazon, one of the premier retailers has begun now putting delivery boxes into shopping centers. They’ve also begun to open stores, like some other primary Internet retailers like Bonobos and Warby Parker.

NEWMAN: Shopping is evolutionary. People may not remember that it wasn’t until 1977 that the Pennsylvania General Assembly overturned the Blue Laws that prevented shopping on Sundays. Society changed, and so did consumer expectations. Similarly over 60 years you’ve seen consumer preferences move from main street, to the first shopping centers, to enclosed malls, to the big boxes, to lifestyle centers, and now online. And those changes have been driven in large part by changes in technology. Main Street was a creature of centering technologies, the trolleys that brought everyone to downtown. That’s what created the main streets of a hundred years ago. Suburban retail was created by a decentralizing technology, the car. Sears Roebuck … was the Amazon of its time. And it was created by the technologies of the U.S. Postal Service and the railroads that shipped the stuff that people ordered via catalogues. So today there’s online. But I think that one of the most significant obstacles that is facing the retail sector is the over-saturation of the marketplace. Today there’s more than 5 million square feet of retail space in the greater Wilkes-Barre area, and more than half of that has been added since 1988. The market’s population, obviously, has dropped somewhat during the past 30 years, but the retail square footage doubled during that same period of time. Today the U.S. has more retail square footage per capita than any other country in the world. It has 24 leasable square feet per capita, compared to 10 leasable square feet per capita in Canada, and half of that in most western, most other western countries. So you take that, and then you look at layering, you look at layering e-commerce and online on top of it, and there’s going to be some carnage.

LOMBARDO: Much like Larry, I’m a Main Street manager by virtue of my position in Pittston city, and I’ve spent 20 years, you know, really taking a hard look at it and trying to understand the evolution of how we got from the blooming days of the downtown to sort of the dark days of the downtowns that we’ve all experienced. Without the automobile you don’t have a mall. Without the Internet you don’t have the Internet shoppers. I think the real value though of the Internet is that it creates opportunities. It creates opportunities for startup companies that otherwise couldn’t afford to go out and hire huge marketing firms to get their product out to millions of people. And I think you’ll continue to see evolution in those areas. So I like the model. It’s really figuring out how we all work together, and how this all fits. And I think there’s still a place for main streets. I think there’s a place for malls in this equation. And I think the e-commerce part is an important part that really can feed that process right through.

FLEMING: I do agree with Michael’s last sentiments of there’s a bigger place for everybody to compete. But I’ve been in retail since 2004, opening up a brick and mortar, and the landscape has definitely changed from there. And the difference between now and then, one of the big differences is that there wasn’t social media back then. You competed with your neighbor. You competed with somebody down the street. Now the competition is everywhere. You’re competing with every single small-town mall-operated business across the nation. And that’s what the Internet brings. One of the solutions is that what Tim was saying - we need to have an omni-channel approach, so we are retail, but we also are a brand, as well. Because consumers are so savvy these days that they are researching before they’re even walking into your establishment. They are looking for deals. There’s definitely opportunity, but it’s very competitive, it’s very challenging, and you are really running on all cylinders all the time to operate a business in this climate.

FASULA: You know, as a food retailer, my perspective is a little different than most retail. Whenever there’s an economic downturn, they will issue more food stamps. They don’t issue more jewelry stamps or fragrance stamps. So we’re a little protected. And then the other protection against some of this Internet proliferation is that it’s very difficult to do fresh foods. And even canned and packaged foods are very difficult to transport because they’re heavy, and the margins are very thin. My perspective is there is an enormous pressure here, now, and coming, and it’s going to get even worse in terms of labor. There’s going to be a huge shortfall in the number of workers, and I think we’re going to see a lost wage pressure, which I’m very concerned will lead to a lot of inflation. And I’m also concerned about government intrusion. You know, we’ve been trying to open a store in the Poconos for over three years now. And it’s just been a litany of red tape from the local government and the state. It’s just been very, very, very difficult.

I think it’s important for us to recognize these issues and come up with solutions for them.

LYNETT: I think the Amazon mindset has created the “I want what I want and I want it now.” And I think for you that has meant now we’re going to start taking orders online and delivering. Do you see that as a growing business?

FASULA: Absolutely. We’ve had a tremendous growth in that over the course of last year. We launched our home delivery and picking operation back in September, and we’ve seen steady growth, especially when there’s big snow storm coming, because people don’t want to go out in it. I don’t see, at least not in the near future, them being able to do it via big shipping companies. It’s going to be too hard and too expensive.

McGRATH: I would contend that (when) people leave the downtown area, they do not come back on the weekends. They do not come back at night. They stay out in their prospective areas. They don’t come back to shop. Danielle was speaking to (what) I think (is) one of the big obstacles - knowing your customer.

FLEMING: The expectations of consumers today has also changed drastically. I think a lot of that is from Amazon Prime and the two-day shipping. We get customers that will place an order on a Monday and will call us on Tuesday and say, you know, has it shipped yet. They will literally walk in 20 minutes later and say “Where’s my order?” There’s some challenges of the expectations of consumers who are very savvy, but also have high expectations of their purchasing, and how it’s done, and when it’s done, and the speed at which it’s done.

DURKIN: So I sort of in my mind break it down in three different components. One is how do you use technology effectively in your business. The other side is sort of the obviously one people jump to mostly, and that’s the marketing side. Everybody has to have a website. Everybody has to be on the social media platforms. And it gets awfully cluttered. So the challenge to, you know, all retail I think is going to be what is your space on that, what’s your best way to use that effectively to market your operation. And then the last one, which is the one that really is sort of the quiet one, but it keeps emerging, and that’s the customer experience technology. And from the Chamber standpoint, we like to try to stay ahead of this, if we can, to provide you with information, and open some doors for you.

COLLINS: I think we would all agree that there is a historical precedent that the lifecycle of retail is continually changing. One of the things that has, you know, really changed over the years is that now the consumer is in some instances exceptionally educated, possibly more educated in some manner than the person that might be selling them the item. So how do we get those people back into, you know, looking at the main street concept, It’s not on those, you know, particular days of the week that you would see the usual customer. It’s any time. It’s 3 in the morning. We need to look at the evolution of the consumer.

McGRATH: You need to know your customer, but who is that.

When the millennials came, there was this frenzy. Everybody dropped everything and tried to court the millennials … clearly going after the new demographic, knowing that they have to catch them to survive in the future, but at the same time left their traditional customer standing there going what about us. And that is a real big challenge. Because the millennials are already kind of transitioning out of what everybody wants to target now, the retail industry. So the next group, and I’m not sure what term this next generation is.

LYNETT: It’s interesting that marketing has come up several times. And the issue, obviously, is that ad budgets aren’t growing, but where you need to be is growing. And the Internet is great, because you’re inviting the world in. But if you’re on Facebook only, then locally you’re only inviting in your Facebook follows. You’re not inviting in new customers. So the issue of managing your advertising budget and being in the right place is not being a JC Penney and forgetting your local formally loyal customers, it’s a major issue.

COLLINS: Where we see so many small business owners that are one-man shop that may not -- that have the expertise in their product and building their own brand, but then how do they translate that to the Internet to capture all of those, you know, all of the social media aspect for the marketing piece.

DURKIN: I think there’s a parochial aspect to this, too. Northeastern Pennsylvania is a bit different. You guys still have a bigger share of the newspaper market than most other markets of its size, correct?

LYNETT: Number one market in the country.

DURKIN: Which means that that’s a different mindset in this population. There’s got to be a balancing act. You got to know your customer base.

