FORTY FORT — Borough Council at Monday’s regular meeting approved the creation of a pollinator garden to improve green space and support the declining pollinator population.
Resident Sarah Solomon, an avid gardener, spearheaded the project. The garden will be planted in a vacant lot on Fort Street in the fall.
“I thought that it could be a good teaching moment for the community as a whole to bring something like this into our space,” Solomon told council at the meeting.
Solomon will donate her own time and resources to the garden. The borough will also look into partnering with local greenhouses and other businesses to see if anyone is willing to donate additional materials.
“This would be a really cost-effective thing to do,” she said.
Councilmember Amanda Gallagher said her husband volunteered to donate up to $1,000 to support the project.
Solomon said the main purpose of the garden would be to support declining populations, such as honey bees and monarch butterflies.
“Our honey bee population is in severe decline. They’re responsible for most of our food sources. Most people don’t realize it’s little things that make a big difference,” she said.
Some native plants that may be planted include purple cornflower, black-eyed susans, and milkweed, the only host plant for the monarch butterfly.
Solomon also suggested adding seating for people to enjoy the garden and installing signage to educate them about the importance of the plants that live there.
Councilmember Sara Michaels, a teacher at the Wyoming Seminary Lower Seminary, said she imagines the garden would be an excellent learning tool for students.
“It would be very beneficial to the community, especially with the Lower School being part of this community, I’m sure you’d have a lot of student volunteers,” Michaels said.
Other communities in Kingston and Wilkes-Barre also laid plans for the community garden this year.
Police regionalization
Also at Monday’s meeting, council put off voting on representatives for a police regionalization committee until a future meeting.
“We’re getting out a little farther ahead of the other communities on picking the police committee. We’ll see what they come up with before we decide on anything moving forward,” Council President Thomas Murray said.
Following the meeting, Murray said he wasn’t sure when the item would be back on the agenda for a vote and that they were waiting for the municipalities to catch up before making a decision.
The item, as it appeared on Monday’s agenda, was a resolution to appoint former mayor Brian Thomas, Councilmember Cara Devine, and Councilmember Sara Michaels to serve as members on the Regional Police Development Committee.
This committee is the next step toward possible regionalization of the Forty Fort police force, following the borough’s participation in a study prepared by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) and the Governor’s Center for Local Government Services (GCLGS), to determine the feasibility of creating a regional police department.
Forty Fort, along with the boroughs of Luzerne, Kingston, and Swoyersville, participated in the study.
Regionalization seems to be the way of the future for many municipalities in Luzerne County.
In March, Jackson Township announced its plans to participate in a police regionalization study.
On Jan. 1, the West Side Regional Police Department, made up of Edwardsville and Larksville Borough, was activated following three years of planning.
In 2024, Wyoming, West Wyoming, West Pittston, Exeter Borough, and Exeter Township came together to form the Wyoming Area Regional Police Department.
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