First Responders were the first to line up for COVID-19 testing at the parking lot of the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Township when the state run center opened on April 20, as seen here. The center can stay open while the arena remains closed due to the pandemic.
Times Leader file photo
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WILKES-BARRE TWP. — The coronavirus has been bad and good for the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.
Back in March before the venue closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the schedule was filling up and 2020 looked to be a good year, Will Beekman, general manager of the arena with ASM Global, Wednesday told the board that oversees the facility.
“Over past two months we have seen 32 events either cancel or postpone,” Beekman said during the public meeting of the Luzerne County Convention Center Authority.
The meeting of the 11 appointed board members of the authority was to be videoconferenced to comply with social distancing measures to slow the spread of the virus. But glitches prevented some board members from connecting online and they held a teleconference instead.
The pandemic has had serious effects on people and businesses, including the entertainment industry, Beekman noted.
“In fact, you can argue it’s one of the hardest hit industries as venues like ours are among the first, were among the first to close and will probably be among the last to reopen,” Beekman said.
While the arena has been silent and the anchor tenant, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins hockey team, cut short its season, the state signed on to use the parking lot for a coronavirus testing center.
The center has been up and running since late April. Under an agreement with the authority the state will pay $3,400 a month. The initial term of the agreement expires on May 31, but the state can automatically extend it monthly as long as the arena is closed, said Gary Zingaretti, authority board chairman.
The authority sent a payment request of $4,986.62 to the state for the period of April 17 to May 31, Zingaretti said.
“We did get some information from the state,” Zingaretti responded to a question from board member Tom Woods. “They’ve tested nearly 1,700 people, an average of about 80 a day. The largest one-day testing total was on April 28. They tested 149 people.”
The limit of 200 tests per day hasn’t been reached, Zingaretti pointed out.
The board was briefed on the recently completed WiFi project to improve wireless connections inside and for a short distance outside the facility.
The project came in under the budgeted $775,000 as a result of credits totaling $12,076 from the contractor for change orders, said board member Donna Cupinski.
The contract with Turn-Key Technologies Inc. of Sayerville, New Jersey directed that final payment be made after the contractor was on-site for three live events to fine tune the system. But there’s no telling when that will happen with the arena closed down. Rather than make the full amount as requested by the contractor, the board approved a change in payment that states it will retain $25,000 and pay TTI $115,458.
Likewise, a similar change was approved to withhold 10% of the total contract with Synergistic Networks Inc. of Wilkes-Barre, project consultant, and pay the company $5,394.
The board will file for reimbursement of a $126,365 Local Share Account program grant from the state awarded the Luzerne County Redevelopment Authority for the project.
Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.
