Selinsgrove: Our Home, Our Future

In With The New...

A sign including an illustration of Market Street's distinctive buildings welcomes visitors to Selinsgrove.

For thousands of Susquehanna University students, the borough of Selinsgrove has been a home away from home during the first four years of their adult lives. Its tree-lined sidewalks, quaint shops and historic homes exude small town charm, but there’s nothing small about the changes Selinsgrove and its neighboring communities are seeing.

As an undergraduate 40 years ago, you’d shop at Ebert’s five and dime store at the corner of Market and Pine streets (located in the building that most recently housed Kinfolk’s Restaurant). You’d take in a movie at the downtown theatre or catch the BKW bus, affectionately called the “Blue Bomb,” to Sunbury for an afternoon outing. You’d celebrate with the winners of the annual fraternity and sorority “sings” in the Crusader Room at the Governor Snyder Hotel and Restaurant, located at the site now occupied by BJ’s Pit Barbeque and Pub. And on occasion, you would drive up to the Iron Skillet for a late night snack – coffee and a donut for 25 cents.

Over the years, the students, the town and, in fact, the entire central Susquehanna Valley have changed dramatically. Now, the BJ’s Bomber and Bongo Bongo Dip are “the bomb.” The Kind Café coffeehouse and the Selins’ Grove Brew Pub, along with the veteran bar and grill, Bot’s Café, are the current hotspots for students to gather. The old movie theatre and five and dime store have been replaced by niche market boutiques and gift shops, such as The Country Squire and Basket Gourmet. And the newly-expanded Susquehanna Valley Mall, complete with a multiplex movie theatre with stadium seating, is a short drive north of the borough along the busy “Golden Strip” commercial shopping district.

Selinsgrove’s neighbors, Penn and Monroe townships, continue to see exponential growth as farmland is developed for residential and commercial use. This growth has prompted the anticipated extension of the Selinsgrove bypass and construction of the Susquehanna Valley Thruway, which will route traffic around Routes 11 and 15, easing the pressure of the estimated 50,000 vehicles per day that travel the two-mile business strip between the Susquehanna Valley Mall and Tedd’s Landing. It has also prompted nearby Penn Valley Airport to undertake an expansion project that will lengthen its runway by 960 feet to accommodate larger planes and increased air traffic.

Growing Pains

Neighboring townships aren’t the only places seeing explosions in population and development. Susquehanna saw record-breaking enrollment for 10 straight years and, in response, increased its property holdings. For downtown businesses, this is a positive development but the growth has also posed some negative effects for the borough.

A quiet early-morning scene of downtown Selinsgrove looking north from the east corner of Pine and Market Streets.

“The biggest financial concern for the borough is the fact that it is landlocked. Generating new tax revenue is difficult with nowhere for new residences or businesses to be built,” says Michael Coyne, treasurer and vice president for finance at Susquehanna University and treasurer of Selinsgrove Projects Inc. (SPI), a nonprofit organization focused on events planning and community revitalization.

Exacerbating that situation is the reality that about 40 percent of the property in the borough is non-profit and therefore cannot be taxed, explains Carol Handlan, associate director of financial aid at Susquehanna who serves as a member of borough council.

Despite its challenges, recent developments in the borough have many people optimistic about the town’s direction. One of the most positive developments was the purchase of the old CVS building and adjoining structure, properties at the corner of Market and Pine streets that sat vacant for several years. Through the initial investment of a group of anonymous “angel investors” and foundational support, SPI took ownership of the building and is undertaking fund-raising efforts to support a reclamation that would turn the site into a public park.

“We’ll be removing an eyesore in the downtown. That building sitting there vacant was the missing tooth in the smile of Selinsgrove,” Coyne says.

The momentum for this and other encouraging prospects for downtown Selinsgrove, including a Saturday morning farmer’s market and restaurant at the old fire station on Water Street, the expansion of Kidsgrove community park to include a performance stage and new playground equipment, and a proposed hotel to be located at the former site of Rhoads Mills, is the result of collective efforts among citizens living in and around the borough. “It hasn’t been any one person, but there’s a real sense that something can happen, both in local government and the community, and people are really going for it,” says Dorothy Anderson ’62, dean of students emeritus, who is a candidate for Selinsgrove borough council in November.

This growing sense of energy among Selinsgrove residents is leading to more community involvement. One person moved to action was Joseph Herb ’63, director of Susquehanna University’s Institute for Lifelong Learning and coordinator of the High School Summer Workshops Program, who has lived in Selinsgrove since graduating from college. “I asked myself, ‘How can those of us who enjoy the benefits of living in a good town sit back and not do something?’ Your community is more than a place to sleep, eat and watch the grass grow,” says Herb, who is also running for borough council.

Together We Stand

“The borough of Selinsgrove and Susquehanna University share a rich history. Susquehanna will do whatever it can to see that Selinsgrove prospers, because when the town thrives so does the university,” says Susquehanna University President L. Jay Lemons.

