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By MICHAEL McNARNEY mmcnarney@leader.net
Saturday, March 08, 2003 Page: 3A
WILKES-BARRE – U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski says he is “adamantly opposed” to
HealthNow New York moving from Nanticoke to the downtown call center, and that
company officials assure him no move is planned.
The Medicare claim-processing company employs about 220 people at the
Kanjorski Center, a building built and owned by the taxpayer-funded Nanticoke
General Municipal Authority.
HealthNow spokeswoman Jackie Burress said Thursday that “the center in
Wilkes-Barre is one of the options we’re looking at.”
But Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, quashed such talk Friday, saying he has
conversed with the company’s top officials and they have no plans to move to
the empty call center on South Main Street.
Kanjorski said he thinks a deal extending HealthNow’s lease in Nanticoke
will be locked up by the end of the month. The congressman said he has
assembled more than $3 million in federal and state money to double the size
of the 30,000 square-foot building to accommodate the business.
Kanjorski said senior HealthNow officials told him they visited the
abandoned call center at 169 S. Main St. merely to get an idea of what
comparable facilities look like.
The Wilkes-Barre building is owned by the taxpayer-backed Redevelopment
Authority, and has already cost the city’s general fund more than $500,000.
The authority is paralyzed because it has two members and Mayor Tom McGroarty
won’t appoint any more to get the authority working again – though the mayor
said Thursday he was close to appointing new members.
The Wilkes-Barre building, like the Nanticoke building, was built with lots
of taxpayer dollars. It is much bigger than the Nanticoke building – 80,000
square feet vs. 30,000 square feet – and comes furnished.
McGroarty has neither confirmed nor denied talks with HealthNow. Jill Ryan
and Michael B. Rushton, the authority’s two remaining members, said no one has
told them anything.
John G. Dean, the authority’s solicitor, has not returned telephone calls
seeking comment.
Kanjorski said he is working to find a tenant for Wilkes-Barre’s call
center, but HealthNow moving to Wilkes-Barre wouldn’t help anyone.
“All you’d be doing is moving employees from one location to another
location,” Kanjorski said. Having two government-owned buildings bidding
against each other hurts not just those governments but the real estate market
overall, he added.
“That would be very counterproductive,” Kanjorski said.
Michael McNarney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7305.