MONROE UNFILTERED: THE DAILY BUZZ | Sept. 14
Monroe Remembers, a Manor Faces Reckoning
Monday, September 14, 2026
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THE WEEK'S WEATHER
A hint of fall finally showed up this weekend, and it is sticking around for the start of the work week. Expect sunny skies today with a high near 71 and an overnight low around 46, just a 5 percent chance of rain, ideal weather if tonight's Pocono Township Planning Commission meeting has you walking in from the parking lot. The pattern holds through midweek: sunny and mild, with highs in the low 70s and lows in the high 40s.
THE LEAD
Monroe Marks 25 Years Since Sept. 11 With Its Biggest Turnout Yet. Monroe County marked the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks this past Friday, and if the turnout at Club Beach is any indication, this milestone landed harder here than most recent anniversaries have. The Pocono Lions Club and Lake Naomi Club hosted a ceremony that drew a full seated crowd, based on the roughly 20 photos both organizations posted afterward. Speakers included Michael Kummer, Mike Finnerty, Fr. John Boyle, Maj. Jeffrey Blackman of Tobyhanna Army Depot, Pocono Mountain Regional Police Chief Chris Wagner and Capt. George Cassidy, with Juliet Dunham emceeing. Seven area fire companies and police departments sent representatives, and the program included a bagpiper, a vocalist who is an Air Force veteran, and performances from Pocono Mountain West's school chorus, band and Leo Club. Twenty five years on, that is still a lot of people showing up on a Friday morning to remember.
A DANGEROUS STRUCTURE
Pocono Manor Officially Declared a Dangerous Structure. Pocono Township commissioners voted unanimously Sept. 8 to declare the fire damaged Pocono Manor a dangerous structure, a real step forward from the Aug. 25 finding that the property's fate was still up in the air. The vote orders a township engineer inspection, demands interim repairs to the building's facade and fencing, and sets a meeting with owner Pocono Mountain Investors to pin down an actual repair timeline. Commissioner Keppler called the building a public nuisance that “poses a threat to our kids and our community.” Two residents raised a separate problem of their own at the meeting: water and sewer access tied to the property, with one saying PMI is billing her for manor side sewer repairs. The next public checkpoint is Pocono Township's Sept. 21 Board of Commissioners meeting, when the engineer's findings and the outcome of the owner meeting are expected to surface.
THE DAILY RUNDOWN
Gas prices. The average for East Stroudsburg is $4.4430 per gallon, that is up vs. $4.2739 per gallon this time last week. That is down vs. the state average of $4.4972 per gallon.
One dead on I-380. A New Jersey man died last Wednesday when his car was rear ended on southbound Interstate 380 near mile marker 4.3 and went off the road into a tree. Pennsylvania State Police say Patricio Correa Serrano, 43, of Belleville, New Jersey, was pronounced dead at the scene around 2:16 p.m. The driver of the other vehicle refused treatment for suspected minor injuries. The crash shut down I-380 south for an extended period.
Stuck in limbo since 2023. Alaska Pete's Roadhouse Grille, the longtime steakhouse on Camelback Road in Tannersville, has its own land development plan back on tonight's Pocono Township Planning Commission agenda, and it is all but certain to be tabled again. Owner Frank Riccobono's plan for a new 5,600 square foot building has been administratively accepted since April 2023 and re-tabled by routine, undiscussed vote at nearly every meeting since, with the deadline now pushed to Dec. 31. A federal wetlands review already ruled out one obvious holdup, no regulated wetlands on the site, though that clearance lapsed last year and could need renewing. Nobody on the public record says why it is actually stalled. Worth a call to find out; we will let you know if we get an answer.
Dunkin' lot fully demolished. The old Dunkin' next to the Pocono Family YMCA on Main Street in Stroudsburg is now fully demolished, based on photos taken this weekend. It is one more visible step in the Y's $21 million renovation, which also includes a first floor family practice and second floor rehab space through a partnership with Lehigh Valley Health Network and Jefferson, plus a new six lane pool and an upgraded fitness floor. CEO Scott Peckins has said Phase 1 is targeted for completion by December 2027, with the full project wrapping in early 2028.
WHAT WERE YA THINKIN'
Threats, gunfire, and a house full of family. A Middle Smithfield Township man is facing felony charges after a Pennsylvania State Police complaint says he threatened to kill his own family and burn down the house before firing two or three shots inside it. According to the complaint, troopers were called to a home on Resica Falls Road on Aug. 31 after Daniel V. Morales, 70, became belligerently drunk, argued with family members over dinner, broke down his own bedroom door, and threatened to kill everyone in the house. Three family members got out before he fired the shots; a fourth, still inside, thought at first that Morales had shot himself. Bullet holes turned up in the first floor hallway, dining room and kitchen. A family member told police Morales has a drinking problem and has poured gas around the house before while threatening to burn it down. While in custody, Morales told police he was suicidal and never intended to hurt anyone else. He was already prohibited from owning a gun over a decades old robbery conviction in New York. He is charged with prohibited possession of a firearm, discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, terroristic threats, reckless endangerment and simple assault, and is due for formal arraignment Oct. 26 in front of Monroe County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jennifer Sibum.
Sentenced, finally. Jeremy A. Vera, 24, of Union City, New Jersey, was sentenced Wednesday to four and a half months to two years in prison for indecent assault, the outcome of a case Monroe Unfiltered first flagged back in June when he pleaded guilty. Vera was originally charged with first degree rape over an incident at a party on Resica Falls Road in Middle Smithfield Township before accepting the plea deal.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Pocono Township's Planning Commission meets tonight at 6 p.m., with the Alaska Pete's plan and a cell tower special exception request on the agenda; a zoning hearing board hearing on that cell tower request is set for Sept. 29. Monroe County's Board of Commissioners hold a workshop meeting this morning at 10, and their regular voting meeting Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., alongside a Pocono Mountain School District board meeting Wednesday evening. None of those had a posted agenda as of this writing. Circle Sept. 21 on the calendar too: that is when Pocono Township's Board of Commissioners meets next, the earliest likely date for a public update on the engineer's inspection of Pocono Manor.
SILVER LININGS
Thank You, 500 Times Over. Monroe Unfiltered just crossed 500 followers across our platforms, more than 400 of those on Facebook alone. We also logged our biggest day yet this week: our first 20,000-plus view day since we started this thing. None of that happens without people actually reading, sharing, and telling a neighbor to sign up, so thank you. We started this as a way to cover Monroe County the way we'd want it covered ourselves, and it's still a little wild to watch the numbers catch up to that idea. Onward.