Wyoming Valley Levee overseer receives additional funding for equipment

With a second funding infusion detailed Tuesday, the Wyoming Valley Levee System is even more awash in new projects and upgrades.

The Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority that oversees the levee has received a $264,000 casino gambling-funded Local Share Account award on the heels of an $8 million federal American Rescue Plan allocation from county council.

This gambling funding is covering five new mowers to maintain the levee, a trailer-mounted air compressor and an electric vehicle, according to a summary presented at Tuesday’s authority meeting.

One of the mowers is operated by remote control and will be particularly valuable trimming steep levee slopes, said authority Executive Director Christopher Belleman, estimating the cost at $57,000.

After Tuesday’s authority meeting, levee maintenance worker Brandon Schmidt demonstrated the remote-operated mower on a grassy patch at the rear of the authority headquarters on Wyoming Avenue in Forty Fort.

The authority purchased the 7,100-square-foot facility adjacent to the county-owned Wyoming Valley Airport for $565,000 in December 2021 and moved there in September after renovations were completed, which resulted in savings on rent.

Authority representative announced Tuesday that the mortgage is now paid off, thanks to a portion of the county’s American Rescue funding.

Behind the new headquarters, the authority’s levee maintenance building also will be expanded and reconfigured with a projected $1 million in American Rescue funding. That project is currently in design.

The authority board approved contracts Tuesday for another American Rescue-funded project rehabilitating a structure it acquired from Hanover Township to serve as a downstream levee maintenance garage storing grass-cutting equipment and levee electrical components. Belleman said this will speed up levee maintenance in the township, Plymouth and Wilkes-Barre because crews won’t have to work solely from the Forty Fort maintenance garage.

The approved low bids for this Hanover Township project, described as the Delaney Street building rehabilitation: general construction, Panzitta Enterprises Inc., $842,200; electrical construction, Mark Whitehead Electrical Contractor Inc., $68,000; and mechanical construction, Scranton Electric Heating and Cooling Services Inc., $280,826.

In yet another American Rescue-funded project discussed Tuesday, the authority has partnered with Wilkes-Barre on the city’s plans to demolish its recreation storage building at Kirby Park and construct a new structure to house both city recreation storage and authority levee equipment.

Belleman said the authority and city will split the cost based on the percentage of the structure used by each. Approximately six trailers full of authority equipment will be stored there, including Market Street Bridge flood gate closure components, he said.

Construction of the new building at Kirby Park is projected to be completed in mid-November, he said.

Building lease

Authority board members also agreed Tuesday to advance a proposed agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is interested in leasing approximately 1,900 square feet of unused space in the authority’s Forty Fort headquarters for a Homeland Security Investigations sub-office.

The authority must complete approximately $100,000 in renovations to ready the space but would eventually recoup that up-front investment through the five-year lease payments, which are expected to be around $3,250 per month, said Dominic Yannuzzi, chairman of the five-citizen authority board.

As the final lease is negotiated and then reviewed by legal counsel, the authority will bid out the renovations and proceed with the work if it falls within the projected budget, the authority decided.

Restrooms would be the only shared space with the tenant, although Homeland Security will have access to the authority conference room when there are no meetings, Yannuzzi said. The plans call for the federal agency to have approximately 12 work stations and 20 parking spaces, officials said.