LACKAWANNA
Centennial activities to begin today
They met in March 1909, fed up with a bloated government that took their taxes and gave them little in return.
They were regular citizens, as well as movers and shakers, physicians, war veterans and captains of industry. There were speeches and posturing, arguments and handshakes.
And they took action. But instead of downsizing, they decided to form a new city.
“It was pretty radical at the time. You didn’t have a lot of secessions going on,” said Michael Sobaszek, executive director of the Lackawanna Chamber of Commerce. “This was only 40 years after the [Civil] War.”
Two months later, a charter was signed. In less than two months, they would elect a mayor and councilmen.
And today, the City of Lackawanna celebrates the 100th anniversary of the charter’s signing.
Activities commemorating the centennial will start at 6:30 p. m. in the Senior Center, 230 Martin Road. Mayor Norman L. Polanski Jr. will speak. Erie County Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz; State Sen. William T. Stachowski, D-Lake View; and Assemblyman Jack F. Quinn III, R-Hamburg, also have been invited.
The winners of an essay contest about growing up in Lackawanna will read their entries, and a time capsule filled during Mayor Kathleen Staniszewski’s term in the 1990s will be opened.
While many things have changed in the last 100 years, taxpayers then, like some today, were ready to revolt.
The names of some attendees at the first meeting are familiar in Lackawanna today: Col. John B. Weber, Robert H. Reed, John Widmer, A. F. Twist and George Avery. The attorney for the Lackawanna Steel Co. also spoke out.
Most people believed that in Lackawanna, named for the steel company, the company called the shots, Sobaszek said. As the plant flourished, so did the city.
“True or not, I think that’s what everybody’s view was,” he said. “I think it started right there at the beginning.”
The company may have had the influence, but the stirring words came from Weber, the Civil War hero, as if he were preparing for battle.
“We want to establish a high standard of public officials, and then it will be hard for later officials to lower that standard,” Weber told supporters on the eve of the first election in July 1909.
Other centennial activities include a Civil War re-enactment, June 6 and 7 in Veterans Stadium; a youth parade, June 13; a performance by the Chopin Singing Society, June 14 in Our Lady of Victory Basilica; a golf tournament, June 16 at the South Park Golf Course; an interfaith prayer service, June 17 in the basilica; a free concert, June 22 in the Lake Erie Italian Club; and the Centennial Festival, June 24-28 in Veterans Stadium.
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