Late Dickson City councilman remembered for dedication, vision for town
Whether it was working with health care institutions on projects worth tens of millions of dollars or spearheading efforts for a new Borough Building, the longtime planning commission chairman and four-term borough councilman spent more than two decades committed to enhancing Dickson City. Fedorka, 69, died Sunday night after he was fatally injured in a head-on collision in the 700 block of North State Street in South Abington Twp. He was a husband, father and grandfather.
'There are few people who cared as much about Dickson City as Mike Fedorka did,' said council Vice President and planning Vice Chairman Robert Hall, a longtime friend of Fedorka's.
Hall and Fedorka worked together on the planning commission for more than 20 years while also serving together on council. Fedorka won his first term on council in 2007 and was reelected four years later, serving through 2015. He was elected again in 2019 and reelected in 2023, with his current term set to expire Dec. 31, 2027. He also ran for Lackawanna County commissioner in 2023.
*
Democratic commissioner candidate Michael Fedorka debates in University of Scranton's Loyola Science Center in Scranton, Pa., on Thursday, April 27, 2023. (TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE)
*
Show Caption
1 of 2
Democratic commissioner candidate Michael Fedorka debates in University of Scranton's Loyola Science Center in Scranton, Pa., on Thursday, April 27, 2023. (TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE)
Expand
In a phone interview Tuesday, Hall recalled the 9 p.m. phone calls he'd receive as his colleague pored over planning documents into the night.
'He was sitting down at the Borough Building, looking at drawings, just trying to make things better, trying to help developers to move into our town,' Hall said, emphasizing that the planning commission is volunteer work and unpaid. 'He gave 110%, 100% of the time.'
With about 25 years heading Dickson City's planning commission, Fedorka helped facilitate developments throughout the borough.
'Mike always had a vision, a long-term vision to bring these developers here, to add to our tax base,' Hall said. 'He just had it. He saw into the future a little bit.'
Council President Jeff Kovaleski, who was elected to council in 2011, said he could only describe it as a friendship working with Fedorka.
'You might have differing sides on things, but at the end of the day, you're friends,' he said. 'Mike and I really all had the best outlook for Dickson City that you could possibly have. He always looked out for the citizens in the community.'
Fedorka always put Dickson City residents first and looked at things 'from all different angles,' Kovaleski said.
'He was a true community guy,' he said. 'He lived in the community. He coached in the community. He constantly sponsored Little League teams.'
Through his company, Fedorka Cabinetry, Fedorka sponsored local Little League teams for at least 15 years, including the Teener League team that Kovaleski currently coaches.
'I am so proud to wear the Fedorka shirt,' he said.
Despite the time he committed to Dickson City, Fedorka always emphasized the importance of family, Kovaleski said.
'One of the things he had always said to me was, 'Always make time for your kids because you can't get that time back,'' Kovaleski said. 'He loved spending time with his family.'
Mayor Robert MacCallum knew Fedorka for about 20 years, predating his political career, and worked with him first as Dickson City's controller and later as mayor. On Tuesday, MacCallum said the borough had received messages from elected officials at all levels of government in Pennsylvania regarding Fedorka's passing, including Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan and state Rep. Bridget Kosierowski, D-114, Waverly Twp., as well as from representatives on behalf of state Sen. Marty Flynn, D-22, Dunmore, and Gov. Josh Shapiro's office.
'He was always part of the community, and then he was just one of the best people to work with,' MacCallum said, praising Fedorka's work with both council and the planning commission. 'I view Mike as a family member.'
Fedorka was always looking for new businesses and opportunities for Dickson City, MacCallum said.
'You knew things were going to be moved as quickly as they could be — government has a lot of red tape — but Mike was a stickler to the rules,' he said. 'We felt total confidence in Mike.'
Both Kovaleski and Hall credited Fedorka for his role in helping Dickson City get a new Borough Building at 901 Enterprise St.
'I think that would be something that, if you asked Mike, he would look back on and say that was the thing he'd be most proud of,' Hall said.
In early 2010, Dickson City council voted to purchase the building for $1.15 million, and the town received a $5.7 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund a project to convert the building into a new municipal headquarters.
