Main Street looking mighty fine

By: Eye-in-the-sky on 7/28/12
A town of 8000 has a debt of 10 million dollars but the Main Street looks great. Pittston is the highest taxed community with the poorest demographics in the county and has a higher tax rate tan the county itself. Can the taxpayers afford this beauty? Now that there is a new Main Street, is there any chance that common sense government will make a visit to Pittston City Hall?

By: Jay on 7/28/12
take a ride in the neighborhoods..there a disgrace...or better yet,take a ride to the little league,by way of Mill St.

By: brib0 on 7/28/12
Yes Joe it looks great !. i guess that you forgot where main street begins and where it ends. Thats o.k. though so did the Mayor and city council. Check out the terrible paving job on Union street where it meets MAIN. Check out the continuous flow of dirt at the intersection of main st and where U.S.foods exits onto main. Check out how all of the sidewalks are blocked by cars that are illegally parked cars from the Duryea line to the Fort Jenkins bridge. Joe Pittston City looks like S#&@ !!
Thanks for the photos though.

By: Jay on 7/28/12
400,000 grand for a Little league field,for a league that has ONE TEAM...and the season is over in late June...2Little eague fields..one farm team field and a tee ball field..more fields than teams...guess who cuts the grass and pays for the lights..

By: Nanteen on 7/28/12
Frankly every community in Luzern county should take a trip down to lewisburg to see what a small town's downtown should look like.

By: Masmo1958 on 7/28/12
These projects are being done on the backs of tax payers.
Support from Casino dollars that were to go to senior property tax relief is being used for wht you see on Main street.
I don't see how the casino promise to us to relieve property tax has ever come true and I am not haapy when all of Pittston goes to the dogs yet main st looks good.
People need to start waking up in Pittston!
Boost some ones ego!

By: Nanteen on 7/29/12
This is why you can NEVER let politicians raise taxes on anyone for anything. They will NEVER use the money for what they said its for. They will ALWAYS piss it away on something for their own egos.

Giving tax money to politicians and believing they will do the right thing is like, giving the rent money to a gambling addict and expecting him to pay it to the landlord, or letting a drug addict know where your RX pain killers are.

By: jlynn on 7/29/12
Well you are all correct! you will still vote the same mayor and Council into office though. Look at who owns the buildings, look at who is doing the construction work. People of Pittston love to complain but no one has guts to change things, is anyone running against the Mayor and the council seats next year? NO. because people in the City love to complain but take no action. Let your tax dollars make people richer and their buildings more valuable. You deserve what you get!

By: JValenti on 7/29/12
Allow me to jump in here. You're all correct, the gambling revenues are being used for everything except property tax relief. You CAN'T blame, however, the local officials. It is those on the state that are delegating these revenues be used for pet projects. So, because this is the case, we have to be VERY PLEASED this money is coming back to us. Would you rather it go to other pet projects in Philadelphia? We need to give credit to ALL the administrations over the past 25 years for perusing these grants.

By: oswaldcobblepot on 7/29/12
So tell me Joe V. Yes it is nice to have fancy street lights and sidewalks but the last i knew the Casino money was supposed to be used for Property Tax Relief and PUBLIC SAFETY. I never heard of a sidewalk or better yet a parking garage in Hazleton fall under the Public Safety world........

By: jlynn on 7/29/12
hey Joe who is doing the work??? How many Bids were opted?? Who owns the property's? The Mayor said that neighborhoods were his priority's not making his boss a millionaire! The Lombardo's own how many of the main street buildings? Come on Joe V you used to be neutral because some of your Christmas wine kitchen table friends are in this mix your going to divert attention from a waste of payer money!!!!!???? Did you go to the council meeting last week where a fireman was talking about being lied to? No you only cover what helps your friends lately!!

By: Nanteen on 7/30/12
I get Joe V's point. If the money is going to be pissed away at least it was pissed away here.

