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Ryan Albert Urzen urns master’s degree in counseling

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Remembering the eight local servicemen killed at Pearl Harbor

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Residents panned the $500,000 grant applied for by the city for recliners and renovations to the downtown movie house and demanded that officials go after the same funds for municipal projects.</p><p>Nonetheless, city council Thursday by a 3-2 vote agreed to let the city shepherd the grant for R/C Theatres Wilkes-Barre Movies 14 through the application process with the state. The application seeks funding through the Local Share Account (LSA) program that&#8217;s funded by revenues from the Mohegan Sun Pocono casino in neighboring Plains Township.</p><p>Sam Troy and several other speakers at council&#8217;s public meeting opposed the application and received support from councilwoman Beth Gilbert who cast a vote in opposition along with councilman Mike Merritt.</p><p>&#8220;This is just beyond me. To me it&#8217;s just a typical scheme of a multi-millionaire trying to become wealthier,&#8221; Troy said before the vote.</p><p>The theatre chain&#8217;s owner and the landlord of the downtown complex, Joe Amato, each promised to contribute $1 million toward the improvements and asked the state for $500,000 to stay competitive with neighboring multiplexes with multiple screens and reclining seats. The downtown development housing R/C already receives tax benefits from its designation as a Keystone Opportunity Zone. They expire at the end of 2019.</p><p>&#8220;I really think this movie theater project is corporate welfare. I think it&#8217;s the definition, rich people wanting money that should be spent in the city,&#8221; added John Suchoski.</p><p>Gilbert, who supported the other LSA applications before council, including $1,274,000 for a new aerial ladder truck, was reluctant to vote for state funds going toward a successful private enterprise.</p><p>&#8220;The fire department needs an aerial truck. The theater doesn&#8217;t need new seats at the moment,&#8221; Gilbert said. &#8220;R/C Theatres is a national corporation. They don&#8217;t need an extra $500,000 from the state and us &#8230; not approving it is not going to be the demise of the movie theater.&#8221;</p><p><strong>&#8216;Not in best interest&#8217;</strong></p><p>Before voting, council chairman Tony Brooks pointed out he&#8217;s against corporate welfare. But the ultimate decision to award the grants rests with the Commonwealth Financing Authority. The city, as the host municipality for the applicants, submits the paperwork to Harrisburg. Except when it applies on its own for funds, the city neither receives or distributes the grant money.</p><p>&#8220;I personally feel it would be very short-sighted and not in the best interest of Wilkes-Barre to block somebody from applying,&#8221; Brooks said in reference to the opposition to the theatres&#8217; submission.</p><p>Ian Hughes called for the city to be more aggressive pursuing LSA grants. &#8220;Tony keeps saying we&#8217;re welcoming people to apply. Why don&#8217;t we point the fingers at ourselves. Why the hell aren&#8217;t we applying and why aren&#8217;t we submitting these grants?&#8221; Hughes asked.</p><p>City Administrator Ted Wampole added that if the theatre didn&#8217;t apply, the money would go elsewhere.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m with Tony to a point on corporate welfare &#8230; , but again if you look at economic development it&#8217;s a tough one to turn down,&#8221; Wampole said. R/C&#8217;s application stated the project is estimated to have a $15 million economic impact.</p><p>Councilman Bill Barrett said he recalled when there was no theater complex downtown.</p><p>&#8220;We can&#8217;t let these projects that took so long to come to fruition deteriorate to the point that nobody comes down(town),&#8221; Barrett said. &#8220;I&#8217;m just grateful that somebody wants to take the lead &#8230; If they want to apply, let them apply and good luck to them.&#8221;</p><p>Meanwhile, Wampole disputed the comment that the city takes a back seat in the LSA program. He said that since the grants were first awarded in 2008, Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s applications overall amounted to approximately $72 million. It&#8217;s received approximately $14 million in return, he said.</p><p>&#8220;This year we actually overloaded it with city projects,&#8221; said Wampole.</p><p>If the state decides to award half of the grant for the ladder truck, it will help because the city&#8217;s Office of Community Development has some available funds, added Joyce Morrash Zaykowski, OCD director and capital projects manager.</p><p>&#8220;So we took a risk by asking for the entire amount in assuming they probably wouldn&#8217;t give us the entire amount,&#8221; Zaykowski said. &#8220;But if they even give us half of it, then we will have a fire truck.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Budget, sale get OK</strong></p><p>Council&#8217;s votes included approval of the $50.4 million budget for 2019 and the sale of the Park &amp; Lock East garage to the Wilkes-Barre Parking Authority for the appraised value of $1,550,000.</p><p>Revenue from the sale was needed to help balance the budget.</p><p>Attorney Frank Hoegen was unsuccessful in attempting to persuade council to table the garage-sale vote so it could entertain a better offer when the Parking Authority&#8217;s agreement-of-sale letter expires in 45 days.</p><p>&#8220;If you proceed, you might prevent yourself from entertaining other offers,&#8221; Hoegen said. He represented Washington &amp; Market Street Properties LLC, which offered $2 million for the garage earlier this year.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Moviegoers leave R/C Theatres Wilkes-Barre Movies 14 in this file photo. The movie house is vying for a $500,000 state grant for improvements, and the city of Wilkes-Barre has voted to help the theatre through the application process. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/web1_TTL043017ExcellingEntertainmentVenues_3.jpg</photo0><caption0>Moviegoers leave R/C Theatres Wilkes-Barre Movies 14 in this file photo. The movie house is vying for a $500,000 state grant for improvements, and the city of Wilkes-Barre has voted to help the theatre through the application process. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jerry Lynott</p><p>jlynott@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Residents blast theatre’s application for $500K state grant