When Lackawanna County put the building up for sale, Fedorka pitched the idea of buying it to his fellow council members, worked with the USDA to secure a low-interest loan and then essentially acted as the borough's construction manager, going to the construction site daily, Hall said.
Carl Scartelli, right, gives a tour of construction in April 2013 at 8 Eagle Lane, that will be the site of Dickson City's new borough building. On the tour from left are: Alan Cerep, Dickson City Borough Engineer and construction manager; Cesare Forconi, borough manager; Mike Fedorka, borough council; Scott Allen, SDA Architects and Carl Scartelli. (TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE)
The previous Borough Building on Boulevard Avenue was cramped with the Police Department working out of the basement, and it was not wheelchair accessible, Hall said.
The end result was a Borough Building with a state-of-the-art police station and great Department of Public Works facilities, Hall said, calling it 'Mike Fedorka's vision.'
Kovaleski also considers Fedorka a key figure in the development of Geisinger's $58 million project to construct a 61,000-square-foot cancer center off Viewmont Drive, which is set to open next month.
'When it's all said and done, to be able to leave your stamp on something that benefits hundreds, thousands of people who have cancer, I think that is going to be his most important signature item in Dickson City,' he said.
Borough Manager Cesare Forconi said Fedorka was a friend and colleague for more than 25 years. He was instrumental in bringing both the Lehigh Valley Hospital–Dickson City on Main Street and Geisinger's cancer center to the borough, Forconi said.
'He was instrumental in developing the policies and functions of the Dickson City Planning Commission, working tireless hours, meeting with developers to help them meet the borough's requirements,' Forconi said.
As a councilman, Fedorka supported council's vision for revitalizing Main Street, refurbishing parks and 'working together with the entire council to make many great things happen for Dickson City,' he said.
'His experience will be difficult, if not impossible, to replace,' Forconi said. 'We are all saddened by his untimely passing.'
The borough hung bunting Tuesday on its Borough Building and flew its flags at half-staff in honor of Fedorka, Kovaleski said. Borough officials are now seeking legal advice for the processes to fill Fedorka's seats on planning and council.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
39 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago Bears face a long drive to get passage of stadium legislation in the fall
SPRINGFIELD — The Chicago Bears' playbook for constructing a new domed stadium and football entertainment complex in Arlington Heights calls for state lawmakers to act in October to approve property tax break legislation that would allow them to break ground this year. But it is the Bears' pocketbook that may be more important in getting legislators' votes, particularly those from Chicago, to ease the way for one of the NFL's founding franchises to leave the city it has called home for 104 years, since George Halas moved the Staleys from Decatur. Already, there is $525 million in outstanding public debt from the controversial 2003 Soldier Field renovation, a tab currently covered by city hotel taxes and, when that falls short, by Chicago's share of state income taxes. The Bears' lease at Soldier Field expires in 2033, but it can be broken early with a penalty, and the team says it will take three years to build its new stadium. But even if the Bears were forced to pay off the outstanding debt, that alone is unlikely to be enough to satisfy city lawmakers who are key in providing the necessary votes to advance any legislation to help the team. Instead, the Bears' hole may have grown deeper, with legislators from the city potentially seeking additional funding from the team, ranging from help to maintain the Soldier Field lakefront campus to programming funds for the city's public schools to even assistance related to funding for a public transit system that's facing a shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars. And if votes of downstate lawmakers, largely Republicans, are needed in the Democratic-led legislature, they are likely to make their own demands that the team help fund some of their local initiatives. Bears President Kevin Warren set the stage for negotiations when he said virtually a week ago that 'the goal would still be to be in a position to move dirt this year' on the new stadium complex at the former Arlington International Racetrack and have its formal groundbreaking next year. 'These things take time,' Bears owner George McCaskey told reporters on Aug. 8. 