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A PR A Pocono Record special report

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PREMIUM EMIUM EDITION

e h T no o c o P

T I FIX T LIS

Issues we need to address by 2020 POCONO RECORD FILE PHOTO OF DELAWARE WATER GAP

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About this premium edition

Improving (and enhancing) the Poconos Over two nights in February, we brought together groups of community leaders and “deep thinkers” to talk about the future of the Poconos. Though we originally had framed the conversations to focus on what could be done to “improve” the Poconos by 2020, East Stroudsburg Area School District Superintendent Sharon Laverdure gently chided us at the outset of one meeting. She suggested panelists focus instead on how to “enhance” the Poconos. It was a point well made. It reoriented the conversation to focus on our strengths, not necessarily our shortcomings. In addition to hearing from community leaders, we also heard from you — the readers. For what you had to say about what needs attention, see page 15. The discussions we had with our panelists covered a wide territory. Topics ranged from “youth flight” (how to make the Poconos attractive to the next generation so that it wants to settle and invest in the region) to a dearth of leadership that has stymied efforts to follow through with far-

Christopher Mele POCONO RECORD EXECUTIVE EDITOR reaching proposals outlined in previous county-wide studies. As ESSA Bank & Trust President and CEO Gary Olson said of Monroe County’s 2030 plan (just released last week for public review): “It would be great if it just isn’t something printed in black and white. (It would be great) if we actually did something with it.” The conversations veered from the concrete to the abstract, such as: How do you build a sense of community? “How do you reach people who spend the great majority

What you’ll find inside PAGE 3: END THE IDENTITY CRISIS The Pocono area was once renowned for its romantic vacation getaways, resorts and heart-shaped tubs. There are vestiges of that era, and marketers do a good job of selling natural assets and recreational opportunities to visitors. But is it time to seek an alternative vision that updates and answers the question: What is the Poconos?

PAGE 4: ADVOCATE FOR BALANCED GROWTH What kind of middle ground can be struck to bring meaningful jobs and development here while also protecting the natural resources that make this region attractive in the first place?

PAGE 5: UPDATE PROPERTY VALUES IN A COUNTY-WIDE REASSESSMENT With the last county-wide property reassessment done some 25 years ago or more, inequities in what property owners are paying in their taxes abound in Monroe County. A reassessment, though wildly unpopular politically, would right-size the assessments, level the playing field for all and generate newfound revenues.

of their time outside of Monroe County?” Pocono Medical Center CEO Kathy Kuck said. Retired professor/local activist Anthony Stevens-Arroyo said some longtime residents want to go back to the days when the county’s population was much smaller. Other more recent residents perceive locals as a bunch of bumpkins, but newcomers seldom vote in elections or take part in the community, he said. “There has to be a way to rally people around some sort of sense of belonging,” he said. “If you start out divided, you end up divided.” The panelists helped identify the region’s assets and challenges. The result of those conversations is this publication, which is meant not necessarily to solve all of the problems of the Poconos, but to spur a dialogue about our future and enhance the area we call home. What are your thoughts? What issues do we face and how can we — individual residents and the community alike — be part of the solution? Drop me a line at cmele@ poconorecord.com so we can continue this conversation.

THANKS TO OUR PANEL OF COMMUNITY LEADERS: • Albert Cardelle, ESU public health professor • Laura Goss, executive director of PoconoArts Council • Kathy Kuck, president/CEO of Pocono Medical Center at the time • Sharon Laverdure, East Stroudsburg Area School District superintendent • Pete Nish, retired Pocono Mountain school administrator • Gary Olson, president and CEO of ESSA Bank & Trust • The Rev. Theodore Petrides of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church, Stroudsburg • Geoffrey Roche, director of community/government relations at Pocono Medical Center • Anthony Stevens-Arroyo, retired professor/local activist • Craig Todd, director,Monroe County Conservation District • Chris Weiler, president/CEO of Weiler Corp. • Marcia Welsh, president of East Stroudsburg University • Robert Werts, program manager, Northeast Pennsylvania Regional Counter Terrorism Task Force

About the reporter This special publication was reported and written by David Pierce, Pocono Record staff writer. Pierce, a Stroudsburg High School grad, left the area for nearly 25 years. While away, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Vermont, served as a federal VISTA volunteer in Alaska, worked as a reporter for the Kodiak Island Daily Mirror and Alaska Public Radio Network, was edi- David Pierce tor of the Clarion News in western Pennsylvania and served 12 years as editor of the Springville (N.Y.) Journal in suburban Buffalo. He served two terms on the board of the New York Press Association and formed a newspaper charity to buy winter clothes for needy children in western New York. Pierce, a Pocono Record proofreader during high school, returned to the paper in 2000 as a reporter. He has won awards for news stories, editorials and opinion columns, including the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association’s “most prestigious honor for outstanding journalism,” the G. Richard Dew Award.

PAGE 6: FIND A ROLE MODEL

PAGE 11: SUPPORT “MED AND ED”

When it comes to economic development, what can Monroe County learn from its neighbors to the south? Lessons could be learned from the Lehigh Valley — Northampton and Lehigh counties — which appear to have avoided the sprawling, fragmented development so characteristic of Monroe’s 20 municipalities.

Medical and educational institutions are non-polluting, highpaying industries that rely on well-educated, white-collar professionals. With East Stroudsburg University and Pocono Medical Center as major anchor institutions, these are strengths that the county could readily build on. Notably, the county’s 2020 report from years ago overlooked these fields.

PAGES 8-9: FOSTER A SENSE OF COMMUNITY

PAGE 13: PROMOTE THE NEXT GENERATION

With our high population of extreme commuters, many residents are more engaged in eking out their day-to-day existence than they might be in volunteering in schools, sports leagues or engaging in other civic affairs. Geographically, the Pocono area lacks a city center, which means regions such as the mountain townships, the West End and the boroughs take on identities in a silo. What steps can be taken to unite county residents regardless of their “home” region?

What can be done to curb “youth flight”? What measures can be pursued to keep — or attract — young people to settle here, raise families and contribute to the greater good?

PAGE 10: IMPROVE MOBILITY From public transportation to sidewalks to roads and bridges, the Pocono area needs better ways of moving goods and people. Our roads are antiquated and, because of the sprawl that the building boom engendered, we are wedded to our cars to get around. What better ways are there?

PAGE 14: FOLLOW THROUGH The county’s 2020 report — completed in the late 1990s and supported with Harvard consultants — was largely put on a shelf and forgotten about (with the exception of the successful open space initiative). A new comprehensive plan is about to be adopted. The county needs a cheerleader-in-chief — someone who will lead the charge for change and to follow through on initiatives.

