Work is wrapping up on Luzerne County’s environmentally-conscious remodeling of the former Air Reserve Center in Wyoming for county government offices, county Operational Services Division Head Jennifer Pecora told council’s infrastructure committee Monday.
The building will house the county recycling department and operational services division, said county Manager Romilda Crocamo.
Pecora said she expects to start moving furniture into the building this week and have all offices operational within a month.
This project cost approximately $2.4 million.
County Recycling Coordinator Beth DeNardi has said county general fund tax dollars would not be used on the project. Instead, she has been saving leftover landfill fees and grants for many years to create an office capturing the importance of recycling and protecting the environment. This funding must be used for recycling and cannot be reprogrammed to cover roads and bridges or other county expenses, she had said.
The county had taken possession of the vacant former reserve center on Wyoming Avenue around 2019, in part because it is near the county-owned Wyoming Valley Airport and County West Side Annex.
Multiscape Inc., of Pittston, was the general construction contractor on the project, and the county separately bid out contracts for other companies handling HVAC, plumbing, fire protection and electrical work.
Prison elevators
Pecora reported work is progressing on a project to modernize both elevators at the county prison on Water Street in Wilkes-Barre.
The prison’s two elevators date back to the 1980s. Some repairs were completed after a fifth-floor elevator door swung open at the base in 2016, resulting in the deaths of a correctional officer and an inmate, but officials said the motor system and controls must be updated.
Crocamo said she was informed completion of both elevators will take up to six months.
Council had authorized $300,000 in federal American Rescue Plan funds toward the elevator project in January 2022 to supplement $350,000 in county capital funds already earmarked, making $650,000 available. An additional $235,000 American Rescue allocation was approved for the project in July 2022 based on the lone bid from Otis Elevator.
Work cannot be completed simultaneously because one elevator must remain operational, officials said.
Butler Township land
The county is securing appraisals required to establish fair market value for the planned sale of prime county-owned land in the township, Pecora told the committee.
Committee Chairman Jimmy Sabatino asked if the county is proceeding with a subdivision to sell smaller lots or larger tracts.
Pecora said the administration wants to sell three large raw tracts as is and leave it up to the purchaser to complete infrastructure and other work necessary to prepare individual lots for sale.
The administration moved away from the original proposal to carve out individual single family residential lots because of the cost and work involved, including construction of a large underground holding tank and completion of utility connections.
Most of the land that will be sold is along Old Turnpike Road, Middle Road and Lions Drive.
In total, the county owns approximately 530 acres in the township because it operated the Kis-Lyn work camp for juvenile delinquents from 1912 to 1965.
Two tracts cannot be sold and must be sectioned out because the county is locked into long-term leases for a youth music camp (17.8 acres) and the Keystone Job Corps Center, which operates a federally funded, residential educational/vocational program on 122.9 acres, officials said.
The land earmarked for sale also would not include a section identified by outside entities as a possible plant location to treat pollution from the Jeddo Mine Drainage Tunnel, officials have said. This tunnel discharges acid mine water from Hazleton area mines into the Little Nescopeck Creek, polluting the creek and, eventually, the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay, with iron, manganese and aluminum.
Councilwoman LeeAnn McDermott told fellow committee members Monday she supports the sale of large tracts. She has pushed to advance sale of the unused land through the council real estate committee she chairs.
“That will be exciting finally to see that come together,” she said of a sale.
Penn Place
Council had earmarked $1.1 million in the capital plan to replace the windows at the county-owned Penn Place building at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Market Street in Wilkes-Barre, but that project is still in a holding pattern.
Pecora said Monday the county is still working with a contractor on waterproofing the brick and mortar.
She expects the status and plans for the window replacement work will be revisited as part of the upcoming annual capital plan discussions.
The administration must submit a proposed capital plan to council by June 1.
Heating/ventilation/air conditioning
Pecora said the approximately $1.5 million in American Rescue funding earmarked for HVAC work at multiple buildings won’t be enough to cover work needed at Penn Place and the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre.
As a result, the administration will be seeking an additional American Rescue allocation or funding through the annual capital plan, she told the committee.
Officials have said the courthouse air conditioning system must be replaced because the chiller unit is old and oversized for cooling needs since new courthouse windows were installed as part of an energy efficiency project.
Using part of the American Rescue allocation, the county has entered into contracts for new HVAC units at two county-owned properties — the courthouse annex on River Street in Wilkes-Barre and the record storage building/coroner’s office in Hanover Township
Both contracts were awarded to United Heating and Air Conditioning Inc. in Pittston Township — $176,952 for eight Trane rooftop units at the courthouse annex and $124,254 to replace four Lenox rooftop units with new Trane ones at the records/coroner’s building, records show.
A crane will be needed at both sites due to the weight of the units.
Nanticoke/West Nanticoke Bridge
Sabatino had included the county-owned Nanticoke/West Nanticoke Bridge on Monday’s committee agenda to discuss the latest bridge inspection report, but he said it has not yet been presented to the administration or council.
Council members are contemplating how to proceed in addressing the deteriorated span over the Susquehanna River.