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State Senate set to vote on Kane’s ouster

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WILKES-BARRE TWP. &#8212; The Luzerne County Convention Center Authority Wednesday rejected a large-scale expansion at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza and looked to build a pub area on the main concourse.At its regularly scheduled meeting, the authority voted to abandon the addition that had been in the works for years after the second set of bids came in at $3.9 million, approximately $500,000 above the budgeted amount for the proposed project to add food and beverage space.Instead, the authority leaned in favor of adding a pub and bathrooms for exclusive use by club seat holders.Angelo Answini, an authority board member and chairman of the construction committee that oversaw the project, gave a rundown of the low bidders and their costs, leaving it to the board to decide what to do next.&#8220;I can say that the committee itself recommends that we not go forward, but rather dispense with doing this particular project,&#8221; Answini said.In response to board member Alex Milanes, who asked why the project came in over budget again, Answini said, &#8220;The bids were high because the contractors wanted more money.&#8221;The board rebid the project after initial costs submitted in June ranged between $6.4 million and $6.9 million. Quad 3 architects and engineers of Wilkes-Barre redesigned the project at no expense to the board, changing much of it to lower the overall cost. The bids contained a total base amount made up of separate submissions for the concourse addition and the pub and bathrooms.Answini said the smaller project would cost $343,292 when the four lowest bids were tallied: Champion Builders of Kingston, $232,508 for general construction; G. Weinberger of Old Forge, $7,884 for mechanical construction; Everon Electrical Contractors of Moosic, $87,900 for electrical construction; and Yanuzzi Inc. of Hazleton, $15,000 for plumbing construction.However, the bid specifications did not include costs for relocating Chickie&#8217; s &amp; Pete&#8217;s from the area eyed for the pub. The vote to approve the pub was put on hold for solicitor Joseph Persico to determine whether the relocation can be done as a change order or as a separate bid.Board chairman Dave Palermo said the review likely would be complete before a scheduled special meeting on Feb. 22 to award a contract for the installation of acoustical panels. &#8220;I would think the solicitor should have an opinion back that we can vote on,&#8221; Palermo said.Brian Sipe, general manager for SMG which manages the arena, said the vendor would move to a similar-sized space and better location near the west gate.&#8220;It will actually move it closer to the center of the building,&#8221; Sipe said.Donna Cupinski, a former chairwoman who sits on the board&#8217;s future directions committee, said she had mixed emotions about the decision not to go with the larger project.&#8220;But on a positive note, it is going to free up money to do some much needed things that we need to do in this arena,&#8221; Cupinski said.Her committee was compiling a list of capital projects and projects to add revenue and enhance the fan experience, she said. She said approximately $3 million from bonds will be available for the yet-to-be named projects.<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Jerry Lynottjlynott@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott</shirttailMeta></div>

Arena board looks to scale proposed expansion down to a pub