PAGE 15: ALL TOGETHER NOW Read what you had to say needs attention.

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End the identity crisis

Figuring out potential of Poconos beyond those heart-shaped tubs T By DAVID PIERCE Pocono Record Writer

he traditional anchor industries of the Poconos — tourism and home construction — have long dominated the local economy and sense of place.

Monroe County has been dependent on attracting visitors from two of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. Many who came to enjoy the Pocono forests, streams, mountains and cascading waterfalls decided to stay for longer periods, spawning private home developments that have evolved from seasonal to year-round communities. More recently, new residents came here in search of cheaper housing, lower property taxes and better schools for their children. Monroe’s population swelled from 95,000 people in 1990 to nearly 170,000 two decades later. The housing boom — supported by some of the longest job commutes in the country — collapsed last decade under the weight of physical fatigue, real estate speculation and the recession. The county now has among the highest school property tax rates in the nation, though still lower than that of the New York metro area. Monroe County today is known partly for recordhigh home foreclosures that have exceeded 1,000 filings in each of the last seven years. The 1,705 filings recorded in 2013 are actually a slight improvement from the 1,811 filings in 2012.

‘Depressed area’ New doctors hired at Pocono Medical Center are increasingly reluctant to live

Rebranding our image Goodbye, heart-shaped tubs. Hello, great outdoors. That is the essence of a “rebranding” campaign for the Pocono tourist industry launched in 2006. Tourism remains the area’s largest industry, but the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau is pleased with efforts to diversify the local economy, PMVB President and CEO Carl Wilgus said. “I think it’s long overdue,” Wilgus said. “Anytime your economy is driven by one industry, you’re subject to those ups and downs.” Medicine and education, and development near Interstate 80 to take advantage of Monroe County’s access to the ports of New York and Philadelphia, are compatible with serving visitors, Wilgus said. The bureau is a nonprofit agency that serves Monroe, Pike, Carbon and Wayne counties. Nearly 35 percent of the jobs in that region are associated with the travel and hospitality industry — the highest percentage in the state.

POCONO RECORD FILE PHOTO

A heart-shaped tub — once an unofficial symbol of the Pocono area’s status as a honeymoon mecca — feels no love after it was yanked out of a room by vandals at the former Pocono Gardens Resort in Paradise. in Monroe County, hospital CEO Kathy Kuck said. “We show people (homes for sale) and they say, ‘This is a depressed area,’” Kuck said of all the foreclosures. The vast majority of foreclosures are in the private communities. Yet the largest gated communities have populations that exceed those of Monroe County’s four boroughs — its traditional population, shopping and commercial centers. The new population centers are in the major townships where the most prominent private communities are — some well away from shopping convenience. This includes A Pocono Country Place, Penn Estates, Indian Mountain Lakes, Saw Creek Estates, Pocono Farms and Sierra View. None of those developments — each exceeding 1,000 homes — has an internal shopping district. Basic support services have developed outside the private communities in Coolbaugh,

Chestnuthill, Stroud and Middle Smithfield townships. This has somewhat increased convenience, but at the price of additional density and sprawl, said Craig Todd of Monroe County Conservation District. The large private communities should be rezoned to provide for “village centers” with retail development, “so you don’t have to drive an hour for a pack of gum,” Todd said. Future development needs to conform to the county’s diverse landscape and infrastructure, he said. The best soils should be reserved for agriculture, and industry should be placed where there is ample water to support it. “We don’t have an identity,” Todd said. “If you zone to your resource bases ... and you grow consistent to that, you have a viable community.”

What’s next? So what’s next for Monroe County, as county officials and scores of volunteers complete work this year on a 10-year master plan update, a plan for open space preservation and an economic development plan? Nearly all of the 15 people who attended two Pocono Record forums on the county’s future pointed to Monroe’s open space protection program as a role model for tackling other issues. Some 20,000 acres have been protected from development since 1999, thanks to a $25 million, voter-approved open space bond and matching grants. Residents came together to protect the land for recreation, and they continually come together in identified emergencies, most recently in getting aid to the homeless. That’s the kind of inclusive, sustained effort all our panelists said is needed to map Monroe’s future for 2020 and beyond.

A 2012 state Department of Community and Economic Development study found that the 35 percent of jobs from tourism generated 49 percent of the region’s income, Wilgus said. This should put to rest the contention by some that tourism is a low-wage industry, he added. PMVB’s current promotion strategy focuses on “clean and green” resources and outdoor sports. References to the “Poconos” has been replaced with promotion of the “Pocono Mountains.” The Pocono area’s higher elevations, fresh air and possibilities for physical and emotional renewal are marketed to urban visitors. The growth of water parks — two large water-park projects are planned for Monroe County — will help the bureau promote the area as a family destination, Wilgus said. Indoor water parks and gambling at Mount Airy Casino Resort “bullet-proofs us against the weather,” he added. PMVB also wants to encourage more local residents to enjoy walking, hiking and bicycling. “If we can’t reflect that lifestyle we’re trying to promote, that’s a disconnect,” Wilgus said.

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Advocate for balanced growth pace, s n e p ll for o be a a e r ’ e “W as to thing h e r e h but t . The only g down e n c i n r a b l a o b going t job s i t a h t es) is nomic x a t l a (loc nd eco a n o i t crea TER ent.” m p J. B A Xb ro ke r o l L e E A H dev e M IC estat t

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Part of Delaware Water Gap is paved over for a park-and-ride lot — a necessity for a viable commuter area. KEITH R. STEVENSON/ Pocono Record

Development vs. preservation: Deciding if cash or grass is greener T

By DAVID PIERCE Pocono Record Writer

wo views. Two Monroe counties. There is one perception fixated on runaway sprawl — a boom that increased the county’s housing stock last decade by 10 percent, while pushing local school property taxes among the highest in Pennsylvania and the nation.

It was followed by a bust that led to a record number of home foreclosures. Some argue this was done without adequate oversight or regard for the environment — wetlands, woods and picturesque ridges and

mountains — as homes, commercial projects and people reached into nearly every corner of the Poconos.

