SUNBURY – A local arts, education, and event center will be reaching new heights with its newest installment. The Albright Center inaugurated its new 3-level elevator at a short ceremony Thursday. While there, Albright and Sunbury’s Revitalization Inc. leaders shared their vision for the center.
Albright Council co-chairman Bob Zimmerman explained this has been years in the making, “This has been decades of church progression here. In the past, they’ve done different things but they came to the point where Albright and Saint John’s joined together as Faith United and donated this to Sunbury Revitalization Inc. because we were able to sell them on the type of project we were doing. It was going to be a community facility and interest serving not just Sunbury, but Selinsgrove, Lewisburg, Danville, Milton, Shamokin. All those towns, to fill this place. We have a big card to fill but we can do it.”
Mayor David Persing spoke at the ceremony and said the project is possible because of the dedicated citizens, “This is how projects get done in the city. If I’ve learned nothing else in 23 years as being mayor, it’s that it’s because we have a lot of good, dedicated people that care about the city of Sunbury like this group and many others when it comes down to it. But they have enough dedication and time to spare and enough grit to get our projects done.”
John Shipman, Albright Council co-chairmen, shared this is just the first of many new steps for the center, “Everyone that is here is part of this dream and part of this vision. Every one of you has contributed to the success. Every one of you has been a rooter and we want to tell you that the best is yet to come. We have real vision for the lower garden level. We’re going to transform that into a multi-purpose facility where we can hold banquets, where we can hold classes, where we can have a lot of different types of new opportunities. That’s our next step.”
The Albright’s new elevator was installed at a cost of nearly $300,000. With the new piece, events such as business and trade shows, job fairs, corporate training, out-of-town conventions and more will be able to utilize the center. These activities will enhance SRI’s mission to promote economic development opportunities. (Alex Reichenbach)
