Latest news with #OlyphantBoroughCouncil
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Olyphant to vote on grant, updated land development for industrial park
Olyphant Borough Council will vote Tuesday to apply for a $250,000 infrastructure grant and consider an amended land development agreement for a sprawling industrial park project off Marshwood Road. Council will vote on the motions regarding the proposed Triboro Industrial Park and associated Triboro Commerce Park — a project at least six years in the making that will build more than 4.5 million square feet of warehouse space on a large swath of land in the middle of Route 247, the Casey Highway and Marshwood Road. According to its meeting agenda, council will consider adopting a resolution allowing the borough to apply for a $250,000 state grant for infrastructure development at the Triboro Commerce Park. Council will also vote to confirm a memo to the land development agreement between the borough and the Triboro Industrial Park, as well as confirming a modified agreement dated April 25. The original land development agreement between the borough and Triboro was originally approved Nov. 9, 2022, according to the agenda. The Triboro parks encompass nearly 1,000 acres, with the industrial park being about 561.63 acres on the east side of the property and the commerce park being 411.589 acres on the west side, according to two $2 million open-end mortgages recorded with the Lackawanna County recorder of deeds on April 17, 2024. The Triboro Industrial Park transferred some of its property to the Triboro Commerce Park across two $1 property transactions recorded Dec. 29, 2021. Charles DeNaples, the son of Keystone Sanitary Landfill co-owner Dominick DeNaples, signed the April 2024 mortgages as the sole member of both the Triboro Industrial Park and Triboro Commerce Park. Both the commerce and industrial park list 1210 Wheeler Ave., Dunmore, as their address, which is the same address as Smart Recycling Inc. The Triboro Industrial Park is a four-building park with 4,522,880 square feet of warehouse space for lease, according to The warehouses will range from just under 1.067 million square feet to 1.184 million square feet. A brochure for the industrial park and its website advertise the site's close proximity to multiple interstates, touting it as being within a one-day drive of 60% of the United States' population and 40% of Canada's. The website also promotes the industrial park's 10-year tax break. In 2019, Olyphant council, the Mid Valley School Board and Lackawanna County commissioners approved a 10-year tax abatement term for the Triboro property, applying Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance status to 964 acres of the deteriorated, undeveloped land. Once the warehouses are built, the landowner will only pay 5% of taxes on improvements to the property for the first year, increasing by 5% in subsequent years. During the 10th and final year of the LERTA, the landowner will pay 50% of the value of the improvements before paying full taxes the following year. In April 2022, the industrial park received $3 million through the state's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, or RACP, with the funding going toward the first phase of the project and focusing on the eastern portion, including earthwork/excavation, clearing, utility relocation, mine mitigation, erosion, sedimentation controls and stormwater pond preparation, according to a press release at the time from state Sen. Marty Flynn, D-22, Dunmore. Last year, the state Department of Environmental Protection extinguished a mine fire burning near the proposed industrial park. The fire began in 2004 when someone set a stolen car on fire, spreading to the mines below and burning beneath Olyphant for 20 years at the former Dolph Coal Co.'s Hannah Bell Slope Mine. A DEP contractor successfully extinguished the 7-acre fire in April 2024 as part of a project approved for up to $16.5 million. Attempts to reach Olyphant solicitor and borough Manager C.J. Mustacchio and Scranton attorney Gregory J. Pascale, who represented Triboro in recent property transactions, were unsuccessful Monday afternoon.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Chermak: Keep Lackawanna County out of litigation over commissioner vacancy
Republican Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak argues in court the county should be removed from litigation over filling a commissioner vacancy. The litigation was started last month by Democratic Commissioner Bill Gaughan and the county over filling the vacancy of former Democratic Commissioner Matt McGloin for the nearly three years remaining on his unexpired term. Chermak filed a legal brief Friday restating his opposition to the county being a party to the litigation. The brief and another filing called an answer to the Gaughan/county litigation were filed jointly on Chermak's behalf by attorney Paul LaBelle, the solicitor for Chermak in his role as county commissioner, and attorney Howard Rothenberg, as Chermak's personal attorney. Chermak's brief opposes a Gaughan/county motion to strike Chermak's initial filing to have the county removed from the litigation. Senior Judges Carmen D. Minora, Robert A. Mazzoni and Vito P. Geroulo, assigned as a panel for the litigation, have scheduled oral arguments to be heard April 22. Briefs from all parties in the case must be filed with the court no later than Monday. The litigation pits Gaughan/the county against the Lackawanna County Democratic Committee over whether the vacancy should be filled pursuant to the county's Home Rule Charter or a state court rule. The Home Rule Charter