This story first appeared in PA Local, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA taking a fresh, positive look at the incredible people, beautiful places, and delicious food of Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here.
If you ask Carbondale Mayor Michele Bannon about her fellow city residents, she’ll tell you all about their generosity, their kindness, their hard-working “coal miner mentalities,” and — she includes herself in this final one — their quirkiness.
“We’re very unfiltered,” Bannon told PA Local.
“We do a lot of quirky things. We have fun events,” she continued.
Perhaps the strongest proof of the area’s eccentricity is the supposed great UFO sighting of 1974, a mysterious moment in local lore that’s celebrated to this day with an annual fall festival.
A 3.2-square-mile city about 19 miles northeast of Scranton, Carbondale has around 8,800 residents. Bannon attended college outside the city but has otherwise lived there her whole life, and her family has been there even longer. (“I sleep in the bedroom my grandmother was born in,” she said.)
A graduate of Wilkes University with a strong passion for public service, Bannon spent three years working in a factory before landing a job as her hometown’s city clerk. She stayed in the role for almost three decades before running for mayor in 2023.
Having done “every single job” in local government at some point other than policing or firefighting, she jokingly likens the experience to having a “backstage pass to the best concert in the world.”
“I have a friend who always says, ‘Oh, wouldn't you love to work for a big city, and da da da?’” Bannon told PA Local. “I’m like, no! You’re a one-trick pony. You concentrate on one thing. I get to see everything all the time, and I love that.”
In the latest interview for our “Meet a Mayor” Q&A series, Bannon discussed Carbondale’s charms, its people, its history, and what really happened on Nov. 9, 1974.
This conversation has been condensed for length and edited for clarity.
PA Local: Describe Carbondale in three words.
Michele Bannon: I would say dignified, prestigious, and joyful.
What is it about Carbondale that made you want to lead it?
Working for the city for 29 and a half years afforded me a ton of opportunities, a ton of privileges, and a ton of education. I worked for the last mayor for 20 years and for a couple mayors prior to that, and I realized that it was my responsibility to step forward and lead, simply because of all the great assets that I’d been blessed with.
At that point, I realized that by working here for so long and being so in tune and having my relationships built, it would be the best thing for myself and the city to join those two together and create my own administration that just does great things and takes us to our next level.
What do you wish people who aren’t from Carbondale, or maybe have never visited, knew about it?
We’re steeped in a very rich history. The D&H Railroad, which was the first million-dollar corporation in the United States, started here. We have a lot of beautiful parks. We have a lot of cool little shops … the people that live here kind of overlook that a lot, but the people that come here, they just immerse themselves right in it.
And we have a fully functioning city. We have a full-time police and fire department. We have our own library, we have our own YMCA, and we have a lot of amenities that a lot of little cities don’t have.
What’s your favorite hidden gem in Carbondale?
I think a hidden gem for us would have to be our library, simply because it’s … been around for a long time. They offer programs that are still in line with their mission, but address the needs of 2025 and what people want, and they do a great job at that. We have a hotel here in town. We tend to overlook it because we live here, but when people stay there, they love it. We have a lot of great restaurants in town. We’re a bunch of foodies up here, so there’s a lot of great homegrown restaurants up here.
I can’t even narrow it down for you, just simply because there’s so many great things in the city, you know? And it’s all very walkable. That’s what I love about Carbondale. We’re small enough where you can enjoy every single bit of it.
I felt like I just had to ask about this: I know one of Carbondale’s local claims to fame is the 1974 UFO incident.
Oh, I love you!
Since you’ve been in Carbondale your whole life, do you have any memory of that incident?
Of course I do!
What do you think actually happened?
I lived down the street from where it happened. In fact, WVIA … they just did a 15-minute documentary, and it’s absolutely fantastic.
I was five, it was the day of my sister’s confirmation party. So my dad took us back to the park, and at that point, there were so many people there you couldn’t get close to it. I’m one of the believers that something was there. I don't know what it was. It was not a lantern. That was a hoax. I had relationships with the people that actually saw things, and they’re like, “It couldn’t have been this, or it couldn’t have been that,” and they gave all justified reasons.
So yeah, I love the alien festival and our Carbondalien crew. They do it with a lot of dignity and respect, but at the same time a lot of fun. And Asha, I don't know if you know this or not … guess what our emergency call numbers are?
No idea.
- We’re area 51. Isn’t that ironically funny?
So do you call 51 instead of 911?
No, so you call 911. But when they radio us, they’ll say 51 fire, 51 police, 51.
Oh my goodness. That’s so funny.
In fact, we just put a mural of an alien on the front of our firehouse. We have a mural project going on — a couple years ago we did a program called Heart & Soul, where you go out and interview your people, and you ask them what do you love about Carbondale, what do you want to see in Carbondale, and where do you want to be in 10 years. There were six common themes … so the murals reflect all of those.
One of the comments was they loved our events that we do: we have Pioneer Nights, we do all different kinds of fun things. The artist wanted to do the alien festival, so he did an alien on the front of the firehouse. The alien has a fire hat on with a 51 on the front of it and then there’s a lantern in there. It’s really cool. So, I embrace the quirky. We’re very quirky, by the way. I embrace it because I love it.
Is there a particular Pennsylvania city, borough, or township you think we should feature in future “Meet a Mayor” installments? Let us know.