A Legend Will Fall: Wilkes-Barre’s Sterling Hotel End Nears

English: Hotel Sterling, Wilkes-Barre (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Kurt Sauer will get a long-awaited birthday present next Thursday: The demolition of the Hotel Sterling.

Since Wilkes-Barre officials decided in January to bring the building down without the help of Luzerne County, the city had to start the process from scratch.  That meant Sauer, the city’s director of community development, had to fill out reams of paperwork – he points to a 4-inch binder chock-full of various documents – as he worked to get approval from various state and federal agencies.

So when Brdaric Excavating finally begins work Thursday, Sauer will be a year older and a step closer to finishing the job.  And the current chapter of the Sterling’s life, one filled with hopes of restoration and disappointing and expensive failures to save the historic building, will near a close.

John Brdaric, owner of Brdaric Excavating, didn’t respond to requests for an interview about the $419,000 demolition.  But Sauer and Butch Frati, Wilkes-Barre’s director of operations, explained how they believe the process will unfold.

Read more:  http://citizensvoice.com/news/a-legend-will-fall-sterling-s-end-nears-1.1523678

Lancaster General Hospital Leads Area Hospitals In Rankings

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Area hospitals made the annual U.S. News “Best Hospitals” lists in several categories.

Lancaster General Hospital was ranked nationally in four specialties and ranked sixth in the state overall on the lists, which the magazine released recently.

Lancaster Regional Medical Center was ranked 34th in the state.

In the region, Penn State Hershey Medical Center was ranked 16th in the state and the Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital was nationally ranked in five specialties.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/873980_LGH-leads-area-hospitals-in-rankings.html#ixzz2ZjESCFyk

Pittsburgh Bridges A Showcase Of Engineering Ingenuity

English: The source of the Ohio River at “The Point” in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. The Allegheny River (left) and the Monongahela River (right) join to form the Ohio here. The West End Bridge crosses the Ohio in the foreground. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Modern bridges are super-sized paths of steel with carpets of concrete that soar through the air.

As tour de forces of design, engineering and teamwork, bridges are our most functional visible form of public art. These sturdy structures afford us breathtaking views of the region while stoking our sense of optimism. From their portals, we cross deep ravines, wide valleys and rivers, especially rivers.

With a total of 446 bridges, Pittsburgh is a permanent showcase of inspired engineering.  Its rugged topography has made it a hotbed of bridge design since the city was named in 1758, and the region’s hills and geological formations afforded the natural resources, including wood and stone, to build the bridges needed to connect it.

The city’s first span, opened in 1818, crossed the Monongahela River on the site of the current Smithfield Street Bridge.  The first Sixth Street Bridge spanned the Allegheny River just a year later, ushering in a generation of covered wooden bridges.  Until the late 1800s, everyone — whether in a horse-drawn wagon or on foot — paid tolls to cross the city’s major bridges.  We still pay today — our tax dollars fund multimillion-dollar PennDOT projects.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/life/lifestyle/pittsburgh-bridges-a-showcase-of-engineering-ingenuity-696224/#ixzz2ZfxMNSfF

Crime Fears Spark Wilkes-Barre Woman To Speak Out

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WILKES-BARRE — Her parents’ house on Gates Street is next door, yet Darla Carey doesn’t walk there by herself at night.

Car break-ins in her neighborhood, including her husband Dan’s, strangers passing by on the sidewalks and fear that crime has overrun the city have compelled her to take precautions for her safety and that of her family.

“We keep our porch lights on all night,” Carey said.  On those nights when she walks the 20 feet from her front door to her parents’, she said, “Dan walks me over.”

Carey echoes what some other people have been saying about an increase in crime and the city administration’s apparent refusal to acknowledge and deal with it.  In a David-and-Goliath moment last week, the diminutive mother of four grown children and a grandchild scolded Mayor Tom Leighton before a packed city council meeting for appearing not to care about the safety of the residents.

Read more:   http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/689201/Crime-fears-spark-W-B-woman-to-speak-out