process had the Democratic Committee picking three candidates to forward to county judges, who then would select one of the three to fill the McGloin vacancy. The committee named three candidates — Brenda Sacco, who is a former county director of economic development, Olyphant Borough Council President James Baldan and Scranton School Director Robert J. Casey — as candidates to potentially replace McGloin. The Gaughan/county challenge to the charter process claims it is trumped by Pennsylvania Rule of Judicial Administration 1908 of 2019, which says the county court — not a political party — shall receive applications from any interested candidates for the position. Conversely, the committee contends the charter trumps the court rule that would cut the committee out of the candidate selection process. Chermak's brief says Gaughan never consulted with Chermak on starting the litigation and had no greater power to unilaterally do so. Chermak does not take a position on whether the charter or the court rule should be followed to fill the vacancy. Chermak agrees that the person selected must be a Democrat because McGloin was a Democrat at the time of his election, and thus the dispute is between the Democratic Committee and Gaughan as a Democrat, and not as a commissioner. Chermak's 'only concern is that Lackawanna County and its assets and taxpayer money not be utilized to finance this dispute;' and if Gaughan and the Democratic Party want to pursue the litigation, 'they should do so on their own dime,' his brief says.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
County Dems resubmit same three potential McGloin replacements for court's consideration
Lackawanna County Democratic Party Chairman Chris Patrick resubmitted Friday the same three candidates to potentially succeed former Commissioner Matt McGloin that the party's executive committee originally advanced last month. It came a day after county President Judge Trish Corbett issued an order Thursday resetting the clock on an appointment process spelled out in the county's Home Rule Charter — a process that gives the party's executive committee five days from the date of a vacancy to provide the names of three potential appointees for consideration by the judges of the county Court of Common Pleas. Corbett's order noted the court accepted McGloin's resignation Thursday, giving the party until Tuesday to furnish the judges with three candidates. That process had already played out in late February, when party leadership put forward and the party's executive committee voted to advance former county economic development Director Brenda Sacco, Olyphant Borough Council President James Baldan and Scranton School Director Robert J. Casey as the three finalists to fill the remainder of McGloin's term expiring Jan. 3, 2028. The way the party went about advancing those names was controversial, with Commissioner Bill Gaughan sharply criticizing its process as politically 'tainted' and nontransparent. Gaughan, who took office with McGloin in January 2024, had introduced Dunmore Mayor Mark 'Max' Conway Jr. as his preferred choice to replace his former Democratic colleague. The original committee vote occurred Feb. 27, with Patrick submitting Sacco's, Baldan's and Casey's names to the court the next day. Those three candidates scored the highest on a rubric party leaders used to trim the list of potential appointees from 18 to three, Patrick previously said. The three highest-scoring candidates were put before the full executive committee for a vote, though Patrick hasn't released the names of all 18 applicants or details on the scoring rubric. Patrick confirmed Monday that he simply resubmitted the original three names to the court Friday, following Corbett's Thursday order. Democratic Party leaders did not reconvene the executive committee for another vote. Corbett's order said the court will conduct interviews with all three candidates in accordance with Rule 1908 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Judicial Administration before the judges vote on which of the three will replace McGloin. The timeline for that part of the replacement process was not immediately clear. Efforts to reach Gaughan on Monday were not immediately successful.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Candidates to replace McGloin say they can work with Gaughan, including one dismissed last year
A former Lackawanna County economic development director who Commissioners Bill Gaughan and Matt McGloin dismissed early last year said she expects she'd work well with Gaughan if chosen to replace McGloin as commissioner. Brenda Sacco, who led the county's Department of Planning and Economic Development for about five years before Gaughan and McGloin fired her shortly after taking office as Democratic majority commissioners in January 2024, is one of three potential appointees the Lackawanna County Democratic Party's executive committee advanced last week as possible McGloin successors. The others are Olyphant Borough Council President James Baldan and Scranton School Director Robert J. Casey. Baldan and Casey, who is not related to the former senator, each said they could work well with Gaughan, too. McGloin recently announced his resignation as commissioner effective Feb. 24, prompting a process under the county's Home Rule Charter that saw the party submit the names of three potential Democratic replacements — Sacco, Baldan and Casey — for consideration by the judges of the county Court of Common Pleas. Gaughan, who earlier last week announced Dunmore Mayor Mark 'Max' Conway Jr. as his preferred choice to succeed McGloin, continues to sharply criticize the process by which the party advanced those three candidates from a field of 18 applicants. While the charter tasks the judges with choosing one of the three to fill the remainder of McGloin's term expiring Jan. 3, 2028, the court said Friday it will take no action on the vacancy until commissioners officially accept McGloin's resignation at a formal meeting. It came a day after county solicitor Donald Frederickson noted in a memo to the court that, 'as a matter of law,' no vacancy exists until McGloin's resignation is accepted at such a meeting. And with commissioners meeting Wednesday, Frederickson said in a phone interview that McGloin could conceivably come back and rescind his resignation, though he hasn't publicly expressed any desire to return. 