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State police fire marshal investigating cause of Wilkes-Barre Township blaze

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Rock Solid Academy visits Wilkes University

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Tony George has wanted to be the city&#8217;s mayor for some time now and will soon be sworn into the job he covets.</p><p>That&#8217;s when the cat litter should hit the proverbial fan.</p><p>Mayor-elect George, let&#8217;s call him Tony, said he&#8217;s been &#8220;going non-stop&#8221; trying to figure out the budget proposed by soon-to-be full-time realtor Tom Leighton.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve been working on it constantly,&#8221; Tony said of the budget.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8221; refers to Tony and members of his transition team. They have been trying to figure out where they can cut, where they can stay level and where, maybe, they can add.</p><p>Tony gave his team this week off &#8212; something about getting ready for Christmas and this being a busy time of year.</p><p>The team will reassemble next week, he said, and that means crunch time.</p><p>&#8220;Everything depends on how much we get accomplished next week,&#8221; he said.</p><p>As far as the budget goes, Tony still feels Leighton&#8217;s projections are off. He said he found all money &#8212; some $250,000 &#8212; for police training has been cut.</p><p>A former police chief, Tony said, &#8220;You just can&#8217;t cut it all.&#8221;</p><p>Then there&#8217;s some $75,000 cut for police department overtime. That doesn&#8217;t seem like a good idea, either, Tony said.</p><p>As far as those Leighton administration staffers &#8212; they&#8217;re going to remain in limbo for at least a couple more weeks.</p><p>&#8220;I haven&#8217;t made any decisions yet,&#8221; Tony said. &#8220;So I can&#8217;t make any announcements.&#8221;</p><p>Tony&#8217;s aware there are some anxious people working at City Hall. Not so much the employees in the union, but those other staffers &#8212; recognizable by the expressions on their faces &#8212; the ones with the high salaries.</p><p>Like Tony said, it all comes down to the budget &#8212; that&#8217;s what will decide people&#8217;s futures.</p><p>Tony may be able to make decisions before he is sworn in on Jan. 4 but, like he said, &#8220;Just because I&#8217;m getting sworn in Jan. 4 doesn&#8217;t mean I have to make all my decisions by then. I don&#8217;t have to make any changes on my first day in office.&#8221;</p><p>Tony acknowledges some current staffers have a lot of experience and knowledge about city business. He feels that could be valuable to a new mayor and his administration.</p><p>The budget, by the way, must be finalized by Feb. 15, he said.</p><p>Tony said there are 11 positions in the fire department that have been paid through a grant. That grant, he said, expires in late March or early April. At that time, the city would assume the burden of paying for those 11 firefighting positions.</p><p>&#8220;Like I said, there are a lot of issues that need to be resolved first,&#8221; Tony said. &#8220;And I doubt that we&#8217;re going to find a surplus. In fact, there is no surplus. We know the city has been running on fumes.&#8221;</p><p>Tony has been wrestling with this budget since he was elected as he and his team attempt to figure it all out.</p><p>Another for instance &#8212; Tony said there are &#8220;a lot of police cruisers at the city garage that are not being used.&#8221; He wants to find out their condition and if they can be used to fight crime.</p><p>Meanwhile, Mayor Leighton is dedicating bridges and unveiling fire trucks, all with a smile as wide as the gap between Tony and a budget resolve.</p><p>It&#8217;s good that Tony and his transition team are giving the budget a thorough once-over. After 12 years, it&#8217;s time to change the linens on the bed everybody has been sleeping in &#8212; just to be sure.</p><p>Tony wants to do right by the taxpayers. He was elected to do a job. And he said he will do it.</p><p>It appears Tony and his team are finding out just how big a job they face. They are reviewing a proposed $51.5 million budget and are looking for ways to save money.</p><p>Tony and his team must determine if the budget is an accurate representation of the city&#8217;s fiscal situation or more of a tenuous work of art that looks good on paper, but is not a realistic picture of the city&#8217;s financial health.</p><p>He&#8217;s determined to get to the bottom of the budget. He wants to know the fiscal truth.</p><p>Let&#8217;s hope Tony, his team and the city&#8217;s residents can handle the truth.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Bill O&#8217;Boyle </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Oboyle_Bill-2-1-11.jpg</photo0><caption0>Bill O&#8217;Boyle </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_LEIGHTON-Copy-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Tom Leighton </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_LEIGHTON-Copy-2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Tom Leighton </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Tony-George-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Tony George </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Tony-George-2.jpg</photo2><caption2>Tony George </caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

In Focus: Wilkes-Barre Mayor-elect Tony George and his team search for the city’s financial truth