Tamaqua has been in the news a lot lately, and for good reason.

There’s a lot going on in the borough, which is experiencing a renaissance of sorts thanks to a state sponsored program that helps communities reinvest in themselves.

State officials recently got a chance to see some of the program’s progress during a tour of Tamaqua’s business district, and got a hint of what might yet come.

For more than 10 years now, Tamaqua has pioneered a state program, the Community Revitalization and Improvement Zone, or CRIZ, that has breathed new life into a once-declining business district.

The program essentially allows incremental tax revenues generated by businesses and customers in the borough to come back to the community to reinvest in itself.

It has played a major role in the revival of the Tamaqua Train Station, where funding is helping pay for roof repairs.

The Perla Building on West Broad Street is another beneficiary, where a program that supports individuals with intellectual disabilities is headquartered in a site once occupied by The Salvation Army.

Senior citizens exercise in the building in a program once offered by the Tamaqua YMCA, and its owners are hoping to expand its offerings.

Farther down Broad Street, Child Development Inc. located in what was once St. Jerome Elementary School.

A few blocks away, The Bischoff Inn, a furniture factory in the 19th century, welcomes guests as the only place with lodging for visitors in the boutique hotel.

Also part of the tour was the revamped Boyer’s Supermarket on Cedar Street. A CRIZ-enabled expansion helped increase sales there, making it the best performing of all 11 Boyer’s locations.

Tamaqua’s is the smallest of only three CRIZ programs in the state. Bethlehem and Lancaster have reaped its benefits, transforming those communities and creating jobs in otherwise neglected areas.

Last year, it generated $1.6 million in state and local funding for Tamaqua, and in 2022, it received $1.1 million.

Thus far, more than $5 million has been reinvested in Tamaqua’s CRIZ.

And the organizers in Tamaqua aren’t finished.

They’re looking at a four-story building, the former Scheid’s Department Store at 24 W. Broad St., to establish dormitory-style housing for students of the first rural dental school in the state.

Micah Gursky, head of the Tamaqua Area Community Partnership that administers the CRIZ, is one of many who hopes to have students live in the downtown.

“Part of our plan is to change Tamaqua into a place where education is a priority, where we invest in education, and education is part of our economic development,” he said during the tour.

Gursky and the Tamaqua CRIZ authority may be on to something.

Bringing young people into the downtown bodes well for businesses. They need places to eat, shop and live. And though they’re still just students, they’d be more willing to spend than seniors on a more controlled income.

That spending perpetuates the idea of the CRIZ, since a portion of the money filters back to the borough and realistically, the cycle of development continues and the story goes on.

In a recent issue of Pennsylvania Magazine, Cindy Ross, a freelance writer from New Ringgold, did a piece touting Tamaqua’s rebirth and helped spread the word of its success.

“Revitalize It & They Will Come,” describes the borough’s past and how it’s changed and continues to grow.

She wrote about the work of volunteers who saved the train station and the current efforts of the CRIZ and Community Partnership.

Ross described how new businesses helped preserve Tamaqua’s history, and at the same time painted a glimpse of a growing arts community.

The idea of preserving the past is starting to catch on as neighboring communities look to reinvent themselves.

East of Tamaqua, four boroughs have come together in another program as Blueprint Communities.

Lansford, Nesquehoning, Summit Hill and Coaldale are combining their resources and talents on hopes of breathing new life into their towns, working as one and pioneering such participation in the effort.

A new rail siding in Nesquehoning, the No. 9 Mine complex in Lansford and an anthracite related museum proposed in Summit Hill are all in the mix to draw visitors and boost the local economy.

Recent changes in Harrisburg allowing the combined communities to participate may help the local partnership land a spot in the CRIZ program, too.

If they haven’t already, leaders of those communities should begin the application process.

Along the way, they can look to Tamaqua for inspiration on how to succeed.

It’s a lesson worth learning.

ED SOCHA | tneditor@tnonline

Ed Socha is a retired newspaper editor with more than 40 years’ experience in community journalism.

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.