Luzerne County releases top-scoring applicants for $60M in American Rescue funds

Luzerne County Council has received a list of the 75 top-scoring outside entities slated to collectively receive $60 million of the county’s federal American Rescue Plan funding.

Council members did not learn which entities made the cut until Thursday due to the process set up to evaluate applications.

Several council members said Thursday they have concerns about some of the projects slated for funding.

“I don’t personally believe the list in its present form will be well-received by the public,” said Council Vice Chairman John Lombardo, citing the inclusion of private businesses and the absence of some worthy organizations he had expected to make the list.

“I’m not happy with it. That’s what it comes down to at the end of the day.”

A vote on the actual awards is expected at council’s Feb. 14 meeting.

Councilman Tim McGinley said he has some concerns with the list and believes he and his colleagues need to perform more due diligence on the scoring and other factors that went into the determination.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to finish this process the next several weeks, but I think there are enough issues there that we may not be able to finish it next week,” McGinley said.

Councilman Matthew Mitchell said he expected there would be more infrastructure and emergency services awards on the list, saying first responders were one of the major intended recipients of American Rescue funding.

”There are many great organizations that are deserving of the awards on the list, but there are a lot of other applicants that I wish had made the first cut,” Mitchell said.

Lombardo said he cannot vote to support the list as is and does not know how council will proceed, particularly if it must vote on the entire batch in bulk instead of each award individually.

Councilman Kevin Lescavage said he absolutely won’t vote for many awards on the list and expects public outrage if all awards are approved.

Instead of relying on a council or administrative committee recommendation, the 11 council members decided to screen the applications themselves so they would all have an opportunity to participate.

The county’s American Rescue consultant set up an online portal for council members to individually review and score the 139 outside applications based on uniform factors, such as a project’s impact on county priorities, community outcomes, racial equity and inclusion and a review of the overall project budget.

Because the list of awards is based on council’s independent scoring and parameters, council members are not supposed to alter it without cause because adding and deleting once the names are released would defeat the purpose of the evaluation system that had been set up, officials have said.

Council members have said this is an unusual situation because they did not collaboratively choose recipients through the typical discussion, debate and majority preference.

While this process was intended to prevent bias and outside intervention and lobbying, council members were uneasy having no idea which recipients would appear on the award list and how both council and the public would react to the end result.

Council members had to abstain from scoring individual applicants if they had a conflict of interest.

Columbia, Maryland-based Booth Management Consulting helped set up the screening module used by council and verified projects that made the award list meet federal eligibility requirements. Council retained Booth to prevent auditing and compliance issues later on.

Before the final list was compiled by Booth, council determined that no entity will receive more than one award.

After deducting the outside earmarks, internal county government projects and allocations already approved, the county will have $17.2 million in remaining American Rescue funds, according to Booth Management.

The list of recipients, which is also posted on the main page of the county website at luzernecounty.org without a descriptions of the projects:

• Allied Services Personal Care, doing business as Allied Services Center City Skilled Nursing: $1,860,856

• Amy Bezek Photography LLC, $300,000

• Ashley borough, $6 million

• Avoca Hose Co. No. 1, $75,515

• Back Mountain Recreation Inc., $156,900

• Beaver Brook Association, $120,000

• Berwick Area Joint Sewer Authority, $408,195

• Butler Township (police), $121,003.59

• Candy’s Place Cancer Wellness Center, $115,900

• City of Hazleton, $995,357

• City of Wilkes-Barre Industrial Development Authority, $3 million

• Common Ground Ministries, $500,000

• Conyngham borough, $785,000

• Conyngham Valley Civic Organization, $119,507.34

• Dallas Area Fall Fair Inc./The Luzerne County Fair, $100,000

• Dallas Area Municipal Authority, $735,000

• Dantone Vending LLC, $38,633.33

• Diamond City Partnership Inc., $494,624

• Dinners For Kids, $200,000

• DMC Graphics, $8,075

• Dr. Joseph Costello, $50,000

• Dupont borough, $99,861

• Ecumenical Enterprises Inc., $1,262,300

• Edwardsville, $341,170

• F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, $586,150

• Fork Over Love Inc., $508,063.52

• General Municipal Authority of Harveys Lake, $500,000

• Greater Hazleton Joint Sewer Authority, $5,093,150

• Greater Hazleton Senior Citizens Inc., $385,000

• Greater Wyoming Valley Area YMCA, $487,353

• IBEW Local 163, JATC, $500,000

• Jenkins Township, $122,000

• Jewish Community Alliance of Northeastern Pennsylvania, $15,331,739.40

• Junior Achievement of Northeastern Pennsylvania, $150,829

• Keystone Mission, $750,000

• Lower South Valley Land Bank, $600,000

• Luzerne County Library System, $54,380

• Luzerne County Transportation Authority, $161,000

• Maternal and Family Health Services Inc., $469,141

• Michael C. Baloga (The Foot and Ankle Center), $63,300

• Michaelene’s Mission, $50,000

• Municipal Authority of Hazle Township, $3,368,750

• NEPA Inclusive, $95,440

• New Roots Inc., $409,392

• Newport Township, $395,738.50

• North Branch Land Trust, $122,125

• North Lake Improvement Association, $88,980

• Oblates of Saint Joseph, $79,868

• Parks and Recreation/City of Hazleton, $26,244

• Plains Township Fire Department, $539,854

• Plymouth borough, $2,508,572

• Power and Success Inc., $100,000

• Ruth Matthews Bourger Women with Children Program at Misericordia University, $140,000

• Second Family Memory Care LLC, $203,551.62

• Staggers Southern Cuisine, $25,000

• Street Art Society of NEPA Inc., $33,000

• Sugarloaf Township, $35,500

• Swoyersville Little League, $40,000

• Swoyersville Park and Recreation Board, $250,000

• The Food Dignity Project, $1,234,172.16

• The Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry, $810,000

• The Institute, $150,191

• United Way of Greater Hazleton Inc., $200,000

• United Way of Wyoming Valley, $210,000

• ValentinXStudios, $10,975

• Volunteers in Medicine, $1,500,000

• Volunteers of America of Pennsylvania, $578,600

• West Hazleton Fire Company, $155,000

• White Haven Fire Company #1, $850,000

• White Haven Rescue Unit, $117,000

• Wilkes-Barre Metropolitan Development Corporation 2, $72,100

• Wilkes-Barre Area Community Gardens, $40,000

• Willow Foundation, $675,100

• Wyoming borough, $1,138,700

• Wyoming Valley Habitat for Humanity, $48,615