Protection or strangulation? Even when some ventures came with the promise of jobs, they were approved with 20-year diversions of property taxes from school districts to the developers’ own infrastructure. There is another perception focused on the frustrations of burdensome, bureaucratic permitting delays. Some job-creating, taxgenerating projects were delayed indefinitely, while others were abandoned in the face of plan approval delays, difficulties in obtaining stormwater runoff permits

and a seemingly endless Pennsylvania Department of Transportation indifference to granting driveway access approvals. Some contend a maze of regulations has strangled efforts to reduce individual property tax bills — while creating quality jobs — by diversifying the area’s economic base. Monroe County Conservation District and the 4-yearold Citizens Against Regulatory Excess have clashed on these points in the past. CARE has pushed for a quicker response to permit requests, “less subjective” environmental regulations and a “more balanced” approach to regulatory reviews. “It got started because

there were extremists on both sides,” said CARE cofounder Michael J. Baxter, a commercial real estate broker and board chairman of the Pocono Mountains Economic Development Corporation. “We’ve made some progress, but we have a long ways to go.”

Expedited permits The biggest change at the conservation district was the 2009 hiring of a local engineer to handle stormwater permit applications that once went to the state Department of Environmental Protection. Monroe County government is sharing the cost for this position, aimed at speeding up approvals. “We’ve managed to keep

the integrity of the program intact while expediting permits,” said Monroe County Conservation District Executive Director Craig Todd. The conservation district has done its part, Baxter agreed. “They’ve done everything they can to shorten the process,” Baxter said. “DEP is really the biggest challenge.”

New wetlands rules Baxter is particularly concerned about a new DEP regulation requiring a 150-foot development buffer around wetlands. Monroe County has more wetlands and more highquality protected streams See GREENER, Page 5

GREENER From Page 4

than any other county in Pennsylvania. “It’s really taken a lot of people’s wetlands,” he said. “Our opinion is: The science should rule. It almost penalizes us for keeping our water clean.” The state should independently evaluate each project to determine if a proposed activity closer than 150 feet would negatively impact a wetland, he added.

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Update property values in a county-wide reassessment

Holistic approach Monroe County’s natural resources are a unique asset, Todd counters. “We really do have some valuable natural habitats that others don’t have that should be treated as a valuable economic resource,” Todd said. “Projects are more complicated and complex, which makes it more difficult to reach agreement on them.” Todd and Baxter agree that the path forward involves what Todd calls a “larger conversation” involving PennDOT, county and state elected officials and employers. But Todd prefers a holistic approach based on a geographic area’s characteristics, rather than regulating projects “piecemeal.” “If we could zone to the resource a little better … it could make it easier to get permits,” Todd said. Baxter thinks economic concerns are given short shrift. “We’re all for open space, but there has to be a balance,” Baxter said, pointing to huge local tax bills. “The only thing that is going to bring them down is job creation and economic development.”

Seeking perfect time to balance real estate values — and still waiting

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By DAVID PIERCE Pocono Record Writer

s Monroe County’s property tax assessment process hopelessly outdated and unfair to newer property owners?

Yes, says East Stroudsburg Area School District Superintendent Sharon Laverdure, who says it’s time for an all-at-once reassessment of properties to arrive at fairer comparable property values. “It creates a level playing field for everybody in

the county,” said Laverdure, who is the ranking official for one of the county’s largest property tax collection agencies. Laverdure emphasized she was speaking personally and not on behalf of the school district.

Inequities The last comprehensive reassessment of Monroe County properties was performed in 1988. All residential or commercial structures built since then have been assigned as-

sessment values as if they had been constructed in 1988. It is those relative values — compared to all others in a taxing district — that are the basis for assigning millage to determine tax bills. The intent is to ensure, for instance, that two homes of similar size, building materials and design, with the same square footage on the same size lot, are assigned the same value for tax purposes. The same comparable approach is applied to vacant lots and commercial or industrial properties.

Tax experts generally agree that the longer the time since the last reassessment, the more likely it is there are inequities. It generally means that newer homes are taxed more than comparable older homes. Laverdure said basic fairness calls for an immediate reassessment — even if those who have owned their homes for a long time will have to pay higher taxes as a result. See REASSESS, Page 6

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Find a role model

Someone must be doing something right By DAVID PIERCE Pocono Record Writer

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hen it comes to economic development, what can Monroe County residents learn from their neighbors to the south? The Lehigh Valley — Northampton and Lehigh counties — appears to have avoided the sprawling, fragmented development so characteristic of Monroe County’s 20 municipalities, Pocono community leaders said at two February forums at the Pocono Record. Lehigh Valley officials seem to have been more organized, and more united in tackling old problems and reinventing themselves, said ESSA Bank & Trust CEO Gary Olson. Lehigh Valley businesses led a successful effort to form a health department dedicated to improving public health and quality of life, said Alberto Cardelle, interim dean and professor of the college of health studies at East Stroudsburg University. The Slate Belt of northern Northampton County appears to have less sprawl than the Poconos, said Geoffrey Roche, director of community and government relations at Pocono Medical Center. Perhaps that is because the Slate Belt was carried along by Lehigh Valley lead-

better a s i e k ther rnment that y. n i h t I “ f gove nroe Count t o m r o f e Mo ably can’ v r e s can t is I prob i L What .” E N S AUn e r ID u E o W y io s tell J A N E T c o m m is ro r Mon fo r m e

ership that focused economic growth in urbanized south Bethlehem, Roche suggested. This enabled slower, more orderly development to unfold in smaller communities like Portland, Bangor, Pen Argyl and Wind Gap. (Olson, Cardelle and Roche were speaking on their own behalf, not for the institutions where they work.)

Renew Lehigh Valley Has the Lehigh Valley succeeded where the Pocono area has fallen short? Has that region found a more dynamic and inclusive way to foster quality jobs, services and leisure activities? Not really, as problems in that region still persist, said board member Don Miles of Renew Lehigh Valley, an independent agency trying

REASSESS From Page 5

Politically sensitive Successive county commissioners’ boards have dodged the reassessment issue for years. This may be partly because older residents who stand to be losers in a reassessment are more likely to follow local issues and vote in county elections. A decade ago, the county Assessment Office advised the commissioners that the home building boom then in progress was a poor time to

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subsidies should conform to the preferences of local and county planning efforts. Emphasis should be placed on reusing former manufacturing sites — brownfields — and generally reinvesting in older communities. Northampton and Lehigh counties have a combined 62 municipalities, each applying its own approaches to economic and social development, Miles said.

