The Forest City NewsForest City - Starting Line for Steamtown Marathon October 8, 2017Named One of 10 Fastest U.S. Marathon Courses by Runners WorldVOL. 130, NO. 14 Wednesday, March 1, 2017

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byJohn P. Kameen

&Patricia Striefsky

The Forest City Area Historical Society decided enthusiastically to participate in the 250th Anniversa-ry of Anthracite Coal in America during the year 2018. The Society will also take part in the run-up to that anniversary during this year.

Scott Herring, head of the orga-nizing committee for this national anniversary, attended the Feb. 19 meeting of the local Historical So-ciety to seek local support for the event.

One of the steps to be taken this year will be the sale of a local For-est City license plate listing Forest City as the Northern Gateway to the Anthracite Valley. These will be ordered and advertised for sale in the coming weeks.

Forest City’s entrance into an-thracite mining took place much later than its origin in the United States in 1768. Coal was found in Forest City during work on a rail-

road bed in 1871. It was not until 1874 when Z. Kregar & Bros. sunk the first mine here and coal was mined.

Mr. Herring is known as “The Last Mining Photographer.” He is a fifth generation mining family, originally from Tamaqua. PA, but now from Hellertown, PA. He said his local visit was the 671st presentation he has made to or-ganizations of all kinds in his lead up to the 2018 Anniversary. He spoke to two other area groups on the same day he visited Forest City.

Mr. Herring also brought with him numerous albums of 20x25 photos, which he took, and which depict the railroads and mining operations of the past. He said he has taken more than 250,000 pho-tos in his career.

He stressed that the celebra-tion will NOT consist of any one

single event but will be celebrated in individual communities and ar-eas. He wants each of the anthra-cite “patches”, as they have been known over the years, to decide in what way they want to conduct the celebration.

He noted the fact that most an-thracite miners were immigrants from countries throughout the world including many, like For-est City, from Eastern European Countries. In fact, he said, at least 110 ethnicities, from 76 countries, contributed to anthracite mining over its US history.

The local Historical Society en-thusiastically affirmed their par-ticipation in the event, promising to schedule various activities and programs both this year and next. They will announce their events in the upcoming months.̀

Local Historical Society to celebrateThe 250th Anniversary of Anthracite

Local “Gateway to Anthracite” License Plate will be available

Scott Herring, head of the national organizing committee for the 250th “Anniversary of Anthracite” in the United States, attended the Feb. 19 meeting of the Forest City Area Historical Society and got the Society’s enthusiastic agreement to participate both this year and next year in the Anniversary. Pictured above, from left, Jon Harcharek, Juliann Doyle, Linda Bernarsky, Joann Homisak, Roseann Swegel, Peggy Brager, Dave Homisak, Mary McElhinney, Mary Ferraro, Scott Herring (Anniversary Director), Frank Brager and Paul Ferraro. Absent for photo was Dave Opeka and Tammy O’Reilly. - Photo by John P. Kameen

At its’ two most recent Febru-ary meetings, the Greater Forest City Business Alliance Board of Directors, Forest City Regional School District representative and community members met to discuss progress on a number of action items for 2017.

The 2017-2018 GFCBA mem-bership drive is underway. The Alliance would like to remind any businesses and organiza-tions that have yet to submit their membership application to please do so by March 1. For any business or organization that needs an application please email the Alliance at gfcba13@gmail.com or visit www.visitfor-estcitypa.com.

Once this current member-ship drive is complete, the Al-liance will be updating their marketing and way-finding guides, including their Visitor’s Brochure, signage at the For-est City Rail-Trail head and the Susquehanna County Tourism sign located in Zazzera’s park-ing lot. The Alliance will once again be applying for the End-less Mountain Visitors Bureau Susquehanna County Room Tax grant in order to fund updating these marketing materials and business directory maps.

The GFCBA along with the Rail-Trail Council of NEPA are moving forward with plans to make Forest City the first Trail Town along the D & H Rail Trail. The Rail-Trail will be look-ing into applying for a Wayne County tourism grant in order

to secure funding to design and create the signage that was de-termined necessary from the group’s Trail-Town investiga-tive outing this past fall. Rail-Trail Director Lynn Conrad received some existing signage from John Kameen that will be installed in the Spring. She also applied for a grant with the End-less Mountain Heritage Region for a heritage sign for the Forest City trail-head and additional way-finding signage.

A coordinated effort has be-gun between the Forest City Bor-ough Council and the Alliance to dress up the empty storefronts located along the Main Street business district. This will also involve the cooperation and buy-in of each building owner in an effort to make available space more attractive to prospective renters and overall more aes-thetically pleasing.

In other business, in order to bring it’s bylaws into alignment with its Strategic Plan, the Board of Directors approved a first round of revisions to their by-laws, originally drafted in 2013, and agreed to solicit a local attor-ney to review the finalized docu-ment. The board is also work-ing on updating the Alliance’s Facebook page and keeping the website up-to-date with a com-munity events calendar. All local organizations are being encour-aged to contact the Alliance with their scheduled events for 2017 and thank those organizations that have already done so. New

GFCBA member Deslin Enter-prises of Union Dale, has agreed to conduct a financial audit and prepare the organizations’ 2016 tax filings.

