Commitment to candy, community: Bazooka keeps Ring Pop local
MOOSIC —The scent of fruity flavors filled the air as workers produced Ring Pops inside Bazooka's new plant on Birney Avenue Thursday morning.
After more than four decades in Scranton, Bazooka Candy Brands closed the Poplar Street location due to structural issues with the floors and began making the wearable candy in Moosic.
Tony Jacobs, CEO of Bazooka Candy Brands, stressed it took a team effort to make the transition so seamless.
'We unexpectedly shut down our facility in Scranton on Aug. 29,' he said. 'By late February, we were up and running in this factory. The town has been incredibly welcoming and tried to do everything to facilitate us getting up and running as quickly as possible. You want to be in a place where they want to support you.'
Jacobs noted the new, larger plant will allow employees to ramp up production — eventually producing up to 1.5 million Ring Pops each day. The new facility churns out 112 different flavors of sweet treats — a number that is continually growing, he said.
However, Jacobs sticks to the basics.
'I'm classic in my flavors, so I love the strawberry,' he said.
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Owner and CEO of Bazooka Candy Brands Tony Jacobs speaks during the event celebrating the opening of the Bazooka Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday, March 27, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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People gather outside of the new Bazooka Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday, March 27, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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State Sen. Marty Flynn sucks on a Ring Pop during the event celebrating the opening of the Bazooka Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday, March 27, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Long-time employee John Ellis recalls the first Ring Pop being produced outside of the new Bazooka Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday, March 27, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Ring Pops are packaged at the Bazooka Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday, March 27, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Components of the Ring Pop are run through. the machines at the Bazook Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Employees work in the production area of the new Bazooka Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday, March 27, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Ring Pops are produced in the Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday, March 27, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Owner and CEO of Bazooka Candy Brands Tony Jacobs speaks during the event celebrating the opening of the Bazooka Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday, March 27, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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To create the candy, crews heat a mixture of corn syrup and sugar up to 300 degrees and add flavors and colors to create hot, liquid candy, which is then injected into the mold of the candy ring before going into a cooling tunnel where it becomes hard.
The new 120,000-square-foot location — 90,000 square feet bigger than the Scranton plant — opens up more opportunities for the company, Jacobs said.
'Ring Pop is our most important product for Bazooka Brands,' he said. 'We've been growing significantly over the last 10 years and Ring Pop has been a key driver of it. The demand for it keeps on increasing. When we were at the Scranton facility, we were able to make about 280 million Ring Pops a year. With this facility, and our ability to expand, we will hopefully be able to get up to 400 million Ring Pops, when we're fully running.'
Jacobs said plans for the Scranton location remain in flux.
'We had the challenges with ground movement and it's still under assessment,' he said. 'We're looking at every option we can.'
The Moosic facility has 110 employees, including 98% of the workforce from the Scranton plant who continued with the company, Jacobs said.
Jacobs felt it was important to maintain operations within the Scranton area.
'For Ring Pop, it's been our home for 48 years, and even longer before that with the Topps Company even longer,' he said. 'We want to have production in the United States, and Pennsylvania is one of the capitals of the confectionery world. We have long-tenured employees, so it's critical for us to have a footprint here.'
The Topps Duryea plant, which produced baseball cards and bubblegum, closed in 1997.
Moosic Mayor Robert Bennie welcomed the addition of Bazooka to the borough and feels it adds to other ongoing developments in town.
'To have this building occupied by a world-class company like Bazooka is a dream come true for us,' he said. 'Moosic is thrilled to become the home of the Ring Pop. More and more businesses are starting to call Moosic home — both here along Birney Avenue and up on Montage Mountain.'
Jocelyn Stahl, chief of global operations for Bazooka, said about half the facility is currently operational, with work on the other areas slated to begin later this year.
A former taste tester and an employee with five decades of experience expressed satisfaction with the new facility.
Lucia Dudziec, 18, sampled Ring Pop flavors with the company about a decade ago.
'There were about 15 of us in a room and we probably tried eight different candies that weren't on the market yet,' she said. 'We all gave our thoughts — it was really cool.'