‘Insane set-up’

to get that region’s communities and school districts to work toward regional solutions to common problems. Renew Lehigh Valley was formed following a 2003 report on Pennsylvania land use and development authored by the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank. A major barrier to Pennsylvania prosperity, according to the report, is the independence granted to each of the state’s 2,566 municipalities in enacting zoning and land development regulations. The Brookings report called for requiring all local zoning ordinances to conform to regional or county land-use plans. State infrastructure grants, permit decisions and business

try to reassess property values. Now that the building boom has gone bust — resulting in a record number of home foreclosures — it’s again a bad time to perform a reassessment, Commissioner Suzanne McCool said. “We’d have even more foreclosures” if there were a reassessment, McCool said. Senior citizens on fixed incomes would be the most likely losers in reassessing relative property values, she added. McCool said a statistical compilation of property sales during the past two years — called a common

There are dozens of police departments and more than two dozen sewer and water agencies. Each entity is too afraid of losing its autonomy to implement practical consolidation measures to increase efficiency and save money, he said. “That is a historical fact of Pennsylvania; it’s hard to overcome,” Miles said. “It’s really an insane set-up.” Renew Lehigh Valley’s executive director, Joyce Marin, says her group has been successful in engaging a cross-section of the region in attending conferences devoted to solving common problems. This should lead to future concerted action, she believes, pointing to a planned conference of municipal leaders as part of a major grant. Renew Lehigh Valley has sponsored regional conferences and encouraged regional approaches, with limited success, Miles said.

level ratio — is being used to set assessments and is a fair tool.

For instance, it hasn’t yet convinced Northampton County police departments to share a database with Lehigh County in an effort to stop regional crime sprees. Lower Macungie has replaced Easton as the Lehigh Valley’s third largest municipality, but Lower Macungie has no local police force. The city of Bethlehem is located in parts of two counties, creating inefficiencies and complications. Despite efforts to form a regional health department, only the cities of Bethlehem and Allentown created them, Miles said.

Change in governance? Can Monroe County learn from Northampton County when it comes to direct political representation? County government in Monroe is overseen by three commissioners elected at large, plus elected row officers who run the Deeds and Wills Office, prothonotary, district attorney, sheriff and treasurer’s departments. Northampton enacted a home rule charter with governance by an elected county executive and ninemember county council. Five council members are elected county-wide; four others are elected by districts. Monroe twice considered — and twice rejected — a home rule charter that See ROLE, Page 12

said, or about $6 million to reassess more than 100,000 parcels. It would take three years to complete the proWaiting on state cess. County Commissioners’ Chairman Commissioner Charlie Garris also opposes an immediate reassessment, John Moyer agreed with Laverdure that a reassessment might be overpointing to a lack of direction from due. state legislators and the courts on “If it isn’t now, it’s close to now how to perform it. when the reassessment should be The state Assembly directed the done,” Moyer said. Department of Community and EcoMoyer also prefers to wait for nomic Development a year ago to develop uniform standards on how to state guidance on how to apply uniform standards to the process. Othdetermine property values, but the DCED report hasn’t been completed. erwise, he said, the county could waste money conducting a flawed A Monroe County reassessment reassessment. would cost $60 per parcel, Garris

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Foster a sense of community

How to make Monroe whole Diverse lifestyles, geography and interests prevent population from uniting — but it doesn’t have to be that way

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He noted a 19th-century Russian Orthodox priest who tried to bridge spiritual and economic divides by devoting his life to seeking jobs for the masses. Someone needs to spearhead a local drive for jobs and better housing, he said.

Rallied around nature

By DAVID PIERCE Pocono Record Writer

hat do Monroe County’s 16 townships, four boroughs and four school districts have in common?

Not much, say critics of the status quo. They point to what separates us: a mixture of extreme commuters, longtime residents and more recent “transplants” to the Poconos. About 40 percent of us live in private, so-called “common interest” communities. Nearly one-third of the working population drives or buses long distances — one of the longest average job commutes in the country. So what do residents of the West End, the three Strouds, eastern Poconos and Pocono Plateau have in common? We are separated by geography, vegetation and even by weather. “You have all these little municipalities, but there’s no coordination,” said Pete Nish, a retired 41-year Pocono Mountain School District administrator. “They’re all concerned about themselves.”

Commuter culture “There’s an overall lack of community here,” said Laura Goss, executive director of PoconoArts Council. “We can’t survive because there’s no industry here.” Those who commute to New York-area jobs just don’t have time to become involved in their community, said Beth Taylor, who interviewed 20 bus commuters as part of her Marywood University doctoral study on the health affects of commuting. The commuters she interviewed earn average annual salaries of $96,000 and don’t see any prospect of comparable salaries in the Poconos. The few hours commuters are home during the week are spent with family, she said. Weekends are spent resting from the grind while preparing for the next week, with some preparing a week’s worth of meals at a time. “It all comes down to time,” Taylor said. “They just do this every single day, day in and day out. They never waver from their routine.”

Invested in community Don’t talk about lack of time to Michael Stern. When Stern isn’t managing philanthropic records for the David Rockefeller family in New York, he serves on the Pocono Mountain School Board and operates a local nonprofit youth basketball league and a food pantry. “It’s not something you have to try to get used to,” Stern said of juggling time to engage in the local commu-

nity. “You have to want to.” Area churches might be able to build active involvement by working together across denominations, said Anthony Stevens- Arroyo, a columnist on Catholicism who lives in Penn Estates. “How do you create a sense of community?” asks Stevens-Arroyo, a retired professor. “There has to be a way to rally people around some sort of sense of belonging. If you start out divided, you end up divided.”

It was the diversity and beauty of the land that motivated local officials and residents — people from every corner of the county — to unite in the common cause of protecting natural resources and landscape for future generations. “(T)he original Monroe County Open Space and Recreation Plan of 2001 must be acknowledged as a ‘state of the art’ visionary conservation and recreation strategy in Pennsylvania for the time it was created,” states the final draft of the current open space update. The original plan was sparked by a 1993 Monroe County “alternative futures” study performed by the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. That study called for widening sections of routes 209 and 611 to handle rising traffic levels. It mapped out six potential “alternative futures” for dealing with the environment, zoning, sewage, recreation, and geologic and biological impacts. Better jobs, housing “Without careful planning, the new urban develThe Rev. Theodore Petrides of Holy Cross Greek Oropment may permanently thodox Church said he is concerned foremost with “a breakdown in the moral fiber” sparked partly by a quick- destroy the same qualities that attracted current and ening of society’s pace and the Internet. new residents to Monroe Petrides leads a Bible study group at Monroe County County in the first place,” Correctional Facility, where unemployment and lonelisaid the report. ness are the major issues voiced by inmates.

Did you know? Just what is the Poconos, and how did the region get its name? “There is no official definition,” says Lawrence Squeri, a retired East Stroudsburg University professor and author of a book on the history of the Pocono tourist industry. “I used the area defined by the Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau.”

