Small, and proud of it

By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
S.N.P.J., Pa. -- It's an out-of-the-way borough with a swimming pool, a recreation center and a bar. The road in passes by hillocks of red-sided cabins and a lane of mobile homes that runs two blocks long.
S.N.P.J has no post office, however, and according to U.S. Census figures released last week, no population.
It's a charge residents deny.
"I live here, he lives over there," said Judy Moses, one of three elected borough councilmembers and a secretary at the recreation center. "We've got 12 or 14 people."
Its history: S.N.P.J., short for Slovenska Narodna Podporna Jednota, or Slovene National Benefit Society, has always been small. The borough had 18 residents when it was formed in 1978, and the 1990 census counted 12 residents, making S.N.P.J. the smallest municipality in Pennsylvania. Thirteen people are registered to vote there, said Marlene Gabriel, director of Lawrence County's bureau of elections.
Residents say it can be a point of pride to hail from the state's smallest town. Zero, however, is someone's mistake.
"They came to do the census one time, and said they would be back, and never came back," said Leo Kandzer, director of S.N.P.J.'s recreational center.
Reason for existence: The recreation center is the focus of community life in S.N.P.J., and indeed the reason there is a town at all. According to Vindicator files, the borough was created to grant the recreation center a liquor license. During the summer, 300 to 400 people fill the cabins and trailers for events, including polka festivals and the annual Slovenfest, Kandzer said.
Several who stay on through the rest of the year said they could not remember if census forms ever came in the mail.
"It has been a long time," said Jeff Wisneski, whose family of four comprises perhaps a quarter of S.N.P.J.'s estimated population.
A Census Bureau spokesman said numbers from Pennsylvania's smallest burg were probably recorded but got lost in the shuffle.
"We may have it," said the spokesman, Edison Gore.