The Moosic resident still enjoys the treats to this day.
'I have a drawer full of them in my house,' she said.
Meanwhile, John Ellis — who began working for the company at 19 — played a big role in the production of the first Ring Pops, which were cherry, he said.
'We busted our butts trying to get it to work right and a couple years later we got it going,' Ellis said. 'We got the cooker running, produced the candy, and the rest is history.'
Ellis felt a sense of relief upon learning Bazooka would remain in the area following the closure of the Scranton plant.
'We were worried about them moving out of town, but they stuck around and that's why we stuck around,' he said. 'It belongs here, it doesn't belong anywhere else.'
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Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Yahoo
Scranton gives $100,000 in grants to eight veterans' service organizations
SCRANTON — An idea a decade ago for a memorial to honor the hundreds of Scranton veterans who died in wars resulted five years later in the Scranton Veterans Memorial Park at Scranton High School. The city this year gave the memorial park a $5,000 grant for ongoing maintenance and replacement of flags. The memorial park and seven other organizations that serve veterans received city grants totaling $100,000 to help them in various ways, including renovating buildings and providing individual assistance services, Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti said Monday during an event at American Legion Connolly Post 568 in Minooka. Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti announces grants awarded to veterans at the American Legion Post 568 in Scranton Monday, May 19, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) The funding, in the city's 2025 operating budget, continues the city's commitment to local veterans, the mayor said. The $100,000 represents an increase from the $80,000 total awarded in 2023 and $85,000 in 2024. 'As a veteran, I like to see how this program has grown over the last three or four years. Who knows what's going to happen in the next five years?' said Pat Ahern, chairman of Scranton Veterans Memorial Park during the announcement event. 'We have so many different organizations now. It's like planting a tree. It starts off small but eventually it grows,' Ahern said. Vice commander of the American Legion Post 568 Tom Benson joins other legion members as Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti announces grants awarded to veterans outside of the legion in Scranton Monday, May 19, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) The city accepted grant applications through April. The recipients, grant amounts and other representatives of recipient organizations who spoke during the announcement event included: • Agency for Community EmPOWERment of NEPA (ACE), 123 Wyoming Ave., $5,000 to support the Veterans Rise and Ride program that provides transportation to employment and medical appointments. 'This $5,000 was really lifesaving,' ACE Executive Director Jim Wansacz said. 'Without that grant, we would have had to shut that (ride service) down.' • American Legion Connolly Post 568, 2929 Birney Ave., $20,000 for upgrades to the community hall to improve energy efficiency and provide ADA-compliant seating. Post Commander Sean O'Shea said the post's membership is older and raising money for building maintenance and modernization is difficult. 'We're very grateful for this' grant. • Bread Basket of NEPA, 550 Madison Ave., $5,000 for its Veteran Food Security Support Initiative which helps Lackawanna County veterans struggling with food insecurity. • Fight4Vets, 711 Davis St., $10,000 for a rent assistance program that combats veteran homelessness by providing emergency rent support and additional prevention services. • Scranton Veterans Memorial Park, located at Scranton High School, 63 Munchak Way, Scranton, $5,000 to purchase flags for each Armed Forces branch and continued maintenance of the site. • UKAVETS, 237 Railroad Ave., $10,000 for the replacement of outdated facilities. • Valhalla Veterans Services, 2754 Jackson St., $20,000 to support Valhalla's Hope, which removes financial barriers to mental health counseling and suicide intervention services for local veterans. • Warrior Strong, 311 Adams Ave., $25,000 to support the Resilient Warriors program, its unique comprehensive health and wellness program. Warrior Strong President Tom Tice said support from the city allowed his organization to double its offerings and open its studio much more often to veterans and their families. 'We can really tell the community — the veteran community — is using our programs every single day,' Tice said. American Legion Connolly Post 568, 2929 Birney Ave., Scranton, on Monday, May 19, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) * American Legion Connolly Post 568, 2929 Birney Ave., Scranton, on Monday, May 19, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) * Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti announces grants awarded to veterans at the American Legion Post 568 in Scranton Monday, May 19, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * Vice commander of the American Legion Post 568 Tom Benson joins other legion members as Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti announces grants awarded to veterans outside of the legion in Scranton Monday, May 19, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * American Legion Connolly Post 568, 2929 Birney Ave., Scranton, on Monday, May 19, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) Show Caption 1 of 4 American Legion Connolly Post 568, 2929 Birney Ave., Scranton, on Monday, May 19, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) Expand
