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PITTSTON &mdash; When Michael Lombardo decided to run for mayor of Pittston in 1998, he&rsquo;d had enough of the deterioration of the city he loved.
				Classic buildings had been razed and when Pittston&rsquo;s beloved American Theatre fell to the wrecking ball that was the final straw.
				After a successful election bid he took office at 32 as the youngest mayor in city history, serving two terms before deciding not to run for a third in 2006.
				The 55-year-old Lombardo&rsquo;s biggest influence growing up was his grandfather and namesake, Michael Lombardo, a master carpenter who was a &ldquo;stickler for detail.&rdquo;
				&ldquo;I learned a lot of valuable lessons from my grandfather,&rdquo; Lombardo said. &ldquo;He was proud of his heritage, but he was equally and more proud of being an American citizen and that he was from this city and he cared about it.&rdquo;
				The Bookcase Lesson
				The mayor conveyed a story that made a lasting mark on his life that he has used as he credo for the rest of his life; he calls it &ldquo;The Bookcase Lesson.&rdquo;
				&ldquo;I made a bookcase in junior high and I was eager to show my grandfather,&rdquo; Lombardo said. &ldquo;I thought it was pretty cool.&rdquo;
				Upon completion of the bookcase project he had the chance to show the bookcase to his grandfather, who immediately critiqued it.
				&ldquo;I was getting upset and he said to me, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m not trying to get you upset, this is a teaching lesson; you can do this better,&rsquo;&rdquo; Lombardo conveyed. &ldquo;I told him the bookcase was good enough for me and nobody would see it because it would be in my room.&rdquo;
				The elder Lombardo wasn&rsquo;t happy with the future mayor&rsquo;s answer.
				&ldquo;My grandfather said, &lsquo;Everything in life you do, should be good enough for you. You should be your toughest critic. If you are your toughest critic, you will be successful in life because you will do more than you can do,&rsquo;&rdquo; Lombardo said. &ldquo;No one in your life will ever stop you and say you did too much.&rdquo;
				Lombardo went on to say his grandfather told him he should be proud of his future projects.
				His grandfather said, &lsquo;When you finish any project for the rest of your life from now on, will you be proud enough to put your name on it?&rdquo;
				It was that epiphany that set the tone for all projects for the remainder of the mayor&rsquo;s life.
				&ldquo;Whatever you do, be proud to sign your name to,&rdquo; Lombardo said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve tried to keep that in mind in the things I&rsquo;ve done in the city and everything I&rsquo;ve ever approached.&rdquo;
				Lombardo to this day still has the bookcase to remind him of the valuable lesson from his grandfather.
				Other influences
				Other influences in his life are his father&rsquo;s youngest brother, also Michael Lombardo, and Pittston Area high school football coach, Bob Barbieri.
				&ldquo;Growing up, all of my time was spent in the city,&rdquo; Lombardo said. &ldquo;I remember the hustle and bustle of downtown in the late &rsquo;60s and even into the early &rsquo;70s.&rdquo;
				After graduating from Pittston Area in 1986, he landed at Bucknell University receiving a B.S. in Psychology and a Masters in School Psychology in 1986 and 1988, respectively.
				Lombardo eventually got a job at Pocono Mountain for 10 years when his life took a drastic change: His brother John, a volunteer fireman for the City of Pittston, tragically died fighting a fire along with Lenny Insalaco on March 1993.
				&ldquo;That really changed my perspective,&rdquo; he said.
				&ldquo;After the fire, I started to thing that there has to be more to life,&rdquo; Lombardo said. &ldquo;I began to look at the community a bit more and really started to pay attention.&rdquo;
				Taking a good look
				In early 1995, Lombardo was married to his wife Susan with year-old twins, Catherine and Kristen when he was approached about making changes to a deteriorating downtown.
				During one of his daily jogs, he took a good look at downtown; he noticed how bad downtown really was going downhill.
				After reaching out to some of his high school friends that remained in the Pittston area, a meeting was held to come up with ideas of improving the city. At that point in time, Lombardo had no desire to run for office.
				&ldquo;The word revitalization wasn&rsquo;t even in my vocabulary; it was something I never even thought about,&rdquo; Lombardo admitted.
				Lombardo began researching urban revitalization and reached out to others knowledgeable in revitalization.
				&ldquo;I found this thing called the &lsquo;National Main Street Approach&rsquo; in the back of a magazine called &lsquo;Preservation&rsquo; talking about a 10-point plan to revitalize blighted in downtown areas that needed help,&rdquo; Lombardo said. &ldquo;A welcome mat is the presentation of your house and downtown is the presentation of the city&rdquo;
				The group decided to order light pole banners to dress up Main Street as well as garbage cans.
