Kingston

Kingston is a borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located on the western bank of the Susquehanna River opposite the city of Wilkes-Barre. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,349, making it the most populous borough in the county. Kingston was first settled in the early 1770s; it was incorporated as a borough as a town in 1857. The borough is also home to the Upper School of Wyoming Seminary, a prestigious college preparatory school founded in 1844. The community has a rich history in American education. The first public school in Pennsylvania was erected in Kingston (in the 17 70s). The borough was named after Kingston, Rhode Island, on November 23, 1857, after Ruben Ruben, the first burgess and justice of the peace. In 1923, the Kingston Armory was built on the site of the present-day Town of Wyoming, where 33 guards from the 109th Field Regiment were killed in a train accident near Coshocton, Ohio, following the following days of the Great Depression. In the early 1660s, King Charles II owed Admiral Sir William Penn a large sum of money. To settle this debt, he granted Penns son, William, a territory in North America, which later became known as Pennsylvania. However, Connecticut also claimed a portion of this land. In 1768, they met in Hartford, Connecticut, and decided to survey and divide the territory into five townships (each one was five square miles). The plan was to sell and divide each township among forty settlers.

History

Kingston is the primary city name, but also Courtdale, Edwardsville, Forty Fort, Larksville, Pringle, Swoyersville, Wilkes Barre are acceptable city names or spellings. The official name is Kingston, Pennsylvania . Kingston is a borough of Wyoming County, Pennsylvania. It was incorporated as a borough on November 23, 1857. It is home to the Upper School of Wyoming Seminary, a prestigious college preparatory school founded in 1844. In September 1950, 33 guardsmen from the 109th Field Regiment were killed in a train accident near Kingston. In June 1972, Kingston was devastated by the hurricane of Hurricane Wilkes-Barre, causing a devastating mine disaster. The borough is named after Kingston, Rhode Island, which was founded in the 17th century. The town is located on the banks of the Susquehannock River, which is a tributary of the Lackawanna River. The river was once known as the "Wyoming River" and was the source of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which runs through the borough. The Kingston area was once part of the Connecticut River Valley, which ran through the present-day Wyoming County. The area was also part of Connecticut, which claimed a portion of the Wyoming Valley in the late 1700s and early 1800s. During the American Revolutionary War, nearly 300 Wyoming Valley settlers were killed by the British in the Wyoming Massacre. Today, a monument marks the gravesite of the victims from the battle. The community has a rich history in American education, with a public school erected in 1770s. The first public school in Pennsylvania was erected in Kingston (in the1770s) It is said that the first public hospital in the area was built in 1780s.

Geography

The Borough of Kingston lies within the Wyoming Valley of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is situated on the western bank of the Susquehanna River in the northern half of Luzerne County. Its numbered routes are U.S. Route 11 and Pennsylvania Route 309, which follows the Cross Valley Expressway from the Back Mountain area to Interstate 81 and Route 115 east of Wilkes-Barre City. Kingston averages 2,303 hours of sunshine per year, ranging from a low of 96 hours in December (or 33% of possible sunshine) to 286 hours in July. The average annual snowfall is 46.2 inches (117 cm) during the winter (in which severe snowstorms are rare). The borough has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfa/Dfb) with four distinct seasons. It straddles the hardiness zone boundary between 6a and 6b, meaning that the average annual absolute minimum temperature is approximately -5 °F. On average, Kingston receives 38.2 pounds (970 mm) of precipitation each year, which is relatively evenly distributed throughout the year (though the summer months receive more precipitation). Extreme temperatures range from 21 °F (29.4 °C) on January 21, 1994, to 103 °F on July 9, 1936. In an average summer, temperatures exceeding 90 °F [32.2 °C] occur on an average of nine days and can occasionally exceed 100 °F  (37.8 °C).

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 13,855 people, 6,065 households, and 3,372 families residing in the borough. The population density was 6,461.6 people per square mile (2,499.7/km²) The racial makeup of the borough was 96.84% White, 0.77% African American, 1.07% Native American, and 1.53% Asian. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.80% of the population. The median income for a household was $33,611, and the median family income was $45,578. About 8.2% of families and 11.3% of people in Kingston, Pennsylvania, were below the poverty line, including 11.7% of those under age 18 and 10.3%) of those age 65 or over. 43.27% are Catholic; 0.28% are LDS; 2.33% are another Christian faith; 0.,78% are Jewish; 0,00% are an eastern faith; and 0.51% practice Islam. The borough is located on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which runs from New Jersey to Delaware. The Turnpix is a popular tourist destination in the area. The town has a population of about 13,000 people, making it one of the largest towns in the state. It is the largest borough in Pennsylvania by population, with a population density of 6,500 people per sq mile (3,057.1 per km²).

