Stimulus checks and slippery sidewalks on Wilkes-Barre residents’ minds

WILKES-BARRE — The items on City Council’s agenda Thursday drew next to no response from residents more interested in icy sidewalks and the $300 stimulus checks arriving in their mailboxes.

Council met in person at City Hall without any members of the public present. The meeting was streamed online for public health reasons as as the case counts of COVID-19 continued to increase locally.

All seven resolutions were approved 5-0, including the disposition of outdated records and the purchase of a 2022 Chevrolet Silverado crew cab pick up and three Malibu LT cars at a total cost of $116,392 from Bonner Chevrolet in Kingston. The new vehicles will be used by the Health Department and its old vehicles will go to Parking Enforcement.

Only Sam Troy in an email questioned whether the purchase of a new Power Lift Cot System for one of the city’s ambulances, at a cost of $60,770 from Glick Fire Equipment Co., was a luxury or necessity at this point.

Mayor George Brown responded the same model lift is in use already on an ambulance and keeps both emergency response personnel and patients safe. “It’s not in any way a luxury,” Brown said.

During the public call-in period, Linda Joseph relayed to Council she has received calls from residents about the stimulus checks.

The city allocated $3.5 million for the stimulus program from the $37.1 million in American Rescue Plan funds it received from the federal government in pandemic financial aid.

In conjunction with the Commission on Economic Opportunity checks are being distributed to eligible residents identified through the 2020 tax filings with Berkheimer Tax Innovations.

Joseph, who’s active in the Rolling Mill Hill Residents’ Association, told Council residents asked why they received the checks and should they cash them. She said they didn’t know who to call because a press release issued Monday by the city told them to wait if they had questions about their eligibility. “Until then, contacting the city, CEO or Berkheimer will not result in any action,” the release said.

“I really wish that they would have done this program as an application program like the rest of them because I think it would have avoided all of this confusion,” said Joseph.

But Brown said that with all due respect to Joseph, residents should have directed questions to someone else because Joseph was not part of the program.

“You can’t take 14,000 applications and go through them. So we did it the way we thought was right,” Brown said.

Brown added the calls should be directed to CEO or Berkheimer. “Also if they can’t get through, someone has a question, call my office, OK, and we’ll try to do the best we can to get an answer for them,” he said. The mayor’s office can be reached at 570-208-4158.

Brown acknowledged there will be glitches and the city will work them out.

Linda Ross from South Wilkes-Barre pleaded for action dealing with snow and ice covered sidewalks and asked that the city notify residents of their responsibility to keep the walkways clean.

“I’m extremely concerned about the unsafe conditions of the city sidewalks and the unwillingness of too many residents to keep them clean and safe,” Ross said.

Council Chairwoman Beth Gilbert McBride asked Brown to notify the Health Department to enforce the ordinance regarding the cleaning of sidewalks.

Brown agreed to get the message out about cleaning sidewalks either through an ad in the newspaper or on social media ahead of the storm forecast for late this weekend.