The 34th annual dinner of the Northeast Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame will be held on Sunday, October 2nd in the DeNaples Center of the University of Scranton, 800 Mulberry Street. Cocktail hour begins at 4:45 PM with dinner at 6:00 PM.
This year the Northeast Chapter will induct 10 local athletes. Tickets are $40.00 per person, $25.00 for children 10 years and up, and may be obtained by contacting Bob Walsh (570.346.2228) or Alice Foley (570.346.5796)
The 33rd annual dinner of the Northeast Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame will be held on Sunday, October 4th in the DeNaples Center of the University of Scranton, 800 Mulberry Street beginning at 5:00 pm. This year the Northeast Chapter will induct 10 local athletes.
Tickets are $40.00 per person and $25.00 for children 10 years and up, and may be obtained by contacting Bob Walsh (570) 346-2228 or Alice Foley (570) 346-5796.
The Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization.
A public viewing will be held starting at 2 p.m. for Scranton Police Patrolman John Wilding who was killed in the line of duty – watch news reports here: http://wnep.com/2015/07/16/public-viewing-for-fallen-scranton-officer/
Officer Wilding’s funeral will be Friday at 10 a.m. at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Scranton. You can watch the ceremony live on, WNEP-2 and on wnep.com.
Just 72 hours after a man was killed on a city street by gun fire, Hazleton police arrested the man they say pulled the trigger.
Officers arrested Raphael Mora-Polanco, 26, Hazleton, while conducting surveillance Sunday in the area of Second and Alter streets, about two blocks away from the shooting that claimed the life of Jorge Marrero, 35, who’s last known address was on South Poplar Street.
Marrero was shot multiple times in the area of Alter and Fourth streets Thursday around 10:30 p.m., police said. He was found by police on West Fourth Street, near Emerald Court, the alley between Alter and Vine streets, with bullet wounds.
Hazleton police Chief Frank DeAndrea labeled the homicide an “execution” due to the circumstances involved.
Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/suspect-arrested-in-hazleton-murder-1.1898205
BUTLER TOWNSHIP, PA — What started as a traffic stop ended with a man facing drug charges after police found over 1,000 packets of heroin in his vehicle.
Some of those packets were found in his rectum.
Oliver E. Rivera, 22, of Drums, faces charges of possession with intent to deliver, possession of a controlled substance and use/possession of drug paraphernalia.
Police say they stopped a vehicle that Rivera was driving at 12:35 a.m. on June 10 for traffic violations. During the stop, police say they observed indicators of drug trafficking and discovered more than 1,000 packets of heroin in Rivera’s vehicle.
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/blotter-local-news/154077840/
WILKES-BARRE, PA — Two people were arrested after shots were fired during a landlord-tenant dispute, city police said.
An investigation of a report of shots being fired in the area of 113 Blackman St. early Friday afternoon revealed that the incident stemmed from an argument at 64 Bradford St., which is located nearby.
Police said Tanisha Goggins, 30, of 64 Bradford St., and her guest, Nicholas Crooks, 27, of Brooklyn, New York, had been involved in a dispute with Goggins’s property manager, and that Crooks allegedly pointed a gun at the property manager.
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/blotter-local-news-news/154057141/
A man shot and wounded during an argument amid a group of people at a vacant lot on Alter Street in Hazleton staggered up West Fourth Street in the rain before being shot in the head and killed late Thursday, city police Chief Frank DeAndrea said.
DeAndrea called the killing an execution.
He asks people who saw the incident to call police at 911 if they are in the Hazleton area or 570-459-4940.
Surveillance cameras show the argument occurring in a lot at 590 Alter St., and police circled a trail of bloodstains on the sidewalk and road along Fourth Street to where the victim was found just west of Emerald Court at 10:30 p.m.
Read more: http://standardspeaker.com/news/chief-shooting-death-an-execution-1.1896889
Maintaining Scranton’s five parking garages would cost $26 million over 40 years, while demolishing one or two of the older structures that need significant repairs could drop that figure substantially, according to a new analysis.
A June 3 report by Chicago-based consultant Desman Design Management titled “Parking System Due Diligence Market and Revenue Analysis” is the latest step in Mayor Bill Courtright’s plan to unload the Scranton Parking Authority’s five parking garages — Medallion, Casey, Connell, Electric City and Linden.
