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WILKES-BARRE — When the city council agenda is thin, the public comments often fill up the meetings and they did Thursday night.
Council approved resolutions for the transfer of a restaurant liquor license to SCL Investment Company LLC from Aurants in Duryea for a sports bar to be built at 389 N. River St. and for modifications to a traffic signal at the intersection of Sherman, Pine and Spring streets in the East End to upgrade a cellphone antenna for Verizon.
When the floor was opened for comments for nearly 45 minutes, the topics ranged from gun control, payments in lieu taxes, downtown developments and pensions.
Ron Felton, president of the local NAACP branch, supported council’s call for the state to allow municipalities to prohibit people from possessing firearms in public building such as City Hall.
Felton read a letter and called for a ban on assault weapons.
”No one should live under the cloud when in an assembled multitude, there is a chance they might loss their lives along with 20 others in less than second seconds,” Felton said.
Councilman Tony Brooks responded that he brought up the issue at the Aug. 13 work session.
What he reads on Facebook makes him “fearful for my life. As a gay man I never feel safe,” Brooks said.
The $400,000 state grant to King’s College to remediate the former Times Leader building caught the attention of John Suchoski. The city sponsored the application for the grant, but it should hold off on future grants until the school pays more than its $100,000 payment in lieu of taxes, also known as PILOT, to the city.
City Administrator Rick Gazenski said Mayor Tony George’s push for more money from the school has paid off this year.
“But I believe right now he was shooting for an extra $50,000 to $150,000. I think we may end up getting $125,000. Again, it’s $25,000 more than we had last year,” Gazenski said.
Jason Carr, a landlord in the city and member of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Taxpayers’ Coalition, asked about the status of Hotel Sterling and Northampton and Main streets projects.
Gazenski said he doesn’t expect anything to happen with the planned hotel/ conference center/condominiums at the Sterling site on West Market and North River streets for another 16 to 18 months.
The other similar development planned by Sphere International LLC is moving forward with an opening expected next year, Gazenski added.
“I had the opportunity this past week to see the plans. Demolition will be completed before Christmas. The permits are right now in the process of being issued,” Gazenski said.
The shaky status of the city pensions alarmed District B city council candidate Mark Shaffer. The aggregate five pensions plans are at a 56% funding level, he said.
Shaffer, a Democrat running against Brooks, a Republican, said he would not take a pension and advocated against pensions for all elected city officials. Council members are paid $13,000 a year, eligible for health benefits and a pension while working part time, he said.
“The city workers, they get a pension because they sacrifice private sector wages every year,” Shaffer said. The unions negotiate a pension in their contracts, he added.
