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Luzerne County will pave and replace several roads in Butler Township because the municipality will take the infrastructure off the county’s hands, according to an intergovernmental agreement ordinance up for county council introduction Tuesday.
In addition to West Foothills Drive, the following county-owned roads in the township will be covered by the agreement: North and South Beisels, East County, Police Grove, Hobby Mountain, Airport and Honey Hole.
The administration has said a variety of funding sources will cover the work. For example, the county obtained a more than $500,000 multimodal grant to repave North and South Beisels Road, county Manager C. David Pedri has said.
County officials have been trying for years to convince municipalities to accept ownership of the county’s scattered 128 miles of roads and 300 bridges — many inherited from municipalities during the Great Depression. Pedri has pointed to the Butler Township plan as a pilot project showing municipalities what can happen if they’re willing to work with the county.
Voting meeting
Tuesday’s meeting starts at 6 p.m. at the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre.
The agenda includes action on several outside board seats.
For example, a vacancy must be declared on the county Housing Authority due to the death of board member Charles Adams, it said. Council may fill another seat Tuesday on this authority board previously vacated by Robert Sax, who resigned due to a work conflict.
Council also may fill an election board seat vacated by James Wills and a planning commission seat vacated by Christine McLaughlin, the agenda said.
Other meetings
At council’s work session, which follows the voting meeting, a discussion is planned on the administration’s request to seek a state multimodal transportation grant for a project in Hanover Township.
The funding — a dollar amount was not specified — would help develop a signal plan for the intersection of New Commerce Boulevard and New Hanover Street and install bus bump-outs along New Commerce Boulevard in the Hanover Industrial Estates.
Council’s code review committee also will meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday to continue discussing possible alterations to the administrative code.
Plains TIF
For the first time in months, a committee recently met to dicuss a possible tax diversion to fund reconfiguration of congested Route 309 near the Cross Valley Expressway in Plains Township, said council Chairman Tim McGinley, who serves on the committee.
Developer Robert Tamburro is interested in the diversion so he can proceed with a $100 million commercial development project at the 62.3-acre former Valley Crest site his family’s company, Tamburro R.E. Development and Management, purchased from the county for $2.075 million in 2015.
Under this Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) program, property owners within a designated zone in the impacted area would pay all real estate taxes, but participating taxing bodies sacrifice the portion from new development to pay off a loan to fund the infrastructure.
Tamburro has been exploring outside infrastructure funding options to reduce the amount that must be diverted by taxing bodies.
McGinley said the committee learned the developer failed to obtain one source of funding but is pursuing others. Meanwhile, the developer’s consultant is drafting a proposed tax diversion plan that should be presented to taxing bodies later this year, McGinley said.