“There has to be a way to rally people around some sort of sense of belonging. If you start out divided, you end up divided.” ANTHONY STEVENS-ARROYO of Penn Estates, a retired professor

The vacation bureau — known today as the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau — is the official state-designated nonprofit tourist promotion agency for Monroe, Pike, Wayne and Carbon counties. But more parochial geographic terms than “Pocono” were used at the turn of the 20th century, said Squeri, who wrote “Better in the Poconos: The Story of Pennsylvania’s Vacationland.” Early tourist advertisements in The New York Times promoted “Stroudsburg,” “Milford,” or “along the Delaware River” as vacation destinations, he said. Sometimes the area was referred to as the “Pennsylvania Mountains.” When “Pocono” was referenced, it meant only the Pocono Plateau — the higher elevations of northwestern Monroe County and small portions of southern Pike, Wayne and Lackawanna counties and eastern Carbon County.

“You have all these little municipalities, but there’s no coordination. They’re all concerned about themselves.” PETE NISH

retired 41-year Pocono Mountain School District administrator

By the 1920s, ads started referring to a wide segment of northeastern Pennsylvania as “the Poconos.” In 1934, when the Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau was formed, it only encompassed Monroe County in its promotions. Following World War II, the four-county region became the PMVB focus. Yet Squeri has seen recent references to Scranton and a Northampton County community as being part of the Poconos.

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Improve mobility

A pedestrian crosses Route 611 in Tannersville — a busy area with many businesses but no sidewalks. KEITH R. STEVENSON/Pocono Record

More sidewalks, fewer traffic jams: How can we get there? T

By DAVID PIERCE Pocono Record Writer

raveling around the Poconos or commuting to nearby urban centers would be difficult even under the best of circumstances.

And these are not the best of circumstances. Consider the region’s deteriorated and outdated roads and bridges, gaps in local and regional mass transit, sprawl induced by successive housing booms along a steep landscape with countless streams, and our dependence on cars. Two decades-long dramas illustrate the frustrations of trying to make it easier to get around: the battle to build the Marshalls Creek bypass on Route 209 and the long-promised yet never delivered New York commuter train.

Train not on track The proposed $551 million restoration of passenger rail between the Poconos and Hoboken, N.J. — near New York City — has made little headway since the 1980s despite being promoted by some developers, real estate agents and politicians as almost inevitable. Federal grants have been awarded for feasibility studies and project designs.

New Jersey Transit has contributed $37 million to a project to restore 7.3 miles of a 28-mile section of track removed in the 1970s. But there has been little activity in Pennsylvania, where the connecting Delaware River bridge would have to be restored and track upgraded in the Poconos to Scranton. Thousands of Pocono residents who moved into new homes here in the 1990s and the aughts complain they were lured here partly by the unfulfilled promise of passenger rail. They have been left with either bus service or their vehicles as the only means to make some of the longest job commutes in the nation to the New York metropolitan area. “We had people moving into the Poconos” on the promise of train service, said East Stroudsburg Area School District Superintendent Sharon Laverdure. “We may be losing population because it hasn’t come in.” Potential federal funding has dried up since The Great Recession began in 2008. Elected officials who championed the project are no longer in office. Home developer and real estate agent Chuck Hannig agrees that a lot of new resi-

dents probably heard the train story before moving to the Poconos. Many were seasonal residents who decided to move in full time, he said. “We were just filling the orders,” Hannig said. “People in second homes were looking at the new schools and said, ‘This looks great.’”

Bypass costs ballooned The Marshalls Creek Bypass, a $100 million project to alleviate congestion at the Marshalls Creek stoplights by diverting traffic around the village, had been on the drawing board for nearly 20 years before being completed early last year. It was authorized last decade as a $68 million, three-phase project, after slowly creeping up the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s 12year priority list. But PennDOT went back to the drawing board in 2008 after phase 1 work alone — including land acquisition and intersection turning lanes — came in at $75 million. Projected total costs had ballooned to $200 million. A scaled-back project reduced the four-lane bypass to two lanes. A park-and-ride commuter lot was built near the old flea market, as originally planned. Another price was paid lo-

cally for all the delays, redesigns and escalating costs of the bypass. Several other long-planned local projects — from bridge replacements and repairs, road paving and Interstate 80 interchange upgrades — were delayed for years because so much money was tied up with the bypass. Now some are wondering if a recently announced new road project — expansion of Interstate 80 from four to six lanes in the Stroudsburg area — will once again suck the oxygen out of other road and bridge priorities. No, says PennDOT spokesman Ron Young.

I-80 funding State and federal funding is awarded for local roads and bridges based on rankings on a 12-year “Transportation Improvement Plan” priority list. The Marshalls Creek Bypass was recommended initially on a regional northeastern Pennsylvania TIP for non-interstate projects. The planned widening of Interstate 80 is coming from a separate TIP priority list — with a separate funding stream — maintained by PennDOT for interstate highways, Young said. See JAMS, Page 12

Did you know? Stroudsburg is the only community in Pennsylvania with Route 80 interchanges connecting motorists directly to the downtown business district. Prominent downtown businessmen pushed for an alignment bisecting the borough during design of the highway in the late 1950s. By 1966, the county’s first planning director, Leonard Ziolkowski, urged the then-state Highway Department to study the possible relocation of I-80 and Routes 447, 191, 209 and 611 away from greater Stroudsburg, to better serve areas where future growth was expected. “Stroudsburg is the focus of the county’s road system, and nearly all major roads intersect there,” he said. “This characteristic of the highway system has created a number of traffic problems in the Stroudsburg area.” THE POCONO RECORD, MARCH 28, 1966

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THE POCONO FIX-IT LIST

Support ‘med and ed’

Health, higher education may be our best industries T

By DAVID PIERCE Pocono Record Writer

he role of “meds and eds” — medicine and education — shouldn’t be overlooked by county planners in diversifying Monroe County’s economic base with non-polluting, high-paying jobs, administrators in those fields contend.

An early draft of Monroe County’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan Update failed to address the role of medicine and education, said East Stroudsburg University President Marcia Welsh, East Stroudsburg Area Superintendent Sharon Laverdure and Pocono Medical Center spokesman Geoffrey Roche. Comprehensive plans — required by state code to be updated every 10 years — are used by counties and municipalities as a guide to future growth. “How do you talk about a comp plan without meds and eds, when meds and eds is the future of the entire country?” Roche asked.

