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SHERRY LONG slong@timesleader.com

NANTICOKE – The creation of the Luzerne County Community College’s Culinary Arts Institute could soon be moving forward if the sale of two buildings in downtown Nanticoke proceeds.

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Nanticoke City Council members will discuss selling the Nanticoke Senior Citizens Center during a special meeting at 4:30 p.m. today at the municipal building.

The Nanticoke Housing Authority is also looking to sell the Susquehanna Coal Building, which sits behind the center, authority solicitor Vito DeLuca said.

“It’s a matter of trying to help a project move forward in the city,” he said.

State Rep. John Yudichak, D-Nanticoke, who has been supportive of the college moving into downtown, said a developer is expected to construct a new facility on the lots.

The college board of trustees would then decide if it is more feasible to lease and or purchase the building.

The college is also working to relocate its Health Sciences Program into downtown Nanticoke by either leasing or purchasing the Kanjorski Center.

The developer hopes to move forward with construction plans in August, Yudichak said.

LCCC President Tom Leary said the college has not agreed to use one specific location for the culinary institute, but is more concerned that the facility be in downtown and of adequate size to serve the needs of the students.

The two structures are not being sold as one unit, but rather in two separate sales.

Since neither sale is finalized, city and housing authority officials declined to release the names of any interested parties in purchasing the buildings.

The city would receive the money from the Senior Citizens Center building sale and the housing authority would receive money from the coal building sale.

Housing Authority officials at one time planned to turn the coal company headquarters into affordable apartments after the building’s owners donated it to the agency.

When the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency declined to fund the renovation project, the authority began looking for other ways to utilize the building.

The board is not looking to profit from a windfall of cash because the coal building was donated, but board members do hope to recover expenses.

“The building was donated to us and we are not trying to take advantage of that,” DeLuca said, adding he hoped to have a sales agreement finalized soon.

The city bought the Senior Citizens Center building at the corner of Main and Market streets in 1977 from a private individual for $64,000, according to Nanticoke City Administrator Kenneth Johnson.

Luzerne County Area Agency on Aging has rented the former post office from the city since June 1977, when it began operating a senior center program in the city.

Seniors using the center are expected to be moved into a facility at Mercy Special Hospital on West Washington Street in Nanticoke, said Mercy Hospital spokesman Jack Coyle.

Yudichak says he thinks the center will be operating out of the hospital in about three months.

If you go

What: Meeting regarding sale of Nanticoke Senior Citizens Center

When: 4:30 p.m. today

Where: Nanticoke Municipal Building, 15 E. Ridge St.