SAKOSKY: The way we shop is more of a generation gap for me. 90 percent of what I buy, I go to a store and I have to see I have to touch and everything else. And my kids are just the opposite. 90 percent of what they get, they’ll go on their smartphone, and tell they’ll purchase it, and they don’t need to touch it, to smell it, to feel it. And that’s just me, and that’s an older generation. And I found in our retail market, you got to figure out how am I going to make basically the most money. Do I do that online or brick and mortar? The small person doesn’t have a big inventory, but you’ve got to figure out how you can get the product fast and get it out. Bricks and mortar, they’re limited by space, too, but they have the advantage of people coming in, you can touch and feel it. You just got to figure out how to convince them to come to your place, be it online or be it in the store.

McGRATH: I contend that what retailers, major retailers have done for the last several years is incentivize people to the Internet. Now you’re seeing a little bit of glimmer of hope where they’re starting to incentivize the shopper back into the store. Walmart is one where they’ll provide a discount for you if you order online but pick it up in the store.

DURKIN: Correct me if I’m wrong. The conversion rate, if I’m using the phrase right, is so substantially higher on site for the obvious reason, what you just described. If you’re there, you see it. You’ve come to the trouble to go there. If you’re online, you go and look at something and, like, well, all right, I’ll come back to that. I don’t have to make my decision right now.

GHOSH: Shopping has changed over the years. Mostly because of one thing, and that has been kind of the main idea behind every time we talked about evolution of shopping, and a little concept that economists talked about back in 1950s and 1960s, and that can be captured as search cost. Cost of doing the search. The consumers want to know about pretty much the existence of products where they are, and the type of varieties that they might get. If you go back to, as pointed out, the catalogues, the catalogue stores, they were all kind of response to that search cost. QVC, shopping channels on TV came that way. Now, we have online shopping. Perhaps the most important concern that retailers should have, that is how to be responsive to this new, quote/unquote, new style of shopping, online shopping, but at the same time not forgetting that what was the traditional shopper. Who would have thought even few years back our second largest retail would be an online book store. You never thought about it then.

LYNETT: You’re on such a roll. Let’s go to the next question

FASULA: Can retail bricks and mortar survive in this new climate? Because in one of the things that Tim mentioned was that I think he said 80 percent is still purchased in bricks and mortar, can a retail operation with a, you know, occupancy cost of rent and lighting and everything else still survive. Because that 20 percent that you lose is what keeps you above water. That 20 percent is your profit, and it’s everything that allows you to continue to survive. So, you know, the question becomes is can they survive given that they’re going to lose 10 or 20 percent of their sales. And then if they can survive, it’s probably going to be in a much smaller footprint, which I think could be, you know, leading to even more of that unused retail space. So I think that’s -- it’s going to be a big issue moving forward.

GHOSH: But that kind of presumes that the size of the pie is fixed. It’s not. The way the American economy has grown in the post-World War period, that the total amount of retail sales, that volume and the dollar value has grown tremendously. And so -- and you would always have to face competition. Whether you face competition through from online merchants or somewhere else, you would be facing that. But still that 88 percent statistic that you talked about, that should be heartening for retail because it shows that even in this, in this very competitive marketplace, where we always think that online shopping has put a death nail on retail, and that’s not the case. So in spite of, and I understand your concern, but in spite of the fact that it is only 88 percent, it’s not 100 percent, it will never be. It will go town to 70 percent. Because there will be other ways of doing shopping, and we will, we will have to respond to that reality. But the fact remains that to what extent the scope of the retail spending increases, that becomes important. That if the economy grows, that even with that 70 percent, that could be very, very important, and very viable period. I think that is what we need to think about.

McGRATH: I would agree. And to your point, I think we’ll see the shift in people getting smaller. We, as a company, what we like to say is we got smaller, we got more nimble. We’re now better prepared to adapt with all these changes that are coming at us. So what we did was we took some of our non core assets and sold them off and are focusing on fewer assets to, again, invest all of our energies, and make sure that, we’re able to react to the market as it changes. I think you’ll see the national retailers getting smaller, sleeker, trying to integrate the experiential experience for the customer.

LOMBARDO: Downtowns that have repositioned themselves have done that around experience, and malls will do that, too. How many people in this room have said, you know what do you want to do tonight.? Let’s go to mall. What really is that? I mean, you’re not really purposefully going there for the latest pair of Nikes. You’re just going there to roam sometimes. And as a result of that you have food courts. And it’s not by accident that there are movie theaters that bump right up against or attach to malls. That model has changed a little bit. So it’s always been about the experience. And I think if you can refocus on what the experience is, then you can resell your product.

NEWMAN: And that’s exactly what has happened in the successful downtowns and the successful main streets. The fact is that Wilkes-Barre’s night time economy is booming. And it is anchored by precisely the sort of food and entertainment-driven anchors that you would expect. But I do want to go back to some of the other points that were made earlier. There is no question that, look, we’re talking about the latest disrupter to come into the retail sector, online. Well, yesterday’s disrupters are the ones that are getting disrupted today. There’s a billion square feet of vacant retail space right now across the country. A billion. And most of that is not on Main Street. Most of it is the stuff that was built 30, 20 years ago. Tim talked about the department stores. They were the titans of retailing in the 19th and throughout most of the 20th century, the defined retailer. There are 57 cities in Pennsylvania. They range from Philadelphia down to small cities, Pittston, Carbondale. Every single one of them had a main street with department stores. Today of those 57 cities there are three that still have a downtown department store. Three out of 57. You’re sitting in one. The other is the city that I come from. And the third is Philadelphia. That’s it. And it’s no surprise I think that two of the three stores that are still there happen to be Boscov’s. The Boscov’s on South Main Street in downtown Wilkes-Barre, and the Boscov’s a block from us here. And I think that that’s because as that sector has gone through its change, for a variety of reasons that are probably much too complex to go into right here, I think, you know, Al Boscov and his family and his team have been able to navigate some very difficult circumstances. But make no mistake, they are the exception to the rule. And I think that’s absolutely true as we look at -- you know, I know what’s going on with the traditional anchors with the shopping malls have had. That whole model for you guys is turning on its head because you can’t count on Sears and Penney’s

LYNETT: This is a great discussion. We have to move on to the next question. How does the local retail workforce stay competitive with the growth of online shopping?

GHOSH: And I’ll just modify it slightly. How does the local, independent retail (stay competitive)?

LYNETT: Sure.

GHOSH: If you cannot beat them, learn from them. Effectively, join them. The local independent retail faces the current disrupter, the presence of online merchants. So what you need to do … is basically have a great website. A lot of the young shoppers perhaps would not set foot in a store. They will buy everything online, and they really do not want to have that “experience” of going to a store, look at products and buy. Even if they’re not buying stuff online, they are using the online information to get information about the product that you may have. And if they are coming into your store, they’re coming with all the information they already have, they have decided that are going to kind of maybe give a final look at your product and then they would buy it. The majority of the shoppers already know what they are looking for. They’re just coming to make that final purchase from you, so it is up to you to make that sale. And it is up to the workforce to be knowledgeable about, knowledgeable enough about your own product that so that you can make that sale.

NEWMAN: We have seen the growth of Small Business Saturday in the United States, something that started only in 2010. So this year it will be 8 years old. And even though it is less than a decade old, this is something that I know talking to many of the independent retailers in downtown Wilkes-Barre, Small Business Saturday is now their best sales day of the year. It is exceeding Black Friday. They are thrilled. And I think the local retailers are getting better at building on ideas like Small Business Saturday to focus on the locally-sourced products, to focus on the independently provided products, to give people that connection that ties into experience.

GHOSH: If you cannot get a website going and some online presence, then you are not getting that customer who otherwise would be even coming to your store. And one of the things that you really do not have to have is an elaborate online presence. You can get started small and then can expand. Having a website maintained is not that difficult these days. It’s also less expensive. And one other thing that I was talking about, if you cannot really beat them, join them. Amazon Marketplace is a great thing for small independent merchants and vendors. And you can sell through Amazon Marketplace.

