Click here to subscribe today or Login.
PLAINS TWP. — Wilkes-Barre Area School District residents get a chance Monday to learn more about — and comment on — the current proposal to purchase about 80 acres in Plains Township as the construction site for a new high school intended to replace Coughlin and Meyers high schools.
The school board has scheduled a meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the cafeteria of the Solomon/Plains Education Complex, to “discuss and solicit public comment on the proposed acquisition” of the site, which is essentially a triangle framed by Main Street, Maffett Street and the North Cross Valley Expressway.
The district is in negotiations regarding price, and neither Superintendent Brian Costello nor Solicitor Ray Wendolowski have been willing to speculate on cost while negotiations are underway. At at Jan. 8 meeting, the board authorized a new appraisal of the site as part of the negotiation.
The board wants to merge grades 9 through 12 at the two schools into one new building. Originally, the board voted to use the current Coughlin site for the new school, but the Wilkes Barre City Zoning Hearing Board denied a needed zoning variance.
The district then evaluated several sites and recently decided to focus on this one, referred to as the “Pagnotti site.” The location had been considered initially as one of seven sites reviewed in a 2014 study, but was rejected because of acquisition and site preparation costs.
When the city threw a roadblock into the Coughlin plan, the board put the Pagnotti site back into consideration in May 2017. At the time Board Member Joe Caffrey said one reason was precisely because it had been on the original list, which was used when the district filed paperwork for state reimbursement on the project.
That fact means it is still eligible for reimbursement, which can make a substantial difference to the district bottom line. In 2014, the estimated cost for a new high school at the Pagnotti site ranged from $111 million to $130 million, but state reimbursement was estimated as high as $12 million, dropping the range to $101 million to $118 million.
When the district reviewed new sites along with the Pagnotti location last year, it had another advantage: Lower “off-site construction,” which covers traffic improvements and utility extensions. For other sites reviewed, that cost estimate ran as high as $7 million. The Pagnotti estimate topped out at $3 million.
The school board has authorized work to begin on floating a bond as high as $150 million for the project, but members and Wendolowski have said they expect the cost to be $80 million or less.
The district has done state-mandated environmental studies on the site that discovered no major problems despite prior industrial use.