'It's on us to convince the governor and the state legislators that this is a good idea for the people of Illinois and we need to do a better job at that.' But the fall veto session, which runs Oct. 14 to 30, leaves little time to build consensus in Springfield. And the Bears have so far had few discussions with state lawmakers to lay the groundwork for getting the legislation they need passed during that two-week sprint. Other avenues appear closed to the team. Foremost, any direct state subsidy for a new stadium is off the table. Gov. JB Pritzker and top legislative leaders repeatedly declared as much, leading the Bears to scuttle a proposed costly renovation plan for Soldier Field and put the 326-acre Arlington Heights property it purchased for $197.2 million in February 2023 as the team's primary focus. The Bears would likely get direct state infrastructure assistance, such as road and water improvements, as has been done with the United Center as well as any large private business development, 'but we're not going to go take taxpayer dollars and prop up a billionaire-owned sports team when we just saw they were able to sell a piece of their business' in which the team was valued at $8.8 billion, Pritzker said Wednesday. That puts the Bears' focus on so-called megaproject legislation that would freeze property taxes on the Arlington Heights land and allow the team to negotiate with local government and schools to pay a fee in lieu of real estate taxes. That is the bill the Bears want approved and it would apply to other large-scale private developments. 'It is very, very important that it passes because without that legislation, we are not able to proceed forward,' Warren said. 'We stand ready. The stadium is designed.' 'So, if that bill passes in October there are items we have to work on and, obviously, there is a process you have to follow with the village of Arlington Heights from an approval process,' Warren said. 'But obviously they are committed.' A sampling of lawmakers at last week's political days at the Illinois State Fair made clear one thing: The existing Soldier Field debt must be repaid for those lawmakers to give the Bears any consideration. State Rep. Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar, a Southwest Side Democrat, said her constituents want 'no debt left to the city.' 'If that's settled, then we can have the conversations about what do we want to do to the Bears, right? Do we put some maintenance in Soldier Field?' she asked. Chicago Democratic state Rep. Kam Buckner said he wants a conversation with McCaskey because 'the Bears have been very squirrelly about where they are, what they're doing, what they intend.' 'What I would hope that they would be leaning towards is looking at some of Chicago's problems, right? We're trying to work on transit right now. We'll be talking about public schools very soon. How can they be helpful in those conversations?' Buckner asked. 'I think the Bears have not been as present as a neighbor as they should be for the people of Chicago,' Buckner said. 'There's no quid pro quo here. It's not 'Pay this and you get a chance to leave.' But like, what's a smart, logical, robust kind of answer where everybody is in this conversation?' Democratic state Rep. Will Davis of south suburban Homewood said the Bears should also show some consideration to lawmakers outside the city. 'It'd be nice if the Bears treated everybody with respect and said, 'Hey, suburban people, what do you think about what we're trying to do?'' Davis said. He said a suburban mayor had encouraged the team to look at some land in southern Cook County, but the team never responded. 'There seems to be a little arrogance there that I wish they would just tone down,' he said. Though Democrats hold supermajorities in both the House and Senate and no legislation for the Bears could advance without them, Republicans in the minority say they haven't heard anything from the team in about a year in seeking support. 'This has not been top of the list at all,' said state Sen. John Curran of Downers Grove, who leads the GOP minority in the chamber. 'We're engaged with our Democratic colleagues on a lot of issues. This has not been one (of them).' The lack of effective clock management was one of the downfalls of the Bears' last coach, Matt Eberflus. But it is an important part of the legislative process — though the Bears have appeared mostly unengaged in Springfield. 'I haven't talked to a single member about the Bears,' House Speaker Emanuel 'Chris' Welch of Hillside said about the stadium issue. 'People are so focused on talking to their neighbors and getting (candidacy) petitions signed, and what they're hearing at the doors is property taxes, grocery prices, gas prices — they're talking about things around the kitchen table,' he said. 'You know what they're not talking about? The Chicago Bears.'