LOMBARDO: My philosophy is a little bit different. I tend to say if you can’t or don’t want to join them, beat them. The beauty of bricks and mortar stores, you can add value. If you can take your business to the next level and add value, then you create a set of requirements for the people that work at your business that require them to have at least some level of experience or training which allows them to demand, I think, a little bit better dollar in terms of what they get paid. So, really, that’s a better model in my eyes for the economy.

SAKOSKY: How many times do you go into a store and you’re turned off because the salesperson or the person you’re talking to really doesn’t know the product, can’t identify it, doesn’t know where it’s at in the store. Home Depot, when they first came out, they were fantastic. The salespeople knew everything about everything. And, unfortunately, now if you go into the store, the quality of the salespeople have dropped drastically. But on the other side of it, Home Depot is doing fantastic.

LOMBARDO: You’re absolutely right about that. Because I think in the beginning the models for those places like Home Depot and Lowe’s were to put people that had some understanding of plumbing in the plumbing section. And you go there now and you can ask -- if you know something about plumbing and you ask someone for a very specific tool, you know, a half-inch pex adapter, some of them look at you like what you are you talking about. So you have to do it actually the old-school way and describe it. That’s why the really interesting anomaly in the area is that there are some little ma and pop hardware stores that have done really well. Because you can go in there, not really having any technical background, have a plumbing issue, and actually somebody at the little hardware store can walk them through what they need to do.

GHOSH: But unfortunately a lot of those smaller hardware stores have gone out of business after Home Depot and Lowe’s moved to this area. So that is also one issue though.

FLEMING: I think for us, you know, it comes down to experience, service, and relationships. But I don’t think that solely exists in brick and mortar. But it doesn’t mean that we can’t create that experience online, as well. So when you walk into our doors, our brand has a certain look, a certain feel to it. You get a certain level of service and expertise. You’ll also find that -- and that’s what I think makes omni-channels success is that when you go to our website you should have that same feeling and that same connection, and you should see photos that look like the shops, and there should be a connection. And that connection also then needs to go onto social media. Our market is different for Instagram because we have a different age group than it is on Facebook. Our Clarks Summit location, we have a different marketing plan then we do for our downtown Scranton location. I think that experience can happen both in brick and mortar from the moment they walk in to them becoming a longtime customer. Our staff goes through two months of training before they even talk to a customer in the customer perfume studio experience. They need to be knowledgeable. They need to answer those questions. The landscape has changed but it is our obligation to stay competitive to address it,and to be there to provide exceptional service, to build a relationship so that they keep on coming back to us, and to provide an experience that, you know, is something that is both memorable and remarkable and consistent.

FASULA: So I must have read this question a little differently because I read this more as some advice on people who wanted to be in the retail workforce and what they should do. I think … retail … is a terrific industry. It’s very dynamic, it always changes, you never have a dull moment. One of the difficulties that we’ve had is the cost of college education. So many people are driven now to say I need to go to college. And I think there’s definitely a place for higher education no matter what. The problem is is that we’re spending so much money on this now that kids come out of school, they have all this enormous debt and they’re kind of committed to saying now I have to go get a job that’s going to pay me $80,000 a year. People that are interested in retail need to do a cost benefit analysis on higher education and say, well, maybe I should go for an associate’s degree or some sort of certificate, or go for specific classes to prepare myself for this industry, or look at more of the trades. You know, we’re very hungry in my business for cooks and bakers. We have a very difficult time finding them. And I’m thrilled that Lackawanna College is investing into their program the way they are for culinary, because that’s very important to us. We should be looking at things like apprenticeships or internships.

DURKIN: If you look at a corollary in manufacturing, 50 years ago, even 30 years ago, someone could graduate high school, get into a manufacturing enterprise, and be taught the job. Now you’re in a world where, from a manufacturing standpoint, the basic high school degree isn’t going to get you where you need to be on an entry level manufacturing job, or especially advanced manufacturing.

There there’s not a lot of room for training, and there’s not a lot of money for training. Speaking as one who worked for Kmart for three years in high school and beyond, yes, I could write a book about some of the things that happened, both within the enterprise and out. That was a great experience. Because I think that it helps you as both an employee later on, but also as a person to understand how to deal with people, you know, or better yet how not to deal with people, right.

COLLINS: I believe that when -- there’s a statistic that states that US e-commerce has grown almost 18 percent in the last eight years. So when I looked at that number, I thought, wow, that is an obstacle most definitely. But on the flip side I see it as a great opportunity, as well. because they have a duel opinion, they can have an online and an offline opinion. So they can have that word-of-mouth, you know, which really can drive productivity to their location, and then they can have that online, you know, opinion and brand, as well. I’m looking at it from the aspect of how do we give the consumer a reason to shop. Activities such as First Friday Scranton, that is a great opportunity for business owners to give that different experience. It’s not just coming in because you’re looking for that particular item, but maybe there’s an artist there that evening, or music, or you just want to even just get more acquainted with what’s, you know, in the downtown. I think that’s a great way of bringing people in for a different type of experience. We can look back to our own history, the Scranton Times, Pizza by Pappas, Coney Island Lunch, businesses within our own community that have survived the test of time. How have they remained competitive? Larry, you mentioned Small Business Saturday. For downtown Scranton, this Small Business Saturday this past Thanksgiving weekend was the best financially, the best weekend that the small businesses had in Scranton. We had over 50 businesses just purely in the downtown that participated this year. I do think that there is something to that old statement of what’s old is new again. Retail can survive looking at e-commerce as an opportunity and really not an obstacle.

LYNETT: Interesting you bring up, and a couple people have, the idea of when you go to a store you touch and you feel or you try on because this brand sizes don’t run the same as this brand sizes. And I’ve asked some people who do everything Amazon or online, I say how do you get beyond that. Well, free returns, you know. I just order two versions of it, and I send back the one that doesn’t fit. It’s different world.

LYNETT: With the closure of big box stores such as Kmart, how can empty space like that be repurposed and put back on the tax rolls?

COLLINS: So when I looked at this last question, I thought, wow, this is a really difficult question, It’s one of those questions that urban planners across the country are really struggling with. I’m not going to say I even have the answer, but I do think that we need to be proactive. When we even have the first inkling that, you know, a business like a Kmart is going to, is having difficulties, I think we start the process then.

DURKIN: The clear example of how to try to wrestle with this issue is The Marketplace at Steamtown. When the mall, ... was being sold .. I probably received about three calls a week, e-mails, letters, “this is what you should do. You should put a casino in there. You should put a water park in there. You should do this, you should do that.” At the end of the day the decision is not made by what I want to put in there, it’s made by whoever is going to invest into that. Just because you want it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. There was a tremendous discussion (to) turn that into the Reading Terminal Market. Reading Terminal Market operates in a location with 8 million people. It’s not the same. What John Basalyga is doing over there I think is an excellent opportunity at the proper scale for Scranton. And we were certainly supportive of it in terms of the food court being transformed. And I think he’s doing it the right way, he’s doing it in a measured way.

LOMBARDO: You hit it right on the head. I think you have to be thoughtful about what you do, and I think you need to be careful, not to have to quick out of the box knee jerk reaction. You know, one of the reasons we look at history is to sort of not repeat the mistakes over and over, hopefully. If you look at main streets, their response to the malls were to do all kind of crazy things that at the end of the day really now has cost us. I mean, we’ve put huge panels on the front of the buildings, and covered second and third-story windows, basically rendering the upper floors useless. Larry jotted this down for me earlier. We had a building down on Main Street that was vacant. One of the things we’ve been able to do is capture Boden, which is an online retailer. We in the City of Pittston on Main Street have the only Boden store in the world. As Boden settled in, they moved it from three days, to four days. So now they began to dominate the space, and we know longer have this open space. For the first time in 50 years we have a new street retailer down on Main Street.