Mr. Mike Zack of the Forest City Regional School District recapped the successful Winter Festival event held in Decem-ber and plans were made for the 2017 holiday season, with the Main Street Winter Festival planned for Saturday, December 2, 2017. The school district is very interested in holding a Haunted House along Main Street in Oc-tober of 2017, when the annual Trunk or Treat returns to Main Street on Friday, October 27. In 2016, Trunk or Treat was held on school grounds due to the on go-ing sidewalk project along Main Street. More information about plans for a Haunted House will be forthcoming. The partner-ship between the Alliance and the FCRSD has been a wonder-ful benefit to the community. The Alliance extends it’s thanks to Superintendent Jessica Aqui-lina and her staff for making this new partnership a productive and successful one.

The GFCBA welcomes all member businesses, those busi-nesses which are not members, civic organizations and com-munity members to their month Community Meetings. The next community meeting will be held Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 7:45 am at Shirley’s Restaurant, followed by March 22, April 19 and May 17.

Membership, Trail-Town plans on slate of GFCBA

FC Zoning law change OK’sMarijuana dispensary zoneLaw also Updated for Opioid Addiction Facilities

When Penna. Governor Tom Wolf got medical marijuana legalized in the state, someone eyed Forest City for a location of a medical marijuana dis-pensary. Town officials found there were no provisions in the Zoning Law for such a facility. A public hearing of the Plan-ning Commission on Feb. 21 addressed that issue and gave its ok for the Zoning change.

Forest City Solicitor Paul Smith told the Planners there have been several inquiries about the possibility of locating a dispensary here. He said the changes which he and Council were presenting would des-ignate a zone in which such a facility could be located.

He also said Council decid-ed to update the Ordinance for Opioid addiction treatment fa-cilities since these also were not covered in the Zoning Law.

The meeting was conduct-ed by Planning Commission Chairman Paul Dovin with PC members Peggy Brager and Andy Junior. In attendance were Borough Solicitor Paul Smith, Council President Wil-liam D. Orasin, Council mem-bers Joann Matarese and Nick Cost, and Boro Asst. Secretary Cindi Stone. Others attend-ing were Eric Anderson, Art

McLain and John Kameen.The Zoning change will al-

low such a facility to be put in a C-2 Zone (see attached map). Solicitor Smith said Council did not want it to be put in the middle of town but, since it was legalized by the state, they had to find someplace to locate it, so they decided to locate it on the edge of town.

Smith indicated that the State issued very strict condi-tions for such a facility includ-ing who can own and operate it, and how it is operated. In addition, said Smith, the town has added some additional provisions.

These provisions include a distance of 500 feet from any property lines of Churches, and religious institutions, and property lines of schools, play-grounds, parks, daycares and community buildings.

It was also noted by Solici-tor Smith that since the Zoning law was being updated for the marijuana dispensary it was decided to include updates for clinics or other establishments for the purpose of administer-ing or dispensing of opioid drugs for the treatment of opi-oid addiction, including Meth-adone clinics.

Forest City zoning map

Our condolences to lovely wife, Helen, and son, Mark, and his legion of friends, on the death of longtime local resident Cy Gil-lis. In his obituary in this issue you will see he had a very, very interesting life. A young guy from Pleasant Mt., went to war and came back to make a seri-ous impact on society. Of course, he is best known for his many, many civic endeavors, when he returned to Forest City. Cy was the guy you went to if you wanted something done. His work with the Lions Club, and with many local and area projects and events, was always greatly appreciated. He loved to talk fishing and hunt-ing, right up my alley. It always amazed me how much he knew about everything. He also was a man of great principles and held strong views which he was more than able to expound and to sup-port. He was just one more exam-ple of the great people, born and raised in this area, who went into the world and made a difference. From all of us at the News Office, and his many friends, may he rest in peace. A life well lived!

* * * * *A first for Forest City Regional

School, and probably not the last, was the Elementary Junior Drama Club’s play staged on Feb. 17-18 in the auditorium. A very large crowd, the largest we’ve seen at a school play, thoroughly enjoyed the Junior Drama Club’s presen-tation of “The Mysterious Case of the Missing Ring.” It was hard to remember these were 4th, 5th and 6th graders performing like pros. The first night there were a few problems with the sound system but these thespians never missed a beat. Hats off to Director Shelley Giles and Assistant Brielle Collins, along with Production Assistants Colleen Blount and Caylin Gibbs for a great effort. It wasn’t until the final scene that the audience learned the “Missing Ring” was the ring of a cellphone! Great job, cast and crew!

* * * * *You can get prepared for the

Mask & Hammer Drama Club’s next production which will be “Shrek, The Musical” on April 7,8,9.

* * * * *The Historical Society will

be looking for story tellers who would like to tell the story of “the old days in Forest City.” Especial-ly they will be looking for stories about families , customs, and so-cial life way back when!! We’ve al-ready lost a lot of this history and hopefully this will be one way of preserving some of it. Watch for more information on this.

* * * * *More than 200 persons ben-

efitted from the Salvation Army food pantry last week in Forest City. It takes a few dozen people to do this every month but it is welcomed by many folks in this area.

* * * * *How great it was to open the

current issue of Field & Stream magazine and see a picture of Hunter Wallis, Union Dale, listed as one of three experts quoted with secrets about turkey hunting. The Forest City Regional graduate happens to be six-time National Turkey Calling Champion. His top secrets are: Scout carefully, get to your spot early, stay until late morning, and be patient.

* * * * *

Continued on Page 11

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