The Hill
39 minutes ago
- The Hill
Texas Democrats fear incumbent-vs.-incumbent brawl after redistricting
Texas Democrats are fretting over a likely primary battle between Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Greg Casar (D-Texas) as Republicans move toward passing a new congressional map that pits the two incumbents against each other. The proposed map, which gives Texas Republicans five congressional seats, draws the two Democratic lawmakers into one Austin-area district. A matchup would pit the 78-year-old Doggett, who was the first House Democrat to call on former President Biden to drop his presidential bid last year, against the 36-year-old Casar, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus. But in what many Democrats call an ironic twist, Doggett is pushing for Casar to run in the newly redrawn 35th district. The move was perceived by some Texas Democrats as Doggett waving the white flag in the redistricting battle before the new map was officially passed by the state legislature. Additionally, Democrats are voicing concerns that an ugly primary would only seek to benefit Republicans and drain resources that Democrats could be using elsewhere in the state next year. In an interview with The Hill on Friday, Doggett called on Casar to 'explain to voters why I should be ousted and why he is surrendering the district to Trump.' 'It's certainly a battle that is unfortunate to divide Democrats at a time when we need to be united against Trump,' Doggett said. 'But I don't see it as having to be a particularly mean race.' However, when asked whether he plans to spend the $6.2 million he has in the bank, Dogget said he plans to use the resources he has and to be 'victorious.' 'That money was raised for my reelection and I plan to use it as necessary,' he said. The back and forth ensued earlier this week when Doggett argued in an email to supporters that the new 35th district would be based in San Antonio, rather than Austin. Doggett is also claiming that Casar could help sway San Antonio's 57 percent Hispanic population. But in an email to Casar's supporters obtained by The Hill, his chief of staff Stephanie Trinh wrote that Casar's 'focus right now is on fighting the maps and supporting our state legislators who have bravely left the state to slow down Republicans' and that Doggett sent his email to supporters without consulting Casar or his team. 'Other than the fact that Republicans arbitrarily assigned this seat the same number as Greg's current one, there's no reason it would make sense for Greg to run in that district,' Trinh wrote, noting that the merged Austin-based 37th district would include nearly 250,000 of Casar's current constituents and his former city council seat. Casar currently represents the state's 35th congressional district, which includes parts of the San Antonio metro area, as well as parts of Austin. Doggett represents the 37th district, which includes the majority of the city of Austin and some of its suburbs. Under the proposed new maps, the 37th congressional district would become more Democratic while the new 35th district would become more conservative and include less than 10 percent of Casar's current constituents. The new 37th district would include roughly two-thirds of Doggett's constituents, while the rest would come from Casar's Austin-area constituency, including his former city council seat that he held from 2015 to 2022. Casar's supporters note that Doggett has been in Congress for 30 years, having represented the 10th, 25th, 35th and 37th districts throughout his tenure. Veteran Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha called Doggett's insistence on running in the newly redrawn 37th district and pushing for Casar to run in the new 35th district 'so ironic,' given Doggett's calls last year for Biden to drop his presidential bid amid questions about his age and fitness to serve in office. 'There's been frustration, especially after what we lived through after the last election cycle, with candidates not knowing the time to open the door to the next generation,' Rocha told The Hill. 'This would be an easy way for Lloyd to step down,' he added. These frustrations come as Democrats as a party grapple with the issue of age following Biden's decision to step down last year and the death of a number of Democratic lawmakers, who have recently died in office. Democratic activist David Hogg, whose group Leaders We Deserve is dedicated to electing young Democrats, said Doggett should 'take his own advice and pass the torch.' 'Thanks to Governor Abbott being a feckless Trump lackey, two incredible progressives might have to fight over the Austin seat,' Hogg said in a statement to The Hill. 'Greg Casar is 36 and Lloyd Doggett is 78. This isn't complicated, Lloyd should take his own advice and pass the torch instead of tearing down the youngest-ever Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.' But Doggett said his issue with Biden running in 2024 did not have to do with the former president's age, but 'an electability problem' and a poor debate performance against Trump. 'There were many people who were more worried about their careers and offending the Democratic Party establishment who didn't say a word,' the congressman said. 'The fact that I was not starting a career was, I think, an asset in being able to speak truth to power even within my own party.' Doggett is also arguing that the new 35th district presents an opportunity for Casar, given its large Latino population. '[The new district] is a district that is much more Hispanic than the one he has today, 57 percent Hispanic,' Doggett said. 'He is the incumbent. He has the power to bring all of his talent and his resources to bear on this district and demonstrate that we don't have to surrender it to Trump.' But Casar's allies in the Latino and Hispanic community, including in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, are ready to defend him. 2024 Election Coverage 'Suggesting Greg Casar abandon Austin for another district just because of its Hispanic population is insulting and out of touch,' one Latino Democratic strategist told The Hill. 'Lloyd Doggett should be fighting Republican gerrymandering, not telling one of Congress's most effective progressive Latinos to step aside from the community he was elected to serve.' Rocha said the subject has been 'a hot topic in the Latino leaders group chat.'
