Latest news with #Forconi
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Dickson City awards $400,000-plus for park projects
Two Dickson City parks will receive more than $400,000 in new improvements this year amid the borough's ongoing efforts to upgrade its outdoor amenities. Borough council approved nearly $412,000 in funding for its Crystal and Riverfront parks, upgrading facilities at Crystal Park at Doloff Drive and Shady Lane Drive, including adding a mural, and purchasing a pavilion for Riverfront Park on Enterprise Street, according to a meeting agenda and borough Manager Cesare Forconi. Council voted last week to approve just $217,930.50 spread across three payments to Stafursky Paving Co. of Archbald for the first phase of the borough's Crystal Park development project. The first phase of work will involve redoing the baseball dugouts and press box, installing Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant walkways connecting each element of the park, adding a pickleball court, redoing the basketball court, expanding parking and putting in a rain garden, Forconi said. The borough awarded a $416,229.75 contract last fall to Reinfurt Excavating Inc. of Honesdale for all new playground equipment at the park as phase two of the project, Forconi said. The contractors will work on both phases simultaneously. Forconi expects work to be complete by the fall. Council also voted to hire local muralist Eric Bussart to paint a mural on all four walls of the concession building at the park, costing $16,500 for the mural itself and $2,175 for prep work, Forconi said. The mural will be recreation themed, encompassing Dickson City's various offerings at its parks, including baseball, softball, basketball, walking and fishing, he said. 'Everything that we can offer at our different parks, he's going to incorporate,' Forconi said. Dickson City previously commissioned Bussart, whose artwork decorates walls and buildings across Lackawanna County, last year for a first responder-themed mural honoring late borough firefighter Bernard Seminski, who died while responding to a July 1954 fire, at his namesake Bernard Seminski Memorial Park at Dewey and Elm streets. The new mural has to be completed by the end of June because of the grant funding the borough is using to pay for it, Forconi said. Dickson City will receive a total of $100,000 spread across four years for artwork in the town through the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts,, Forconi said. The borough used last year's $25,000 grant for Bussart's Seminiski mural, and it is using this year's money for the Crystal Park mural. Beyond payment to Bussart, the remaining money will go toward things like lighting, he said. At Riverfront Park, borough council voted to spend $175,000 to purchase and install a pavilion, Forconi said. The borough is buying the pavilion through the state's COSTARS cooperative purchasing program. The borough will use a $175,000 grant through the state Department of Community and Economic Development to pay for it. Dickson City opened its Riverfront Park in October 2023 as the culmination of an $800,000-plus project to build a park in the 800 block of Enterprise Street that includes a Lackawanna River boat launch and fishing area, a dog park with sections for large and small animals, picnic tables, benches and a walking trail. The addition of a pavilion will make the park multidimensional, Forconi said. 'We'll be able to do other things besides just the dog park and the walking trail,' he said. He expects the borough to use the pavilion for events, including using it as a bandstand for the town's 150th anniversary festivities, he said. Last month, council also voted to approve an agreement for engineering consulting firm GPI to carry out the design, bidding and construction management of a project to add about 18 lights around Riverfront Park, its access road and walking trail. Right now, the park's only lighting is in its parking lot. That work will go out to bid very soon, Forconi said. The park upgrades overall improve quality of life for residents while providing recreation for all ages, whether it's playgrounds, walking, basketball, pickleball or fishing and kayaking, Forconi said. 'We are proud of a lot of things that are happening here in Dickson City, between the Main Street revitalization and the different hospitals that are coming in between Lehigh Valley and Geisinger,' Forconi said. '(Residents) will have different parks that offer different recreational activities.'
