In this 2010 photo, then 5-year-old Gabriel Seals, of Swoyersville, plays in the fountain at the Millennium Circle portal on River Street in Wilkes-Barre. Luzerne County may seek a grant to reactivate the inoperable fountain.
Times Leader File Photo
Luzerne County’s administration wants to seek $448,000 in statewide casino gambling funding to replace lighting at both Wilkes-Barre River Common levee portal openings and repair the inoperable fountain.
County council is set to discuss the grant application at its Tuesday work session.
If approved and awarded, the Statewide Local Share Account funding through the Commonwealth Financing Authority would cover professional engineering services to evaluate, design and secure construction contracts to rehabilitate/replace the fountain and site lighting at both portals, the agenda said.
The portals and fountain were part of a project unveiled in 2009 covering a half-mile stretch along River Street between Wilkes University’s Dorothy Dickson Darte Center and the historic county courthouse intended to reconnect people to the Susquehanna River.
The Northampton Street portal opens to an amphitheater, while the opening between the Market Street Bridge and courthouse — known as the Millennium Circle portal — contains the fountain and leads to a river landing/fishing pier.
Although the fountain was a hit with children when it launched, it was rarely used for multiple reasons.
Initially county officials said they couldn’t afford water testing. However, they agreed to reactivate it on weekends in 2014 after lawyers determined the fountain doesn’t fall under the same category as public swimming pools, which require water testing twice a day when they are operational.
When the fountain was reactivated in 2014, the county’s rising water bill prompted suspicions of a serious fountain leak. Cameras sent through the pipes verified cracks in several spots that would cost about $200,000 to repair, then-county operational services division head Tanis Manseau said in 2015.
As a precaution, water service to the fountain was cut off in 2016, officials have said.
Designed to capture and recirculate water, the fountain had a lighting option to change the color of the spraying water.
Tuesday’s council agenda said the county invested more than $15 million in the historic River Common to “undertake a transformative project” that joined the Market Street Bridge and courthouse as “grand public works projects.”
“Since the initial investment occurred over 15 years ago, there are some areas of the River Common that are in need of renovation and modernization,” it said.
In addition to the fountain, some of the portal lighting systems are inoperable, it said.
Council’s Tuesday work session follows a 6 p.m. voting meeting in the county courthouse. Instructions for the remote attendance option will be posted under council’s online meetings section at luzernecounty.org.
Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.