The aim is to “monetize” through privatization, either leasing or selling, the authority’s underused, high-debt parking garages that have 2,659 spaces, as well as the 1,479 city-owned parking meters. The goal is to reduce the amount of SPA debt the city guarantees and covers in annual bailouts.
The authority retained Desman to assemble various elements of the parking system for evaluation by potential bidders on a lease or sale.
Wilkes-Barre will become owner of the long-troubled Hotel Sterling site today, which is expected to provide the stability needed to attract a significant project at the landmark site.
CityVest, the nonprofit group that unsuccessfully tried to redevelop the hotel that once stood there, also has formally dissolved, its attorney said.
The Sterling’s unresolved ownership ended up before Luzerne County Senior Judge Joseph Augello this morning because CityVest filed a brief asking the court to oversee disbursement of its assets.
CityVest had obtained state approval to dissolve because it is out of funds and not pursuing more projects, said CityVest attorney George A. Reihner.
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/154010217/
WILKES-BARRE, PA — Fifteen officers have been added to the Wilkes-Barre Police Department since Mayor Tom Leighton took office in 2004.
At Tuesday’s work session, Leighton asked Wilkes-Barre City Council to consider four more.
Leighton requested authorization to apply for a grant through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring Program to hire four full-time officers. If the resolution and grant request are approved, the hires would bump the number of officers in the city’s ranks from 83 to 87.
The Wilkes-Barre Police Department had 68 officers when Leighton was elected in 2004.
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news-news/153983229/Leighton-asks-council-for-4-more-cops
WILKES-BARRE, PA — The final option proposed for Wilkes-Barre Area School District’s aging three high school system: Build a new school for grades 9-12 where Coughlin now stands, add grades seven and eight to Kistler elementary, and end the use of the venerable Meyers and Coughlin schools. GAR would remain for grades seven through 12.
Board Vice President Joe Caffrey, who also chaired the committee that reviewed the options, announced the proposal to standing-room only crowd in the district administration building’s small conference room, the front row of seats filled with architects, engineers, bankers and other professionals who have provided advice on the decision.
A feasibility study initially looked at five sites for new construction, the complete renovation of Coughlin and Meyers, or building new schools on those existing sites.
As he has increasingly done, Caffrey rejected characterizations that the decision process has been rushed. The board has been told by officials at the state department of education that it must submit initial paperwork for possible construction cost reimbursements by July 1, but Caffrey insisted it was his plan all along to bring a recommendation to the board around this time. The state deadline merely pushed the process ahead by a few weeks.
Read more:
http://www.timesleader.com/news/home_top-local-news-news/153956940/
WILKES-BARRE TOWNSHIP, PA — A new study reveals that Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza contributed $62.6 million to the economy in 2013, and expansion of the concourse is expected to pump in an additional $7 million this year.
The Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance was contracted by the Luzerne County Convention Center Authority, the governing body of the arena, in May 2014 to conduct the study on behalf of the authority. The NEPA Alliance released the study Thursday.
The economic impact analysis considers three things:
The overall impact of the operations of the arena, which includes the impact from visitors traveling from outside the impact region (farther than 15 miles).
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/business-local-news-news/153910780/
An auction for the foreclosed and still struggling Mall at Steamtown was postponed three weeks to give potential bidders more time to prepare bids, an agent involved in the upcoming online auction said.
The failure of retired department store chain owner Al Boscov’s past partnership to pay off the loan that led to the foreclosure does not disqualify him from bidding or being part of a bid, said Lynn DeMarco, contact agent for the Shopping Center Group LLC of New York City, which is facilitating the auction along with auction.com.
“This is an open auction, so anybody can bid,” Ms. DeMarco said Tuesday.
The auction, originally scheduled for Monday through today, was postponed to June 22 to 24. Bidding requires proof that bidders are viable and can come up with the money to fulfill their bids. Bidders will submit bids through the auction.com website in a fashion similar to an eBay auction. Bidders can see the highest bid as the auction unfolds. When the deadline for bids passes, the high bidder gets the mall, assuming the bidder has the money, Ms. DeMarco said.
Read more:
WYOMING, PA — One of three suspects wanted in the October 2014 attempted murder of a woman in Bear Creek Township has been taken into custody.
State police at Wyoming said they and Wilkes-Barre city police apprehended Jerone Moore, at a residence on North Washington Street, Wilkes-Barre, at about 3 p.m. today.
