Luzerne County is scheduled to adopt a proposed no-tax-hike 2024 budget during Tuesday’s meeting.
The county millage rate will remain at 6.3541. To figure out the tax payment, property owners must divide their assessed value by 1,000 and multiply it by the millage rate. For example, the owner of a $100,000 property pays $635.41 in county taxes.
Tuesday’s meeting starts at 6 p.m. in the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre, with instructions for remote attendance posted under council’s online meetings link at luzernecounty.org.
Sterling site
As previously reported, council is holding a public hearing Tuesday and may vote at the subsequent meeting on a $3 million award for a hotel/convention center project at the former Hotel Sterling site on the corner of River and Market streets in Wilkes-Barre, the agenda said.
H&N Investment requested $3 million toward its $36.36 million project to construct a Gateway Hyatt Place Hotel and Conference Center.
H&N paid $700,000 for the land and is working to secure a $21 million loan toward the hotel/conference center, project representatives have said. The state committed $7 million in grants toward the project to date, and there also is a $225,000 contribution from Hyatt. That leaves a gap of about $7 million.
The $3 million earmark would come from $6 million in community development funds the county set aside as a precaution in case the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, follows through with a $6 million penalty threatened a decade ago.
This sanction stems from a past county community development allocation of $6 million to redevelop the landmark Hotel Sterling that once stood at the site when it was owned by the nonprofit CityVest. HUD issued a determination that project should not have received $6 million because it did not create jobs or result in a revitalization project. The structure was condemned and torn down in 2013.
The public hearing on the Sterling site project starts at 5:45 p.m. regarding a proposed budget amendment ordinance transferring the $3 million so it is available for the earmark.
Council is set to vote on adoption of the ordinance transferring these funds and also a resolution approving the project award, the agenda said.
Prison health care
Also up for a vote is a contract retaining WellPath LLC as the county’s prison inmate medical services provider.
WellPath was the only company that submitted a proposal to perform the work after the company’s current contract expires the end of this year.
Six potential vendors had participated in a pre-bid conference, and four attended a subsequent tour of the county prison on Water Street and nearby minimum offenders building on Reichard Street, both in Wilkes-Barre. There were also follow-up questions from some prospective vendors, but WellPath was the lone entity to submit a proposal, the administration said.
WellPath’s proposal is $4.4 million for 2024, $4.7 million for 2025 and $4.9 million for 2026, the agenda said.
Payroll supervisor
The county is seeking a payroll supervisor as part of a program restructuring.
Council recently approved the administration’s proposal to use a portion of interest earned on federal American Rescue Plan funds for an upgrade of its New World Management System, which has been primarily used for financial records.
The county currently uses Kronos Inc., New World and ADP to process payroll. With the training and software upgrade, those tasks will all be handled through New World, saving the county $150,000 annually starting in 2024, county Budget/Finance Division Head Mary Roselle said.
The upgrade will cost up to $250,000.
A portion of the annual savings will be used to hire a payroll supervisor. The county currently has only one worker handling all payroll, which is “not a great safeguard,” Roselle has said.
Posted under the human resources section at luzernecounty.org, the position is advertised at $50,000. Applications are due Dec. 5.
Election Board
In compliance with a new federal court ruling, the five-citizen election board is set to meet at 8:30 a.m. today to process more than 200 Nov. 7 general election mail ballots that had missing or incorrect handwritten outer envelope dates.
This public adjudication process will be held in Room 301 of the county’s Penn Place Building, 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave., in Wilkes-Barre.
Because of the added requirement, the board’s final certification of all county Nov. 7 election results will be held at 3 p.m. today instead of 1 p.m.
While the adjudication is at Penn Place, the certification meeting will be at the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre. Instructions to remotely attend the certification are posted under the authorities/boards/commissions online meetings link at luzernecounty.org.