Over an astonishing 14 terms as state representative for the former 115th District, Ed Staback took strong stands for the preservation of wild spaces and the protection of the recreational rights of hunters, hikers and tree-huggers who feel most at home when out in the woods.

“Eddie” adored the outdoors. He was less enamored of the press. A younger colleague once expressed exasperation about not being able to secure an interview with the veteran Democrat. I suggested he wrap himself in fluorescent orange and stand outside Staback’s office tooting a turkey call.

“Be ready to duck,” I advised.

Staback retired from the House in 2012. In 2015, he served the remaining year of former Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien’s unexpired term.

“Eddie” died in 2022 while on a hunting trip in Nebraska. He was 85. On Saturday, his son, Randy, and daughter-in-law, Maura, will host a charity race at the Archbald park that bears his name.

The inaugural “Staback Park Stand Strong 5K Run and Walk” steps off at 9 a.m., and will feature vendors, a coffee truck, fresh flowers stand, bake sale, DJ and face painting. A post-race “Nama-Staback” yoga class at the nearby soccer field is $10 for race participants, $15 for yoga only.

Registration for the 5K is $30; $25 for the walk. Registration is available online through the Scranton Running Company,  (570) 955-0921.

All proceeds benefit the Stop Archbald Data Centers legal fund. The grassroots, crowd-funded resistance group has gotten more than its money’s worth from attorney Justin Richards, but there’s a lot of lawyering left to do.

“I don’t want people to think the fight’s over because it’s not,” Maura Staback said Tuesday. “That’s why they still need this money, because we have to fight every single permit, and I think we’re going to come out victorious. I’m actually really starting to believe that Archbald is going to survive this. In my heart, I just do.”

While Gov. Josh Shapiro’s early cheerleading for hyperscale data centers and his recent executive order “tightening” still inadequate guidelines have turned many voters against him, Maura believes Shapiro is on Archbald’s side. Ed Staback and Shapiro were close friends, she said, and the bond didn’t break with the older man’s death.

“They sat next to each other on the House floor for years, and he mentored Josh because he was younger, much younger than my father-in-law,” she said. After Shapiro visited Staback Park and issued his executive order, Maura said she was moved to send the governor a handwritten letter. Shapiro was so moved by her letter, he arranged to speak with Maura by telephone.

She said the governor thanked her for reminding him of the lessons he learned from his late mentor and expressed regret for his early support of invasive data center development. He promised to take a strong stand against the annihilation of Archbald. Maura said Shapiro told her he left Staback Park asking himself, “What would Eddie do?”

“Without saying, ‘I made a mistake,’ he was like, ‘I painted with too broad of a brush, and I assure you that these permits will never, ever get past my desk,’” she said. “And he said, ‘They’re not happening. They’re not.’”

Maura took the governor at his word. I’ll wait for the receipts, but if Shapiro is genuinely asking himself what “Eddie” would do, we can be thankful that Staback provided such an honorable example.

Staback Park was built on reclaimed strip mine land, a lush, green, public jewel that replaced a wasteland wrought by greed and exploitation. Surrounding it with toxic data centers and power plants would be an unforgivable sin against Archbald and an indelible stain on Shapiro’s record.

What would Eddie do? He’d stand strong at Staback Park on Saturday and fire the starting gun.

CHRIS KELLY, The Times-Tribune columnist, will see you there. Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook; and @chriskellyink on Bluesky