Government

Kingston operates under a home rule charter, which became effective in January 1976. The executive branch consists of a mayor and a full-time municipal administrator. The legislative function is vested in a seven-member council. The current mayor is Jeffrey R. Coslett; he assumed office in 2022. His predecessor was Paul J. Roberts (who served from 2018 until 2022). The current administrator is Paul Keating (who served since 1997). The borough council is made up of seven members: Robert Jacobs, Nancy Cooper, Jack Schumacher, Doug Rush, Roberto Rowlands, Kate McMahon, Paul Roberts, and Nancy Cooper. The mayor is elected for a four-year term, and the council members are elected for three-year terms, with the exception of the mayor's first term, which runs from 1998 to 2002. The borough has a population of 2,816. The city's population was 2,715 in 2010. The population is 2,917 in 2011. The town's population is 1,814 in 2012. The state's population in 2012 was 1,716. It is the most populous city in the state, with a population growth rate of 0.7%. The city has a per-capita population of 1,922. It has an unemployment rate of 1.8%. It has a poverty rate of 2.2 per cent. Its unemployment rate is 1.7 per cent, the lowest of any U.S. city.

Politics

In June 2012, the borough was 54 percent Democratic, a reversal from the early 1990s when it was a 60 percent Republican borough. The borough has a Republican state representative and a Democrat U.S. congressman. The city has a Democratic state senator and a Republican congressman. It has a majority of Democrats in the state legislature and a minority of Republicans in the United States House of Representatives. The town has a population of about 4,000 people, about half of whom live in the borough of Schenectady, New York. The population of the borough has been declining since the 1980s, when it hit a high of 6,000 in the early 1980s. It is now around 4,500 people, or about 1 in 5 people in the town, according to the city's 2010 census. The state legislature has a total of 14 members, including three Republicans and three Democrats. The district's congressional representative is Matt Cartwright, a Democrat, who represents the 8th Congressional district. The mayor's office has been in charge of running the borough since 2008. The council has been responsible for the borough's political representation since the 1990s, and has been involved in the election process since the early 2000s. In June 2012 the borough had 54 percent of the vote, down from 60 percent in the previous year. The county's population has grown from 4,200 to 4,400. The Borough has a mayor and a state senator, who have been in office since 2007, and a congressman since 2007.

Public safety

The Kingston Police Department consists of 19 sworn members. It is the third largest department in Luzerne County. The department is made up of a Special Victims Unit (SVU), K-9 unit, Patrol Division, Criminal Investigation Division, and a Special Investigations Division (SID) The Kingston Fire Department provides full-time emergency firefighting and fire protection services for the borough. It consists of 31 career and around 30 volunteer firefighters. The current fire chief is Frank Guido. Today's department operates from its headquarters at 600 Wyoming Avenue in Kingston. The police provide full- time protection for its citizens, visitors, businesses, and public property. The fire department provides full time emergencyFirefighting and Fire Protection Services for the Borough of Kingston. This article includes information from the borough's police and fire departments.

Education and health

The first public school in Pennsylvania was erected in Kingston (in the 1770s) The borough is part of the Wyoming Valley West School District. The borough has a rich history in American education. The first hospital in the borough was built in Kingston in the 18th century. The town is home to several public and private schools and a number of hospitals. It is also home to a public library and a school for children with special needs. The city is also the site of the Pennsylvania State Medical Center, which was founded in 1855. The state's first hospital was opened in the 19th century in the town of Kingston. It was named after the town's founder, William "William" Kingston, who was born in 1776. The hospital was built to serve the growing population of the town. It closed in the 1950s and was replaced by a new hospital, which opened in 1959. The current hospital is located in the city's downtown area and is called the Town of Kingston Medical Center. It opened in 1961 and was named in honor of William "Bill" Moyer, a former mayor of the borough. It has been named after Moyer's son, William Moyer Jr., who served as mayor in the 1970s and 1980s. The community has a history of being involved in education and health care since the early 1900s. It also has a long history in the community's history in terms of health care and education. In the 1990s, the town was the location of the first public hospital in Pennsylvania. The Town has also been home to the Wyoming Seminary Upper School.

