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WILKES-BARRE — At its brief work session Tuesday night city council prepped for its upcoming public meeting and votes on Mayor George Brown’s proposed $51.9 million general fund budget and the fee increases needed to balance it.
The agenda included three ordinances that will have their second and final readings at council’s 6 p.m. Thursday meeting.
The budget, an amended version of former Mayor Tony George’s $52.6 million proposal that council did not advance, does not include a property tax increase. George’s proposal also kept taxes at 141.33 mills.
But Brown reduced some revenue line items and proposed increasing the fees for building permits and for pave cuts in the city streets.
During the 15-minute session Brown provided an update to council members on what the city has been doing to fill in potholes related to the cuts.
“We’re meeting with utility companies and talking about how patchwork is being done,” Brown said. The utilities “are going to work better together” to coordinate projects so they can be done simultaneously, he explained.
“There’s also several roads that are on the schedule to be paved in the city from utility companies,” Brown said.
Department of Public Works employees have been patching problem areas including Wood Street, Carey Avenue, Northampton Street, but they are temporary and don’t last long in the cold weather, Brown said.
Council chairman Bill Barrett asked that temporary traffic light at Exit 2 for southbound traffic from the Cross Valley Expressway onto Wilkes-Barre Boulevard be made permanent. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation installed it while the Exit 3 ramp is being rebuilt. Barrett worried that the light would be removed.
“In my mind and many others that would be a terrible thing to do,” Barrett said.
The only resolution on the agenda dealt with temporarily suspending and not enforcing the city’s ordinance on the public drinking of alcoholic beverages for the second annual Rockin’ the River concert series for July 10, 17, 24 and 31 on the River Commons.
Ted Wampole, a former Wilkes-Barre city administrator and current executive director of the Luzerne County Convention & Visitors Bureau, said this year’s series has four dates and might have wine available for sale. Beer was sold last year without incident, Wampole said.
“I think it’s the time, the environment and the crowd,” Wampole said of the reasons for a successful first series.
Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.