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Williamsport mayor continues annual visits to Scranton
Williamsport Chief of Police Gregory Foresman, left, and Mayor Gabriel Campana, center, meet with Mayor Chris Doherty earlier this month to exhange ideas on advancing their cities.
Rich Howells photo
SCRANTON – Williamsport officials “impressed” by Scranton’s recent boon in downtown living said they are hoping to repeat the city’s success after an annual meeting with Mayor Chris Doherty on Oct. 6.
Doherty and Williamsport Mayor Gabriel Campana have met each on the past four years to compare cities and trade ideas. Joined by Williamsport Police Chief Gregory Foresman, they toured the Lofts on Franklin and later examined levy systems in the Plot section and the Albright Avenue bridge.
The Lofts on Franklin, 120 Franklin Ave., developed by local architect Scott Allen, has taken another of the city’s blighted buildings and transformed it into a high-end, 24-unit loft apartment complex with ground floor commercial space fetching $900 a month from tenants. The $2 million project is still under construction, but some occupants have already moved in and every apartment has been leased, Doherty said.
“Most of the tenants are not from the city,” he added. “Our best sales people are the people that live in these buildings. Their friends come down and say, ‘I want to live downtown, too.’”
The development echoes the success of the Connell Lofts, 129 N. Washington Ave., whose similar 89 apartments were already leased before its opening last year. Developer Charlie Jefferson also plans to convert the former Chamber of Commerce building, 426 Mulberry St., into about 40 loft apartments and five first-floor retail spaces.
“In the past four years, I’ve noticed a remarkable difference in the downtown. The mayor is doing a wonderful job,” Campana explained.
Campana said that with Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling less than an hour away, demand for downtown living in Williamsport has increased dramatically.
“We welcome it. That’s why we’re trying to do what Mayor Doherty has done and attract more of them downtown where it’s convenient. Restaurants, bars, the nightlife – that’s what they want,” Foresman said. Foresman also praised the work of Scranton Police Chief Dan Duffy, complementing the “Be Part of the Solution” campaign’s public service announcements and saying that the department “does a really fine job for what they’re up against.”
Williamsport has about one third of the population of Scranton, Foresman continued, but crime statistics are about the same per capita. In turn, the Williamsport Police Department has encouraged the formation of crime watches in each neighborhood over the past three to four years, a trend that has picked up in .
“Our crime watches are getting bigger and bigger,” Foresman said. “That is the biggest thing – more eyes and ears that you have, the better results that you get.”