Bunker Hill Residents Hear the Renewal Plans

More than two hundred people gathered in the community room of First United Methodist Church at Sunbury and Ninth Streets on August 16, 1972. The Project Area Committee meeting brought Bunker Hill residents, property owners, and business people together to hear how the urban-renewal program was to proceed. The following day's News-Item described rehabilitation work as about to begin.

Joe Spears, executive director of the Shamokin Redevelopment Authority, explained that the first work area would be in the city's northern section. Repairing properties was to be a major part of the program. Some properties would be acquired for different uses, including parking and recreation. The presentation described several kinds of change, not simply the replacement of every existing building.

The plans also reached into the streets around people's homes. New curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and sewers were proposed. Residents were asked to contact the authority's field office at 421 East Sunbury Street before installing their own curbs or pavement, because the new work might change elevations. Coordination between household improvements and public construction was part of the message.

Officials outlined grants, loans, and assistance for people whose properties would be acquired. Residents compelled to leave their homes were to receive preference in Hillcrest Manor or the Raspberry Hill housing project. Daniel Strausser, the authority's rehabilitation director, discussed interviews and said financial information would be kept confidential. Assistance and the handling of household information were part of the program's public explanation.

A question from the audience brought another familiar feature of Bunker Hill into the discussion: its shade trees. Spears said every effort would be made to retain them. Mayor Frederick Reed praised the Project Area Committee's volunteers for their preparation. The meeting introduced renewal through the things residents would encounter directly—houses, financing, pavement, and trees—and through the assurances officials offered about the work ahead.