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Two Dickson City parks slated for improvements with lighting, veterans monument
Dickson City council voted Tuesday night on projects to improve two of the borough's parks, adding lighting to Riverfront Park and preparing for a veterans monument at VFW Park. Council voted to approve an agreement for engineering consulting firm GPI to carry out the design, bidding and construction management of the borough's Riverfront Park lighting project, as well as voting to award a $194,110 bid to Tobyhanna-based Kobalt Construction — pending review by the solicitor — to install everything but the monument itself for the borough's VFW Veterans Monument project at VFW Park, according to borough Manager Cesare Forconi and the meeting agenda. The borough hired GPI for $6,130, Forconi said. Dickson City opened its Riverfront Park in October 2023 as the culmination of an $800,000-plus project to build a park in the 800 block of Enterprise Street that includes a Lackawanna River boat launch and fishing area, a dog park with sections for large and small animals, picnic tables, benches and a walking trail. However, the park lacks lighting. With the help of a $165,000 Local Share Account grant, the borough will now complete the lighting and electric installation throughout the park, Forconi said, explaining the only lighting now is in the parking lot. There will be about 18 lights in a circle around the park, the access road and walking trail, he said. 'This will light up, basically, the rest of the park,' Forconi said. * A sign near the entrance of Dickson City's Riverfront Park on Enterprise Street on Tuesday. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO) * The base of a yet-to-be-installed light pole at Dickson City's Riverfront Park on Enterprise Street on Tuesday. The borough plans to run electricity and install lights throughout the park using a $165,000 grant. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO) Show Caption 1 of 2 A sign near the entrance of Dickson City's Riverfront Park on Enterprise Street on Tuesday. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO) Expand The bases and conduits for the lights are already there, but they're not wired, he said. There will also be receptacles on the poles to power Christmas lighting, Forconi said. The timeline is contingent on the supplier of the lights, but borough officials hope to install the lighting by the middle of summer, Forconi said, noting that it's an ambitious timeline. As a second project, the borough plans to use a $175,000 grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development to build a pavilion/band stand at the park, he said. Dickson City's 150th Anniversary Committee plans to hold concerts by the Lackawanna River at the park, Forconi said. 'By potentially adding a band stand/pavilion and this lighting, it'll certainly allow for much more usage and longer hours of usage,' he said. 'Right now, it's pretty much a daytime park.' Elsewhere in the borough, Dickson City is working toward building a veterans monument at its VFW Park on Walker and Jermyn streets. The borough received $75,000 from the Robert H. Spitz Foundation for the project, which requires the borough to also contribute $75,000. * Dickson City's VFW Park at Jermyn and Walker streets on Tuesday. The borough is working to install a veterans monument at the park. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO) * Dickson City's VFW Park at Jermyn and Walker streets on Tuesday. The borough is working to install a veterans monument at the park. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO) Show Caption 1 of 2 Dickson City's VFW Park at Jermyn and Walker streets on Tuesday. The borough is working to install a veterans monument at the park. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO) Expand Kobalt will install walkways, benches, a flagpole, lighting and a water feature for the monument, Forconi said. 'Basically, this is to complete everything there except the actual monument itself,' he said. The monument will have six slabs to honor the six branches of the armed forces, he said. There is not yet a definitive timeline for the work, but borough officials hope to complete it later this year before winter, Forconi said. If that goes to plan, the monument would be installed in 2026, he said.
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Dickson City to convert every streetlight to LED
Dickson City is about to be brighter. Borough council voted this month to approve a resolution with PPL where the electric utility will convert all of the borough's streetlights to LED in the spring. The new lights, which come at no cost to Dickson City, will replace the existing high-pressure sodium lights and their characteristic orange glow with brighter, cleaner LED lighting, said council Vice President Robert Hall. 'We reached out to PPL because there is an energy savings,' Hall said. 'This is a win-win for everybody — we get a better light, cheaper rate (and are a) little more environmentally friendly.' PPL expects to begin work in five to six weeks after it receives all of the necessary parts and supplies, spokeswoman Alana Roberts said in an email. If everything goes smoothly, it should be complete by the end of May, she said. The project will convert 573 lights to LEDs, Roberts said. Dickson City joins Archbald, Jessup and Throop in converting their streetlights to LED, she said. PPL is currently in the process of changing its high-pressure sodium fixtures to eco-friendly, energy-efficient LED lighting throughout its territory, Roberts said. PPL's Business Account Specialists Team receives requests and enters municipalities into its LED conversion program, she said. Once in the program, PPL orders new streetlights to match the existing type, size and wattage equivalent, Roberts said. The utility company's trained professionals then install the new lighting, which provides a whiter light with a more direct, focused coverage, she said. While PPL can't guarantee cost savings to its customers, the LED lights use significantly less power than high-pressure sodium and mercury vapor streetlights, she said. PPL owns the borough's streetlights, with Dickson City paying on average $11,000 per month for the lights, borough Manager Cesare Forconi said. By switching to LEDs, the borough expects to save about $450 per month in electricity costs, Forconi said. Dickson City already added LED lights to a stretch of Main Street as part of its comprehensive, multimillion-dollar Main Street revitalization project, which included replacing wooden light poles with decorative lampposts and LED lights. The existing work spans from Hallstead Street to about half a block short of Jackson Street, with upcoming phases carrying the revitalization efforts along Main Street until it intersects Dundaff Street before continuing the improvements down Boulevard Avenue from Main Street to Enterprise Street. With the new lights, Dickson City will have the energy-efficient LEDs in the upcoming revitalization areas until the borough installs its own decorative lighting, Forconi said. The lights will offer more uniform lighting while saving taxpayers some money, he said. Forconi also expects them to require less maintenance, explaining that the borough has two or three streetlights burn out every month. 'It's a win for everybody,' he said. 'We save tax dollars, we're going to have better light, and PPL still is the provider for the lighting.'
