Wilkes-Barre man convicted of assaulting child with belt files appeal

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Misericordia raises money for the Pauly Friedman 5K Family Walk-Run

NANTICOKE &#8212; My experience with Nanticoke City has never been one of distress.It&#8217;s a town known for its great people who could play basketball, make kielbasa and hold elective office at all levels.Yet there was an atmosphere of joy Monday when Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Davin joined state and local officials to sign a determination letter honoring Nanticoke&#8217;s request for termination of distressed status as determined under Act 47.Nanticoke will be the first city and 11th municipality to exit the program.Nanticoke may have been financially distressed, but this city and its people never had their spirit distressed.It&#8217;s been a long haul for the city to go from that $2.4 million deficit in 2006 when the general budget was around $5 million, to becoming the first city in the history of the Commonwealth to have its distressed status lifted.State Sen. John Yudichak said, it is a &#8220;remarkable&#8221; accomplishment. He said many other towns &#8220;have wallowed&#8221; in distress status.Yudichak, D-Plymouth Township, has represented Nanticoke for years, first as a state representative and lately as its state senator. He is a proud graduate of Greater Nanticoke Area High School and he knows the struggles the city has been through and he knows the people.Before Monday&#8217;s meeting with the state Secretary of Community and Economic Development Dennis Davin, I took a ride around Nanticoke looking for signs of distress.What I found was a city improving.Oh sure, there remains some blight &#8212; Mayor Richard Wiaterowski and the City Manager Andy Gegaris have that in their long-term plan &#8212; but there is a lot of new to Nanticoke.Just drive down Main Street and you will see a new mega-building built by Geisinger Health System, the Luzerne County Community College&#8217;s Culinary Arts School and Commonwealth Health System&#8217;s new center.And you can rely on places like Rite Aid, Burger King, Weis Market, Sanitary Bakery and the aesthetically beautiful Patriot Park in the center of the city.Distress was difficult to find, and that is due to the commitment made by the mayor and city council, all city employees and the tax paying residents. It&#8217;s been a true team effort.Nanticoke is famous, legendary even, for its great athletic teams.Winning spiritYudichak told me there are plenty of state championships to back that up, along with many more contenders. Nanticoke embraced the school merger decades ago and school spirit permeates the towns. The Trojans and Trojanettes still offer high-caliber competitive teams with that small town feel. That feel of one community, one school, one constant goal.Remember those days of Coach Syl Bozinski and those basketball teams?When Secretary Davin talked about lifting the distressed status, he talked about the challenges the city faced. He mentioned the tough decisions and the difficult budgets.&#8220;None of it was easy, &#8221; he said.And that&#8217;s nothing new for this city.It has always faced adversity head on and attacked, never retreating, whether it be on the basketball court, the softball diamond or the accounting office. This latest victory &#8212; and it is an historic victory at that &#8212; is typical of Nanticoke and its people.Yudichak talked about his Democratic leader in the Senate, Sen. Jay Costa, who is from Pittsburgh, often referred to as the City of Champions. It&#8217;s hard to argue with that title, given the number of Super Bowl victories alone.&#8220;But today, I have one up on Sen. Costa,&#8221; Yudichak said. &#8220;The City of Nanticoke has made history. This is a title well-earned.&#8221;Yudichak remembers those dark days when Nanticoke was in the news every day and always with a negative slant. He talked about the days when Nanticoke had to borrow a police cruiser from Wilkes-Barre because there was no money to purchase one. Yudichak remembers the battles at public meetings, the concern about jobs and pensions and public safety.&#8220;It took courage,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The city leaders came up with a game plan and the mission is now complete. Tomorrow only gets better if you work hard today.&#8221;Tools to succeedDCED determined that the city has eliminated structural deficits and has greatly reduced debt service payments. The city now has the tools to make the decisions necessary to maintain responsible budgets, meet its obligations to vendors and creditors and provide essential services to city residents.&#8220;We&#8217;ve had our fiscal house in order for some time now,&#8221; Gegaris said.But the road to a better future will have bumps too, Gegaris said. Taxes, for instance, will likely rise &#8212; not dramatically, but gradually to assure that the fiscal house stays orderly.It has been a long, rough road to this day. The city has lost that negative perception of being fiscally distressed.Syl Bozinski would be proud.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Bill O&#8217;Boyle </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Columnshot-1-20.jpg</photo0><caption0>Bill O&#8217;Boyle </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Bill O&#8217;Boyleboboyle@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</shirttailMeta></div>

In Focus: Nanticoke first city to shed state’s ‘Distress’ designation