Yahoo
18-05-2025
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Data centers could reshape landscape in NEPA
Data centers are coming to Northeast Pennsylvania. In a region once fueled by coal, a new industry aims to reshape Northeast Pennsylvania, tapping into the high-voltage power lines slicing through the valley to fuel sprawling campuses of computer-filled buildings powering artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Because of the sudden surge in data centers, local municipalities do not adequately address them in their zoning, leaving communities scrambling to update their land-use legislation to address the rapidly growing industry. Over the last six months, Lackawanna County — primarily in its Midvalley region — has experienced a burst of interest from developers looking to construct large data center parks, joining Luzerne County where Missouri-based NorthPoint Development plans to construct a 15-building data center campus in Hazle Twp. called 'Project Hazelnut,' and where Amazon seeks to operate a data center in Salem Twp. near a nuclear power plant. In Lackawanna County, Archbald has become the hotbed for new data center activity, with three data center campuses proposed for the town, all along the Business Route 6 or Eynon Jermyn Road corridors. Although nothing is official, another developer looks to build a data center in Jessup, and on the southern tier of the county, Clifton Twp. officials are looking to update their zoning in light of a data center proposal. While data centers offer significant tax revenue and high-paying jobs, they could have adverse effects if not properly legislated by municipalities. Local officials are looking to amend their zoning to provide more oversight over data centers and potentially restrict where they can be built, though for some projects, it could be too late. According to the Data Center Coalition, data centers are physical locations that organizations use to house their critical applications and data. 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(SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) Show Caption 1 of 3 Power lines span over the Scranton Carbondale Highway in Archbald Thursday, May 15, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) Expand Why now? Growth in artificial intelligence is the driving factor behind the surge in data centers, said John Augustine, president and CEO of Penn's Northeast, which is a Pittston-based collective aiming to promote new investments, jobs and business opportunities by promoting Northeast Pennsylvania. 'Cloud computing, computer programs themselves, also play a role in data centers, but really, AI is driving this fast-moving train,' he said. Virginia was essentially the birthplace of data centers, but portions of the state put moratoriums in place on new developments because of the amounts of water and power they use, he said. In response, Amazon looked at tapping directly into the Talen Energy nuclear power plant in Salem Twp. for a data center,, Augustine said. Amazon's data center put Northeast Pennsylvania on the map for new developments, piquing the interest of other major data center firms like Google, Meta and Microsoft, he said. 'Amazon was the first and kind of said, 'Hey, look at this place. They have water, they have land, and most importantly, they have the power,'' Augustine said. But, the online retail giant's project hit a roadblock when members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in November opposed Talen Energy's proposal to increase the amount of power that it would directly supply to Amazon for data centers. Last month, FERC upheld that decision. With multiple natural gas power plants in Northeast Pennsylvania and the ability to draw natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, Augustine believes the region is well suited for data centers. If data centers use natural gas to generate power onsite, they will pay markedly less per kilowatt of power, he said. 'We have the second largest natural gas reserve in the world,' he said. 'Now it's time to put it to work for what is literally generational, life-changing opportunities.' In Archbald, borough Manager Dan Markey said borough officials have asked people why their town has so much interest, and the answer is always the same. 'We have the trifecta,' he said. 