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By MICHAEL McNARNEY mmcnarney@leader.net
Tuesday, March 04, 2003 Page: 3A
Exeter firm lone bidder for W-B lighting work
WILKES-BARRE – Only one company bid on installing foundations for street
lights in Wilkes-Barre – a job that doesn’t involve new underground wiring or
new poles themselves, and a job that involves only part of downtown.
Kuharchik Construction Inc. of Exeter bid $22,800 to cut down the remaining
17 poles in part of the downtown and to rebuild 24 foundations for future
poles – foundations that go 2 inches off the ground.
No bids have been publicly sought for new street lights themselves, but PPL
has proposed to the city that the electric utility provide and install poles
downtown like it does in the rest of the city – at taxpayer expense.
PPL spokesman Rich Beasley would not disclose the amount of the proposal,
and city officials would not comment on it.
According to the bid specifications for the foundation work, work would
only be done in part of downtown: the southeast part of Public Square, East
Market Street from the square to Pennsylvania Avenue, and South Main Street
from Northampton and South streets.
Bidding out the work is no guarantee that the bids will be awarded and the
work done; on April 13, 2002, Mayor Tom McGroarty held a press conference at
City Hall and said new lights would be in place by the end of that year.
But trailer-mounted temporary lights were replaced with more permanent
temporary lights – lights installed by Mountain Productions of Wilkes-Barre,
which used the same lights at Ground Zero in New York City.
Kuharchik’s president, Rhoda Kuharchik, contributed $200 to McGroarty’s
campaign fund in 1999.
Michael McNarney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7305.