Mt. Carmel (Scranton, Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre: relocate, real estate, jobs)

[marywill45]

Have an opportunity for job transfer to Mt. Carmel.....but it appears to be a small town with few real estate offerings. What other nearby towns would be a good place to live for a family with three school age girls?

Thanks for any ideas!

[FightinPhils]

That's a fairly depressing area altogether. If I ever needed to feel better about my life, a drive through Schuylkill or Northumberland County would do the trick, to see that there are worse places to be. I used to drive back roads from Bloomsburg to Harrisburg, and the old coal towns along that route are all really depressing...Mt Carmel, Shamokin, Ashland, Tower City, Sunbury, etc etc. Those towns are mainly run-down old row homes.

For a nicer town within driving distance of Mount Carmel, I would look into Selinsgrove, Lewisburg, Bloomsburg, or Danville.

[Dawne]

Bloomsburg would be a good choice - a nice town with good schools. In town you have Bloomsburg School District and outside of town would be Central Columbia.

Also, Catawissa and Elysburg are in the Southern Columbia School District, another good one.

When your kids are working age, Knoebel's amusement park is a big employer of teenagers.

Selinsgrove, Lewisburg and Danville are also good choices, but a longer drive to Mount Carmel than Catawissa, Bloomsburg or Elysburg.

Best of luck to you!

[PAman]

Mt Carmel is a tight knit community, it's a quiet town, like most of the coal cracking towns, much of the entertainment in the towns is drawn from events within the school districts be it plays or athletic events etc... however, they are safe towns, that is a gaurantee. violent crime is almost unheard of in that part of the coal region(Sunbury did just have a double murder though). You'll probably find some bar going fisticuffs, but nothing overly dangerous. Kulpmont has some nicer homes than Mt Carmel does, Coal Twp up by the Shamokin HS\ Our Lady of Lourdes HS area has some nicer homes as well. I could see myself up in that area someday, it seems like a slower pace to life and a more tight knit community with less transient members than the rat race that is the parkway corridors...I think people overreact when they talk about avoiding Mt Carmel, Shamokin, Shenandoah etc at all costs, it could be a lot worse conditions in places with real crime problems, trust me...You could live in west philly or duquesne..Economically I'd go as far to say based on the population shift in the last 8 years into eastern PA, the coal country is next on line for a revival of sorts, now that the Lehigh Valley and Poconos are seeing theirs...Cost of living is much lower, and if you have a good paying job, you make out like a thief on many costs...You've gotten negative and positives, my advice: visit yourself and come up with your own conclusions as to should you take the job or not or where to live if you do.

[doug25]

Well, I have lived in Shamokin/Coal Twp. Area since my parents moved back in 1989. I am currently married and have 2 girls, 3 if you count the fact that my wife is pregnant. You have to take advice with a grain of salt, because ppl have different opinions. In Shamokin itself, you will find a lot of row homes(I would like to say about 75% of them are. Yes, they cost low(around $15,000+), but almost all of them need work done to them. You will find more single homes in Coal Township. You have to remember that this town(and some surrounding towns) are around 250 yrs old. You have a lot of retiree's living here as well. As for things to do, you only have Knoebles Grove. For movie theaters, you have to drive around 40 mins to Selinsgrove or Bloomsburg. It is a very depressed area and shows it with its houses and community. For schools, honestly, there not that good. There ratings aren't that high(go to SchoolMatters - Home, local schools area: Shamokin Area, Mt. Carmel Area, Danville, Southern Columbia, Bloomsburg Area, Line Mountain, Pottsville, Shikallemy, and Lourdes Regional.) There is a long football rivalry between Mt. Carmel and Shamokin, it's called the Coal Bucket. As for drugs, it is surprising to find out that such a small area has so much drugs. People think that since Shamokin has only 10,000 people there can't be drugs, but it's not "IF", but "HOW MUCH" there is. They are honestly everywhere, you just have to be smart about it and stay in the good areas.
The local cost-of-living is(my amounts): Power $40-$50/mth; Water $40-$50/mth; Sewer is $27/mth, current oil prices are around $3.30/gal; current gas prices rang from $3.15-$3.19/gal.

And Mr.Krabs-that is disrespectful to the area's people and children, irregardless of the condition. However, I thought that Scranton, the "Electric City" has a drug problem(especially in it's school system, and was ranked on "The Top Places NOT TO LIVE". Be careful what you write and get the facts straight!

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by doug25

However, I thought that Scranton, the "Electric City" has a drug problem(especially in it's school system, and was ranked on "The Top Places NOT TO LIVE". Be careful what you write and get the facts straight!

No offense, but those "ranking" lists ought to be taken with a grain of salt. I'm an avid photographer who was in search of his first venture into New Jersey for a photo tour to post on this forum. I finally settled upon Hackettstown based upon what I had read about it from its ranking as one of the "Best Places" in Money Magazine. To say I was underwhelmed is an understatement. There were a few blocks in town near Centenary College with some beautiful older homes with gracious shade trees, but the downtown was abysmal, at best, especially for an upper-middle-class college town near New York City. Many storefronts were vacant, many vagrants were loitering around, traffic was horrendous, and the main drag through town was largely the victim of "renewal" in terms of tearing down buildings for parking lots, chain drugstores, a Ford dealership, etc. Ever since that disappointing day I've been VERY skeptical of these lists, especially since I can rattle off places right in our own backyard like Jim Thorpe, Lewisburg, Wellsboro, Honesdale, Milford, etc. that put Hackettstown to shame. How Money develops these rankings is an enigma to me.