Police said they received a call on Oct. 5, 2014, reporting a naked, bloody female on Aleeda Road in Bear Creek Township.
The victim suffered a 3-inch-deep laceration from her trachea to her ear. She was transported Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Township for treatment.
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news-news/153858219/
WILKES-BARRE, PA — Police responded to reports of a shooting tonight at the Sherman Hills apartment complex.
The shooting was reported at 320 Empire Court in the crime-troubled complex.
Initially police could locate neither the shooter or the victim.
A Luzerne County 911 dispatcher confirmed that police, ambulance and fire officials were on site in response the report.
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news-news/153819063/
More than 300 groups from across the state are lining up to get a piece of the $125 million available for Pennsylvania redevelopment projects.
Those requesting funding include the Luzerne County Convention Center Authority, which wants to upgrade Mohegan Sun Arena.
The competition is stiff in this recently streamlined state program — called the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program — with funding requests totaling 10 times the available grant money.
Gov. Tom Wolf will decide which projects receive grants in the fall.
Read more:
http://citizensvoice.com/news/arena-boscov-s-among-suitors-for-state-redevelopment-funds-1.1890479
WILKES-BARRE, PA — The first hurdle is cleared.
Wilkes-Barre City Council on Thursday unanimously voted to enter into an agreement for the rehabilitation of Public Square. Once the deal is signed, the National Resource Network — a federal organization that aids cities facing economic hardship — will begin the process of securing a capital funding plan for the project.
The agreement was approved 4-0. Councilman Bill Barrett was excused from the meeting.
The National Resource Network will not fund the construction but will assist city officials in securing the project’s funding through both private and public revenue sources. The $66,000 agreement will require a 25 percent match, or $16,500.
Mayor Tom Leighton said the agreement will be signed Friday.
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news-news/153769631/
WILKES-BARRE, PA — Something’s shaping up on Public Square.
During Tuesday’s work session, Wilkes-Barre City Council will hear a resolution allowing city officials to enter into an agreement for the rehabilitation of Public Square, with the downtown hub’s long-defunct water fountain as one of the potential project’s main focuses.
Andrew LaFratte, municipal affairs manager, said the administration applied for a grant in December through the National Resource Network, an organization that provides assistance to cities facing economic challenges. The creation of the network was at the core of the Obama Administration’s “Strong Cities, Strong Communities” initiative, enacted in 2012 to spark development in ailing communities with help from the federal government.
To be considered eligible for assistance, cities must have over 40,000 residents and must meet one of three criteria, including a 2013 annual average unemployment rate of 9 percent or more, a population decline of 5 percent or more between 2000 and 2010, or a poverty rate of 20 percent or more.
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news-news/153665740/
PLAINS TOWNSHIP, PA — Wages remain relatively low in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties and both need to work on more consistent long-term job creation and growth, said Teri Ooms, executive director of the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Development at Wilkes University.
Economic recovery in the two counties has been uneven since the recession hit in late 2007 and lasted until 2009. While the unemployment rate in the area has been dropping over the last few years, that was because those participating in the labor force decreased, Ooms said.
“The good news is labor force participation has finally begun to increase, more so within the past couple months,” Ooms said. “It is now at pre-recession levels, but the challenge we’ve had is post-recession. There have been too many peaks and valleys. We’re not stable.”
The region’s unemployment rate was among many issues Ooms and Andrew Chew, research analyst, discussed as they presented the institute’s 90-page Indicators Report for Luzerne and Lackawanna counties Thursday at Mohegan Sun Pocono’s convention center.
Read more:
http://citizensvoice.com/news/indicators-report-economic-recovery-in-region-isn-t-stable-1.1886047
LEHMAN, PA — Penn State Wilkes-Barre will provide a $50,000 block grant to the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce to expand business services in the Innovation Center.
The grant is the first step in acquiring funding to renovate a portion of the Innovation Center for the development of the Innovation Squared Project, including an entrepreneurial and business training lab.
Downtown Wilkes-Barre has become a hub for entrepreneurs, with the Innovation Center housing 14 businesses, Wilkes University’s Small Business Development Center and Wilkes University’s Allen P. Kirby Center for Free Enterprise.
The Innovation Squared Project will continue to fuel local entrepreneurship with a multi-faceted program designed to create high-wage e-commerce jobs, revitalization of downtown and workshop, according to the press release.
Read more:
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