LEWISBURG — Charles Bressler has operated Music and More for about 20 years.
The shop in the DeWitt Building, owned by Bucknell University, started out in a small store beneath the CVS.
It moved up to the 400 block of Market Street in 1994.
The retired social worker, who gives music lessons and sells instruments at the shop, said he isn’t sure what the future holds for the store — where he jokes he goes to get out of his wife’s hair.
From what he’s heard, there are major renovations planned for the building.
“I expect I’ll probably have to relocate,” he said. “They told me I’m welcome to stay, but with the work I’m told will happen, I don’t see how I could possibly stay.”
Although university officials say they are in the very early stages of planning, Bressler and his neighbors — Purity Candy and the Edwin D.
Mensch Agency — don’t have to go anywhere.
“Right now, we’re committed to maintaining the retail space in that building,” said Tom Evelyn, the university’s senior director of news and media relations.
The university bought the building about two years ago as part of its Lewisburg Core Community Initiative, or “Gateway Project.”
The school also bought other buildings downtown in hopes of better integrating its students and community.
The recently opened Barnes & Noble at Bucknell University Bookstore — next door to the DeWitt Building — is the most recent development in the initiative.
The university has in mind the creation of a business incubator on the second and third floors of the DeWitt building, tentatively named the Bucknell University Innovation Center, Evelyn said. The school would team up with a state program called the Keystone Innovation Zone, which tries to foster business growth in the technology field.
Bressler said he has spoken to university planners who say the building will need to be brought up to code. That means installation of a handicap- accessible ramp and an elevator.
It is his understanding the back part of his shop will be demolished to make room for that, plus parking.
While he might be able to keep the business open with smaller space, he doubts he’ll be able to continue giving lessons while renovations are going on.
“There’s no way I could maintain a business here during all that,” he said.
Evelyn said the building would have to be brought into Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, but stopped short of confirming what Bressler was told.
“We’re in the very early stages of planning,” Evelyn said. “The key point to be made is the first floor will remain retail space.”
In addition, there is no set time frame for any work to occur, he said.
Bressler, who perched upon the bench of a pipe organ in the corner of his shop, said he has watched the town of Lewisburg change and grow in the past few years. It’s a great town for a business like his — a lot of white-collar workers who want their children to learn a musical instrument.
And he said he doesn’t object to Bucknell buying buildings and sprucing them up.
Still, he said he has some concerns about the bigger picture.
“Maybe not in my lifetime, but I’m worried this will all be one big urban sprawl from Maine to Florida, and back to the Appalachians,” he said.
What about the shor t term? “It’s tough to say what’s going to happen,” he said.
News
Related Photos
-
People walk past the DeWitt Building in the 400 block of Market Street in Lewisburg on Saturday. Robert Inglis/The Daily Item
Discussion
Bucknell plans new project
Business incubator to take 2 floors of DeWitt Building
- News
-
-
State board approves table games at Valley Forge casino
VALLEY FORGE — A casino resort scheduled to open this spring in the Philadelphia suburb of Valley Forge has been approved for table games.
-
Doctors telling more adults: Get out and exercise
ATLANTA — A new study shows more and more U.S. adults are being told by their doctor to get off their duffs and exercise. A government survey found nearly 33 percent of adults who saw a doctor in the previous year said they were told to exercise. That was up from about 23 percent in 2000.
-
Former Northumberland County judge and three others die in Florida crash
EVERGLADES CITY, Fla. -- A former Northumberland County judge was one of four people killed Wednesday afternoon when their car collided with a van at an intersection, according to the Naples News. The victims were identified as James J. Rosini, 66, William J. Rosini, 68, Patricia C. Rosini, 65, all of Coal Township, Pa., and Deborah A. Korbich, 59, of Elysburg, Pa.
-
Warden demotes four bosses
SUNBURY -- Northumberland County Prison Warden Roy Johnson was able to trim about $135,000 in expenses by demoting four supervisors. He said Wednesday that he found a way to cut costs without laying off any staff. "I cut out 120 hours of supervisors' pay each week, but I need to fill the correction officer positions," Johnson said.
-
DJ pumps up audience
Every Tuesday evening, Richard Grogg can be found spinning tunes at possibly the most well-attended dance in Snyder County. A resident at the Selinsgrove Center since 1988, the 57-year-old said the thing he likes most about selecting and playing music is "making people happy." "Some people come up and ask for requests," he said.
-
Agency closes adult center
PENNS CREEK -- Union and Snyder County caregivers have had to look farther and wider for another program that can offer respite because the Agency on Aging can no longer afford to provide the service. The adult daily living center at the Penns Creek Adult Resource Center was a helpful program each week to about eight adults from the area dealing with Alzheimer's and dementia. But it closed Dec. 30.
-
New Berlin pushes to acquire school
NEW BERLIN -- The Borough Council sold the property where the New Berlin Elementary School is to the precursor of the Mifflinburg Area School District for $1 back in 1950. It was deeded to the district for construction of a school.
-
Second suit filed to stop sewer merger
SUNBURY -- It must have seemed like deja vu all over again Wednesday for some members of the Northumberland Sewer Authority, when for the second time in two weeks, former NSA Chairman Adam Klock filed a civil action against former board colleagues Jack Fasold, James Orner and Donald Troxell, alleging they held an illegal meeting -- this time on Monday -- where they voted to transfer the borough authority's assets to the merged North-Point Sewer Authority.
-
Student Claims Bucknell Unfair
LEWISBURG -- A man cleared of sexual assault but cited in a disciplinary action at Bucknell University in 2010 has filed a lawsuit against the Lewisburg school, claiming campus police and officials violated his civil rights after the woman lodged her complaint.
-
School grants in works
MILTON -- How school funds will be distributed through Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed block grant program, which combines four basic education budget lines, still needs to be worked out, the governor said at a press conference Wednesday.
-
Corbett: Low taxes help generate jobs
MILTON -- With a backdrop of Minuteman Environmental Services trucks and charts depicting state spending, Gov. Tom Corbett said Wednesday that his proposed fiscal 2012-13 budget is a realistic plan that will help create jobs while holding the line on spending.
-
Viking Energy to close April 1
NORTHUMBERLAND -- Unable to compete with the natural gas industry, the Viking Energy plant in Point Township will close April 1 and put 19 employees out of work. The news from the wood-fired power plant comes a week after officials at the coal-fired Sunbury Generation plant in Shamokin Dam announced it was temporarily laying off 63 employees for the same reason.
- More News Headlines
-
State board approves table games at Valley Forge casino
