Train Center Should Focus on Tickets Out of Here

Allentown Morning Call, January 9, 2007

Lehighton Times News, January 16, 2007

Copyright, Jake Miller

Though deplete of trains, one old railroad station has undoubtedly found more visitors in this young 2007 than it has in fifty previous years. Packerton Yards, once a crucial railroad hub, is now the site of fallow fields and a depreciated structure. Used during the “coal is king” era, the Yards provided warehousing and shelter to make vital repairs on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. It served as an essential link between the anthracite that was harvested in Carbon County and the bellowing furnaces of Bethlehem Steel. While Bethlehem Steel receives a major facelift for its new casino complex, the antiquated edifice’s future is in question.

Some, such as Al Zagofsky and others at SavePackertonYards.com, wish the area to be preserved as museum (to railway workers across America) and to erect a tourist locale. The old Yards would be an ideal location to shuttle tourists to and from the increasingly popular Jim Thorpe downtown, “reducing traffic” and “adding a fun train ride along the riverside for the visitors” while also becoming the epicenter for rail buffs across the nation.

But not every one is all aboard. Carbon County Commissioners Bill O'Gurek, Charlie Getz and Wayne Nothstein along with Congressman Paul Kanjorski have been securing funds, both federal and state, to sponsor an industrial park on the 59 acre parcel of land. A mere two miles from I-476, easy access to a railway and a tax-free Keystone Opportunity Zone, the site, if properly developed, will gain attention of several industries and should supply a fair amount of jobs to the county.

Both of these proposals, as auspicious as they are, fail to focus on bettering our community. Carbon County does not need more jobs; it needs better jobs. More day-laboring at a factory is not the future of our economy, nor does it fit in with our degree-wielding college graduates’ ambitions.

Similarly, Carbon County does not need more visitors; it needs more residents. The biggest problem in this area, and in Pennsylvania as a whole, is that our educated youth readily leave the Mahoning Valley and Lehigh Valley for better paying jobs in bigger cities. It was the trend for my generation, and will continue in the future – for a solid 7 out of 10 Panther Valley students believe they will leave the area and have no qualms about their endeavors.

So while we focus a debate to preserve a splendid time in Carbon County’s history when coal was its chief export, what if we addressed our chief export today – the educated youth? Certainly, our past should be protected, but not at the expense the county’s future residents. There are many great things about this beautiful, idyllic area; they can certainly be preserved while attracting and retaining Pennsylvania’s young men and women. What if the Yards would become an entertainment center? A software engineering plant? An outlet shopping center? Or what if the land was used for an alternative energy center or clean coal plant?

Bethlehem has done an admirable job of preserving its history while also positioning itself for the future – the Lehigh Valley stands to gain a good amount of ground in the next decade because of it. Carbon County can, on a smaller scale, accomplish the same at Packerton Yards. If not, the Carbon County of tomorrow could be as dilapidated as the Packerton Yards’ station stands today, with just as many young Pennsylvanians looking for their ticket out of here unless we find them reason to stay.