				After taking the group&rsquo;s cause to city council, all ideas of sprucing up downtown went on deaf ears.
				Urged to run
				It was suggested Lombardo he should run for council but after discussions, he decided to run for mayor instead. Lombardo put a running team together with Phil Campenni and Tom &ldquo;Mickey&rdquo; McFadden and he ran on a 12-point platform to improve downtown; his main focus.
				Two points were to build a freestanding public library and eliminate the per capita tax of $10.
				On election night, Lombardo won all but one or two wards and lost a ward by four votes and the incumbent mayor, Tom Walsh&rsquo;s ward by two votes.
				Once elected, Lombardo and team rolled up their sleeves to begin implementing the 12-point plan, but they needed money to pay for his ideas to be implemented.
				He quickly built a rapport with then-Gov. Tom Ridge, U.S. Sen. Arlen Spector, state Sen. Ray Musto and state Reps. Tom Tigue and Paul Kanjorski.
				According to Lombard, Kanjorski was extremely involved with the City of Pittston&rsquo;s revitalization.
				&ldquo;My first meeting with Paul was supposed to be an hour, but instead it lasted 3 &#189;-hours long,&rdquo; Lombardo said. &ldquo;As a result of that meeting about six or seven months later, we had our first streetscape print and we got a thing called a Community Opportunity Grant.&rdquo;
				Through a successful two terms, Lombardo was able to accomplish his goals of revitalizing downtown, clearing out blight, bringing in Luzerne Co. Community College Main St., a massive streetscaping project and working closely with the Redevelopment Authority in creating housing and new businesses.
				At the end of his second term, Lombardo made a tough decision not to seek a third term so he could spend more time with his wife and daughters until they ended their high school and college careers. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to ever have to make the decision of not going to their sporting events because of politics,&rdquo; Lombardo said. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t get a second crack at raising your kids.&rdquo;
				Years later, with his twins graduated from college and firmly in the workforce, Lombardo decided to run for mayor of the city when incumbent mayor Jason Klush elected to not seek office for a third term for 2018 for the same reasons Lombardo walked away after his initial two terms.
				In the November 2017 election, Lombardo was elected easily by grabbing 75% of the votes.
				Building a solid team
				Now in his 10th year as mayor, Lombardo believes he has fielded a solid team where &ldquo;everyone is on the same page.&rdquo; The team consists of Joseph Moskovitz, city administrator; Joseph Chacke, Redevelopment director; Mary Kuna, Redevelopment deputy director; Mary Kroptavich, Main St. manager; former mayor Jason Klush, city treasurer; Chris Latona, city controller and veteran councilmen: Danny Argo, Joseph McLean, Atty. Michael Lombardo, and Kenneth Bangs.
				&ldquo;Right now in City Hall, there are five people with advanced degrees in Public Administration,&rdquo; Lombardo stated. &ldquo;So if you ask how are we getting things done, it&rsquo;s that way.&rdquo;
				&ldquo;It&rsquo;s easy to build a great team, but it&rsquo;s not easy keeping them together,&rdquo; Lombardo professed. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re all people that bring in different experiences.&rdquo;
				Mayor Lombardo was quick to recognize those that have served in the past such as Maria Capolarella-Montante, &ldquo;she was an outstanding councilwoman, one of the most principled human beings I ever met who bleeds Pittston.&rdquo;
				Lombardo currently serves on the Pennsylvania Municipal League Board (PML) where he has the opportunity to spend time with other mayors in the state getting the chance to bounce ideas off of each other and getting the chance to showcase Pittston City.
				Lombardo doesn&rsquo;t plan to rest on his laurels for the next two years of his current term.
				He will continue to work on streetscaping from the Kridlo Bridge (formerly Fort Jenkins Bridge) north to the Duryea line, strive to eliminate blight, bring in new businesses, create a recreational park, create additional housing including the remodeling of the Fort Pittston School, all while keeping the city&rsquo;s emergency services and police force strong.
				&ldquo;I&rsquo;m in year three and I very confident we can get all these projects and more done in the next three years,&rdquo; Lombardo said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to run again next year and I can tell you, I&rsquo;ve made up my mind, I&rsquo;m definitely running and I hope my two colleagues Kenny (Bangs) and Michael (Atty. Lombardo) will run as well.&rdquo;
				In the meantime, Lombardo and his team are currently working on a ten-year plan into 2030.

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Pittston Mayor Michael Lombardo reflects on accomplishments, work still to do