News

October 5

Coal Street to get more parking

Despite the change, some residents are unhappy about the availability of spaces on the remodeled street.

By Bill O'Boyle boboyle@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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WILKES-BARRE – There will be parking spaces along Coal Street – 53 in fact – eight more than before the $12 million widening project began.

But some residents along the key route into the city are not satisfied and they let Mayor Tom Leighton know how they felt Tuesday evening at Coal Street Park.

Butch Frati, the city’s director of operations, said the parking spaces will be the final part of the project. Some residents said they still will be without available parking in front of their buildings, causing property values to decline.

“My neighbor has been trying to sell his house and had it listed at $45,000,” said Tim Finley, who owns property at 123 Coal St. “He can’t give it away for $16,000 now.”

Frati said the city, PennDOT and Pennoni & Associates will look at the situation again. Frati said a bus lane in front of Finley’s property could be changed.

Frati said that when the project had reached the final design stage in 2009, federal regulations called for wider lanes and wider sidewalks. The regulations changed shortly after, but Frati said rather than delay the project for a year or two, the city went ahead with the plan, intending to modify it to reduce the lane and sidewalk widths and add parking. He said the federal design criteria changed shortly after the plan was approved.

The lanes on Coal Street will be 10 feet wide, not 12 feet as originally planned, Frati said. The sidewalks will be 8 to 12 feet wide as originally planned, he said. The parking lane will be 7 feet wide.

“When we first saw the plans, we weren’t happy,” said Leighton of the elimination of parking. “We told PennDOT that we needed to provide parking on the west side of Coal Street.
“We’ve improved parking on Coal Street.”

Jack Jones, 91, lives at 119 Coal St. He said he won’t have parking in front of his house even with the proposed changes.

“I just put a new roof on my house,” Jones said, indicating he isn’t planning to move anytime soon. “It will be a long haul for me to carry groceries and other items.”

Monica Jendrzejewski, 203 Coal St., said she was satisfied with the new plan. She said she will have three parking spaces available in front of her home.

Leighton also said the old part of Coal Street will be renamed “Walter’s Way” in honor of Walter Letanski, the owner of Walter’s Hardware.

Steve Sartori from Pennoni presented the revised parking plans for Coal Street once the road project is complete. Sartori had to battle a malfunctioning microphone that made it difficult for residents to hear details about the changes.

“We met with you and we listened to your concerns,” Leighton told about 50 people. “We promised you then that we were working on this issue and would continue to work on it, but that we did not want to promise something that could not be delivered.”

The project is currently under construction and is expected to be completed in October 2012.

 

Bill O’Boyle, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7218.

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