Down River

By John Lipez

Hellzapoppin’ at City Hall:
It had been a fairly quiet summer on the local scene, governmentally speaking, at least until the last week or so. And then the headlines hit the fan from the normally docile City Hall on E. Church Street in Lock Haven: incumbent Mayor Joel Long has an independent November challenger for his job; the City is looking at doing away with the City Water Authority; and the community’s beloved William T. Piper Municipal Airport could be sold and turned into who knows what.

That’s a lot to absorb when among the earlier summer headlines from City Hall, one concerned the official name of the alley adjacent to the E. Church Street municipal parking lot where the city wants to build a new police station. (For the record, most people list the name of the alley as Mill Street, but officially it’s Tomato Alley).

Let’s start with the challenge to Mayor Long; didn’t see that one coming. And apparently neither did the local Democratic Party. It turns out that Barbara Masorti, serving her first 4-year term as a council member after filling a vacancy a few years back, not too long ago changed her party registration from Democrat to Independent and recently went through the process to get her name on the November ballot challenging incumbent Mayor Long who remains a longstanding member of the Democratic Party.

Mayor Long, who previously logged stints as a council member and county commissioner, had first been elected mayor in 2019, defeating current council member Jeff Brinker. This spring he was unopposed for the Democratic nomination for mayor and the GOP fielded no candidate. And then council member Masorti goes the independent route to challenge the mayor. Curious to see how that one turns out in November.

And a possible sale of the airport? The venerable William T. Piper Memorial Airport, dating back to 1937 when the city purchased the acreage to attract Mr. Piper to the first ward site to relocate his fledgling aircraft manufacturing business from Bradford after a disastrous fire there? Yes, that one.

The possible airport sale is nothing if not intriguing. In a perfect world someone with an aviation interest, from among current tenants or elsewhere, would step in and keep the facility as an airport. At last report one of those tenants had an option to purchase a tract on the airport’s southside for an expansion. Perhaps he might like to buy the whole thing?

What wouldn’t be good would be, as reported to Down River by a local realtor, purchase of the land as the site for some kind of warehouse/distribution center. That person said there had been some recent interest from an outside party to do just that. This would be far from the best use of the attractive location, part of Clinton County’s history; a one-story monolith warehouse with relatively low-paying jobs in a community that could certainly use something more.

We’re obviously early in the Piper airport story and its future. The county has opted to put its administrative offices in the old Piper “Blue Building” and a couple veterans memorials are in the process of being placed there. A nearby warehouse would be far from ideal.

The Piper story in town is an amazing one: a giant in general aviation, at one time employing more than 2,000 in the lower end of town, a city policeman directing traffic from Race Street when Piper let out work; then the inability of the Piper family to maintain controlling ownership; the falloff in general aviation and by 1984 the company pulling out of Lock Haven, heading to the sunnier, non-union climes of Florida.

What’s the next chapter? Hopefully something better than a warehouse (just take a look at the dilapidated old Piper manufacturing building across the street from the Piper Building as a case in point).

And this water authority situation: we need a scorecard for that one. City Council on Monday of this week was to consider, then postponed, the termination of the City Water Authority, part of a plan for the city to take over the water department (which it operates) and join in with Wayne and Castanea Townships to create a new entity to be able to control water rates without the costly process of going through the state Public Utility Commission.

As Down River understands it, the city is looking for more money to do state-required repairs, not cheap. Ohl Reservoir work is moving along and upgrades to the Keller Reservoir are pending and expensive.

Here is the Down River question: why is the city proceeding without touching base with the Suburban Water Authority. Both utilize the same filtration plant, both utilize water from the same sources, Ohl and Keller reservoirs.

Why is the city going alone? Someone needs to answer that question and so far, no one has. There should be a dialogue between the city and Suburban. Personalities should not be involved (they are) and the best interests of city and Suburban customers should be the goal.

Hey city council, hold up on going alone and talk to the Suburban people.