Culture

The third episode of the 1976 Israeli Educational Television English Teaching fiction series Gabby & Debby takes place in a coal mine in Kingston. Fleck Hall on the campus of Wyoming Seminary, the Kingston Armory and Market Street Bridge are also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The 2013 film The English Teacher is set in Kingston, though it was not filmed there. The film features several references to the Wyoming Valley region, including a mention of Wilkes University. In the film, two youths manage to rescue an injured worker trapped after an accident occurs in the mine. The episode is called "Gabby and Debby in the Coal Mine" and is one of the most popular episodes of the Israeli television series. The series is based on the book of the same name, which was written by Israeli author Shmuley Boteach. The book was published by Simon & Schuster, which also published the novel "The English Teacher" in 1976. The novel is about two youths who rescue a trapped worker in the coal mine. It is the first of three books in the series to be set in the region. The second, "The Second Coal Mine," was published in 1978 and is about the rescue of a worker trapped in the mines. The third, "Wyoming and Beyond," was released in 1979 and features a scene in which the youths rescue a man trapped in a mine shaft. The fourth, "Kingston and Beyond" was released the following year and features scenes from the second and third episodes.

Air Quality, Water Quality, Superfund Sites & UV Index

The Air Quality index is in Kingston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania = 72.2. These Air Quality index is based on annual reports from the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The number of ozone alert days is used as an indicator of air quality, as are the amounts of seven pollutants including particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, and volatile organic chemicals. The Water Quality Index is 79. A measure of the quality of an area’s water supply as rated by the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The EPA has a complex method of measuring the watershed quality, using 15 indicators such as pollutants, turbidity, sediments, and toxic discharges. The Superfund Sites Index is 50. Higher is better (100=best). Based upon the number and impact of EPA Superfund pollution sites in the county, including spending on the cleanup efforts. The UV Index in Kingston = 3.8 and is a measure of an area's exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays. This is most often a combination of sunny weather, altitude, and latitude. The UV Index has been defined by the WHO (www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-the-ultraviolet-(uv)-index) and is uniform worldwide.

Employed

The most recent city population of 13,349 individuals with a median age of 41.2 age the population dropped by -1.19% in Kingston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania population since 2000 and are distributed over a density of 6,220.41 residents per square mile of area (2,401.29/km²). There are average 2.54 people per household in the 2,772 households with an average household income of $66,805 a year. The unemployment rate in Alabama is 9.50% of the available work force and has dropped -4.78% over the most recent 12-month period and the projected change in job supply over the next decade based on migration patterns, economic growth, and other factors will increase by 20.94%. The number of physicians in Kingston per 100,000 population = 227.

Weather

The annual rainfall in Kingston = 38.6 inches and the annual snowfall = 31.6 inches. The annual number of days with measurable precipitation (over .01 inch) = 124. The average number of days per year that are predominantly sunny = 176. 84 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily high temperature for the month of July and 19.8 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily low temperature for the month of January. The Comfort Index (higher=better) is 55, where higher values mean a more pleasant climate. The Comfort Index measure recognizes that humidity by itself isn't the problem. (Have you noticed nobody ever complains about the weather being 'cold and humid?) It's in the summertime that we notice the humidity the most, when it's hot and muggy. Our Comfort Index uses a combination of afternoon summer temperature and humidity to closely predict the effect that the humidity will have on people.

Median Home Cost

The percentage of housing units in Kingston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania which are owned by the occupant = 80.45%. A housing unit is a house, apartment, mobile home, or room occupied as separate living quarters. The average age of homes = 42 years with median home cost = $153,850 and home appreciation of -8.17%. This is the value of the years most recent home sales data. Its important to note that this is not the average (or arithmetic mean). The median home price is the middle value when you arrange all the sales prices of homes from lowest to highest. This is a better indicator than the average, because the median is not changed as much by a few unusually high or low values. The property tax rate of $13.81 shown here is the rate per $1,000 of home value. If for simplification for example the tax rate is $14.00 and the home value is $250,000, the property tax would be $14.00 x ($250,000/1000), or $3500. This is the 'effective' tax rate.

Study

The local school district spends $5,573 per student. There are 17.5 students for each teacher in the school, 1118 students for each Librarian and 559 students for each Counselor. 9.33% of the area’s population over the age of 25 with an Associate Degree or other 2-year college degree, 18.25% with a master’s degree, Ph.D. or other advanced college degree and 10.69% with high school diplomas or high school equivalency degrees (GEDs).