Pittston/West Pittston bridge traffic solutions on Luzerne County Council agenda

Luzerne County Council’s Tuesday work session include a presentation from Reilly Associates about a Pittston area traffic flow study and steps that may be taken to alleviate congestion while the county-owned Firefighters’ Memorial Bridge is closed.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation had denied the county’s proposed reopening of the span over the Susquehanna River, commonly known as the Water Street Bridge. The crossing linking West Pittston and Pittston has been closed since August 2021 due to concerns over a bent eyebar, causing traffic on the nearby state-owned Spc. Dale J. Kridlo Bridge (Fort Jenkins) to increase from 12,000 vehicles to 20,000 per day.

The state agreed to assume responsibility for the design and construction of a solution for both bridges — replacing the Water Street span and rehabilitating or replacing the Fort Jenkins one — both keeping their current footprints, officials said. However, completion of both spans will take years.

Once it became clear the county won’t continue pursuing a temporary bridge opening, county Acting Manager Brian Swetz said the county, state, West Pittston and Pittston must work together to determine if there are ways to improve public safety and reduce congestion while Fort Jenkins is the lone crossing.

Tuesday’s work session follows a 6 p.m. voting meeting at the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre, with instructions for remote attendance posted on council’s online meetings section at luzernecounty.org.

Homestead

Council also is set to discuss a suggestion to restore the county’s homestead tax break.

Councilman Stephen J. Urban sent a brief email requesting the discussion several days before last week’s primary election, when he appeared on the ballot in a highly contested race for six Republican county council nominations. He promptly broadcast his email request on social media and ended up receiving a nomination and landing the most Republican votes.

The challenge, as before, would be figuring out how to pay for the break, which cost nearly $5 million annually.

Council halted the county-funded homestead tax break for owner-occupied residences in 2015 because county officials could not identify $4.7 million needed to fund it annually.

Act 50, the law that allowed the break, essentially says counties can’t raise millage or force other property owners to carry more property tax burden to fund the break, past published reports said. The county had managed to get around this previously by implementing the break as part of the countywide reassessment that took effect in 2009, when property calculations and the tax rate were shifted around.

American Rescue

Due to a continued review of options, council won’t be voting Tuesday on an extension of the county’s American Rescue consulting contract with Columbia, Maryland-based Booth Management Consulting, officials said.

Council had unanimously voted last June to hire Booth Management for up to $350,000 to provide guidance on American Rescue eligibility screening and funding administration through June 30, 2023.

But company head Robin Booth told council the expiration date is no longer applicable because payments are based on billing for actual services until the $350,000 is exhausted, and the consultant had already exceeded the maximum amount by $4,280 as of April 30.

Booth discounted that overage to remain under the $350,000 cap, but it has continued incurring costs since then in good faith as the new contract was being negotiated so final agreements would not be delayed for both outside and internal awards, Booth had said.

Booth presented an offer to continue full service for three more years at a total $783,391 in addition to separate options for one year of basic or full service or a month-to-month agreement.

Opioid committee

Also in Tuesday’s work session, council is set to further discuss the suggested formation of an Opioid Advisory Committee to recommend allowable and valuable uses for compensation from litigation against opioid manufacturers and wholesale distributors.

The county has $4 million in settlement receipts from 2022 and 2023 and is expected to receive more.

County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce and involved members of the county administration had suggested the following serve on the committee: a county council member, the county manager, the county drug and alcohol administrator, the human services division head, a provider/consumer representative, the court administrator and the district attorney.

During a work session discussion May 9, Sanguedolce said he and others believe it would be better for a committee to draft and present a proposal to council instead of having lengthy discussions at council meetings.

Urban recommended the committee include three council members instead of one.

Tuesday’s work session agenda references discussion about the three council members.