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Train station project gaining steam in Wilkes-Barre

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At Blue Ridge Golf Course, 27 holes and time away

<p>About a decade ago, I had a job offer from a major daily newspaper in Oklahoma.</p><p>Professionally, it was a good opportunity. The publisher wouldn&#8217;t give me a job description when I asked for it.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s up to you,&#8221; she told me. &#8220;Make it whatever you want it to be.&#8221;</p><p>It&#8217;s hard to turn down a job in which you get to decide the path of a position.</p><p>But when the time came to either accept the offer or not, I couldn&#8217;t do it. Leaving the mountains and valleys of Northeastern Pennsylvania just wasn&#8217;t right for me.</p><p>My reasons for staying were numerous. Certainly, they were different from the ones the businesses we&#8217;re featuring in this &#8220;inNOVAtion&#8221; special edition have for starting here and flourishing.</p><p>We&#8217;re all familiar with those reasons &#8212; proximity to two interstates, an employment force with a strong work ethic, the low cost of doing business in the region, and an abundance of business parks.</p><p>You&#8217;ll find many Luzerne County businesses citing those reasons in this three-part special section. Whether it&#8217;s a business off to a successful start (Emerging section), a longtime company spreading its wings (Expanding), or a company thriving (Excelling), they all could cite any of the above reasons as contributors to their success.</p><p> But honestly, none of those were big factors in my decision to remain in the region.</p><p>When I sat down to consider the pros and cons of moving to a job in Oklahoma City, I realized there were several reasons that make living in NEPA special, and many I never considered until I was forced to mull leaving the area.</p><p>I probably could fill all of inNOVAtion with a list of things that make our region great, but I&#8217;m going to stick to a few that are nearest and dearest to my heart.</p><p>Let&#8217;s start with the change of seasons.</p><p>If you enjoy all four, Northeastern Pennsylvania is the place to be.</p><p> Typically our winters are mild enough to enjoy winter sports without much hassle, our springs and summers are pleasant without many days of oppressive heat, and our falls feature some of the most spectacular foliage in the country.</p><p>If you don&#8217;t believe me, just listen to a newcomer to the area &#8212; Penn State Wilkes-Barre Chancellor Dale Jones.</p><p>&#8220;The mountains of the area are absolutely stunning,&#8221; Jones told a group at the Westmoreland Club for the campus&#8217; Executive Management Series earlier this month. &#8220;And the foliage of the Wyoming Valley is unequaled in the eastern United States.&#8221;</p><p>Then there&#8217;s the food, which to me means one thing &#8212; the greatest pizza in the world.</p><p>Could any of us really face a future without another cut of Old Forge-style or a Friday night pie from one of the Ricci family&#8217;s fabulous shops? I can&#8217;t get through a week of work without at least one co-worker asking, &#8220;Can we get Angelo&#8217;s sweet sauce tonight?&#8221;</p><p>That pizza is the perfect pregame meal for a Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders or Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins game.</p><p>If sports isn&#8217;t your thing, there are plenty of venues for a show.</p><p>The F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts and the Mohegan Sun Arena bring in major shows and concerts.</p><p>On a smaller stage, our community theater scene is thriving. Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre, the Music Box Dinner Playhouse and the Nuangola Grove Center &amp; Theatre are just some of the fine spots to see a locally produced show. And if you&#8217;re lucky &#8212; and if I can find the time &#8212; you might even have the pleasure of seeing me perform.</p><p>The local music scene also is thriving. On any given night, area residents can be entertained by the likes of Suze, Black Tie Stereo, Kate Hearity or a host of other musicians.</p><p>If you enjoy the outdoors, as I do, NEPA has plenty to offer there, too.</p><p>The region&#8217;s parks are gems.</p><p>Frances Slocum State Park is the perfect place for bird watching, fishing, boating or hiking. And Kirby Park is a great place to take the kids, play in a softball game, or enjoy any of several festivals held throughout the summer.</p><p>And then there is our riverfront, perhaps the most underappreciated amenity in the area.</p><p>The levee system is perfect for fitness enthusiasts, whether they&#8217;re joggers, cyclists or walkers. Millennium Circle has been host to yoga classes, food truck festivals and concerts.</p><p>And, of course, there are mountains. The same ones Jones said he noticed more than two decades ago when he was driving through the region on his way from Syracuse to Washington, D.C., while he was completing his doctoral studies at Syracuse University.</p><p>&#8220;I drove through Wilkes-Barre on Interstate 81 many times,&#8221; he told the group at the Westmoreland Club, &#8220;and I gazed out the window into the expansive valley below, thinking that&#8217;s a big city with some awesome mountains for hiking and a lot less snow than Syracuse.</p><p>&#8220;I dreaded driving another 150 miles and often wished I could end my journey right here in Wilkes-Barre.&#8221;</p><p>However, if you really need to leave the region to find fun, you can be in Philadelphia or New York in just a couple of hours.</p><p>I guess those highways were a factor in me sticking around. </p><p>For me, I know now the old saying is wrong. You can&#8217;t take <em>this</em> boy out of Northeastern Pennsylvania.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Jones </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_dale-jones.jpg</photo1><caption1>Jones </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Joe Soprano</p><p>Columnist</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Joe Soprano is the Times Leader&#8217;s News Editor. He was born on Long Island but has called the Wyoming Valley his home for 48 years.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Welcome, all, to inNOVAtion: the lure of NEPA is strong