From left are Marie M. King, former Clarks Green Borough Council president; Gerrie Carey, Clarks Summit Borough Council president; and Patty Lawler, former mayor of Clarks Green and Clarks Summit Boroughs.
Submitted photo
Women, who were among the first to hold notable public offices in Lackawanna County were recognized at the Office at City Council/City Clerk on March 28 in honor of Women’s History Month.
Lackawanna County officials issued a proclamation to the female councilwomen and mayors of their boroughs. This includes many women in the Abington area, who broke grounds by being the first in their offices.
Gerrie Carey, who is currently president of Clarks Summit Council, has been serving for 25 years. She is the first Democrat ever to be elected to Clarks Summit Council. In 2008, she became the first woman to be elected council president.
“Clarks Summit is at the core of my heart,” she said.
Gerrie is a lifelong resident of Clarks Summit, where she was born and raised. She raised her family in Clarks Summit. She has two sons – Hutch and Rick Carey – and two daughters – Mary Ellen Berry and Colleen Berry – as well as five grandchildren. She was inspired to join Council when the entire community stepped in to help when her house was destroyed by a fire back in 1997.
“People just came around,” she said. “It really reinforced me what a wonderful community Clarks Summit is. My goal is to keep it a community that cares about each other. At that point, that’s when I decided I wanted to be on Council. And in the 25 years, I have done so many things that never would’ve happened if I didn’t take the time to make sure they’re (community) issues were resolved.”
Gerrie is still continuing her goal of working together and making good things happen.
Patty Lawler served as both councilwoman and mayor of both Clarks Summit and Clarks Green. She started out as a councilwoman of Clarks Summit for three years. She then ran for mayor. After selling her house in Clarks Summit, she tried to find her forever home for her and her dog but to no avail. She rented an apartment in Clarks Green and had to give up her position as mayor since she wasn’t a resident of Clarks Summit anymore.
“I was giving up a job that I loved,” she said. “But when I add it up, everything I promised when I ran for mayor in Clarks Summit, I accomplished already.”
Patty spearheaded the Depot Street project, which includes the paving and the pocket park. She had ties with residents of Depot Street since she once owned a store called Affordable Elegance. She also took part of Clarks Summit’s Second Friday Art Walk and the town’s first recycling fair. She always reached out to the community supporting local organizations. As mayor, she was responsible for hiring police officers. In fact, she, with the help of Gerrie, convinced the police department into hiring a full-time police officer in lieu of hiring a few part-time officers.
“It was my passion to bring the officers up to speed,” she said. I was proud of them.”
Before joining Council, Patty was asked if she would ever run for Council. After giving it some thought, she realized that she was already involved in the community including Our Lady of Snows Church.
“I thought I would like to do this,” she said. “I like to sit on Council. I would like to make a change.”
Once the previous mayor left office, Patty thought that mayor would be a better position for her since she would be representing and working with the community. She recalled when she served on Clarks Green Council, the late William Thorburn, who was mayor at the time, helped her negotiate a deed for the Clarks Summit Police Department to serve Clarks Green. After Thorburn’s passing, Patty stepped in as interim mayor becoming the first woman to hold the title of mayor of Clarks Green. As mayor, she learned a lot about planning when she took part of the expansion of the Church of St. Gregory.
What Patty enjoyed best about serving on both Clarks Summit and Clarks Green Councils were having a vision and making it happen. She enjoyed the appreciation from the residents and ‘John Q. Public’.
“They (Clarks Summit and Clarks Green) became the family I never had,” she said.
Nancy Williams Stella was the first woman to serve as member of Clarks Green Council. She joined Council in 1984. Her responsibility was being in the building/grounds committee. What inspired her to become a council member was when there was an effort to merge Clarks Summit and Clarks Green into one joint borough. She was asked to join the committee called ‘Keep Clarks Green green’. She studied the feasibility and recommended for the merge not to happen. The committee asked her to run for Council. At the time, there was never a female nor a Republican on Council. And at age 29, she would’ve been one of the youngest to serve on Clarks Green Council.
“I had three things going either against me or for me,” she said.
Nancy decided to run and campaign with signs on lawns and knocking on doors.
“People know my name, and when they went to the polls, I was voted in,” she said. “It was quite an honor.”
Nancy felt like she was making a difference and representing all the people she spoke to during the campaign and the committee.
“I felt like I understood the desires and needs of the people,” she said. “I was honored to be able to represent them.”
In September 1985, Nancy had to resign because she moved to an apartment in Clarks Summit.
Marie King served as the first president of Clarks Green Council. She served on Clarks Green Borough Council from March 2007 through December 2011. She was appointed to serve out the term of a council member who passed away. Subsequently, she ran for the seat and was elected to serve a four-year term. She was voted in as council president in 2011.
While serving on Council, Marie listened to resident’s concerns about stormwater runoff, speeding issues, barking dogs, road paving, trash removal and taxes. Occasionally, she dealt with neighbor disputes, but more often with normal municipal management issues. She negotiated fire department contracts. Her personal favorite task was when she worked to pass the $25,000,000.00 Abington Regional Wastewater Authority (ARWA) contract proposed in 2011 to meet Pennsylvania’s Act 537 Clean Water initiatives.
“Even though I was involved in a very successful career in marketing communications, I admit when my son went away to college I experienced a bit of empty-nest syndrome,” she said. “I joined the CGB (Clarks Green Borough) Shade Tree Commission and am very proud of the work we did in planting hundreds of trees in the borough. My husband and I created a no-cost website for the borough to help disseminate info to residents. Get a free tree! From that volunteer experience, I was inspired to run for Council. Fortunately, once on Council, I was able to influence decision making and made the way for applications for multiple grants for the Abington Area Recreation Board (AARB) resulting in the Turf Field, Lighting and much more, for Hillside Park, the Crown Jewel of the Abingtons. Meeting other Abington officials during Arbor Day Celebrations, clean-ups and meetings also helped us all join together to build one of the nicest dog parks in the area, of which I was thrilled to chair. I’ve met some of my best friends through volunteer activities. Serving on Council is sometimes challenging, but really quite fulfilling. I recommend it in small doses.”
Deceased honorees, who were also issued in the proclamation, from the Abington area included Peg O’Connor, who was the first woman to serve as mayor of Clarks Summit, and Lorraine Daniels, who was the first woman to serve as a member of Dalton Council.