'We have the power, we have the fiber (internet), and we have the land.' Archbald now has three proposed data centers. Wildcat Ridge AI Data Center Campus: A 17.2-million-square-foot proposed data center campus spanning nearly 400 mountainside acres along Business Route 6 and Wildcat Road, or Route 247. A firm first approached Archbald during a January council work session touting an estimated $2.1 billion investment. The data center campus would consist of 14 three-story-tall data center buildings, each with a 126,500-square-foot footprint, according to conceptual plans for the project. For that to move forward, Archbald will have to either rezone hundreds of acres of resource conservation and medium/high density residential land, or grant a special data center overlay. Project Gravity: A data center campus that would be built on just over 186 acres between Business Route 6 and the Eynon Jermyn Road, with entrances on both roads. Proposed by New York City-based Western Hospitality Partners, operating as Archbald 25 Developer LLC, Project Gravity would have at least six two-story data center buildings, each with a 135,000-square-foot footprint. The same developer has proposed data centers in Indiana and Illinois. Archbald Data & Energy Center: A project to remove the Highway Auto Parts auto salvage yard on the Eynon Jermyn Road and build three data centers, each under 70 feet tall with a roughly 150,000-square-foot footprint, along with ancillary buildings and structures. Another developer is looking at building data centers in the Jessup area near the Lackawanna Energy Center natural gas-fired power plant, Augustine said. Augustine believes power will be the limiting factor for the Midvalley projects. 'Will we necessarily see all four of these proposed (data centers) happen?' he said. 'There's not enough power in Pennsylvania, there's not enough power on the PJM grid to be able to handle all of the data centers that are looking currently in the region.' The PJM is a regional transmission organization that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity throughout the eastern United States. However, Augustine noted plans to add more than nine gigawatts of power to Pennsylvania, with seven gigawatts dedicated to the northeast. Impact of data centers Augustine pointed to job creation and 'game changing' amounts of tax revenue that could be generated by data centers. Data center campuses will take up to five to seven years to completely build, creating potentially thousands of construction jobs with good wages and union labor, Augustine said. Then, once the data centers are complete, each building will employ around 12 to 15 people to operate them, with jobs paying $80,000 to $100,000-plus, he said. 'The dollars that we're talking about in terms of going back to the school districts and the municipalities is just absurd,' he said. Unlike warehousing and distribution centers — another thriving industry in Northeast Pennsylvania — data centers do not have constant truck traffic, aside from the initial construction traffic, Augustine said. 'If some of these companies go through with what they're looking at in Northeastern Pa. and across the state, it will be the largest expenditures ever spent in Pennsylvania history,' he said. For Archbald, the borough reached out to other areas of Pennsylvania and across the country looking for more information on data centers, Markey said. Borough council's top priority is to ensure its residents are safe and healthy, he said. The borough was warned of the possibility of hearing a low hum from the data centers if they're near residential neighborhoods with air cooled systems rather than liquid cooling, he said. Borough officials also learned of the economic benefits, not just from tax revenue but job creation, he said. 'All of a sudden, restaurants become busier, and gas stations and grocery stores become busier,' he said. 'Residential housing is no longer vacant.' Archbald Neighborhood Association co-founder Kayleigh Cornell has taken an active role in informing the community about data centers proposed in her town, attending meetings and using her organization's Facebook page to share news and updates. Residents have reached out to the association, and she has family living near the proposed Project Gravity, she said. 'With the data centers, we're not for or against them,' she said. 'We just want the residents to benefit as much as possible from them.' Noise is the largest impact for residents, Cornell said, advocating that data centers use closed-loop water cooling systems for the least noise, as well as using enclosed diesel generators for backup power. Light pollution is another impact, which could be resolved with downward-facing lights, she said. 'Hopefully we could get them to be better neighbors and implement some of the strategies that other municipalities have used,' Cornell said. For guidance, Cornell spoke with the Community & Environmental Defense Services organization. For four decades, CEDS has worked with communities across the country as they navigated proposals from warehouses, transfer stations, landfills, highways and other uses, founder and President Richard Klein said in a phone interview Thursday. Over the last six months, he has been working with communities on data centers. Data centers are attractive because of their tax benefits, and Klein encourages towns to look at ways data centers can be managed to get the tax benefits without causing noise pollution, air pollution, high electricity cost impacts and potential impacts to ground and surface water. They are more benign than warehouses, he said. Older, air-cooled data centers with large fans put out a 'horrendous noise,' but better water-cooled systems and diesel generators stored indoors prevent those adverse effects for residents, Klein said. 'We want you to adopt regulations first to attract the good data centers, the ones that are good neighbors with lots of tax benefits, and discourage those that would cause the excessive impacts that some data centers have caused,' Klein said. 