NEWMAN: In Wilkes-Barre I’m struck by the fact that the Woolworths on Main Street in downtown Wilkes-Barre was built as a Woolworths, and went out of business because it was driven out of business by the changes that put that generation of five-and-dimes on every main street in America out of business. That building now houses the world headquarters of Pepperjam, which is a startup that does search engine marketing for e-commerce, that in turn is helping to put out of business the retailers that put Woolworths out of business. The stockroom for Woolworths, is some of the most spectacular office space that exists anywhere in Northeastern Pennsylvania for the 120 people who work at Pepperjam. At the same time, as important as understanding how to repurpose buildings, not everything necessarily lends itself to repurposing. One of the malls that was originally developed by Tim’s old firm, (the) Schuylkill Mall in Schuylkill County, was opened in 1980. It was a big regional mall at the time. It was just sold t... last year for I think a sixth of what (they) had sold it to the next owner for. What the market demands along the I-81 corridor in Schuylkill County is not 700,000 square feet of retail space. What the market demands is a pad for 800,000 square foot industrial buildings that meet those specs that Bob was talking about that the distribution sector and the logistic sector is actually looking for. Now, not everything has to be that dramatic. In our market, Joe Amato, the developer Joe Amato, has done a fantastic job of figuring how to repurpose older obsolete shopping centers. I think about what he’s done with the East End Centre in Wilkes-Barre, where one of the big boxes is now home to KISS, which is the kid’s theater company for the Wyoming Valley. But every situation is different. Bob is absolutely right, the market is going to dictate what the right uses are. My office sits in the old Pomeroy’s Department Store on Public Square, and it has been an office building now for 30 years, and it works very, very well, but that’s not always going to be the best use for the site. And I suspect that as time goes on we are going to see more and more obsolete retail space in country going the way of the Schuylkill Mall.

McGRATH: There is no magic bullet. You know, we consider the Sears acquisition, the capture of Sears and what we were able to achieve there a true success story. The way it was done, and the timing in which we were able to do it, turn it around from 13 months from recapture, to demolition, to reconstruction, which is unheard of in these, you know, days and times. But, really, the simple fact of the matter is we believe it’s strategic planning, and it is being proactive, which we’ve all talked about in certain capacities. The first thing people say to us when a store closes at the mall, why don’t you get these guys, why don’t you get these guys, why don’t you get these guys. Well, ... they all have their own game plan. They have five-year plans themselves.

DURKIN: From the example of the abandoned store versus yours, you control the space. So being able to strategically plan it and move forward, as opposed to what do we do with something that has fallen on hard times.

McGRATH: Well, and that’s actually something that, you know, we are seeing a lot of. I mean, we went from 27 Kmart (stores), malls with Kmarts and/or Sears, now we’re down to seven. But to the point of that and, like you said, we do own it and we can repurpose it, but the similarities are that we have to get creative. So we’re seeing -- malls … originally designed as enclosed community centers …. being repurposed in forms of school, places of worship.

DURKIN: Medicine.

NEWMAN: Sometimes the changes are driven by the changing demands of the retail business. So, Joe, perfect example is how supermarkets have changed in size. What you started out with decades ago was a fraction of what you are looking to build today. I’m sure probably at least double or triple the size of what your original stores were.

FASULA: The first store was a little meat market. And then, you know, the first supermarket was 15,000 square feet. Now we’re building 45 to 50.

NEWMAN: Acme Markets was the big chain, and they had these 15,000 square foot buildings all over the place, which eventually went away for larger models and Acme pulled out of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Most of those stores today are not grocery stores, the ones that are still in use. They’re drug stores or Family Dollars, because the drug stores have actually grown to need that size footprint, and they happen to be generally in high traffic locations in those communities. And then there are retail concepts like a Dollar General or a Dollar Tree or Family Doctor that simply did not exist … that now find those boxes useful. It’s remarkable how the market actually ends up driving so much of what occurs. It has to be both aspirational, but also possible.

GHOSH: The challenge to repurpose old retail space is really something that the urban developers always think about, as Leslie pointed out. Finally it boils down to basic works of demand and supply. And that very well could be defined by the community needs. And on the supply side, what that particular space is providing, that very well could be the structural things that are being provided, it very well could be dependent on the location of that particular space. And if there is at some point meeting of the demand and supply, then we will see kind of a whole plethora of different types of things that may show up in that particular retail space.

DURKIN: I’m not saying just sit back and wait for the market to take place. Look at what the resource is, see what possible uses it could have. And if there are elements that are not related to the physical structure, you know, like financing or other, you know, transportation, access points, things like that, the community can take care of those if it so desired.

NEWMAN: I would actually argue that it’s a function of a profession that doesn’t actually get enough attention or respect, specifically in Northeastern Pennsylvania, which is planning. This is the job of planners. And too often in this region we don’t spend enough time planning. We think we do.

DURKIN: We react.

NEWMAN: We react, but we are not, we are not planning. I say that, of course, as a planner. But, you know, that’s -- it’s an issue. You know, planning is taking what the community wants to see, what its desires and hopes for the futures are, and merging it with what the market demands are, what the demographic demands are, what the land use demands are. And that’s where so much of this conversation should be occurring. And, unfortunately, in this region, we’re not doing it nearly as much as we should be.

SAKOSKY: Well, we’re the owners of that building you were talking about where the theaters was, and our progression through what happened there, unfortunately, is not as calculated as you had said that your plans were. When the theater decided to close … it was a stroke of luck that this guy came to the door -- he somehow had the vision to change that building that was a theater into his office space and a meeting hall for the church. And it was just pure luck. Everything I did failed. And then this guy comes in with a vision and it worked. And it worked out fantastically. And I think the Kmart building up there ...someone’s going to come in with a vision, and .. he’s going to come with a vision, and he’s going to have adequate financing to see what he can do and not do. In the end, I think somebody’s going to surprise me and come up there and do it because they have a vision of what they want in there.

LYNETT: All right. We’re going to get you out on time. Thank you all very much again for being here, and for being such willing participants, and being very conversational. It’s nice to have the back and forth. I want to wish everybody luck in catering to and learning from our new customers while maintaining our traditional customers. It’s the same problem we’re facing with the changing readership habits of our own readers here at the paper. But it’s exciting. There’s opportunity to learn and to evolve. Thank you all again for being here.

Moderator:

George V. Lynett Jr.

Publisher

The Times-Tribune

Lynett earned a Bachelor of Arts from the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, a diploma in business studies and industrial relations from the London School of Economics and a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University. He was commissioned in the Navy in 1996, leaving the Naval Reserve as a lieutenant commander in 2006. Lynett lives in Waverly Twp. with his wife, Katey, and their four children.

Panelists:

Robert F. Durkin

President and CEO, Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce

Durkin took the helm of the chamber in September 2013. Before that, he served for 12 years as president of the Northeast Regional Cancer Institute. He is a graduate of Penn State University, has undertaken advanced studies at the Institute for Public Administration at Penn State University and completed studies at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Institute for Organizational Management at the University of Delaware. Durkin and his wife, Sherry, reside in Olyphant and are the parents of daughter, Jessica, and son, Kevin.

Joseph Fasula

Co-owner

Gerrity’s Supermarkets

Fasula is co-owner of Gerrity’s Supermarkets with nine stores in Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties. Gerrity’s was established in 1895, employs over 1,100 people and is headquartered in Scranton. Joe, along with his mother, Joyce “Mom” Fasula, together assumed control of the supermarket chain after the death of Neal Fasula. They converted five stores to the Gerrity’s format, which brought the total number of locations to nine. Joe and his wife, Sandy, are also the co-owners of Fire and Ice Restaurant on Toby Creek in Trucksville. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from the University of Scranton. He is father of three children.

