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<p>PLAINS TWP. &#8212; Up an old industrial access road riddled with cracks, just over a ridge, the view becomes both old and new: Heavy earth vehicles scattered across a blackened landscape so common in coal country. A high hill of what looks like culm refuse. A fresh hole dug deep into the ebon turf, all surrounded by scrubby vegetation turning brown with the bitter cold.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s new,&#8221; Wilkes-Barre Area School District Superintendent Brian Costello said, pointing to one large hill in the distance, across an expansive stretch of level land with wooden sticks sporting tiny flags. They roughly outline the planned location of a new, consolidated high school, where both building and parking lots will be.</p><p>The &#8220;new&#8221; pile, it turns out, correlates directly with a large hole that has been excavated within the boundaries of the flags.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s where they found a soft spot,&#8221; Costello explained. The former industrial land is being &#8220;dynamically compacted&#8221; &#8212; a large crane lifts and drops a heavy block to compress the soil so a future foundation will not shift. When a spot is too soft to be compacted properly, it is excavated.</p><p>&#8220;They will dynamically compact the bottom,&#8221; Costello said. &#8220;Then put in new fill and compact that.&#8221; The old fill &#8212; that &#8220;new&#8221; pile &#8212; will be hauled away, he added.</p><p>Architect renderings depict an impressive building stretching from a natatorium on one side to four, two-story classroom wings on the other, with cafeteria, auditorium, two-tier gym and other public space in between. The surrounding driveways and walkways are punctuated with swaths of green grass, a sweeping vista of the valley beyond.</p><p><strong>&#8216;You see mountains&#8217;</strong></p><p>But during a Wednesday visit of the &#8220;Pagnotti site,&#8221; as it&#8217;s called, that vision seemed little more than an unsprouted seed. Yes, the rough orientation and footprint of the school is taking shape on the 22 acres &#8212; carved from about 78 being purchased at a cost of $4.5 million. But it&#8217;s still a black, flat void on a windy rise next to the Cross Valley Expressway &#8212; at least to the average person.</p><p>To Costello, who has been consistently upbeat about this struggling district since he took the reins in September 2016, the school is in sight. He points to a white truck and sees the main doors just to its left. He waves a hand across an arc of vegetation to his right and says that&#8217;s where the entrance road from Main Street will be, then waves to the left and says that&#8217;s where the entrance road from Maffett Street will be.</p><p>He points to distant, tiny flag high on a pole and notes that&#8217;s the Solomon/Plains Education Complex, &#8220;Practically across the street.&#8221; He proudly observes that even with the busy expressway immediately down the hill, there is scarcely a whisper of traffic noise reaching the site. And he mentions that, despite being amid the large, dense urban area of Plains Township and Wilkes-Barre, &#8220;When you look around, you see mountains.&#8221;</p><p>Critics, many of whom opposed the elimination of three smaller high schools from the start, now question the risk of building on scarred mine land used to hold tons of coal ash. They point to studies that found elevated levels of arsenic and cadmium. Costello is undeterred. The vegetation across a big part of the site was planted on topsoil used to cover that ash &#8212; &#8220;capping&#8221; in enviro-speak. The result has been monitored for years by the state Department of Environmental Protection and deemed stable.</p><p>The school, parking lots and future grass sites will cap any remaining environmental risks, he adds, stressing the chemicals discovered are common throughout the region&#8217;s soil, elevated in some tests because of the industrial and mining excavations that were done here. It has all been approved by DEP.</p><p>Objections to this school on this site will surely continue, but so does the work. Asked if he still foresees the doors opening to welcome students by fall 2022 as planned, Costello says he does.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL111518pagnotti2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The grassy areas of the Pagnotti site mark large swaths that were &#8216;capped&#8217; years ago with top soil and vegetation to seal coal ash dumped as fill. The truck in the distance sits roughly to the right of what should be the main entrance of Wilkes-Barre Area&#8217;s new consolidated high school. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL111518pagnotti2.jpg</photo0><caption0>The grassy areas of the Pagnotti site mark large swaths that were &#8216;capped&#8217; years ago with top soil and vegetation to seal coal ash dumped as fill. The truck in the distance sits roughly to the right of what should be the main entrance of Wilkes-Barre Area&#8217;s new consolidated high school. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_Slide89.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">This architect&#8217;s rendering depicts the new Wilkes-Barre Area consolidated high school sitting on an elevated stretch of 22 acres bound by Maffett Street, Main Street and the Cross Valley Expressway in Plains Township. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_Slide89.jpg</photo1><caption1>This architect&#8217;s rendering depicts the new Wilkes-Barre Area consolidated high school sitting on an elevated stretch of 22 acres bound by Maffett Street, Main Street and the Cross Valley Expressway in Plains Township. </caption1><photoCredit1>Submitted photo </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL111518pagnotti1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre Area School District Superintendent Brian Costello points in the direction he believes the new consolidated high school will face when completed on the Plains Township property known as the Pagnotti site. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL111518pagnotti1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Wilkes-Barre Area School District Superintendent Brian Costello points in the direction he believes the new consolidated high school will face when completed on the Plains Township property known as the Pagnotti site. </caption2><photoCredit2>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Amid black landscape, site of new Wilkes-Barre Area high school takes shape