Progress

March 4, 2009

W-B, police projects win gambling bucks

By Andrew M. Seder aseder@timesleader.com
Times Leader Staff Writer
Andrew M. Seder on Facebook   |   @TLAndrewSeder on Twitter

Wilkes-Barre and several borough police departments are among the big winners that will share in gambling tax revenues derived from wagers at the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs.

The state Department of Community and Economic Development on Tuesday released its official list of Luzerne County recipients that will share in $13.8 million. Thirteen of the 58 requests were granted full or partial funding totaling $8.3 million. Seven ongoing projects, which received partial funding last year, also received about $5.5 million this year.

Wilkes-Barre requested $2 million for its ongoing surveillance camera system for the city. Half of that amount was granted. Last year the city asked for $2.5 million and was given $1 million for the project.

Two other projects within the city – $1 million for the University Corners project and $500,000 for the relocation of the Innovation Center @ Wilkes-Barre small business incubator – also were funded.

Todd Vonderheid, chief executive of The Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry, said the funds are “a tremendous help.” He said the incubator expansion project will be a big asset to alleviate crowding at the current center at 7 S. Main St.

“We’ve got a building that is 99 percent occupied. … It’s bursting at the seams. We need more space,” Vonderheid said.

This funding will help to obtain space at a building near the current facility, he said.

Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton said he was grateful to receive another $1 million and the projects will “continue to move the city forward.”

Police departments in Wyoming, Swoyersville, Laflin and Forty Fort also were allocated funds.

Wyoming Mayor Bob Boyer said the $799,195 for two new police cruisers and a public safety annex “couldn’t have come at a better time.” One of the borough’s two police patrol cars broke down last week, and in the meantime the department is using a loaner from the Luzerne County Sheriff’s Department.

Gene Breznay, borough manager in Swoyersville, said the plan is to use the $360,292 award to purchase two police cruisers and Dr. John Brady’s office at 1212 Main St., and convert it into a police station. He said the department’s move one mile north of the borough building will free up needed space for the borough and District Judge Andrew Barilla.

Swoyersville made a request last year to fund the same project but was turned down. Breznay said the success is an example of “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

That’s something that’s been told to Sara Hansen, executive director of the Osterhout Free Library. The library requested $794,225 with a plan to demolish the old Scott Street Fire House in Parsons and put four modular buildings on the lot for a north branch of the library that would also serve as a community center.

The request was denied. The current north branch library is housed in a building on North Washington Avenue but the lease expires in January and the library must find another home by then.

“We don’t have another year. We really needed this approval now,” Hansen said.

The project would have “transformed an abandoned firehouse into a vibrant library,” Hansen said, adding that she was “disappointed” the project was overlooked.

Misericordia University’s planned Health Sciences building on Lake Street in the former Commonwealth Telephone building was awarded $750,000 for renovation costs.

College President Michael A. MacDowell praised the support of Dallas Borough in making the request on behalf of the school and said the building will benefit the greater Dallas community.

“This progressive project will allow Misericordia to continue its tradition of service to Dallas and the neighboring communities by offering venues for meetings and a stimulus for balanced growth in the vibrant Back Mountain community,’” he said.

Municipalities in counties that are home to casinos can apply for a share of the gambling funds set aside for community and economic development projects as well as health and safety projects that mitigate the impact of gambling. The funds are to be made available as long as the casinos operate.

More than $11.5 million was awarded to 17 projects in 13 Luzerne County municipalities in March 2008.

List of this year’s funded projects

• $1 million to Wilkes-Barre for the downtown theater project, renamed University Corners. The funds will be used to complete the 31,422 square feet of street-level retail space.

• $750,000 to Dallas for Misericordia University’s College of Health Sciences to renovate the former Commonwealth Telephone Building on Lake Street.

• $500,000 to Wilkes-Barre to assist in the relocation of the Innovation Center small business incubator. The project will involve the acquisition and rehabilitation of a property in Downtown Wilkes-Barre.

• $254,402 to Hazle Township for the acquisition, demolition and excavation of the former Barletta Asphalt plant. Once developed, the parcel will be a mixed use commercial / retail center.

• $1 million to Jenkins Township to renovate the former Techneglas complex. The site will become an interstate distribution center and upon completion could create 200 to 600 jobs.

• $655,000 to Kingston Township to renovate the existing 400-acre, 150-year-old dairy farm known as The Lands at Hillside Farms.

• $1.4 million to Kingston for major site improvements to the former Kingston Plaza. The site will be home to a new 63,000-square-foot Insignia Medical Campus.

• $412,315 to Freeland for streetscape improvements on Center Street. Vacant storefronts, neglected facades and deteriorating sidewalks will be addressed.

• $799,195 to Wyoming for the construction of a public safety annex and the acquisition of two new police cars.

• $360,292 to Swoyersville for a new police station and two police cruisers.

• $27,500 to Forty Fort for a police cruiser.

$185,273 to Laflin for a forensic mapping system, vehicle upgrades and equipment for officer safety.

• $1 million to Wilkes-Barre for the city-wide wireless surveillance camera system. Five hundred cameras, as well as a video command center and computer servers will be part of the completed system.

The following ongoing projects received funding last year, too:

• $250,000 to Edwardsville for its neighborhood revitalization strategy project.

• $2.4 million to Jenkins Township for highway improvements.

• $500,000 to Pittston for downtown revitalization.

• $500,000 to Nanticoke for the Luzerne County Community College Culinary Institute project.

• $1 million to Plains Township for the East Side Landfill project.

• $627,500 to Plymouth for the downtown revitalization project.

• $250,000 to Wilkes-Barre Township for police headquarters expansion.

Andrew M. Seder, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 570-829-7269.

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