Danielle Fleming

Founder and CEO

Note Fragrances

Fleming is the founder, CEO and olfactive “nose” behind Note Fragrances, a boutique perfumery and custom perfume studio with its flagship location in downtown Scranton, and a newly opened second location in Clarks Summit. Fleming honed her craft at Firmenich, the world’s largest privately held fragrance house, as a senior consumer insights analyst. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Moravian College, a master’s degree in mental health counseling and a M.Ed. in instructional leadership from Marywood University. She resides in Dunmore with her husband, Mark, who co-owns the business with her.

Dr. Satyajit Ghosh

Professor of economics

University of Scranton

Ghosh has been teaching at the Kania School of Management, University of Scranton, since 1986. Until summer 2010, he was chairman of the economics and finance department — a position that he held for more than 15 years. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the State University of New York at Buffalo. An expert in the areas of economic development, economic theory and policy, Ghosh has written numerous scholarly articles on economics and presented in academic and professional conferences all over the world.

Michael Lombardo

Mayor

City of Pittston

Lombardo is the business development director at Quad 3 Architectural and Engineering Services. He is a 1986 and 1988 graduate of Bucknell University where he received an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts Degree in psychology and a Master in Education Degree in school psychology and clinical counseling. Upon graduation, Lombardo worked for 20 years in public education serving in various capacities including school psychologist and special education director. He is serving his third term as mayor of Pittston. Lombardo lives in Pittston with his wife, Susan Donovan Lombardo, and twin daughters, Catherine and Kristen, both seniors at Notre Dame University.

Timothy B. McGrath

General manager

PREIT Services/The Viewmont Mall

McGrath is the general manager of the Viewmont Mall in Scranton/Dickson City, owned by Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, or PREIT Services. He is a certified shopping center manager through the International Council of Shopping Centers and is a Pennsylvania Real Estate Licensee. He has been GM at Viewmont Mall since 2001. Prior to joining PREIT, Tim worked in the public sector at both the federal and county levels. He was the Northeastern Pennsylvania regional director for United States Senator Harris Wofford and at the county level, he was chief clerk to Lackawanna County Recorder of Deeds Evie Refalko McNulty. McGrath resides in Dunmore with his wife, Heather, and their children Burke, Mary Grace and Robert.

Leslie Memolo-Collins

Executive director

Scranton Tomorrow

Memolo-Collins serves as the executive director of Scranton Tomorrow since 2006. In this capacity, she works to develop initiatives that will improve the quality of life in our region. Prior to joining Scranton Tomorrow, Memolo-Collins was the deputy director for the City of Scranton’s Office of Economic and Community Development, serving as the liaison to major economic development projects including the Casey Laundry Building, Southern Union headquarters, the Ice Box, Riverfront Sports, and Sauquoit Industries. She graduated from the University of Scranton in 1987 with a degree in marketing. She lives in Clarks Summit with her husband and daughter.

Larry Newman

Executive director

Diamond City Partnership

A Wilkes-Barre resident, Newman earned a Bachelor of Architecture from Princeton University and a Master of Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He is the founding executive director of the Diamond City Partnership, Wilkes-Barre’s nonprofit downtown management organization. For the past 17 years, he has planned and overseen Downtown Wilkes-Barre’s revival. He previously served as the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber’s vice president of economic development and as an urban planner in private practice.

Robert P. Sakosky Jr.

President

Daniel Siniawa & Associates LTD

Sakosky started to work for the company when he left the U.S. Navy in 1985. After managing a hardware store for over a year, Daniel Siniawa brought him into the main office to help him with the real estate business. Over the years that followed, Siniawa took Sakosky under his wings and taught him the real estate development business. Sakosky is the president of Daniel Siniawa & Associates LTD on Commerce Boulevard in Dickson City. He is married to Annelle Sakosky and they reside in Scott Twp. They have seven children.

Find a pet who needs a new home at the Griffin Pond Animal Shelter.

Miles Grey is an adult, neutered male cat. He is friendly and very personable.
Contact the Griffin Pond Animal Shelter at 586-3700 if your pet is lost or goes astray. Staff Photo by Ted Baird

 

Bronco and Brooklyn are a bonded pair of male pittbull mixes who must be adopted together. They are both friendly with nice personalities.
Contact the Griffin Pond Animal Shelter at 586-3700 if your pet is lost or goes astray. Submitted Photo


Watch the latest Pets of the Week video HERE:

Dickson City has less than one-tenth the municipal roads as its neighbor to the west, Scranton, but Lackawanna County’s busy shopping district sees more daily stop-and-go traffic than most other towns.

That’s informing this year’s paving plans as the state hands out annual liquid fuels grants for road work.

Lackawanna County municipalities received a combined $7.5 million in funding, which is divvied up based on each town’s population and municipal road miles.

Dickson City, with 6,000 residents and about 23 road miles, received $193,000 and started setting paving priorities for the paving season ahead.

“The big one is going to be Commerce Boulevard,” borough Manager Cesare Forconi

said, who explained that the work will happen roughly between Home Depot and the entrance to Walmart.

Commerce Boulevard is a wide road, up to five lanes across in spots, so each year the borough tries to resurface one section with the resources available, he said.

Other paving projects have yet to be finalized; however, he noted the borough is kicking in another $30,000

from its general fund to bolster work this year.

Scranton received the largest liquid fuels share, $2.35 million

. With 263 road miles

, the Electric City has by far the most to maintain of all the Lackawanna County towns.

Dunmore was the next in line with 52 road miles

and a population of 14,000

.

The smallest shares were:

Vandling, 750 residents, two road miles, $21,200.

West Abington Twp., 250 residents, 5½ road miles, $23,300.

La Plume Twp., 600 residents, 4 miles, $24,000.

PennDOT distributed $489 million in statewide liquid fuels allocations, a $22.8 million increase from last year.

First collected in the 1930s, Pennsylvania’s liquid fuels tax taps sales of gasoline and ethanol blends, aviation fuel as well as undyed diesel and kerosene and is available to fund municipal pavement projects, buy equipment and maintain roads.

Payments were distributed March 1.

At least one borough road manager is looking at this paving season with disdain.

Frequent freeze/thaw cycles this winter left rough roads in their wake, and Moosic, which received $206,000 in liquid fuels funds, was not spared.

“You had all those ups and downs, you had your cold and then warm, cold and warm, and all those little ice storms,” said Moosic Road Commissioner Michael Poplawski. More than a few roads in Moosic will be resurfaced this year, he said.

Contact the writer:

joconnell@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9131;

@jon_oc on Twitter

Christians throughout the world observed Palm Sunday — the day that commemorates the triumphant arrival of Christ in Jerusalem, days before he was crucified.

Palm Sunday is the final Sunday of Lent and the beginning of Holy Week, which culminates with Easter Sunday.

Palm Sunday is known as such because the faithful receive palm fronds that they use to participate in the re-enactment of Christ’s arrival in Jerusalem. In the Gospels, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding a donkey, and people threw palms or small branches in front of him as a sign of respect. Palm branches are a widely recognized symbol of peace.

During Palm Sunday services in most churches, palms are distributed to parishioners. The palms are blessed, and many people fashion them into small crosses or other items of personal devotion.

If you are a pedestrian or a bicyclist — and most of us are one or both — the state Department of Transportation wants to hear from you.

PennDOT invites the public to weigh in through an online survey as it works to update its Statewide Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan to provide a framework for improving conditions for walking and biking across the state.

The master plan, which is expected to be finalized next March, will be especially relevant locally as Lackawanna and Luzerne counties prepare to study the addition of bicycle lanes in the downtown areas of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.

The Scranton and Wilkes-Barre bike-lane studies will be funded in large part

by a $54,400 grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development, which the counties will split equally. Each county must come up with a $4,080 local match.

County officials said bicycle lanes in the downtowns would provide an alternative means of transportation for residents who do not drive — one of the key groups PennDOT says it wants to reach with its survey.

