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Support expressed for Luzerne County 911 emergency radio upgrade

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Friends, colleagues remember community leader Mahmoud Fahmy

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; A playground promised almost four years ago for a vacant lot in the Rolling Mill Hill neighborhood has yet to be built with a $6,000 donation given to the owner of the nearby Heritage Point Apartments.</p><p>The money from Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northeastern PA was to pay for the purchase and installation of swings, monkey bars and other equipment at the corner of Grove and McCarragher streets.</p><p>But it&#8217;s taken longer for Housing Development Corporation MidAtlantic to build the &#8220;Tot Park&#8221; <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/HDC-settlement.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">agreed to in a settlement</a> than the more than $14 million, <a href="https://hdcweb.com/property/heritage-point-apartments/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">56-unit apartment complex</a> it opened in the summer of 2017 on the site of the former Wyoming Valley Hospital on Dana Street.</p><p>A spokeswoman for HDC MidAtlantic Monday in Lancaster said the park is in the design stage.</p><p>&#8220;Those plans are expected in October,&#8221; Amanda Meyers said in an email. &#8220;Once we get the design plans, they&#8217;ll go to the city for review and approval.&#8221;</p><p>HDC MidAtlantic sold the land to the city for $1 in 2015 as a result of the settlement of a lawsuit two neighbors of the then proposed apartment complex filed against the Wilkes-Barre Zoning Hearing Board. The city has the responsibility of maintaining the park.</p><p>One of the neighbors involved in the suit has since moved out of the city. Warren Farley used to live on Moyallen Street. He said he and his nephew Shawn Kennedy did not want the project billed as affordable housing. &#8220;It&#8217;s not right for that neighborhood,&#8221; Farley said.</p><p>They dropped the suit in return for the playground and a payment of $8,200 for their attorneys&#8217; fees, Farley said.</p><p>&#8220;For a community to move into this neighborhood, it should give something back to the community,&#8221; Kennedy added.</p><p>Meyers confirmed that HDC MidAtlantic was holding the donated money that it received in July 2016 after inquiring about support from the community. It&#8217;s working with Architectural Concepts of Exton that&#8217;s donating in-kind services for the design of the park, she said.</p><p>The settlement required that the park be installed six months after the city issued the occupancy certificate for the apartment complex. But that deadline has long passed.</p><p>&#8220;We intend to honor it, but it is taking us longer than expected due to unforeseen circumstances. We received the final certificate of occupancy in August 2017, but ran into challenges related to site work when we turned our attention to the playground,&#8221; Meyers said in a followup email Tuesday.</p><p>&#8220;Still, we made a commitment to the neighborhood, and it&#8217;s important to us to be a good partner to the community and the city. We continue to be in talks with the city in an effort to problem solve,&#8221; Meyers said.</p><p>Wilkes-Barre City Administrator Rick Gazenski said the city has not heard from HDC MidAtlantic and did not know what the holdup was. There was some confusion on the city&#8217;s part of the ownership of the land and the status of the lawsuit, however.</p><p>When the city&#8217;s ownership was confirmed Monday and that the lawsuit had been settled, Gazenski gave his assurance that the city hold up its end of the deal. &#8220;We will maintain it,&#8221; he said.</p><p>The condition of the property came up for discussion during a meeting of the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RollingMillHillResidentsAssociation/?__tn__=kC-R&amp;eid=ARBzLEPhEb0cxCYKmpZLMCJfr0HtbfArGs9FkTH0QKQnAyso26GDspkC2_suoRW7NSGORfMLtqH7Gig2&amp;hc_ref=ARQEUiFeXtlV09LV1i_K7CSWEpOOzKGt1NGs4XnH6trn-H6GmD1IXPHW5R7x_yQuN10&amp;__xts__[0]=68.ARBF_1zgDcItgQeSfARfP0yO3yLxP3s6t37nxRGm2GB916RluCQt4xTakVwti7MpSvTpUGnSoIo_HtPs0U5OH8OeoPyTvX3bUEU0oMof03knpeHcBV9wZyvlWylxUJXbTLa1EEzaeKoYqL2gHnVEueF0dqmpl8Iixig5tKvUwLUP27HGuzKZOvuHvzaEHLJCCOWVJz-7lMxBR9GGZJjqJt6cEyCZDkP5OoYESjGdSpVcpMkX9-LrM9mJ-IGeRs52qa68FIEOPyW6LWxQ5OzX8K_YbuamhVJypUofBSqDq-FdVT26H3thdB83ukEe4pkELydfSh2xhpMyzPMlzxL9ICVRBg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rolling Mill Hill Residents&#8217; Association</a> last week, Gazenski said. At the time, it was overgrown with weeds and littered with trash and still believed to be owned by HDC MidAtlantic. The city sent a Department of Public Works crew to clean it up.</p><p>But Linda Joseph, president of the RMHRA, said the city did a poor job. Last Saturday the RMHRA cleaned it up, she said.</p><p>Gazenski put the onus on HDC MidAtlantic to make the playground a reality.</p><p>&#8220;Bottom line, HDC needs to start moving on this if they&#8217;re going to do it,&#8221; Gazenski said.</p><p>Any plans have to be approved by an engineer and include a pave cut to make it accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Gazenski said. If there are additional costs beyond the $6,000 the city will try to help out, he said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">A playground that received a $6,000 donation and was promised almost four years ago for a vacant lot at the intersection of Grove and McCarragher streets in Wilkes-Barre is still planned for the site, said the company responsible for building it. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_TTL092519park1.jpg</photo0><caption0>A playground that received a $6,000 donation and was promised almost four years ago for a vacant lot at the intersection of Grove and McCarragher streets in Wilkes-Barre is still planned for the site, said the company responsible for building it. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </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>

An empty lot to show for playground promised in Wilkes-Barre’s Rolling Mill Hill