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By MITCH MORRISON and BRIAN MALINA; Times Leader Staff
Writers
Wednesday, March 05, 1997     Page: 3A

WILKES-BARRE TWP.- The planned arena/convention center will be built on a
75-acre site off Highland Park Boulevard.
   
Right?
    That’s what most of the plans and studies say.
   
But part of an agreement reached last week between the Luzerne County
Convention Center Authority and Wilkes-Barre Township suggests otherwise.
   
Inside the agreement, which outlines the authority’s responsibilities, the
project is referred to as “an approximately 10,000 seat multi-purpose sports
facility and convention center to be constructed on a 50.9 acre site …”
   
What happened to the other 24.1 acres?
   
That’s a question being asked by several of the authority members,
including Pat Judge, Anthony Lupas and Fran Bartlomowicz.
   
“Thirty-three percent has disappeared. How can that happen?” Judge asked
last week. “Where are the other 25 acres?”
   
The real acreage lies in the middle, said authority chairman Kevin Blaum
and former chairman Stephen Barrouk.
   
Blaum said the 50.9 acres was a mistake. The authority will own 60 acres,
he said, citing the first page of the agreement with the Township Council.
   
“The 50.9 acres was a mistake and they (council and authority attorneys)
forgot to change it.”
   
But what about the 75 acres?
   
“What will actually be deeded to the authority will not be 75 acres,” Blaum
said.
   
“Some of the 75 acres will be deeded to the Pennsylvania Department of
Transportation for the ramps,” he said of the planned Exit 46 that will spill
traffic from Interstate 81 onto Highland Park Boulevard.
   
So far, no land has been deeded to the authority. The Greater Wilkes-Barre
Industrial Fund owns the land, which was appraised at $75,000 an acre.
   
“We’re not deeding it until the Supreme Court rules,” Barrouk said, citing
the legal challenge against the countywide hotel/motel room tax that is
partially funding construction of the proposed $44 million facility.