In Scranton, bike lanes also could improve accessibility to the Lackawanna River Heritage Trail, said Owen Worozbyt, trail and environmental projects manager for the Lackawanna Heritage Valley.

He is encouraged the counties are getting ready to embark on their studies at the same time PennDOT seeks to understand the issues and challenges facing people who walk and bike in Pennsylvania.

“The heritage trail is great, but it only runs along the river, and there are a lot of things you have to get to that aren’t right along the river,” Worozbyt said. ”Having adjacent bike lanes is definitely something that would help accommodate that.”

As part of its ongoing safety crossings project on the Scranton portion of the trail, bicycle lanes will be added within the project areas of three streets — Broadway, Elm and Olive, he said.

If nothing else, it will draw attention to the concept of bike lanes in an area of the state where drivers are unaccustomed to seeing them, he said.

“I think that will start changing people’s perceptions of them,” Worozbyt said.

However, from his perspective, it’s not just about bicycles.

The trail already is used every day by students walking to Scranton High School, particularly from South Scranton, he said. The trail not only offers them a shortcut in many cases, but also is a safer option than traversing the downtown streets.

“You can’t get everywhere on the trail, but it helps as a spine going up and down the valley,” Worozbyt said. “As we connect more and more of these pieces, it will continue to grow.”

Robert Fiume, executive director of the County of Lackawanna Transit System, said the PennDOT master plan has implications for COLTS because walkability is an issue for all public transit agencies.

Simply put, if a potential COLTS passenger cannot safely walk to a bus stop because there are no sidewalks or the sidewalks are in disrepair, that person is probably not going to take the bus, Fiume said.

“We’ve heard it — ‘There is no sidewalk in that area. The sidewalk’s in bad shape. It’s hard to get there,’” he said.

The walkability issue becomes magnified if the individual has a disability, he said.

Roy Gothie, PennDOT’s statewide bicycle-pedestrian coordinator, said his agency hopes to learn through the survey more about the challenges and barriers faced specifically by people who have a mobility disability or visual impairment that prevents them from driving.

As of this week, about 11,000 people took the survey, which will remain active through May 31, he said.

“What we have seen so far is poor sidewalk maintenance and lack of sidewalks are the big barrier for the people who walk,” Gothie said. “For the people who would like to ride bikes or who are riding bikes, they would like to see more bicycle facilities — either bike lanes or separated bicycle facilities so they would be more comfortable riding.”

To take the survey, visit surveymonkey.com/r/2018_BikePed_Community_Survey.

PennDOT expects to release a draft master plan in October. The current master plan was adopted in 2007.

Contact the writer:

dsingleton@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9132

Take the survey

PennDOT invites the public to

weigh in at

surveymonkey.com/r/2018_BikePed_ Community_Survey

March 26, 1918

School board to select new superintendent

Scranton School Board members said they would select a new superintendent at their next meeting, April 9. In the running for the position were the current superintendent, Dr. Samuel E. Weber, and Professor David Phillips, a teacher at Technical High School. The superintendent served for a four-year term.

The board also voted to purchase the pillar coal underneath David Farragut School in South Scranton at a cost of $1,065.40.

State: Schoolboys needed to aid farmers

John C. Frazee, director of the United States Boys Working Reserve, asked county school superintendents across Pennsylvania to make it possible for school-age boys to work in farm service for up to six months a year without disrupting their schooling.

If adopted in Lackawanna County, boys could work on farms from May 1 to Aug. 1 or from Aug. 1 to Nov. 1. The plan had already been adopted in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

While the state was looking for boys to work on farms, Scranton Mayor Alex Connell was looking for men. Connell issued a proclamation urging the men of Scranton to volunteer with the United States Public Service Reserve to work on farms. “The responsibility of supplying food in vast quantities and maintaining an uninterrupted flow of supplies rests upon the people of America,” Connell wrote.

Easter Monday dinner at the Hotel Casey

The Hotel Casey was planning to host an Easter Monday dinner-dance April 1. Dinner would begin at 7 p.m., with entertainment from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. The cost was $2 a plate.

BRIAN FULTON, library manager, oversees The Times-Tribune’s expansive digital and paper archives and is an authority on local history. Contact Brian at bfulton@timesshamrock.com or 570-348-9140.

Lackawanna County

Seeking alumni: Lynnette’s Twirlerettes is seeking alumni to perform at the 35th anniversary recital April 21 at Carbondale Area High School; first rehearsal is Wednesday; for information, alumni asked to contact Lynnette, 570-281-9797, or www.lynnettestwirlerettes.com.

Regional

Food sale: St. Peter’s Lutheran Church poppy seed and nut roll sale, pick-up Wednesday, 10 a.m.-noon and 4-6 p.m., Rock Street, Hughestown; $9 donation, orders taken by Pam, 570-313-2829 and 570-655-0043.

Scranton

Stopping bleeding: Geisinger Community Medical Center will host a day of free “Stop the Bleed Day” training sessions on how to stop or slow life-threatening bleeding, taught by members of GCMC’s trauma team, Saturday, begins 8 a.m., classes every two hours with the last class starting at 4 p.m., GCMC Professional Office Building, basement auditorium, 315 Col­fax Ave.; free and open to the public, 25 attendees per session, preregistration encouraged; more info or to register, Kathryn Bommer, RN, 570-703-7329 or krbommer@geisinger.edu.

Throop

Food sale: Holy Name Society of Blessed Sacrament Parish Eas­ter basket food sale, pick-up Thursday, 1-4 p.m., parish hall, 215 Rebecca St.; $5/handmade lamb butter, $10/cheese, poppy, nut, apricot and lekvar roll; $10/paska bread; order forms at church entrances; questions, any Holy Name member or Joseph Butash, 570-489-4515.

Wayne County

Friday service: South Clinton Baptist Church Good Friday service, doors open at 11:30 a.m., service at noon, Salvation Army’s performing arts & recreation center; several area pastors offering 15- to 20-minute devotional on “Women About the Christ,” free, more info, 570-937-4360.

CLIPBOARD ITEMS may be sent to yesdesk@timesshamrock.com or Clipboard, c/o YES!Desk, 149 Penn Ave., Scranton, PA 18503. YES!Desk, 570-348-9121.

Abington Heights

Arianna Wisenburg led the Abington Heights Science Olympiad and Odyssey of the Mind teams in regional competitions this month.

She served as captain of both teams for the past two years. She’s participated in Science Olympiad since 2011, and took part in Odyssey of the Mind as well as robotics competitions at MIT, Cornell University and Rochester Institute of Technology.

At the state competition last year, the senior, who goes by Ari, led the Science Olympiad team to a seventh-place finish and, before that, a first-place finish in the regional competition.

In the 2017 Odyssey of the Mind competition, Ari’s team finished second in states and ninth in the world competition.

After graduation, she plans to study robotics and artificial intelligence at either RIT or Worchester Polytechnic Institute.

— KATHLEEN BOLUS

kbolus@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5114;

@kbolusTT on Twitter

Blue Ridge

Jessica Marvin is the co-editor of the Raider Reader, Blue Ridge High School’s online newspaper.

Being co-editor is a demanding position that requires hours of commitment, including after-school hours.

Jessica runs meetings, assigns stories, proofreads, edits articles and fact-checks information to ensure each story’s integrity.

She’s also a member of the National Honor Society and her school’s theater program.

In her spare time, she dances at Windwood Hill Dance Academy.

— FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY

flesnefsky@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5181

Carbondale Area

Paige Jones worked alongside physical education teacher MaryJo Naniewicz and classmate Haley Snyder to organize a Powder Puff football game to benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Paige and Haley brought the idea to their teachers and principal.

“It was a great night,” said Paige about the event held in October. “We generated a lot of school spirit with student sections producing banners and we had a very good turnout from our community.”

Naniewicz decided to chair the event since the cause was close to her heart; she lost her mother to breast cancer last year.