The Hill
39 minutes ago
- The Hill
Democrats face challenge in countering Trump on crime
Democrats are struggling to mount a response as Trump has federalized Washington, D.C., and seized control of the Metropolitan Police Department while threatening to take similar actions in other Democratic cities. In interviews with The Hill, some Democrats have expressed frustration with their party's emphasis on decreasing crime rates instead of focusing on the way voters feel walking the streets of their city. 'These crime statistics, as impressive as they are, are no substitute for how people feel and what they see, and Washington residents still feel like crime is too high and too pervasive, and … that reality has created this opening for Donald Trump,' said Democratic strategist Anthony Coley, who resides in the nation's capital. 'Now that is no excuse for this political stunt he is trying to do, but from a raw political perspective, you never want to give your political opponent an opening to address a real concern that your constituents have.' In a press conference last week, Trump signaled that Washington was just the start of his federal crackdown on crime and Democratic cities across the country could be next. 'You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is,' Trump said. 'We have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don't even mention that anymore — they're so far gone.' 'We're not going to lose our cities over this, and this will go further,' Trump added. Trump appealed to voters' perceptions of crime during his 2024 campaign — even though crime rates in cities around the country were at multidecade lows. Now he is doubling down on his campaign rhetoric. A YouGov poll last week found that 89 percent of Americans think crime in U.S. cities is a problem. The poll also showed that more than half of Americans think crime in U.S. cities has increased since 2020. 'One of the reasons that Trump has taken to this is because there's this impression that Democrats are soft on crime and that progressives are too lax on criminals and criminal activity,' Democratic strategist Basil Smikle said. 'I think that it's important to say that crime has gone down in part because communities did respond to the high crime rates. … It wasn't just more policing, and I think that's a very important point that they need to hammer home.' In recent days, mayors of Democratic strongholds in Los Angeles, Oakland, New York, Chicago and Baltimore have pointed to their city's decreasing crime rates, calling Trump's moves baseless and power hungry. Many of them have also highlighted the policies they've implemented. 'From my first day in office, public safety has been my top priority,' Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement Sunday. 'In just two years we have made historic progress, driving down homicides by more than 30 percent and reducing shootings by almost 40 percent in the last year alone.' 'If President Trump wants to help make Chicago safer, he can start by releasing the funds for anti-violence programs that have been critical to our work to drive down crime and violence,' Johnson added. 'Sending in the National Guard would only serve to destabilize our city and undermine our public safety efforts.' And some Democrats say that's really all they can be doing — at least until they're able to take the battle to the courts. 'This is more about who you are going to believe,' Democratic strategist Rodell Mollineau said. 'There's a lot of dog-whistle in there, and if people are susceptible to believing that, then it's hard to combat it.' 'It's hard to say that you should respond with anything but the truth, even if some people don't want to hear the truth,' Mollineau added. 'This is performative, and it's not actually getting the results. I think that's where we need to go, but I do think that there's going to be a population that's never going to believe us.' At the same time, because Democrats have struggled with voters on crime, some strategists say now is the time for them to fine tune their policies — closing gaps that Trump could try to fill. 'I do think, though, that there are legislative fixes and tweaks that many lawmaking bodies and democratically held cities should revisit, even as the data continues to fall,' Coley said. He argues local government officials in D.C., in how they handled crime during and after the pandemic, created a political opening for Trump. 'So I think other cities should do what they can to further improve how people feel about public safety in their jurisdictions,' he added. 'And they should do that now.' Some Democrats say officials in their party have already done the work successfully and that sending that message to voters is what will ease their perceptions of unsafe streets. 'I don't think [Democrats] are out of touch because crime has gone down in these cities, so they know how to police their cities,' Smikle said. 'They have to just remind voters that they brought crime down in their cities, and they know how to do that.' Either way, Democrats say they will have to do something to convince voters they are competent on crime, but they say the political consequences could be low for Trump. 'Most of America has little to no sympathy for Washington, D.C. That became evident during the DOGE cuts,' said one Democratic strategist of the mass-layoffs by Trump's Department of Government of Efficiency. 'So while Americans should be concerned about an authoritarian power grab, I'm not sure it will resonate.' 'D.C. is on its own,' the strategist added.