Health care evolving The final draft comprehensive plan update does reference education and health care as contributors to the future economy. It also is noted in a companion report on future economic development. A 2003 study of Pennsyl-

vania land use and development issues conducted by the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank, pointed to meds and eds as a key to economic revitalization, said Alberto Cardelle, an East Stroudsburg University interim dean and professor at its college of health studies. Education holds great promise in not only providing direct jobs, but in training the present and future workforce for jobs that local employers are trying to fill, community leaders told the Pocono Record. But the health care industry is in the midst of a changing landscape brought on by the Affordable Care Act, a concerted effort to hold down medical costs and by the changing desires of doctors and other providers. “I think the pent-up demand for medical space has been pretty well exhausted,” said developer and real estate agent Chuck Hannig, who built the first medical office park on Route 477 in Smithfield Township nearly 15 years ago. Hannig also serves on the boards of Pocono Medical Center and Northampton Community College.

Medical corridor Several doctors who work along Route 447 also provide services at nearby PMC. Early facilities brought needed specialties such as radiology and dialysis, Hannig said.

East Stroudsburg University

PMC

The township created a new zoning designation in 2008 for a proposed 53-bed acute care hospital with an emergency room proposed by Dr. Yasin Kahn, but that facility still hasn’t been built.

New medical hubs

KEITH R. STEVENSON/Pocono Record

East Stroudsburg University student nurses Nathan Unger, Alexandra Green and Allison Morisano (left to right) watch RN Kathy Schwenzer as she goes through a patient’s record at Pocono Medical Center in East Stroudsburg. ESU and PMC have a close relationship, both in physical proximity and in professional synergy. Route 477 today has several medical specialty facilities along the Smithfield Township corridor.

Coordinated Health won township approvals in 2010 for a “short stay” surgery center there.

Medical specialties and more recent “immediate care” centers — places where patients can go for ailments that don’t rise to the level of an emergency — have taken root throughout the county. Young doctors increasingly prefer to work eight-hour shifts in care centers for another employer — such as a Pocono Medical Center satellite facility — rather than start a practice that might require them to work considerably more hours. See MED-ED, Page 12

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JAMS From Page 10

“So the money being used to pay for 80 is not going to be taken away, impact or cause a delay in any other projects in Monroe County,” Young said. Other road and bridge priorities are also more likely to be funded due to gas tax hikes starting this year as part of a five-year state program for accelerated repairs. That will add up to 28 cents to a gallon of gas at the pumps. Some local observers question whether a widening of Interstate 80 is in the county’s best interests. Though a local Safe 80 Task Force made the interstate widening a priority, said Monroe County Conservation District Executive Director Craig Todd, that work doesn’t seem to be on the radar of any county planning efforts. Todd was one of several people in two Pocono Record focus groups who contended

there are lots of independent infrastructure projects pursued by individual groups, with no coordination of overall priorities. “We haven’t decided locally where we really want to be,” Todd said.

Pedestrians cast aside An absence of sidewalks in several residential communities also is seen as a glaring omission. There generally aren’t sidewalks in the major commercial shopping districts outside the boroughs either, from Tannersville, to Middle Smithfield Township, to Brodheadsville. “We have no sidewalks in 604 square miles of the school district,” said retired Pocono Mountain School District administrator Pete Nish. This is despite increasing use of bicycle paths in municipal and regional parks developed through the county’s open space process. Fewer sidewalks mean dependence on cars for even the shortest trips, even going

MED-ED From Page 11

“The paradigm has shifted,” Hannig said. “The lifestyle is just as important to a young physician — maybe more so — than financial reward.” St. Luke’s Hospital won conditional use approval this year from Stroud Township supervisors to build a 189,320-square-foot main hospital along Route 611 near Bartonsville. A hospital extension and a third building of medical offices are proposed in later phases. St. Luke’s must still win other township approvals, but Pocono Medical Center already is bracing for new competition and lost federal subsidies as a “sole community hospital.”

from one neighboring store to another. Sidewalks are now required for any new commercial development in Middle Smithfield Township, Supervisor Annette Atkinson said. Stroud Township has had a sidewalk requirement for new commercial and some residential projects for a few years, Monroe County Planning Director Christine Dettore noted. There are some sidewalks in the Brodheadsville commercial zone, Chestnuthill Township Manager Dave Albright said. Walkways will be required in a pending zoning ordinance update.

Cars drive our mobility A dependence on cars won’t go away anytime soon, however, even if additional sidewalks make it easier to walk from store to store. Two Northampton Community College students don’t foresee how mass transit will ever lessen that dependence, even if Monroe County Transit Authority added bus stops

rural hospitals that compete for higherpaid employees who are commuters to higher-pay areas. Pocono Medical Center will likely lose that rural wage adjustment in 2015, when PMC is reclassified as an urban area due to county population growth in the last decade. The new Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton is developing a residency program at PMC. The medical college also has collaborated with ESU to offer medical students a joint degree or certification in public health.

Role of education

ESU’s division of Research and Economic Development operates a business accelerator program and the Entrepreneurial Leadership Center to help foster local business development, Welsh said. ESU also provides student internships to area businesses. Lost financial aid Cardelle said accounting students help The federal Medicare program provides such hospitals — with no other com- residents prepare their tax returns. Students engage the community in parable hospitals within a 25-mile radius other courses, including social work, he — with subsidies to provide needed seradded. vices that traditionally operate at a loss. “Service learning” is increasingly used This has enabled PMC to provide peon the secondary level, too, Laverdure diatric, obstetrics and behavioral health said. Students typically study a commucare, Roche said. Roche didn’t identify the amount of the nity problem before developing a service project aimed at implementing a solution. Medicare subsidy that PMC would lose Some of those service projects are when St. Luke’s opens its local hospital, mandated by teachers as part of the curbut a PMC official in 2008 pegged the anriculum. nual subsidy then at about $10 million. Weiler Corp. CEO Chris Weiler said PMC already is slated to lose a $2.5 milteachers should spend more time in local lion federal “wage index adjustment” for

and runs. “Here I have to drive to go to the doctor’s,” said Monawar Abuolba, 21, of Bartonsville. “You still need a car to drive to the bus stop.” “You need a car, or you’re not going anywhere,” David Urban, 20, of Winona Lakes agreed. “Taxis are very expensive.” Monroe County Transit Authority “doesn’t have enough money to blanket the whole county with service,” MCTA Assistant Executive Director Rich Schlameuss concedes. But the agency is developing a proposal to help residents save money by pooling rides. MCTA expects to use its website to match people going to the same destination who want to share rides and expenses. It will be modeled after a similar program in a sevencounty region of southcentral Pennsylvania. Details haven’t been finalized, Schlameuss said.

workplaces so they know what job skills are most needed. Laverdure asked Weiler if he was questioning the need for teaching algebra. Weiler replied that many of his job applicants are unable to handle basic math. “We do a ton of training and retraining, and some of it at a fairly basic level,” Weiler said. “It’s just measurements on a ruler, and it’s scary how much they don’t know there.”

