Progress

With Christmas arriving, we think about gifts we're giving and receiving.

Locally, residents have received numerous gifts this past year. Sure they're not Christmas gifts, but they are things which are needed and represent great improvements.

Among them:

• Thanks to officials in Mahoning Township, as well as PennDOT, a new traffic light has been installed at the intersection of Route 443 and Mill Street in New Mahoning. The intersection has been the scene of many accidents over the years, some of them fatal. Wednesday the traffic signal officially began working. It likely will save lives providing motorists exercise common sense.

• In Jim Thorpe, a new municipal building is under construction. It's an improvement that is long overdue.

• Summit Hill has a new fire station. Although apparent shortcomings in construction made it impossible to occupy, the new building looks great and will be an improvement for firefighters when it is occupied. The borough council, which had the foresight to construct the building, is confident that occupany might occur within a few weeks. One thing is certain. There's no way the old fire house would have lasted very much longer. Major deterioration was occurring and delaying the work would have made the project more costly than it was.

• In Lehighton, renovations are under way right now for a new police station. It's a project that got lip service for years, but probably by April the police can move into their new digs. The new police station will be on the first floor of the Lehighton Fire Department's Station 2.

• After several years of waiting, some construction work is occurred on the site of the new Super Wal-Mart Store, which is being built along Route 443 in Mahoning Township about a half mile from where the present Wal-Mart exists. This project had many delays, and rumors began circulating that Wal-Mart scrapped plans for the Supercenter. Obviously this isn't the case. Heavy equipment is working at the site daily and it's virtually guaranteed that for the next Christmas season shopping will occur here.

• Lansford got a major sewage project completed after what must have seemed like an eternity for local residents of enduring the construction work. For months the streets were a mess with torn up macadem and exposed ditches. It must have seemed like the project would never be finished.

• Two new bridges are being building on the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike over the Lehigh River and Parryville Dam. The design is state-of-the-art and is sure to improve motoring quality.

While economic news has been very gloomy of late, looking at the above mentioned projects shows there was some optimistic news.

Not everything was negative this past year. There have been many good accomplishments.

By Ron Gower

rgower@tnonline.com