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.
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.
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:
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
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
Repurposing the troubled Mall at Steamtown as a Reading Terminal-style market, a casino or a skating rink will remain a dream.
That is because the mall’s lease agreement with Boscov’s Department Store allows the anchor tenant to veto significant changes like that, said department store chairman Al Boscov in an interview at The Times-Tribune, a Times-Shamrock newspaper, on Monday.
Boscov’s Department Store will likely be among bidders in the June 1 – 3 auction of the Mall at Steamtown and the goal will be to buy the mall and keep the mall all — or predominantly — retail, he said.
Boscov wants to keep people with ideas of re-purposing the mall, some of whom he called “cranks,” away from the auction scheduled by LNR Partners, the mall’s caretaker since it was taken over by lenders following foreclosure.
Read more:
http://citizensvoice.com/news/boscov-mall-at-steamtown-changes-must-get-my-approval-1.1883885
PITTSTON TWP. — A new charter flight from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport will whisk vacationers nonstop to Freeport in the Bahamas and back beginning in September.
Operated by Regional Sky, the initial flight will leave the airport at 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 19 and return Sept. 23 at 6 p.m. Travelers will be able to purchase flight-only tickets for $552 or a flight and four-night vacation package starting at $977.
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/153442394/
WILKES-BARRE, PA — Scranton and Wilkes-Barre have been announced as quarter-finalists in the America’s Best Communities competition.
Frontier Communications, DISH Network, CoBank and The Weather Channel — the competition’s sponsors — today announced that the two cities are among the 50 quarter-finalist communities that now have six months to complete their revitalization plans and compete for up to an additional $3 million to bring their ideas to life.
America’s Best Communities (ABC) competition is a $10 million initiative to stimulate economic revitalization in small towns and cities. Each community will receive $50,000 to develop comprehensive strategies to accelerate the revival of their local economies and improve the quality of life in their communities.
“I’m proud to congratulate our neighbors in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre for advancing in the America’s Best Communities competition,” said Elena Kilpatrick, vice president and general manager of Frontier. “This is also a great opportunity for Northeast Pennsylvania as a region to benefit from everyone coming together to implement plans that will enhance the total Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area.”
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/153200376/
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton area’s overall well-being could be worse, but not much.
The metropolitan area ranked 94th overall out of 100 communities in the U.S. in Gallup opinion poll “State of American Well-Being: 2014 Community Well-Being Rankings.”
The survey issued Tuesday compares how people feel about and experience their daily lives in five areas:
■ Purpose: Liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goal.
■ Social: Having supportive relationships and love in your life.
Read more:
http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/gallup-scranton-wb-well-being-could-be-worse-but-not-much-1.1860711
A lot of people in this part of the nation swore they’d move south during this year’s harsh winter. It appears many of them already have.
According to estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau, warm regions regained population growth momentum last year that was lost during the recession. But population fell in the area comprised of Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming counties.
Fourteen of the 20 fastest-growing metropolitan areas were in Florida, Texas or the Carolinas, led by The Villages near Orlando, which grew by 5.4 percent between July 1, 2013 and July 1, 2014. In contrast, the fastest-growing metro areas in Pennsylvania grew by 0.6 percent.
The bureau estimated that the population in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area fell by 2,159, or 0.4 percent over the year. Within the three-county region, Lackawanna County lost the most, 1,115, or 0.5 percent. Luzerne County’s population declined 1,033, or 0.3 percent, and Wyoming County’s was relatively unchanged.
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/152599118/
A massive ice jam clogged the Susquehanna River for miles through the heart of Wyoming County on Tuesday, keeping riverfront residents and emergency management officials on edge.
The National Weather Service extended a flood warning for central Wyoming County, as well as low-lying areas immediately downriver in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties, another 24 hours until tonight at 7:15.
“We’re stable for now, but that could change in the snap of a finger,” Wyoming County EMA director Gene Dziak said. “The unpredictability of this thing is just incredible. You just don’t know what it’s going to do.”
The ice jam formed Monday on the river just south of the area in Tunkhannock Twp. where Route 307 intersects Route 92. By late Tuesday afternoon, broken ice behind the jam was backed up to the Vosburg Neck area of Washington Twp., a distance of 11 miles.
Read more: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/susquehanna-ice-jam-grows-to-11-miles-1.1849795
Perhaps the Wilkes-Barre metro area parties too much.