New campus Northampton Community College, Monroe Campus, surveys employers every couple of years to rate NCC graduates’ preparation for the workplace, Dean Matt Connell said. “We get back consistently high ratings on preparation, work ethic,” Connell said. Several NCC programs emphasize internships, he said. The college also has advisory boards of practitioners in various fields. About 85 percent of NCC graduates either find employment in their chosen field or go on to earn four-year degrees, Connell said. The new NCC Monroe campus, expected to open this summer, will result in the student population expanding from 2,000 to 5,000, he said. “We know it will take us a couple of years to get there,” Connell said, pointing to smaller class sizes and cheaper costs at NCC than a typical four-year college. “The value is significant in terms of the money you save in the first two years.”

ROLE From Page 6

would have kept major decisions in the hands of three commissioners. The most recent effort went down in a 1996 voter referendum by a 2-1 ratio. Then-Commissioner Jim Cadue said he worried a different form of government would have led to more taxation and less cooperation. He said members of a charter commission who wrote the proposed changes failed to eliminate unnecessary county positions. “I was always worried about moving the agenda,” Cadue said. “I always thought ... you could move things faster if you were on the same page.” Then-Commissioner Janet Weidensaul supported the home rule charter at the time. She believes a new county charter today — with provisions for greater representation from all regions of the county — would help pull together the community. “I think there is a better form of government that can serve Monroe County,” she said. “What it is I probably can’t tell you.” A charter study commission would be charged with drafting charter provisions — including the form of elective governance — and present the plan in a voter referendum. Northampton is one of six Pennsylvania counties with a home rule charter.

THE POCONO FIX-IT LIST

Promote the next generation

13

Young ones love living here; working here? Not so much. “I don’t want to be the guy, 40 years old, living at home in the basement.” DAVID URBAN, 20,

of Winona Lakes, saying he might have to move out of the Poconos for his career

“I’m a city boy, but it is a bit too much.” PATRICK NOLAN JR., 21,

of Reeders, originally of Brooklyn, speaking of the Pocono population boom

“I’d like to stay in this area. My family is here.” ERICA PLANCHOCK, 25, of Pocono Summit

T

By DAVID PIERCE Pocono Record Writer

he Pocono area is an inviting and enriching place to grow up, and steps should be taken to keep it that way — even if it means young adults have to move elsewhere to realize their career dreams.

Now he wonders if growth has brought too many people to the Poconos. “I’m a city boy, but it is a bit too much,” Nolan said.

Opportunities elsewhere?

Monawar Abuolba, 21, had a big adjustment to make when she moved to Bartonsville from Palestine in 2010. “When I came here, it was kind of That was the general consensus of boring here,” she said. “It was really a six-person panel of Northampton hard for me for the first two years.” Community College, Monroe campus Abuolba was introverted during high students interviewed by the Pocono school but has grown more comfortRecord. able since attending NCC, where she Perhaps nowhere is the cultural and has joined clubs and made new friends. ethnic diversity of Monroe County Abuolba’s self-confidence grew after more evident than among its young she took a solo trip to Egypt. people. The biotechnology major plans to “You want to experience the outdoor transfer to East Stroudsburg Univerlife, and it’s disappearing,” said Bianca sity after obtaining her associate’s deGarcia, 21, a nursing major and avid gree from NCC. Abuolba would like to hiker who moved to Stroud Township stay in the area after college and go to at age 2. “It’s losing that charm.” work for vaccine manufacturer Sanofi “I like it here,” said Saul Velasquez, Pasteur, but has heard Sanofi prefers 19, a media major born in El Salvaapplicants with advanced degrees. dor, who lived in New York City before Abuolba might move to the Lehigh moving to East Stroudsburg seven Valley or Philadelphia for work after years ago. “Now the noise is building earning her bachelor’s degree. up here.” Urban is resigned to the possibility “I feel like our area is just an area to he might have to move for better job boost business,” Erica Planchock, 25, opportunities. of Pocono Summit, said of the prolifer“It’s pretty much up in the air,” Uration of big-box commercial stores and ban said. “I don’t want to be the guy, 40 satellite medical facilities. “It’s making years old, living at home in the basetraffic more chaotic.” ment.” “Big business, too,” said radiolPositive impression ogy major David Urban, 20, of Winona Lakes. “Time changes things, so I Velasquez said other parts of the don’t know if I’m just trying to cling to country are much more likely to offer things.” him the opportunity to pursue a film Urban likes the convenience of locareer. cal scenery combined with the acces“If they offer you a better job in a sibility of New York metropolitan-area different place, I’m going to pursue museums. it,” Velasquez said. “There’s not a lot of “There’s always something to do stuff I can get into here.” here,” he said. Garcia credits NCC with helping her “step out of my shell” and become Too many people? more involved in the community. Now Patrick Nolan Jr., 21, of Reeders, asshe is ready to meet the wider world. pires to a career in criminal justice or “I’m young. I have no obligations, so politics, probably in a warmer climate. why not,” Garcia said. “This is the time But the former Brooklyn resident has to do it.” grown to love the Poconos since movPlanchock is a business administraing here seven years ago. tion major who hopes to start her own “The first night was dead silence,” business someday. he recalled. “I was used to car horns “I’d like to stay in this area,” she going off. I was so used to taking said. “My family is here.” trains.” For those likely to leave, the Pocono But the first time he spent an hour area has left a permanent positive imoutside, Nolan fell in love with Monroe pression. County’s natural surroundings. Then “I’d definitely like to raise my family he made friends among his neighbors. in a place like this,” Garcia said.

“If they offer you a better job in a different place, I’m going to pursue it. There’s not a lot of stuff I can get into here.”

SAUL VELASQUEZ, 19,

of East Stroudsburg

“I’d definitely like to raise my family in a place like this.”

