The last time top Housing and Urban Development official Joe DeFelice strolled Tamaqua’s streets was six years ago.

DeFelice, HUD assistant deputy secretary for the Office of Field Policy and Management, came back for another tour Wednesday.

Along the way, he heard about plans to build a rural dental school, saw recently renovated downtown apartment buildings and listened to details of a new police station and community building.

“I see the changes and the differences (from 2019),” DeFelice said, “and the potential to take it up to the next level.”

The tour also brought state Sen. David Argall, and representatives from the borough, office of state Rep. Jamie Barton, Local Initiatives Support Corporation and St. Luke’s University Health Network.

Micah Gursky, rural health clinic administrator for St. Luke’s, began the walk at the St. Luke’s Rural Health Center on South Railroad Street. The site may someday host a Temple University Rural Dental School, he noted.

“In 2019, as part of our primary care and preventative medicine clinic here at the Rural Health Center, we established a one-chair dental clinic,” Gursky said.

The service is in high demand, with approximately 500 names on a waiting list, and two years until another appointment is available.

“Our concept with Temple is to establish what is truly a rural dental school,” Gursky said.

Students would spend their first two years at Temple University in Philadelphia, then relocate to Tamaqua, where they would live and train for the next two years.

“At any point in time, we’d have 20 students living and training — and also seeing patients here,” he said. It would allow for 700 additional appointments each week.

To date, around $19 million in state funding and donations has promised to create the clinic. It will cost an estimated at $25 million.

“As happy as we are with 19, we still have a long way to go,” Gursky said.

Gursky, who is executive director of the Tamaqua Area Community Partnership, said the South Railroad Street site is one of three being considered for the rural dental school. If plans go forward, the existing health center and its neighbor, the Tamaqua Public Library, would be demolished.

The new building would host the dental clinic, a new library and a medical clinic.

“Depending on how many stories it would have, it could also include specialty services,” Gursky said.

Plans are to create dormitory style housing for students at the former Schied’s Department Store, 24 W. Broad St. The building is gutted and ready for renovations.

Establishing the living space, Gursky said, would cost around $3 million.

He cautioned that the clinic and housing project are not a done deal because more funds are needed, and a real estate transaction needs to transpire.

The tour also included a visit to the Alliance for Building Communities’ Bank on Broad, inside the former Berwick House Apartment building.

The affordable housing project on West Broad Street was created with help from income tax credits, historic preservation tax credits, PennHOMES program, and other funds. The Bank on Broad includes two additional buildings on the 100-block of West Broad Street.

The tour ended at Gimbel’s Restaurant where Gursky talked about plans to convert the former Moose Building into a new police station and community center.

DeFelice said Tamaqua’s transformation and vision should serve as a model for towns across the nation.