Another Emporium Property To Be Razed
Cameron County School District (CCSD) Board Members approved a bid entered by the Emporium Borough for purchase of a former residence slated for demolition.
Approval has already been given by the borough and the Cameron County Commissioners, paving the way for the former Lundin Home located at 236 West Fifth Street to be put on the ground. The borough will pay $1.00 for the property, and all back taxes will be forgiven. The home has been held in the county tax claim repository since going unsold in the judicial sale, but was vacant for about a decade before that.
I think it would be great to see the borough cultivate a culture of community openspace with these purchases. I’ve seen communities all over the country successfully take advantage of openspace to leverage tourist economies. The communities buy the space and open it to recreation. Emporium has great hiking and mountain biking potential, comparable to many successful tourist-recreation communities in the West, e.g. Moab, Flagstaff, Boulder, Bend, etc. While I think hunting is a great draw for the area, I also think mountain biking would draw a bigger spending demographic. Moneyed city folk love riding bikes on singletrack mountain trails.