MUNCY – A packed agenda kept the Muncy Professional Business Association moving at their monthly meeting that took place on Thursday, March 7 at Orlando’s Restaurant in Muncy.

Future plans for the next two years were discussed, especially the Muncy 4th Friday events.

President Ann Baker introduced the new candidates who were present and Ed Feigles from the Muncy Borough, also present, said there are four openings for the Muncy Borough Board of Supervisors and six candidates are running.

Baker advised those running to connect all the townships in Muncy together, not just the borough. Feigles is hoping the changes in leadership “will make the dialogue go better to make better connections.”

Working with the library, the school and the business community the borough expressed a focus on economic development for a better partnership.

A new Streetscape committee was formed and plans are in the works to develop the empty corner lot on Main and Water Streets. “Let’s move forward with it,” Baker said and suggested contacting the Lycoming Career and Technical Center in Hughesville for some assistance in design. The lot is owned by the borough of Muncy.

PennDot has plans to fix the roads in 2020 and this could impact the Main Street 4th Fridays. “We may be needing to move when construction starts,” Baker said.

Flood control and regulations were discussed as part of North Main Street is being developed. Feigles said that the Shade Tree Commission would like to “re-establish the tree canopy” approaching Muncy from the north side of Main Street. Another project in mind is to design walking trails and eventually connecting them to all the parks, “adding safe areas in town.” According to Feigles, the Muncy Resiliency Project is working on some of these things. It’s not just flood control, but “beautification.”

The Ritz Theatre was purchased by Royce Eyer who has plans to turn it into a Cafe and Juice Bar and also a Sports Complex. Baker announced maybe the MPBA could use the space for meetings and seminars. “We could hold classes or a workshop to benefit business owners to help them grow and thrive.”

Meanwhile, the Ritz parking lot is available for the Muncy 4th Fridays. Vendor space and vendor applications are available on the newly designed MPBA website by member, Rob Crowell from Point & Click Media who volunteered to update the site. Vendor forms also are available on the MPBA Facebook page.

Baker said she would like the vendor space reserved with pre-payment sent to PO Box 132, Muncy, PA, for all 3 events before May 31st. It will be ten dollars an hour or thirty dollars for each event. Funding from the Muncy 4th Friday events will ultimately help the businesses here, Baker said. “If a business has a fire or something, we can’t do it with what we have right now,” she said. Businesses might need better lighting, banners or signage and “we (MPBA) want to help them.” The first Muncy 4th Friday is set for June 28.

Adam Rearick from PPL said funding might be available from PPL to help with some green space projects or community rain gardens. “There are grants to help support projects from various organizations,” he said.

Linda Strausser from the Muncy Public Library inquired about emergency plans for the borough. “Is there something in place?” Fegiles replied that the Resiliency Project has something in the works on how to plan for an emergency. “That is a project to deal with,” he said.

The next MPBA meeting will be held Thursday, April 4.