Dunmore will use nearly $2 million in grants to improve the crumbling Keystone Industrial Park Road, giving drivers a smoother surface and pedestrians a safer path to work.
Borough council voted Monday to approve a resolution authorizing and directing borough Manager Greg Wolff to sign an agreement with the state Department of Transportation to improve Keystone Industrial Park Road, council President Janet Brier said. The project, now more than 3½ years in the making, will use $1.8 million in grants to repave the borough-owned industrial park road and add a bike/walking lane for pedestrians, Brier said.
The work will extend from the O’Neill Highway intersection to the Throop border, she said. In its current state, the pockmarked Keystone Industrial Park Road is shrinking at the edges as the shoulders crumble, she said, estimating it hasn’t been repaved in at least 20 years.
“It looks like it was a war zone up there,” Brier said.
A vehicle reflected in a side mirror makes its way down Keystone Industrial Park Drive in Dunmore Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG)
Keystone Industrial Park Drive in Dunmore Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG)
Vehicles drive on Keystone Industrial Park Road in Dunmore Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Keystone Industrial Park Drive in Dunmore Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG)
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A vehicle reflected in a side mirror makes its way down Keystone Industrial Park Drive in Dunmore Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG)
With the traffic lines fading and the crumbled shoulders, Brier said she was concerned seeing people walking along the road on the way to work.
“It’s super dangerous,” she said. “There’s heavy truck traffic.”
The borough first applied for $1 million through the state’s Multimodal Transportation Fund in July 2022, but the town only received $200,000, which wasn’t enough for the project, Brier said. So, former Councilman Vince Amico, who was council president at the time, contacted the Appalachian Regional Commission, or ARC, Brier said.
The ARC is an economic development partnership involving the federal government and 13 state governments, focusing on 423 counties across the Appalachian Region, including Lackawanna County, according to the ARC’s website. The ARC’s mission is to “innovate, partner and invest to build community capacity and strengthen economic growth in Appalachia to help the region achieve socioeconomic parity with the nation,” according to the organization.
Dunmore applied for funding for the project through the ARC. Following a lengthy process that included bringing in a grant writer to assist the borough, the town received $1.6 million for the industrial park road, Brier said. The preapplication process alone included contacting dozens of businesses to document growth in the industrial park, Brier said.
“They don’t want to invest in a stagnant area,” she said.
For example, Brier learned Maid-Rite Steak Co. Inc., 105 Keystone Industrial Park Road, was closing one of its offices and relocating about 45 people to its Dunmore location in the industrial park, she said.
“They want to see that type of growth,” she said of the ARC.
Dunmore hired engineering firm Greenman-Pedersen Inc., which has an office on Montage Mountain, for the project’s engineering, Brier said.
The borough will now be working with PennDOT on the project, with the agency handling the construction process, she said.
Brier did not yet have a timeline for when the work will take place, though she hopes it will bring more businesses to the borough. The industrial park itself is an attractive location because of its proximity to major roads like Interstates 80, 380 and 81, as well as the Casey Highway, she said.
“We want to attract business in Dunmore, and it’s very unattractive for a business to come in here and see the roads that they’ll be using to go in and out of their business, that their employees will be using,” Brier said. “I’d like to make it look more attractive for businesses to want to come here.”
Prior to council voting on the road improvements, the borough honored Dunmore resident and centenarian Charles Arnone with a proclamation for his 100th birthday, according to Councilman Tom Hallinan. Arnone served in both World War II and the Korean War, Hallinan said.
Dunmore Mayor Max Conway, left, poses with resident and centenarian Charles Arnone on Monday at the Dunmore Community Center. The borough honored Arnone, who is a World War II and Korean War veteran, with a proclamation for his 100th birthday. (COURTESY OF COUNCILMAN TOM HALLINAN)