The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce, along with the City of Scranton, Lackawanna County and various other community partners, recently hosted an event publicly presenting Scranton’s community revitalization plan and recognizing all businesses and organizations who have participated in the America’s Best Communities planning process.
“As mayor of the City of Scranton, I want to thank everyone who came together and participated in the work that has gone into the America’s Best Communities Competition thus far,” said Scranton Mayor William Courtright. “We look forward to moving on to the next step.”
The America’s Best Communities plan for the City of Scranton included a reimagining of the central business district based upon a platform of education and medicine expansion. As of today, Scranton is a quarterfinalist in the Frontier Communications-sponsored America’s Best Communities competition for a $3 million economic revitalization grant.
“This entire planning process has been grounded on community engagement,” said Bob Durkin, president of the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce. “So many groups and individuals came together to share their ideas and to share their vision for a newly imagined central business district. We felt it was appropriate to bring them all together for this public celebration.”
The event provided a public overview of the community revitalization plan’s objectives and a formal signing of the plan by community partners. Chamber, City and County officials will know in mid-January if Scranton will progress to the next phase of the competition.
“We plan to bring the partners together early next year to collectively drive plan implementation,” Durkin added. “The core team will be available to respond to the potential opportunity to meet with the America’s Best Communities sponsors to present our plan and, hopefully, get selected to move on in the competition. In either case, we have a solid strategy for improving the Central Business District, the City and the region.”
A copy of the community revitalization plan is available on the Chamber’s website. For more information, call (570) 342-7711.