The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area ranked as the fourth-most indulgent metro in the United States by the personal finance website badcredit.org. The website used data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and credit information from Experian, a credit reporting bureau, to analyze how indulgent residents are in 105 metro areas.
They looked at the obesity rate, alcohol consumption, number of smokers and the average consumer debt to determine the most indulgent metros. The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metro came in at No. 4
with:
■ 7.8 percent of residents claiming to be heavy drinkers.
■ 21.5 percent who say they smoke everyday.
■ An obesity rate of 31.9 percent.
■ $28,974 in average consumer debt.
Read more:
http://citizensvoice.com/news/scranton-w-b-among-most-indulgent-cities-1.1849010
WILKES-BARRE, PA — St. Patrick’s Day is upon Northeastern Pennsylvania, which will include a weekend of parades and other festivities.
For law enforcement, it will mean more work than usual.
Scranton Police Chief Carl Graziano was among the officials at a news conference held at the Lackawanna County Courthouse this week. Officials encouraged residents to enjoy St. Patrick’s Day safely and responsibly.
“As everybody knows, it’s no secret that that’s the biggest alcohol consumption day — at least in the city — is St. Patrick’s Day Parade day,” Graziano said.
Read more:
http://www.timesleader.com/news/home_top-local-news/152319939/
SCRANTON, PA — The idea of a Reading Terminal Market marketplace in the Mall at Steamtown is gaining momentum.
The concept to create a marketplace in a portion of the mall began nearly two months ago as brothers, Michael and George Boyd, both of Scranton, started a Facebook page to gauge public’s interest to save their city’s retail hub.
Thousands in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties have weighed in on the idea. Last month, the Boyd brothers said the positive responses were “overwhelming.”
Today the Facebook page, Reading Terminal Market at the Mall at Steamtown, has more than 5,800 “Likes” and is getting people talking about how to revive the mall.
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/business-local-news/152278963/
The McDade Expressway in Scranton, Route 924 in Hazleton and a long stretch of Route 29 in Susquehanna and Wyoming counties are among area roads the state Department of Transportation has targeted for repaving this year.
The three heavily traveled routes are among 28 stretches of road in six Northeast Pennsylvania counties that PennDOT officials plan for routine resurfacing work this year. They’ll pay for it with new transportation funding from higher fees and gradually increasing gas taxes.
“PennDOT will be resurfacing about 110 miles of road this year,” agency spokesman James May said. “If we didn’t have Act 89, the number would be zero.”
Act 89 is the $2.3 billion transportation funding package the state Legislature approved in late 2013. PennDOT did have work on several larger capital projects planned regardless, like the ongoing Keyser Avenue project in Scranton.
Read more:
Scranton City Council on Thursday passed the first of three votes needed to adopt a revised Act 47 recovery plan.
Council voted 4-0, with President Bob McGoff and Councilmen Joe Wechsler, Wayne Evans and Bill Gaughan all in favor, to introduce an ordinance to adopt the recovery plan crafted by the city’s Act 47 recovery coordinator, Pennsylvania Economy League.
Councilman Pat Rogan was absent.
Before the meeting, council held a caucus with PEL officials Gerald Cross and Joseph Boyle, city Business Administrator David Bulzoni, and Jim Rose of the state Department of Community and Economic Development, which oversees PEL.
Read more:
http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/scranton-council-oks-revised-recovery-plan-1.1844068
Since the Marcellus Shale drilling boom started in 2008, seven natural gas wells have been drilled in and around Luzerne and Lackawanna counties.
Six of them were plugged when they failed to produce enough gas to market.
This week, the seventh — WPX Energy’s Martin well on state Route 487 in Sugarloaf Township, Columbia County, between Ricketts Glen and Benton — will also be shut down for good.
“From what I understand, we’re the last well to be plugged,” WPX Energy spokeswoman Susan Oliver said.
Read more:
SCRANTON, PA — The Mall at Steamtown hasn’t exactly been running at full power lately.
But a couple of brothers have gone to social media to pitch an idea to put more firepower in the ailing mall, and the public is starting to take notice.
Scranton natives Michael Boyd and his brother George think creating a marketplace similar to the long-standing Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia could be the key to the city’s revitalization.
The downward spiral of the once-vibrant downtown mall has been apparent in recent years. A walk through the two-story structure on Lackawanna Avenue last week showed 47 active store fronts and 23 shuttered ones.
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/business/151922265/
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