'That strategy is far more successful than trying to kill a data center, which is a conventional approach.' Klein suggests that towns require a noise impact study, a water resources impact study and an air quality study. Data centers should give local governments the funds to hire independent experts for the studies, he said. Legislating data centers Municipalities in Pennsylvania have to allow for every type of land use somewhere within their borders, creating zoning ordinances and maps designating land uses for everything from data centers to strip clubs and landfills. While the process to create a new zoning ordinance is often comprehensive, involving public meetings with guidance from zoning experts, new land uses from burgeoning industries like data centers may not appear in zoning ordinances, even if they're recent. As data center developers look to build along the high-tension power lines throughout the region, Mary Liz Donato, the planning department manager for the Lackawanna County Regional Planning Commission, said there is not an ordinance in Lackawanna County that addresses data centers. Newer legislation, like in Archbald and Jessup, mentions them, but they lack criteria, she said. Lackawanna County is now doing research through the American Planning Association and other organizations to get model ordinances and get more insight into data centers, Donato said. She also expects to get legal advice. 'If you're a municipality and you've got those high-tension power lines running through your community, I would be looking into doing an amendment sooner rather than later at this point, because that seems to be where they're going,' she said. Archbald adopted its zoning ordinance in March 2023 as part of a year-and-a-half-long process, but its only language on data centers is: 'Data Center, which may include an Internet Server Building.' Although he was not with the borough when it was adopted, Markey said he was told the borough saw data centers as smaller external buildings — not the large campuses now proposed in town. 'Nothing was taken lightly,' Markey said. 'Personally, I don't know if this was ever forecasted by anyone in Northeast Pennsylvania … two years ago.' The zoning challenge for Archbald stems from how it designates data centers as principally permitted uses, including in general commercial districts, giving developers a more direct path toward approval. The borough is now trying to remedy that by reclassifying data centers as conditional uses, which would require developers to attend a public hearing where they could be questioned by borough officials and residents. If council approves the project, the borough could attach conditions to the approval. Archbald has not yet set a hearing date to consider the zoning amendment, Markey said. The borough and Lackawanna County planning commissions both have to review and comment on it, then the town has to advertise a hearing date for the zoning amendment, he said. Until the law is changed, Archbald has to follow the legislation as it is written, Markey said. That means considering any data center applications as principally permitted uses until council makes them conditional uses. As a principally permitted use, data centers still have to abide by Archbald's ordinances, including reviews by the borough and county planning commissions, zoning officer, fire chief and solicitor, Markey said. 'We are doing our very best to follow the laws that we have in place right now,' he said. To navigate the zoning process for data centers, Archbald hired engineering consulting firm Pennoni. The Archbald Neighborhood Association advocates for the borough to go through the process as thoroughly as possible, Cornell said. Seeing what's happening in communities like Archbald, and with rumblings of a data center near the Lackawanna Energy Center, Jessup Council Vice President Jerry Crinella said his town wants to be proactive. Jessup adopted its zoning ordinance in November 2020; Archbald later hired the same firm to create its zoning ordinance. As a result, the two towns have very similar zoning in place for data centers. 'I would love to see a data center in Jessup, but I would love to see it in the area that's designated for it and is appropriate for it,' Crinella said. Jessup is looking to better define data centers in its zoning, define where they can and cannot be located, and where possible, make them conditional uses, he said. He expects the borough to bring in an expert to navigate the process. 'You probably make the largest investment of your lifetime when you decide to choose your residence and site your family and build a home or buy a home,' Crinella said. 'Changing zoning should always be done with the utmost care, because you want to make sure that you are not negatively affecting all of the people and current businesses that have already invested in your town.' With his district seeing the most data center interest in Lackawanna County, state Rep. Kyle Mullins, D-112, Blakely, encouraged developers to come in prepared to work with their host communities. 'The health and safety of residents is paramount, and any project proposal — it must demonstrate and be held to that standard of health and safety of residents, and the environment and quality of life in the area,' Mullins said. 'I would strongly encourage prospective developers to work with community members to provide assurances and proof that those standards can be met, and that they will be not only good employers, but good neighbors.'