By: Pittstonjohn on 7/30/12
You guys don't want to pay for anything. Pittston city has been a dump my entire life. Finally they are putting some money in the city and everyone is complaining. The city needs to attract businesses suited for younger professionals that have money to spend. They are finally starting to do that. The Pittston way has always been "lets not maintain anything so we don't have to pay for it. THen when it's too late and falling down it cost too much to repair or tear it down." As far as the nieghborhoods are concerned. It's not the mayors job to clean up your yard and sidewalks.

I agree with Nanteen and Joe V. The money from casino revenue is not being used correctly, but if they are going to piss it away then might as well do it here.

By: Jay on 7/31/12
well pittstonjohn..take a ride up mill St....then find out what happened to the sewer project,it was supposed to be finished by now...those people on mill had there street closed for close to 3 years.walk around the city and take a wiff of the sewers.

By: Pittstonjohn on 7/31/12
Jay thats what I'm talking about. They let things go to long. The sewers should have been fixed 20 years ago. The longer they wait the cost just keeps going up. 20 years ago the whole sewer project would have been half what it is now. My point is that nobody wants to pay any taxes and they want everything. Look at Pittston Twp. everyone focuses on them not having a sewer tax. What people don't realize is that the township didn't have sewers for the most part until the mid 80's. The sewer tax in the township was very high for a number of years to pay for new lines. Those that lived there payed for their new sewer lines. Guys that get into office and don't raise taxes to save face, just push the cost to future generations.

By: Jay on 7/31/12
Pittatonjohn....the motto of the city...if it isn"t on main street,we don't care.

By: Eye-in-the-sky on 8/1/12
Joe, I had a conversation with your new friend and he agrees with you. The only difference is he was wondering if it would be possible to ask for the gaming grant and then use the money to offset city property taxes. Unique idea and probably isn't allowed but isn't it time that elected officials begin to think outside the box? There is much more to Pittston than Main Street but the entire focus is Main Street. In the meantime, parks continue to go to waste, paving jobs need some decent supervision, the city needs to stop hiring people. They hired an assistant in Community Development and just hired a replacement for Jerry Mullarkey, why wasn't the assistant elevated? They hired a guy to do code enforcement who isn't qualified and a few months ago they hired a guy part time to do code enforcement. Do you see anything wrong with this management? Want a real laugh, I was told recently that the new Home Rule planned for unveiling shortly calls for a MINIMUM mangers salary of $65,000. A own of 8000 with a manager getting $65,000? Keep in mind, that figure is a minimum and cannot be reduced. Unbelievable!

By: Masmo1958 on 8/1/12
Joe,
I don't know where you are coming from. You were neutral on all subjects what happened here it appears you are friendly with someone and I bet I know who it is.

No the money was to be used for tax relief not a peggy bank for Mike Lambardo.

I am a little upset with you on this Joe.

By: Nanteen on 8/1/12
Well fixing up Main st. I suppose its the idea thats where the retail shops are that would draw people to Pittston to spend money. And I suppose you have to start somewhere.

If they fixed Mill st first then people on Williams would complain and so forth.

By: JValenti on 8/1/12
Masmo - First, I'm not neutral on anything. Second, Pittston CANNOT apply for grant money that is to be earmarked BY THE STATE for the specific purpose of revitalizing Main Street and divert it to tax relief. It doesn't work that way. Your beef should be with State Rep Mike Carroll and Senator John Yudichak. Its those on the state level who have diverted the gaming revenues to pet projects. My point here is that if the state legislators are earmarking gaming revenues for pet projects, I'm EXTREMELY PLEASE it is being used here instead of Pittsburgh or Phil.
Joe V

By: John on 8/1/12
People always find something to complain about when good things are going on. It's really sad and pathetic if you ask me. Pittstonjohn is right on the money with this one. The city isn't responsible for making your house look half decent. That's your job.

By: Jay on 8/2/12
Your right John...when your out and about,take a look a some of the property's..maybe your could help..you know what I mean..right.