Berwick??? (Pittsburgh, Wilkes-Barre, Penn: apartment, new construction, schools)

[omigawd]

Can anyone tell me anything about Berwick?? I have a friend who lives there and she's been trying to convince me for years to move there....

[omigawd]

Wow... I can't believe no one here knows anything about Berwick.......

[WasPA]

Don't fret: There was a little batch o' Berwick a few pages back....click here, Toto.....and read some good things.......... Ignore the rest, of course......

Need info about Berwick, PA

[antiunion]

Originally Posted by omigawd

Wow... I can't believe no one here knows anything about Berwick.......

Why don't you believe your friend? I'm not going to knock anyones town, but I wouldn't live there.

[sues1]

They got flooded really bad, drove thru it and it looks like a ghost town, that's all i know of it

[Chefkey]

I like that the water there always seems warmer from the Nuclear reactor being cooled in the back yard.

[2nd trick op]

Berwick is no intellectual refuge, but speaking as one who grew up there, and still holds property in the area, it has improved substantially.

The town has a unique economic history, the dominant products over the years changing from railroad cars, to snack foods, to ribbon ... each eventually peaking and declining due to a changing economy. The newest "economic anchor" is a distribution center for the low-end "Dollar Tree" retail chain

Another problem, more serious in earlier years than today, was the town's lack of opportunities for its young people. It had no college, no county seat, and the hospital had limited services and quality when compared to others nearby. Wise Foods, the community's largest economic success story, was sold to Borden in 1962 after the death of its founder, leaving no corporate haedquarters of note.

During the 1970's the town also experienced an embarrasing "taxpayer revolt", aimed at stopping the replacement of several aging school buildings, and led by a coalition of religious Funadmentalists and tax-conscious older voters. The contoversy eventually boiled over when the state closed several schools and forced new construction.

But most of that is now in the past. The construction of PP&L's nuclear plant, usually referred to in AEC records as "Susquehanna 1 and 2" brought a fair amount of new blood into the area. The football program (a two-time winner of USA Today's mythical national title) produced a couple of very positive role models in the form of Notre Dame's Ron Powlus and the Pittsburgh Steelers "Bo" Orlando. And Berwick is one of a reatively small number of Pennsylvania communities of its size with a healthy independent reginal bank - First Keystone. The community seems eager to start the replacement of the present nuclear plant, aware of the positives for the local economy.

I suppose Berwick could be characterized in part by the rough-cut character of two of its better-known native sons --- NASCAR's "black-hat" Jimmy Spencer and Warner Brothers' bit-part actor Nick Adams -- nee Adamshock. They have (or had) their rough edges, and were never quite successful in downplaying them. But if they were ragged, they were also quite real.

[KIMrox]

I'm staying in Berwick until my apartment in Wilkes-Barre is ready for me to move in. I'm in my early 20's and as a younger person there is absolutely nothing to do there. Just driving to Walmart takes 30some minutes! But it's a small town with more of an older crowd.