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First Posted: 4/10/2014 WILKES-BARRE &#8212; City Council on Thursday night allowed the owners of the property behind the Jewelcor building to extend Coal Street for development on the site.
The city owns a slice of land through the property of Seymour and Evelyn Holtzman who requested a construction easement to build approximately 280 feet of roadway to open up their land for two prospective tenants.
Council granted their request, the first step in a months-long process of submitting applications and receiving permission from multiple agencies before construction begins.
Joe Lakowski, project manager for Jewelcor Inc., of which Seymour Holtzman is president and chief executive officer, said there is urgency on the part of the prospective tenants to begin the process rather than wait for a few more years until government funding is available to pay for extending Coal Street farther to connect with Union Street.
&#8220;Since they&#8217;ve been around a long time, they&#8217;re kind of getting antsy,&#8221; Lakowski told council at its regularly scheduled meeting.
He would not identify them, but residents who questioned the project said one was Sheetz, which has a gas station and convenience store approximately a mile away along state Route 309 near the other end of Coal Street.
Lakowski said the prospective tenants would create between 50 and 60 jobs in addition to the construction jobs and materials bought locally.
The earliest one of the tenants would complete construction would be in the spring of 2015, he said. He did not have a cost estimate on the project, but added that the developer would attempt to seek reimbursement for the road construction from PennDOT.
The land is in a Keystone Opportunity Zone that provides tax breaks. City Administrator Marie McCormick said construction has to begin by next year and the tax benefits would be in effect for another 10 years. If nothing is done by next year, the benefits end, she explained.
Speakers&#8217; spot moved
Also, council approved changes to ordinances relating to its rules and procedures, specifically moving the speaker&#8217;s table or dais behind the rail separating the public from the elected officials in seated in the front of the room and requiring pre-registration by people who want to speak at the meeting.
At the request of Councilman George Brown, the pre-registration amendment was further changed, giving council chairman the authority to bypass the sign-in requirement and allow for public comment on topics under discussion.
Council members Brown, Bill Barrett, Tony George, Mike Merritt and Maureen Lavelle voted in favor of moving the dais. George was the sole opponent of the requiring speakers to preregister before the start of the meeting.
Jim Walsh, who regularly addresses council, provided them photos he said took on April 1 of U.S. flags on wooden poles piled inside a room at the Department of Public Works building on North Pennsylvania Avenue. The flags were bought with private funds and given to the city to hang on the Market Street Bridge. Another photo showed a flag mixed in with garbage.
&#8220;I was boiling mad,&#8221; said Walsh, an 89-year-old World War II veteran.
&#8220;We&#8217;re going to look into this,&#8221;Brown said.

City green-lights Jewelcor Coal St. plans