“Combined with a great night of entertainment, we raised money for a good cause,” said Paige.

The junior and senior girls competed in the flag-football game while the boys dressed in cheerleading uniforms.

The game raised $1,831 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

“We hope to continue this tradition for many years to come,” said Paige.

— KATHLEEN BOLUS

kbolus@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5114;

@kbolusTT on Twitter

Career Technology Center

Madison Cloud, a junior from Valley View High School, has been nominated student of the month for March by service occupations instructor Arielle Connor.

“Maddie comes to school every day ready to work and assist others,” Connor said. “When she sees students struggling, she immediately goes right over to them to help without hesitation. She is a role model to the other students and displays a positive attitude every day.”

Madison volunteers in the cafeteria to assist the staff in preparing lunches and works at McDonald’s after school.

In her spare time, she enjoys playing basketball and football with her friends.

— JIM LOCKWOOD

jlockwood@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5185;

@jlockwoodTT on Twitter

Senior student ambassadors Samantha Searles and Regina Tochydlowski, both of Lakeland High School, and Kaiona Nelson of Scranton High School have been recognized by ambassador adviser Jenine Ikeler for their weekly commitments to being afternoon voices of CTC’s daily announcements.

“Samantha, Kaiona and Regina have demonstrated leadership as well as honing their public speaking skills,” Ikeler said.

Samantha has enrolled at Misericordia University to major in education.

Kaiona has enrolled at Keystone College to major in early childhood education.

Regina, a licensed cosmetologist, will be heading into the workforce.

— JIM LOCKWOOD

jlockwood@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5185;

@jlockwoodTT on Twitter

Delaware Valley

Abhay Byadgi is a senior class member of the school’s varsity tennis team and scholastic bowl.

“I like feeling part of a team with a common goal,” he said.

Abhay gives back to his community by donating his time with the Pike County Humane Society and Boy Scout events. “Volunteering inspired me to do what I can,” Abhay added.

He hopes to be remembered as an easygoing and respectable student.

— LISA ZACCAGNINO

lzaccagnino@timesshamrock.com

Dunmore

Senior Sean Rogan is serving as editor-in-chief of the school’s yearbook. His duties include creating the book and fundraising for the senior class to cover production costs.

One of those fundraisers is the upcoming basketball game that pits the seniors against faculty. It takes place at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the high school gymnasium.

The game will feature raffles, a half-court shot contest and refreshments. Tickets will be available at the door, with all proceeds benefiting the yearbook.

“I’ve been looking forward to being a senior and playing in this game ever since I watched my older brothers participate,” he said. “It’s a fun event, and I can’t wait to play against my teachers.”

Sean will be majoring in intelligence and national security at Coastal Carolina University next year.

— LISA ZACCAGNINO

lzaccagnino@timesshamrock.com

Forest City

Regional

Colleen Blount and Caylin Gibbs worked on a junior drama club for Colleen’s senior project.

Working with the drama club adviser, the goal was to get younger children interested in drama. They recruited students into the club, producing “The Case of the Missing Ring,” which involved 35 younger students.

They exceeded their expectations for public turnout, with almost 400 people attending. Proceeds benefited the drama club.

Also active in vocal jazz, chamber choir, junior drama and chorus, Colleen plans to attend Empire Beauty School.

— LISA ZACCAGNINO

lzaccagnino@timesshamrock.com

Holy Cross

Junior Meghan Keenan took part in the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science Regional Competition, earning a first-place award and receiving a perfect score for an experiment involving orange juice.

Meghan’s experiment and research, which she presented to a panel of judges at the competition, explored the effects of different sources of light on vitamin C concentrations in the juice. For the experiment, Meghan exposed orange juice samples to natural, LED, incandescent and fluorescent light to see how the different light sources broke down the vitamin.

“It was quite a challenge, but worth every effort,” she said.

Meghan is also a member of the history and political science club, drama club, Fiction Fanatics and National Honor Society.

— JEFF HORVATH

jhorvath@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9141;

@jhorvathTT on Twitter

Lackawanna Trail

Josiah Hricko, a second- year student at the Susquehanna County Career and Vocational Center, was selected by the center’s faculty and staff as student of the month.

He attends the Building Trades II program, which focuses on HVAC and electrical work. Josiah, who has always been interested in working with his hands, became interested in the vocational program after a part-time summer job performing residential framing with a local business.

Josiah is also a member of the 4-H club.

After graduation, he will enlist in the Navy and also plans to work in the building and carpentry industry. Both of Josiah’s grandfathers are Navy veterans, and he believes the experience and discipline will help serve his country and future plans.

— KATHLEEN BOLUS

kbolus@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5114; @kbolusTT on Twitter

Lakeland

History and pop culture guru James Lewis is ready to win with Lakeland’s Scholastic Bowl Team.

The team will compete in the Scholastic Bowl tournament broadcast on WVIA.

“We each have a different area of expertise so we can cover a wide range of material,” said James.

This is James’ third year on the team, and he is optimistic for this year’s squad.

A member of the National Honor Society and Mu Alpha Theta, James is also in the Future Business Leaders of America, Students Against Destructive Decisions, Envirothon and drama clubs.

He runs track and plays football and basketball.

James, a junior, plans to study at a four-year institution after graduation.

— KATHLEEN BOLUS

kbolus@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5114; @kbolusTT on Twitter

Mid Valley

Sophomore Scott Barrett is taking advantage of clubs, sports and activities at school.

An honor roll student who maintains a GPA of above 93, he joined the newly formed robotics and chess clubs. He’s played baseball since he was a child and recently joined the school’s soccer team.

Outside of class, he volunteers at the Moscow train station.

While only a sophomore, Scott has plans to pursue an engineering degree after high school.

— KATHLEEN BOLUS

kbolus@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5114;

@kbolusTT on Twitter

Mountain View

Freshmen Marisa Ostir and Sydney Barhite are the student government committee chairs for the schoolwide Easter Egg Locker Notes Hunt at the high school.

The committee created and colored Easter-themed pictures for every student, faculty and staff member at Mountain View. The decorations were hung on windows around the building, giving students the opportunity to search for their name appearing on a decorated egg, bunny or basket.

“It’s cool to see some people already taking their notes and putting them on their lockers,” Sydney said. “We haven’t even finished hanging all of them and the students are already responding to the event.”

“It’s nice to see the decorations on the windows. It adds a little color and life when this winter doesn’t want to end,” Marisa added.

— FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY

flesnefsky@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5181

North Pocono

Senior Joseph Forconi is in the midst of taking AP physics 2, AP calculus, AP English lit and AP U.S. history, in addition to the eight courses he’s already completed.

Even with his challenging academic schedule, Joseph has still made honor roll each marking period throughout high school and is ranked in the top 20 of his class. A four-year member of the track team, he is also serving as captain and was MVP of the soccer team. He was awarded the Volunteer of the Year award by Moscow borough for being involved in the Young Visionaries program during ninth grade.

His post-graduation plans include majoring in electrical engineering at Penn State University.

— LISA ZACCAGNINO

lzaccagnino@timesshamrock.com

Old Forge

Some district students recently raised money to help a pupil at another district.

Old Forge seventh- and eighth-grade boys basketball teams organized a kindness project and sold T-shirts worn during the Kiel Eigen tournament to support Jalen Chandler , an eighth-grader at South Scranton Intermediate School recently diagnosed with leukemia. The team presented a check to Jalen and his mom for about $900.

— CLAYTON OVER

cover@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5363;

@ClaytonOver on Twitter

Riverside

Kindergartener Evan Brennan shared his love of the ocean with the classroom for show and tell.

“Out of all of the oceans, my favorite is the Atlantic because it’s the closest one to Pennsylvania,” Evan said.

