Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

About twenty years ago, I had this friend named Keri. Keri and I were both members of a sort of volunteer organization. There were times when we would get into debates, some of which got quite heated, over the places we lived. See, Keri was from Pittsburgh, and I lived in Lock Haven. And she would often make fun of me for living in a small town.

I would get annoyed, and tell her that I live in a city. And I had the facts on my side. I was right by virtue of having paid attention in civics class as a kid, apparently the only person who had. And I’ve had to give this same lesson to a few people since, so let me get it out there again.

We tend to use terms like “town” or “village” often and interchangeably, with no actual regard for the true definitions. I hear people say things like, ”So I drove from the town of Renovo to the town of Lock Haven.” And that’s wrong in two places. This is going to surprise some of you, but neither Lock Haven nor Renovo is a town. (Or a village, for that matter.)
Lock Haven is a city.

Now, I know when you picture a city, you think of Chicago or Los Angeles, or, ugh, New York. But it all depends on what the community incorporated as, if anything. See, when a community is founded, sometimes it files the paperwork and incorporates, like a business, to become a legally recognized government entity. And what it’s incorporated as defines it, usually according to population.

In 1870, Lock Haven was incorporated as a city of the third class. At the time, it had the population to rate that designation, and form that system of government. Meanwhile, Renovo was founded as a borough. Neither one is a town, though people informally refer to them that way.

In fact, in all of Pennsylvania, there’s only one town, and it’s not in Clinton County. Bloomsburg is literally the only town in Pennsylvania. Look it up.

So Renovo is a borough. So are Mill Hall, Avis, Beech Creek, Flemington, and Loganton. But, you ask (assuming you’re still with me at this point, which is dubious) what about communities that don’t incorporate? What happens to them?

Depending on size, they become either “census-designated places” or “unincorporated communities.”
Pennsylvania law makes no mention of these, and they’re not officially recognized by state law. But the census notes these census-designated places for data compiling purposes, because there’s no way the government doesn’t compile data. Clinton County has a bunch of census-designated places: Woolrich, Castanea, McElhattan, Lamar, Dunnstown, North Bend, and Salona, among others. (I include the “among others” category because I’m tired of getting hate mail from the places I neglect to mention.)

And unincorporated communities? Well, those are pretty much self-explanatory; they’re communities that never incorporated, and the census doesn’t recognize them. We’ve got them, too. Farrandsville, Westport, Keating, Mackeyville, and Hyner. Among others.

You’ll notice I’m not even getting into counties and townships here, which is another column entirely. So to sum up, we have no towns in Clinton County. We have a city, several boroughs, a bunch of census-designated places, and some unincorporated communities. Also Lizardville, which is none of the above—Lizardville is nothing more than a nickname for a vague small area.

So that’s the official definition of these municipalities, and their categories. I hope this clears up some things for a few people. (You reading this, Keri?) So I don’t know what good this all does you, but at any rate, now it’s inside your brain cells, so you’re stuck with it.