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Luzerne County issues refunds to two companies due to property assessment reductions

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Beyond the Byline: I’ll have some scrapple and a buttermilk, please

So Wilkes-Barre Area School Board is hunting for a new place to build a new high school, and all three sites on the list are in Plains Township. On the surface, this seems to make sense. Plains has a good bit of space available for development.But there is a minefield of context the board will have to negotiate if one of the three sites ends up being chosen.For starters, it wasn&#8217;t so long ago that Plains Township was looking to leave the district, residents grumbling that a) the district has neglected the township when building schools; b) the township could build a better district on its own with the tax dollars it sends to Wilkes-Barre Area coffers.Is a move to the township a bid to regain favor?Then there&#8217;s a question of whether looking at township sites is a deliberate rebuke of Wilkes-Barre. Superintendent Brian Costello didn&#8217;t hide his feelings after the city Zoning Hearing Board nixed plans to build where Coughlin High School sits.&#8220;I would not recommend&#8221; building the school in the city, Costello said, arguing that the rejection of a construction project expected to cost $80 million &#8212; with a good chunk going to the city in construction fees &#8212; showed the city didn&#8217;t want the school. &#8220;Actions speak louder than words,&#8221; he said, &#8220;and I felt that action spoke very clearly.&#8221;Transportation costs must also be addressed. Meyers High School has a high percentage of students walking to school, and district data showed that shifting them to the Coughlin site, as originally proposed, would increase bus costs.All three of the Plains sites are roughly five or more miles from Coughlin, and thus even further from Meyers. None is amenable to pedestrian approach: One sits on busy River Street, one in the massive East Mountain boulevard complex housing Geisinger Wyoming Valley, and one squarely on the slope of state Route 115.About those last two sites: the district would be sending the bus fleet &#8212; and asking older students and staff to drive &#8212; part of a mountain road notorious for poor weather conditions in winter, and for excessive speeds by hurried commuters.And that River Street site sits within view of the Susquehanna, on a stretch unprotected by the levee system. If the property is chosen for a school, the board should have powerful evidence it is free not only from the risk of flood, but from the risk of soil shifting beneath the foundation as the river rises and falls, impacting ground water levels.Lastly, the district&#8217;s original review of optional sites included four in Wilkes-Barre, but two are off the table: Coughlin because of the zoning ruling, and a district-owned plot along Empire Street because the district is selling some of that land. By comparison, three other original sites still theoretically available are also in Plains Township.None of this precludes putting the new school in Plains. But board members would be wise to publicly and thoroughly address these issues going forward.

Our View: New sites for Wilkes-Barre Area high school come with quite a few questions