Towards that end, Susquehanna has made voluntary donations to the borough for the past 15 years or more. In 2004, Susquehanna’s contribution totaled $27,500 – $20,000 to the borough and $7,500 to the fire company. Coyne says the university plans to continue making yearly donations and hopes to also contribute to the borough’s street lights project. Last year, the university agreed to provide the borough with 50 percent of the local match, totaling $45,000, needed for a downtown revitalization grant from the state. It is also participating in the Susquehanna Valley Keystone Innovation Zone program, a regional effort to provide tax incentives and institutional resources to newer businesses near Susquehanna University and other institutional partners. “These initiatives underscore Susquehanna’s commitment to the future of Selinsgrove,” says Lemons, who also serves on the board of the Greater Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Along with the monetary benefits Susquehanna provides to the community, the university contributes to the economic, cultural and educational landscape of the region in a variety of ways. Examples include volunteer services to more than 30 charitable and civic organizations in the region, serving as an emergency evacuation site in disaster situations, and providing consulting services to small businesses and science instruction to area children and teen-agers through the Science in Motion and Saturday Science programs, all at no charge. Many cultural activities, such as art exhibitions, lectures and theatre performances, are provided free to the public.

There are also direct benefits for merchants in college towns such as Selinsgrove. Forced to compete with neighboring shopping malls and business strips, they need the customer base the university provides.

“The university brings economic stability to downtown businesses,” says Joe Kleinbauer ’63, owner of J. Kleinbauer Inc., a premiere clothing store in the borough. “There is always a certain amount of (consumer) traffic. It’s not a guarantee but it certainly gives (businesses) the opportunity to do well,” Kleinbauer says.

Add to that the tens of thousands of visitors that come to Susquehanna each year and the 450 employees who work there every day, and downtown retailers have a recipe for success.

Not Another Coffee Shop

Shoppers and pedestrians stroll in front of two of the borough's newer businesses, The Flystrip and the Kind Café, during a late-shopper's night event.

To capitalize on the consumer traffic produced by the university, downtown businesses are developing creative ways to hold their own in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

“Selinsgrove is a place where you get more than a passing hello,” says Karen Hackman ’78, an attorney and co-owner of Potteiger House, a downtown bed and breakfast venture she shares with her husband, Léo Mendonca. The borough has always been a place where storekeepers give shoppers individual attention and know the regulars by name. The challenge lies in making sure consumers, new businesses and young professionals give it more than a perfunctory nod and wave while traveling through.

“There are so many good things about doing business here, it’s easy to become complacent, and complacency leads to empty storefronts,” Hackman says. A member and former president of the Greater Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce, Hackman believes small businesses – and the town itself – need to continually and actively promote themselves in innovative ways.

Pamela White, dean of academic services at Susquehanna and president of the Selinsgrove Chamber of Commerce, says the successful businesses in town have figured out what specialty item or service they can provide to the public. “It’s making a conscious decision to offer products and services that the chains don’t offer. They aren’t necessarily going to compete on price, but they will compete in such areas as service, atmosphere, quality and availability,” White says.

Implementing innovative ideas requires that communities adjust their attitudes toward change. “Unless the community leaders possess the vision to take the necessary risks and make the necessary changes, things will continue to decline. It is not easy, but doing the easy thing is very seldom the right thing,” says Joshua Henry ’01, mayor of Lewistown, Pa.

In The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida, Hirst professor in the School of Public Policy at George Mason University and a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, describes how communities attract people and ideas. It’s less about job creation, Florida says, and more about nurturing creativity.

To tap into what he calls the “creative class,” Florida says communities need to be open to all people. “It’s about creating a real people climate where people feel valued, and welcome, and where they can use their creative energy.”

The kinds of towns people want to live in possess “three Ts” – technology, talent and tolerance. Florida says great college towns support their schools and the research done there, but also become “talent magnets.”

“You’ve got to be able to create the talent, but you also have to attract and retain it,” Florida says. Toward this end, the best thing a community can do is exercise tolerance. (Also see the related Web Extra story.)

The Blessings in Disguise

“When you’re dealing with economic and community development, you need to look at what you have instead of what you don’t have,” says Ryan Unger, manager of community development and marketing for the Greater Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce. Despite having only a limited number of storefront properties available to new businesses, Unger says, Selinsgrove has done a good job of positioning itself as a destination shopping district.

“I think the future of downtown Selinsgrove will be in the innovation economy,” he says, “The potential exists for the borough to work with the university’s business school to develop the types of businesses that require little more than an office and Internet connection.”

And while new housing developments in Penn and Monroe townships don’t add to the borough’s property tax coffers, there is a benefit to population growth in surrounding municipalities. Even those individuals living in the townships feel a pull toward the downtown, Unger says.

“Downtowns are not what they were 40 or 50 years ago, but they still have their place in the economy. A downtown gives people a sense of place. It’s the doorstep to a community.”