SUNBURY — Mayor David Persing was talking about the potential for a full college campus in Sunbury at the city council meeting Monday evening. It all begins with a lease Lackawanna College signed last Thursday to take over the old McCann building on North 4th Street for use in the fall semester.
Persing believes having an accredited college in Sunbury will be more successful than a community college, and by a long shot, “If this is successful, if this gets off the ground and this moves, it’s realistic to think that in 5 or 10 years you could literally have a college campus in the city of Sunbury.”
As for a community college in Sunbury, “We’ve talked the community college for 15-20 years. The Community College concept is just not possible. The funding is just unbelievable, you’d never be able to put the funding together for what we need.”
He likes the idea of an accredited school coming to the city, “We need to get behind this. We can’t be supporting a different idea against our own. All that’s going to do is make both of them fail.”
He believes from the affordable education Lackawanna College can provide for the people of Sunbury, to the economic boost a college campus can bring to a town, he feels this is the best course of action. (Christopher Elio)
