Council Authorizes a Redevelopment Authority

On February 18, 1955, Shamokin City Council adopted Ordinance No. 73 concerning a redevelopment authority. The city's codified ordinance history preserves the date, while the ordinance text records the council's declaration that such an authority was needed within Shamokin. The decision addressed the creation of a public body through which redevelopment work could be organized.

The ordinance gave the council clerk a specific task: file a certified copy with the Pennsylvania Department of State and send a duplicate to the State Planning Board. It also authorized city officers to undertake the acts necessary or desirable in connection with incorporation. The immediate work concerned official filings and the organization through which later redevelopment decisions could be made.

The vote placed redevelopment on the city's institutional agenda. Council had declared the need and directed the steps toward an authority's creation. Before the work could take the form of changes to buildings and streets, this ordinance concerned the offices, filings, and organization intended to make that work possible.