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Yahoo
Dunmore to improve Keystone Industrial Park Road with $1.8M in grants
Dunmore will use nearly $2 million in grants to improve the crumbling Keystone Industrial Park Road, giving drivers a smoother surface and pedestrians a safer path to work. Borough council voted Monday to approve a resolution authorizing and directing borough Manager Greg Wolff to sign an agreement with the state Department of Transportation to improve Keystone Industrial Park Road, council President Janet Brier said. The project, now more than 3½ years in the making, will use $1.8 million in grants to repave the borough-owned industrial park road and add a bike/walking lane for pedestrians, Brier said. The work will extend from the O'Neill Highway intersection to the Throop border, she said. In its current state, the pockmarked Keystone Industrial Park Road is shrinking at the edges as the shoulders crumble, she said, estimating it hasn't been repaved in at least 20 years. 'It looks like it was a war zone up there,' Brier said. * A vehicle reflected in a side mirror makes its way down Keystone Industrial Park Drive in Dunmore Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG) * Keystone Industrial Park Drive in Dunmore Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG) * Vehicles drive on Keystone Industrial Park Road in Dunmore Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * Keystone Industrial Park Drive in Dunmore Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG) Show Caption 1 of 4 A vehicle reflected in a side mirror makes its way down Keystone Industrial Park Drive in Dunmore Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG) Expand With the traffic lines fading and the crumbled shoulders, Brier said she was concerned seeing people walking along the road on the way to work. 'It's super dangerous,' she said. 'There's heavy truck traffic.' The borough first applied for $1 million through the state's Multimodal Transportation Fund in July 2022, but the town only received $200,000, which wasn't enough for the project, Brier said. So, former Councilman Vince Amico, who was council president at the time, contacted the Appalachian Regional Commission, or ARC, Brier said. The ARC is an economic development partnership involving the federal government and 13 state governments, focusing on 423 counties across the Appalachian Region, including Lackawanna County, according to the ARC's website. The ARC's mission is to 'innovate, partner and invest to build community capacity and strengthen economic growth in Appalachia to help the region achieve socioeconomic parity with the nation,' according to the organization. Dunmore applied for funding for the project through the ARC. Following a lengthy process that included bringing in a grant writer to assist the borough, the town received $1.6 million for the industrial park road, Brier said. The preapplication process alone included contacting dozens of businesses to document growth in the industrial park, Brier said. 'They don't want to invest in a stagnant area,' she said. For example, Brier learned Maid-Rite Steak Co. Inc., 105 Keystone Industrial Park Road, was closing one of its offices and relocating about 45 people to its Dunmore location in the industrial park, she said. 'They want to see that type of growth,' she said of the ARC. Dunmore hired engineering firm Greenman-Pedersen Inc., which has an office on Montage Mountain, for the project's engineering, Brier said. The borough will now be working with PennDOT on the project, with the agency handling the construction process, she said. Brier did not yet have a timeline for when the work will take place, though she hopes it will bring more businesses to the borough. The industrial park itself is an attractive location because of its proximity to major roads like Interstates 80, 380 and 81, as well as the Casey Highway, she said. 'We want to attract business in Dunmore, and it's very unattractive for a business to come in here and see the roads that they'll be using to go in and out of their business, that their employees will be using,' Brier said. 'I'd like to make it look more attractive for businesses to want to come here.' Prior to council voting on the road improvements, the borough honored Dunmore resident and centenarian Charles Arnone with a proclamation for his 100th birthday, according to Councilman Tom Hallinan. Arnone served in both World War II and the Korean War, Hallinan said. Dunmore Mayor Max Conway, left, poses with resident and centenarian Charles Arnone on Monday at the Dunmore Community Center. The borough honored Arnone, who is a World War II and Korean War veteran, with a proclamation for his 100th birthday. (COURTESY OF COUNCILMAN TOM HALLINAN)
