Pike Commissioners Announce
Caridi Retiring After 15 Years

MILFORD — Pike County Board of Commissioners Chairman Matt Osterberg found himself in an unusual situation sitting alone at the board's bi-monthly meeting last week.
Fellow commissioner Steve Guccini had a telephone hookup to the meeting. As for the other board member – Rich Caridi – Osterberg said at the start of the meeting, "He won't be here today."
Shortly afterward, Osterberg announced that Caridi had submitted a letter of retirement from the board after 15 years of service, effective May 31. Caridi asked that the letter be presented to the public at the meeting.
Caridi's letter reads, "After turning 70 years old in February this year, my wife and I have decided that we would like to attend to some health issues and spend as much time as we can together with our children and grandchildren for as long as God wants."
Osterberg said there are no life-threatening medical issues involved and none forced the decision.
Caridi has served as a county commission representative on planning, conservation, the Lake Wallenpaupack Watershed and veterans committees. He has served as past president of the county Prison Board.
"It's not easy for him to do this and not easy for Steve and me to accept this," Osterberg told the gathering. "He taught me a lot on the job.
"He chose to do this his way. He's not looking for any other fanfare than for him to go."
Judge Gregory Chelak has 30 days to select a replacement of the same political party from submitted letters of interest to serve the remainder of Caridi's term through Dec. 31, 2019. A candidate from the 2019 Primary and General elections will start the new term. Caridi is a Republican.
Osterberg said it would be determined after the interim appointment which duties of Caridi's the appointee would inherit and which will be taken on by the seated commissioners.
Also in the letter, Caridi writes, "I must state that I have had the honor of serving with other commissioners throughout my 15-year tenure who have always placed the best interests for the county first in the decision making.
I am proud to say that the decisions made were always based on principle and not on partisan politics and I pray that that philosophy will always prevail."
"It seems to me philosophically that these days, if people are not fighting with each other, (people think) they're not doing their job," Guccini said.
"But if they do that, they're not doing service to their constituents. If we disagreed, we did it as adults and came to a reasonable conclusion. I do appreciate us working together on things."
Legacy Of Supported Projects
Osterberg said afterward that Caridi was an ardent advocate of the Pike County Courthouse Annex that will open later in the summer as well as helping form the Tick Borne Disease Task Force that was the first of its kind in the state. He also actively supported with former commissioners Karl Wagner and Harry Forbes the construction of the Pike County Training Center in Lords Valley that opened in 2012.
"From the time he was re-elected (in 2015) to maybe a year later, he was thinking about retiring but chose not to," Osterberg said after the meeting. "I said to him, 'I will support whatever you do.' He did great service for the county and its 415 employees."
Tom Ryan, founder and head of Vetstock and an advocate for military veterans, said he would miss working with his close friend. "He was able to communicate and watch our backs. He helped us with every opportunity he can," Ryan said. "We're alike that, at this time in our lives, we want to spend time with our families and he loves his kids and two grandkids. It's a huge loss (for veterans) but I have high expectations for Matt Osterbeg, who did not serve (in the military as Caridi did) but who is a patriot. I have complete confidence. Matt may not have (the same) understanding, but he's willing to learn. He'll listen to us and reach out to us. "Rich is retiring but we're drafting him for Vetstock," Ryan said...For complete story, get this week's issue.

Rise In Home Prices Highlights Pike County Growth

HAWLEY — Real estate data is a standard indicator of the state of the economy in a region, and Allan Hetkowski, CEO of the Pike/Wayne Association of Realtors, said there were some signs of improvement from a year ago during his presentation at the Pike State of the County Dinner at Woodloch Pines last week.
"The market is stable, quality of life is good. We're working on the tax situation," said Hetkowski, referring to the ongoing property tax debate in both houses for school taxes as the state budget nears its June 30 deadline.
"The market has no peaks and valley like during the recession," Hetkowski said. "As the market has come back, properties in foreclosure have been selling so much that we have a lack of inventory, a lack of homes to sell. With that, we see an upturn in construction."
Hetkowski pointed to increases in properties listed and sold from 2017, with a $30 million increase in sales volume in 2017 from the previous year, a 14 percent hike.
The average sale price rose from $156,000 to $169,000, and the days listed to sale dropped from 146 to 126 last year. From the previous year, closed sales increased by about 80 homes in 2017.
Mike Sullivan, Executive Director of the Pike County Economic Development Authority, said that for the first time since 2010, Pike County in 2017 had a year of population growth from the previous year. It was the largest uptick among nine counties surveyed in the area, and Pike was third in average wage increases at 3.9 percent.
Sullivan backed off on any notion that it is the start of a trend but said that it shows promise for the future.
"The state of the county is in good shape," said Pike County Commissioner Matt Osterberg. "There are a lot of initiatives to make the county better, working in collaborative efforts with private organizations for infrastructure and community health. The courthouse (addition) gives us modern courtroom procedures desperately needed."
He said infrastructure and the lack of central sewage "makes it difficult to bring in businesses." There are other challenges, Osterberg said, like the property vacancies along Route 209 and the $7 million expense of restoring and maintaining 17 bridges, which now is funded through a $5 auto registration increase.
Other challenges include the lack of Advanced Life Support/Basic Life Support emergency medical services that is "in crisis mode" and the opioid addiction epidemic that is drawing on millions of dollars in resources in Pike County and has led to formation of a county task force....For complete story, get this week's issue.