x
Breaking News
More () »

Pittston’s Revitalization Spreads to Library

PITTSTON — The Tomato Festival is only a few weeks away in downtown Pittston as the city continues to get a makeover. The revitalization is now spreading ...

PITTSTON -- The Tomato Festival is only a few weeks away in downtown Pittston as the city continues to get a makeover.

The revitalization is now spreading from Main Street to the Pittston Memorial Library.

Good things are happening in Pittston. Years of blight and vacant buildings are now replaced by new businesses including a dry cleaners and a bank. Just a few steps away, crews are building a new city park, where a blighted building once stood next door to Napoli’s pizza.

Napoli's restaurant opened back in 1999, when things weren’t as pretty or as promising as they are today.

"It’s beautiful. It looks like Little Italy. Like, you go up and down more Italian places coming in and more people walking by and come into town. It will be a happy town. The more people coming to town, the better it is," said Antonio Cosdigliole, owner of Napoli's Pizza.

Jim Panzetta moved here 10 years ago and remembers what this city used to look like.

"10 years ago it was drab and kind of deserted. It just wasn’t right. I’ve been living here 10 years and I can see the improvement over the years," said Panzetta.

At the Pittston Memorial Library, a huge project is about to get underway. The library will expand to include a community center and a children’s room, proving that libraries today just aren’t about books.

"If you don’t change, you’ll fall apart and you’ll go out of business. Technology changes. Everything’s different in five years and you have to make changes for what the community needs," said Ann Hogya, director of the library.

The $1.2 million project will be funded by federal grant and loan money, and also by the library’s fundraising efforts. They’ve already raised $300,000.

Groundbreaking on the new library is scheduled for the fall, and the library is scheduled to be ready by next spring.

Before You Leave, Check This Out