“Oceans” was the name of his project, as the class just wrapped up studying the letter “O” all week. Not leaving any ocean out, Evan even included the Southern Ocean known as Antarctic.

“I like swimming with my brothers in the Atlantic Ocean at Ocean City, Maryland,” Evan said.

— LISA ZACCAGNINO

lzaccagnino@timesshamrock.com

Scranton Prep

Scranton Preparatory School’s Advanced Technology Club took its recent project with robotic mice in a maze to the next level, experimenting with bigger robots at the University of Scranton.

Senior Charles Kulick of Pittston Twp., who has been in the robotics club his whole high school career, joined his classmates there to “work with the robotics equipment on campus ... where we could get more hands-on experience,” he said.

University professor and robotics club adviser Nicholas Truncale split up the club members into teams for some friendly competition, programming a small robot to navigate a 16-square-foot maze on the floor, said Kulick, who plans to study computer science in college and someday work designing artificial intelligence.

“It had to navigate its own way through the maze, through learning the path that it walks and finding the best way to the center,” he said.

— JON O’CONNELL

joconnell@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9131;

@jon_oc on Twitter

Susquehanna

Sophomore Charlie Towner starting racing cars when he was 12.

He got involved with racing through his father and uncles.

Charlie races on dirt tracks at Penn Can Speedway, Five Mile Point Speedway and Skyline Speedway. He recently placed second in points at Five Mile during a race March 10.

During the winter, Charlie enjoys working on and building his race cars. He credits sponsors as playing an important role in racing.

Charlie also plays baseball.

— FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY

flesnefsky@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5181

Valley View

Dylan Morgan was chosen as Valley View’s senior of the month in computer applications.

He also was awarded a gold medal during the Skills-USA competition for cyber security.

“Hard work and dedication is the key to success,” he said. “I am honored to be selected for both awards.”

The senior of the month award is sponsored by the Valley View Student Council and Blakely/Peckville Lions Club.

Dylan is a student ambassador at the Lackawanna County Career Technology Center and runs track and field.

— KATHLEEN BOLUS

kbolus@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5114;

@kbolusTT on Twitter

Wallenpaupack Area

Sophomore Ashley Torres learned leadership skills and project ideas when she participated in the 2018 Family, Career and Community Leaders of America State Leadership Conference in March.

Ashley competed in the “Say Yes to FCS” Students Taking Action with Recognition event. She presented speeches to the entire Pennsylvania FCCLA body as well as the PA Eastern Region.

She earned a gold medal and national team honors, which allows her represent Pennsylvania at the National Leadership Conference in Atlanta this summer.

Next year, she’ll serve as a PA FCCLA state officer on the state executive council.

“It is difficult to sum up the whole experience in one brief comment,” she said. “However, the experiences I’ve gained from both the leadership conference and FCCLA have helped me prepare for the real world by helping me narrow my career choices.”

— FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY

flesnefsky@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5181

Western Wayne

Jacob Barna , a fifth-grade student at Robert D. Wilson, can usually be found reading in his free time — and sometimes during his work time.

Jacob especially likes reading graphic novels and comics.

This year, he’s excited to play baseball and can’t wait to practice. He’s also an active member of the Boy Scouts, and he enjoys baking.

In school, Jacob’s favorite activities include coding and robot work.

He also has fun in the recently formed WW PRIDE Club, where students create and display seasonal and motivational artwork.

— FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY

flesnefsky@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5181

The property owners at an Archbald trailer court have kept up with water bills and restored electricity to condemned trailers there.

Last summer, Pennsylvania American Water cut off water to Valley View Estates due to nonpayment of bills. At the time, about 44 families lived on the property.

Declaring the situation a public health and safety emergency, Lackawanna County made a $3,900 payment to have the service restored. Around the same time, Archbald borough officials condemned several trailers on the property because they didn’t have electricity.

Shortly thereafter, Margaret Mary Barrett, the legal owner of the trailer park, and her son, John Egan, came to the area from Florida. They repaid the money to the county and expressed a willingness to catch up on utility payments, improve conditions at the park and work with borough officials about code violations there.

The park had been managed by another son, Eugene Egan, who landed in Berks County Jail on a felony drug charge around the time the water was shut off.

Since then, John Egan has restored electricity to the condemned trailers, said Peter Zurflieh, executive director of the Community Justice Project.

The nonprofit is a statewide legal aid project with a rural poverty initiative that focuses on helping trailer park residents. The group has been assisting Valley View Estates residents since the summer with code violations and other issues, Zurflieh said.

Borough officials said John Egan has been making an effort to work with them regarding the code enforcement concerns.

“The new party managing the park has been doing his part to cooperate with us,” Archbald Manager Jack Giordano said.

The property owner has been meeting company expectations regarding its account, water company spokeswoman Susan Turcmanovich said in an email.

Residents still have some concerns, Zurflieh said. It took months for the electrical issues to be resolved with the trailers. Residents also complain about the roads not being maintained, he said.

“It’s been an ongoing project,” Zurflieh said. “The ultimate goal is to make sure the residents who live there now and want to stay can do that and make sure things like a workable water supply stays in place and people have those services.”

Contact the writer:

cover@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5363;

@ClaytonOver on Twitter

MONDAY UPDATE brings

Times-Tribune readers up to date on past or pending stories of interest. To offer a suggestion for a Monday Update, please email metrodesk@timesshamrock.com with

“Monday Update” in the

subject line.

MOSES TAYLOR

ADAMS: A son, March 14, to John Adams and Alexis Erdos Bentler, Eynon.

BILSKI: A son, March 18, to AJ and Michelle Hudak Bilski, Old Forge.

BRADSHAW: A daughter, March 18, to David Bradshaw and Julie Parisi, Archbald.

CHERASARO: A daughter, March 18, to Michael and Heather Wiseburn Cherasaro, Laurel Run.

DEITZ: A son, March 15, to Stewart and Stephine Wheaton Deitz, Jermyn.

DOUGHERTY: A son, March 16, to Connor and Amanda Dougherty, Clarks Green.

FALLON: A son, March 19, to Brian and Marissa Marold Fallon, Scranton.

FINNEY: A son, March 14, to Roy Jr. and Gretchen Wydeen Finney, Greentown.

GARDNER: A daughter, March 20, to Glenn Gardner and Elizabeth Barbuti, Scranton.

HADDEN: A son, March 17, to Will Hadden and Stephanie Bossick, Peckville.

HAGMAIER: A son. March 17, to Denis and Teresa LaBelle Hagmaier, North Abington Twp.

HENEHAN: A daughter, March 15, to John Patrick Henehan and Sierra Caramanno, Scranton.

HODLE: A son, March 21, to Justin Hodle and Katherine Taylor, Jermyn.

IGOE: A daughter, March 17, to Michael and Nicole Arduino Igoe, Dunmore.

LITTMAN: A son, March 19, to Timothy Littman and Elizabeth Correll, Forest City,

MAGAGNA: A son, March 19, to Jeffrey and Bonnie Magagna, Old Forge.

MARGOTTA: A daughter, March 20, to Frank and Melissa Johnson Margotta, Dunmore.

MILES: A daughter, March 17, to Tyler Miles and Gabriela Alcantara, Scranton.

PARKS: A daughter, March 19, to Richard Parks and Kathryn Riley McDevitt, Carbondale.

SLUSHER: A son, March 20, to Kevin and Lora Nageli Slusher, Olyphant.

SKRUTSKI: Twin daughters, March 15, to Anthony and Molly Skrutski, North Abington Twp.

SMITH: A son, March 21, to Andy and Lisa Springett Smith, Scranton.

STEVE: A daughter, March 21, to Eric and Megan Joslin Steve, Dalton.

TAFFERA: A son, March 21, to Justin and Kristen Paciotti Taffera, Dunmore.

TIMLIN: A son, March 19, to Michael and Holly Farris Timlin, Dunmore.