BIANCA GARCIA, 21,

of Stroud Township

“When I came here, it was kind of boring here. It was really hard for me for the first two years.” MONAWAR ABUOLBA, 21,

who moved to Bartonsville from Palestine in 2010

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THE POCONO FIX-IT LIST

Follow through

And now, a call to further action “It would be great if it just isn’t something printed in black and white, that we actually did something with it.”

a developer and the project engineer meet early on with municipal officials to review ill Monroe County’s a pre-sketch plan of the proj2030 comprehenect, in an effort to reach understandings and expedite sive plan for future approvals. GARY OLSON growth and quality of life Local officials, working president and CEO of ESSA Bank & Trust, gather dust on a shelf, or speaking of Monroe’s 2030 comprehensive plan with state agencies, would try to clearly articulate the will leadership emerge to approval and permitting of land as a key first step. where, particularly when it carry out its recommendaprocess. A 1998 referendum for a comes to economic growth. tions? “Whether in reality or in $25 million open space bond “Nothing ever came of it That question was raised perception, the development won voter approval. The except open space,” Gary repeatedly during two panel 2001 open space plan prioriprocess is often viewed as Olson, president and CEO discussions of community the culprit for lack of busitized how to spend the fund. of ESSA Bank & Trust, said leaders hosted by the Pocono ness attraction and even Successive Monroe County of the comprehensive plan. Record. business retention,” says the commissioners’ boards last “Somebody has to pull it off The Monroe County Planreport, prepared by Vantage decade approved an adthe shelf and provide some ning Department is compilPoint Development Advisors ditional $11 million from resources.” ing the 2030 comprehensive of Annapolis, Md. its general fund for land Olson noted the 2020 upplan and two companion The report calls for creatpurchases or purchases of date identified problems, reports — one updating ing a county business liaison development rights. This suggested solutions and county open space priorities leveraged an additional $78 position to help current and presented a positive future and another on stimulating potential local companies million in matching grants vision. economic growth — with the from the state and private in negotiating the approval Olson noted the 2030 plan help of a 51-person commuprocess. conservation groups. update has an economic denity task force. Since 2001, about 20,000 velopment component being “The ’80s and early ’90s acres have been preserved. developed by scores of com- Chart economic course plans — those did mainly sit This includes permanent munity volunteers, in addiThe report recommends on a shelf and gather dust,” agricultural easements, tion to an open space update. “competitive locational Monroe County Planning expansion of conservancy “It would be great if it just incentives” compared to Director Christine Dettore properties, new public parks isn’t something printed in surrounding counties, and said. and other natural open spac- black and white,” Olson said, consistency among municies. Four regional open space “that we actually did somepalities’ zoning regulations. Open space victory and recreation commissions thing with it.” The county economic deBut a 1994 Monroe County were created. New hiking velopment recommendations “Alternative Futures” study trails were established. Oth- Business liaison also emphasize utilizing by students in the Harvard er studies were launched. Monroe Career & TechniThe economic developUniversity Graduate School Monroe County was the cal Institute, Northampton ment report is focusing on of Design sparked a concert- trailblazer among the state’s land use and infrastructure. Community College and East ed effort to preserve pris67 counties in saving open Stroudsburg University in The open space update is tine, undeveloped land that space through inter-municexamining where and how to training and informing stuthe report warned was rapipal cooperation, Dettore dents of available local caconnect various open space idly disappearing. said. reer opportunities. parcels through new purA task force went to work Vantage Point recomchases, or through hiking on a 2020 comprehensive Needs action mends an annual economic trails and other recreation plan in which protecting development symposium of features linking multiple But there is widespread open space was a major com- opinion that the successes properties already acquired. local government officials ponent. Officials and resiAmong two dozen econom- and key economic stakeholdof open space preservation dents seized on preservation haven’t been replicated else- ic recommendations is that ers. By DAVID PIERCE Pocono Record Writer

W

“This should be thought of as a working session and should chart the course of the county for the next year,” report said.

Public involvement The 2030 comprehensive plan and related reports will be presented to the Monroe County commissioners for review and approval. The commissioners plan to form a citizens advisory committee to make sure the comprehensive plan recommendations are implemented, Monroe County Commissioners Chairman John Moyer said. But launching an economic development plan is more complex than open space preservation, Moyer added. “You’ve got so many more factors that enter into it,” Moyer said, pointing to utilities, roads and zoning. “It’s so much more difficult to do because there are so many moving pieces to it.” Public participation is a required component of any successful comprehensive plan, Moyer said. “My concern is people aren’t going to take the time to comment on what they think should happen,” Moyer said, urging residents to read the plans. Links to the final draft economic development and open space plans, and to the overall draft 2030 comprehensive plan update, are posted on the right side of Monroe County website home page: www.co.monroe.pa.us/monroe.

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All together now

By filling out a Pocono Record survey form, readers responded to a call for ideas on how to improve the Poconos by 2020.

KEITH R. STEVENSON/Pocono Record

What can we all do? Something, anything We asked Pocono Record readers to weigh in on 10 things we can do to improve the Poconos by 2020. Some 35 of you filled out and mailed in our cut-out coupon. Some of you went so far as to attach pages of ideas. Some common themes — sometimes contradictory — emerged from your comments: Fix the roads. Don’t fix the roads. “I know it seems counterintuitive but all the road construction should be stopped. Last summer there were times when I couldn’t drive ANYWHERE in a ANY DIRECTION,” wrote reader Dianne Worm. “It was like road crews gone wild. This aggravates the populace and our visitors alike. Enough already.” Bring a commuter railroad to the Poconos.

Don’t bring a New York-bound commuter train here. “The influx that it would cause would make the Poconos an urban area, forever destroying it as we know it,” wrote reader Joanna McCauley of Kresgeville. Many of you cited property taxes as a concern. Teri Robinson of Swiftwater listed “cut property taxes” as priorities one through 10. And the creation of life-sustaining jobs was also frequently mentioned. “Now waterparks and hotels are nice but we can’t all raise our families as chambermaids and lifeguards,” wrote Chris Horn of Stroud Township. “We need jobs with livable wages and some degree of dependability. “If we can increase our manufacturing output to some degree, the

housing market and school taxes will take care of themselves. Make bikes, make tomato sauce, make Levi’s — make SOMETHING! Make it here in Pa.!” Refrains for more sidewalks, bike trails, buses and bus shelters also got endorsements, while some of you advocated for adapted reuses of vacant buildings instead of constructing new ones. Here are some of your other suggestions:

“Trash pick-up, especially along I-80 but also all of Monroe County roads. Try a ‘Pride in Monroe’ week and have volunteer crews go out at the beginning of the season, not halfway through it or at the end.” — Stephen Wootton, Stroudsburg “Form a volunteer panel with

one (representative) from each Monroe County school district. Must have diverse backgrounds, including seniors. Meet at central location. Go over ideas submitted and try to implement the best ideas presented. Set length of time panel to serve and if successful, form new panel at the end of the first panel’s term to continue.” —

Cynthia Waters, Effort

“Believe in the Poconos. Simple, yet imperative. Start believing that this area can be more. Start doing small things in your neighborhood that can make a difference. Stop waiting for someone else to do it. …The. List. Is. Endless. So to answer the question, what can we do to improve the Poconos by 2020? Something.” —

Aubrey Dilger, Cresco

THE POCONO FIX-IT LIST

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