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First Posted: 4/9/2013 Colleges, police departments and infrastructure projects have really hit the jackpot with the allocation of local share grants from the state gaming fund, an analysis shows.
As state Sen. John Yudichak, D-Plymouth Township, gave a recent walking tour to state officials and dignitaries of downtown Nanticoke, the jewel of the jaunt was Luzerne County Community College.
Yudichak beamed with pride last month when showing off the college&#8217;s culinary and health sciences buildings on Main Street. Along with Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, state Department of Community and Economic Development staff members and college officials, Yudichak spoke about how state funding helped infuse redevelopment in parts of the downtown by helping LCCC, the city&#8217;s largest employer.
LCCC received $500,000 in 2008 and 2009 for the relocation and construction of its culinary institute. In 2010, LCCC received another grant totalling $1,023,331 to expand its Health Sciences Center and an additional $500,000 for the culinary institute.
Other area colleges also have benefited from gaming grants.
In Wilkes-Barre, two years ago Wilkes University received $2,055,254 to help pay for construction costs of its Science Center, and Misericordia University in Dallas Township was awarded $150,000 this year to install a sidewalk on both sides of Lake Street from Center Hill Road to the university&#8217;s entrance. Misericordia also received $750,000 for its College of Health Sciences building on Lake Street.
The list of 86 applicants that have received gaming funds is dotted with transportation-related and emergency response-related projects, but few are in that five-mile radius from the casino that original bill supporters thought would see police departments and infrastructure so strained by the casino.
Among the grants geared toward emergency response uses are the purchase of police vehicles in Rice Township, Swoyersville, Forty Fort, Hughestown, Wilkes-Barre, Nescopeck and Sugar Notch. Funding also has been allocated to build a fire station in Hanover Township, a police station annex in West Hazleton and police stations in Swoyersville, Wyoming and Pittston Township. The funds also have been used to expand the police station in Wilkes-Barre Township.
Municipalities also requested and were awarded grants for municipal building construction or renovations in Avoca, Harveys Lake, Newport Township, Ashley and Duryea.
Likewise, transportation and infrastructure projects have received plenty of the funding since 2008.
The largest allocations were $2.4 million a year over a five-year span for the state Route 315 and Interstate 81 project redesign in the vicinity of the CenterPoint Trade & Commerce Park in Jenkins Township. The $12 million project is more than double the next largest allocation, the $4.8 million awarded for the Intermodal Center in Hazleton.
In addition to those two projects, infrastructure grants of $1 million or more have been awarded for: paving and decorative street lighting improvements in Kingston, and East Mountain Drive road improvements in Plains Township.

Education, public safety top recipients of casino gambling bounty