Clarks Summit is losing a longtime landmark.
Borough council decided to dismantle the clock tower at the convergence of State and Depot streets, Borough Manager Jennifer Basalyga said this week. Officials came to the decision because of its age and after determining it can’t be repaired. It is also located on private property, meaning the borough would not be able to access it for repairs.
The Rotary Club of the Abingtons erected the clock and donated it to the borough in 1986, and although the borough has maintained the clock over the years, Basalyga said it hasn’t worked for 10 years. The club reached out to the borough in the spring about fixing it, which sparked a discussion among council members as to who owned the property.
Council members asked Solicitor Andrew Krowiak to negotiate an easement with the property owner, Jack Decker, last August but it was unsuccessful. Jack and Caryl Decker of South Abington Twp. have owned the property since 1989, according to Lackawanna County property records.
A contractor will remove the tower, its concrete base, a memorial to Laura Lee DeFazio Morabito — a Clarks Summit native killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — and an electrical panel. Basalyga said officials will reach out to Decker during the process and let him know the details about the equipment’s removal, but he is required to allow the borough access to the property.
Officials plan to move the panel, which powers the Christmas lights in the downtown area, to the Borough Building, and are discussing moving the memorial, which was erected in 2007, to another borough property — possibly to Veterans’ Memorial Park at State Street and Clark Avenue, she said. Basalyga said they have not determined what will happen with the clock tower structure.
“There is no fixing it; there’s no chance of that,” she said.
The clock tower on State St. and Depot St. in Clarks Summit Thursday, February 12, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Decker said this week that in the years he has owned the property, he hasn’t charged the borough for using it. However, he said he did not grant an easement because the borough raised its sewer rates. The rates have gone up $11, to $54 per equivalent dwelling unit per month from $43 in 2012.
Decker said his sewer bill for the building has doubled to $486 a month, which he feels is unfair as multiple units in the building are unoccupied. He said the borough should bill him for the amount of water he uses and not per dwelling unit, which he said is more fair.
“I asked if they could consider different billing and they said no,” Decker said. “I tried to work with them on it.”
He said he would work with the borough on taking the clock tower down and talk to his family and attorney about allowing the borough access to the property to remove the tower. Decker said the situation with the tower could have been sorted out if the borough had billed him fairly.
“They should do things in a common-sense way,” he said.
Basalyga said the sewer rates are the same — $54 per equivalent dwelling unit per month — for all property owners.
“Everybody has to remain equal and even, so we cannot do something for Mr. Decker that we couldn’t do for all the other residents in the borough,” she said. “Whether you reside there or not, if you own it, you’re billed for it.”
A Rotary Club of the Abingtons representative said this week the club and the borough have had discussions about the clock tower.
Borough officials will spend $18,000 budgeted in this year’s municipal budget to remove the clock tower and other items from the property — including $5,600 to dismantle and move the electric panel and $12,000 to take down the clock and its concrete base.
Basalyga said she will be in touch with the contractors in the spring to begin the process of removing the items. Officials have not determined a timeline for when they will be dismantled and moved.
Once they are removed, she will send Decker a letter informing him of his responsibility as a property owner to maintain it, including removing snow and cutting the grass.
Basalyga acknowledged the clock tower’s significance in the borough and said officials hope to put up a tribute that would in some way replicate the clock tower’s significance.
“For 40 years the clock tower has stood as a community landmark that also serves as a central point of reference,” she said in an email. “Over the years the area has been associated with local traditions, events and gatherings, evoking nostalgia and memories for long-time residents. Due to the disrepair of the clock tower, along with the issue of land ownership where the clock is currently located, Council believes it is their obligation to rectify the situation. It is the hope of the borough, that a tribute can be established in a suitable location that represents the character of the Abingtons where new traditions will be made.”