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By MARK GUYDISH; Times Leader Staff Writer
Saturday, November 18, 1995 Page: 3A
HAZLE TWP.– Jonathan Johnson came to the Hazleton area Friday to pitch
cooperation between local communities. It was a hard sell.
Of 15 municipalities contacted, only one filled out and returned a survey
mailed before a meeting held in the Hazle Township Municipal Building.
Fifteen municipalities were invited. Representatives from five showed up.
None of the three supervisors from the host township came. One township
official said he thought the supervisors were in court fighting with a
neighboring city.
Still, trying to get divergent communities to cooperate is Johnson’s job,
and he optimistically plugged away, getting everyone who did show to agree to
another meeting in May.
Johnson is a policy analyst for The Center for Rural Pennsylvania, a
legislative agency created and financed by the state General Assembly. He
helps communities develop and implement a single plan for their collective
future.
Pennsylvania is second only to Illinois in number of municipalities,
Johnson said. With 2,600 governments in the state vying for funds in an era of
cutbacks, municipalities that develop a cooperative vision are more successful
in attracting government funding and private industry, he said.
As an example, Johnson said he has been working with Tamaqua and four
nearby townships in Schuylkill County since late 1994. The municipalities have
recently applied for a grant from the state Department of Community Affairs,
and been given $15,000 from Pennsylvania Power & Light Co., he said.
In a moment of unintentional irony, Johnson pointed to what he called a
“regional airport,” — the Hazleton Municipal Airport — as an example of the
benefits of cooperation. “It must have taken some teeth-pulling to get that
thing built,” He said.
Johnson apparently didn’t know that Hazleton and Hazle Township are locked
in another of a series of court battles about the city’s efforts to expand the
airport. The township has fought expansion for eight years.
Ed Nowak, Hazle Township’s grant and aid officer, had apologized earlier
for the absence of Supervisor Ed Dudeck. Nowak said he thought Dudeck was at a
hearing regarding the current airport dispute. Nowak arranged the meeting.
Foster Township Supervisor Terry Hauze voiced a common concern. “People
often think cooperation means consolidation,” he said. Hauze cited the loss of
local high schools when various school districts merged to form the Hazleton
Area School District.
Johnson called his organization a “facilitator” and told those attending
that “what you do and how you do it is up to you.” He said consolidation was
not the goal.
Hauze also said plans for cooperation made by one administration can be
scuttled when a new administration is elected. The Nov. 7 election shifted
Hauze from minority member to majority on the Foster Township Board of
Supervisors.
Johnson said politics can be removed from the cooperative effort by gaining
support from a wide range of community leaders. “If the community is behind
the project, anyone seeking office will get behind it too,” he said.
Representatives from McAdoo borough and Banks, Hazle, Butler and Foster
townships attended the meeting, as well as members of the Greater Hazleton
Chamber of Commerce and state Rep. Thomas Stish, R-Hazleton.