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By CECE TODD; Times Leader Staff Writer
Saturday, March 16, 1996     Page: 10A

SCRANTON — Like Lazarus, the arena just won’t stay dead.
   
During a hearing Friday in Scranton, community leaders from Luzerne County
brought the issue back to life.
    Kingston Mayor Gary Reese was one of the first to testify before Gov. Tom
Ridge’s Sports & Exposition Facilities Task Force.
   
“Our population keeps getting older and older and older. We have a number
of universities, but our young people really have nothing to do,” Reese said.
   
An arena/convention center, he said, would “make life better for people.”
   
The hearing, one of seven being held around the state, allowed the
governor’s task force to gather input about the sports and exposition
industries in Pennsylvania.
   
About a dozen people attended the hearing. A lottery of submitted written
testimony determined who was allowed to testify during Friday’s hearing. Those
not chosen will have another opportunity in late April at a closing forum in
Harrisburg.
   
Ridge formed the task force in October to explore ways the state could
support community assets such as stadiums, exposition centers and cultural
attractions.
   
Most of the Scranton hearing dealt with a Luzerne County issue: the arena.
   
Reese said the arena failed when put before a vote of the people because
“we tried selling it in terms of business and industry. But if it just makes
life better for people, it’s worth it.”
   
The Kingston mayor said the state should help with the project because “we
are the state. We’re talking about the dollars we invest every day, the
dollars our taxes send to Harrisburg … You’re investing in yourself no
matter where you live.”
   
Dr. Michael Jackson, a member of the task force, questioned whether Luzerne
County could maintain the arena if the state funded its construction.
   
He asked, “Can you draw enough people to maintain it after five to 10
years? As time passes, the attraction of the facility can wear off and it can
become a financial burden.”
   
Local promoter Thom Greco said the state should pay for the entire arena
and then let the county be responsible for operating expenses.
   
“The quality of life is going to keep people here and get business to
invest,” he said.
   
Greco said the state also needs to devise a way to protect local promoters
because when centers such as the arena are built, out-of-state promoters try
to steal business away from the local promoters.
   
In the absence of an arena, the state should require local colleges and
universities that receive state funding to open their doors to events, Greco
said.
   
“We have shows all the time, but the colleges close their doors,” he said.
“These are immediate solutions where there is already a public investment.”
   
Wilkes University President Christopher Breiseth focused the forum’s
attention on the “parochialism” of the area and the difficulty in getting
people of different communities to work together for the whole area.
   
He pointed out that it was Hazleton voters who actually defeated the arena
referendum last May.
   
Young people were disappointed and discouraged by the vote, he said.
   
“The arena drew in tremendous numbers of young people to vote,” Breiseth
said. “When it lost, the negative feelings by young people was overwhelming.
The number of young people who said, `I’m not staying’ was very
disheartening.”
   
Steve Barrouk, president of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business
and Industry, told the task force that the latest effort to build a Luzerne
County arena “is close to succeeding.”
   
Legg Mason, a Philadelphia consulting firm, is developing a financing plan
that should be ready by early April. The plan calls for a $36 million arena.