'Until the resignation is accepted, there is no vacancy to fill and any effort toward naming a successor is premature,' Frederickson wrote in the memo to the court. A former Penn State and NFL quarterback, McGloin resigned as commissioner for a job with Boston College's football program. He then left that job, citing family reasons. Frederickson also advised the court of an apparent conflict between the Home Rule Charter and a procedure set forth in Rule 1908 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Judicial Administration that the state Supreme Court adopted in 2019. That procedure for filling a vacancy involves the county court alone, not any political party. How the court proceeds remains to be seen. But, given her position atop the short list the county Democratic Party submitted to the judges, the newspaper asked Sacco on Friday if she had any concerns that her having been fired by Gaughan would create an awkward dynamic should she ultimately replace McGloin. 'Reasonable minds can disagree about how to regard my prior separation from Lackawanna County, but I certainly don't regard it as Commissioner Gaughan having fired me,' she said in a statement. 'The truth is I have great respect for Commissioner Gaughan and I supported him when he ran. If I am chosen I hope and expect to work very well with him given our combined experience and dedication to the county.' Sacco joined the county economic development office in August 2013 as deputy director of operations and finance under Director George Kelly, who left in January 2019. Kelly ran for commissioner that year as incumbent Democratic Commissioner Jerry Notarianni's running mate, but didn't advance beyond the primary. Commissioners elevated Sacco in early 2019 to replace Kelly as director, initially in an acting capacity. She served through the next administration of Notarianni, fellow Democratic Commissioner Debi Domenick and Republican Commissioner Chris Chermak, often earning praise for her performance. Gaughan and McGloin dismissed Sacco in late January 2024 but gave no specific reasons at the time for letting her go. A contemporaneous news release noted the county had 'parted ways' with Sacco. It's not unusual for new majority administrations to replace department heads. Longtime planning manager Mary Liz Donato served as Sacco's interim replacement until Gaughan and McGloin appointed Kristin Magnotta to the planning and economic development director position in February 2024. Gaughan declined to comment Monday on Sacco's dismissal, calling it a personnel issue. He also declined to comment on Baldan or Casey, both of whom, like Sacco, expressed confidence in their ability to work with Gaughan should they fill McGloin's seat. 'I can work with anybody,' said Casey, now in his second stint as a Scranton school director after previously serving as a director from 1979-91. 'I spent over 14 years on the Scranton School Board, and, when you're dealing with nine people, in order to get anything done you need to be able to develop a consensus and work with people and understand … what their point of view (is).' Baldan made a similar case for himself, citing his more than four decades working for Burlington stores. 'I worked for over 40 years in the same company,' he said. 'To make that happen you have to be able to conform and be able to work with anyone or work for anyone. … Yes, I would be able to work with anyone in the county, anyone in government or anyone in the private sector.' At this point the appointment process is in the hands of the county judges, Gaughan said. 'They have to go through their process and I respect that, so I'm refraining from commenting on any of the individuals who had their names submitted,' he said. But Gaughan did reiterate his objections to the process county Democratic Party Chairman Chris Patrick used to determine which three candidates should advance to the judges, calling it 'pretty pathetic.' He criticized Patrick last week for not interviewing potential candidates before the full executive committee and for lacking transparency more broadly. Patrick has not released the names of everyone who applied to fill the vacancy or details about a scoring rubric used to grade the candidates. In a Friday statement defending the process, Patrick said that the three highest-scoring applicants were put before the executive committee, which advanced them to the judges. He also noted the relatively short window of time the party had to conduct the process as part of his broader defense. '(Patrick) wants to be the kingmaker instead of being transparent and honest,' Gaughan said Monday. 'And it's my opinion that he has absolutely no interest in good government.' Patrick rejected the charge. 'My response still stands from last week and my only goal as chairman is to make sure we elect Democrats in every election,' he said. 'I totally support good and responsible government on all levels.'
