Renovation work is underway on a portion of the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority headquarters in Forty Fort that has been leased to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Jennifer Learn-Andes | Times Leader
Renovation work continues on a portion of the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority headquarters in Forty Fort that has been leased to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Authority Executive Director Christopher Belleman said before Tuesday’s authority board meeting that the renovations should be completed by the fall.
Homeland Security will pay the authority approximately $30,000 annually to lease 1,700 square feet in the Wyoming Avenue building for three years, with the option for an additional two-year renewal, officials said.
Belleman has said the federal government is also funding renovations required for occupancy of the leased space.
He reiterated Tuesday the authority board sought a tenant as a way to generate revenue on a portion of the building not needed for operations of the authority, which oversees the Wyoming Valley Levee system along the Susquehanna River.
No other entities were interested in leasing the space when the opportunity was publicly advertised, and the authority board publicly voted on the lease in fall 2024.
The leased space will house administrative offices and will not be outfitted with detention capabilities for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, Belleman added.
A group of citizens had objected in May when the authority board voted to appeal a state open records directive to release a copy of its lease with the Department of Homeland Security.
Duryea resident Laura Pinero, of the Northeast Pennsylvania Democratic Socialists, had filed a Right-to-Know request for a copy of the lease, arguing the information was public. The authority had denied the request, citing an exception to protect the release of security information.
Authority co-solicitor Jeffrey Rockman has said a non-disclosure agreement was required by ICE so security information was not divulged to the public.
Pinero had appealed to the state Office of Open Records and was informed on May 13 that the state office ordered the authority to release the lease.
The authority’s May vote appealed that ruling in the county Court of Common Pleas. The court docket shows no activity on that case since the May 21 filing.
In other updates, Belleman said contractors are in the process of testing new control panels and installing new instrumentation at the levee system’s 13 pump stations as part of an upgrade project.
The pump stations have deep water wells to collect drainage from the land side of the levee when it can no longer naturally feed into the Susquehanna during a flood. The pumps lift the collected water over the levee wall and dump it onto concrete aprons into the river.
A flood buyout project is also progressing, Belleman told the authority board.
Samples have been collected to determine if asbestos abatement services are needed before demolition, he said.
The buyout is part of an ongoing, federally-funded flood mitigation program that is managed by the authority and linked to the levee-raising project completed in the early 2000s.
Three properties are involved in the latest buyout round, the authority said: 74-76 Allen St. and 12 S. Mill St. in West Nanticoke and 242-246 Route 11 in Hunlock Creek.
Buyout properties must remain government-owned and undeveloped.
Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.