Scranton's quality-of-life is actually MUCH better than what the whiners and gripers on this forum would lead you to believe. Most of them just have personal vendettas against city officials and wish to make the city look bad in hopes of likewise making the mayor/council look bad, completely oblivious to the fact that they are doing more harm than good to the city overall with their loud and chronic pessimism.

P.S. You do realize that another list just released listed Charlotte as being one of America's "Most Miserable" cities (in fact it might have been the same list). Nevertheless Charlotte continues to be one of the most rapidly growing cities in the nation. Obviously things can't be THAT badly if people are flocking there en masse, unless of course they're just lemmings who follow one another off a cliff into despair.

[FightinPhils]

Originally Posted by doug25

And Mr.Krabs-that is disrespectful to the area's people and children, irregardless of the condition. However, I thought that Scranton, the "Electric City" has a drug problem(especially in it's school system, and was ranked on "The Top Places NOT TO LIVE". Be careful what you write and get the facts straight!

It wasn't ranked in the "top places not to live." It was ranked on AOL's list of places that may get a bad rap but are often overlooked and underrated. Places like New York City were on that list also. So get your facts straight! Scranton may have drugs, like any town, but there are no more drugs in the schools in Scranton than anywhere else. And the truth is, the smaller rural and small town schools often have bigger drug problems than the city schools, because many of the adults presume they still live in Mayberry and are oblivious to the drug problems because they think it can't exist there. Case in point: Scranton schools have not had any drug busts that I can remember in recent times, but the rural/small-town Lakeland High School about 12 miles to the north of Scranton in Jermyn/Chapman Lake just had a drug bust recently, with students dealing drugs in the school. And many of PA's rural areas have huge meth problems, which is something you don't find as much in the cities/suburbs.

Like I said, I've been through your area many times, and I would rather gouge my eyeballs out and eat them for dinner than to live in Shamokin, Mt Carmel, Tower City, or any of those depressing towns down that way. It makes Scranton, and even Wilkes-Barre, look like paradise. Even makes Carbondale look pretty good.

[doug25]

SWB-personally, when I research a town I go on better advice myself instead of a magazine. Although it's the Government, but I trust them more then a magazine. Yes, there are nice area's in mostly all towns/cities in the country. And there area bad ones too. Like I said before, it's not "If", it's "How Much" drugs. Of course, if a person likes where they live(for their reasons) then they are sure to point out every good item about that particular city. And visa versa. Me, personally, I can't use the words in this forum to express how much I don't like it in Shamokin. It's not my choice to live here, parents relocated from Mission Viejo, Ca, in 1989 after a divorce. And I'm planing on leaving after college. To me, this area is depressed. Most of NEPA is. Very few jobs and plants are closing rather often. But not one city is "perfect".
As for Mr.Krabs...I in no way, shape or form, stated that Shamokin or this area was a good place to live. It is very depressed, looking like time forgot it long ago. Do you think I like living in a area that the first thing you see coming into Shamokin from Gown City is a Junk Yard. Or that a guy parks his "full" garbage truck outside my house, and doesn't live nearby. It's a wasteland and retirement home. I am only here on a technicality-due to my parents divorce in 89. Spouse didn't want to leave for a long time and it was hard to convince her to leave. So, after college I plan on it. There is nothing for my 2 daughters to do, besides Knoebles. No nice resturants-just McD's and Burger King. And I know drugs are here, my brother was a big druggie, and still probably is. The schools suck here.
Furthermore, just because you don't here about drugs on the news doesn't mean that "they're gone", I mean, come on. That's like saying they don't mine around here anymore. Drugs are everywhere and have been for hundreds, thousand of years. But still, you disrespecting this area's citizens, irregardless of how I feel about this area, is discriminating. It's like me saying the Red Barron's left Scranton/Wilks because they wanted to leave a old, has been town that has an ego problem and doesn't admit to having drugs. And another thing, I'm native to Jacksonville,NC-Camp Laguine MCAS. Marine Brat by birth.

[hydrangea]

Hi everyone I'm new. I'm trying to find some relatives of mine. I've been to Mount Carmel several times. Absolutely beautiful country. I'm trying to find relatives of McElwee, Antonio families. My dad was an Antonio (deceased). My Aunt Rose married Patrick McElwee (both deceased now) they had a son Patrick (deceased early age of 50's) and a daughter Judith. Anyone know her? The Antonio family was huge. 13 kids I think. They all had children that would be anywhere from 50 on up. I would really appreciate any help from anyone. They lived on Buick St. I want to go back to Mount Carmel and visit when I find someone there. I have a sister that was raised in Shamokin. The Madl family. ?
Anyway, thanks in advance for any info you can pass on.
Jeanie (Antonio) Lutz
Michigan