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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Upcoming Moosic 5K raises more than $40,000 for borough parks
Moosic is racing to improve its parks. The borough will hold its inaugural 'Move with Moosic 5K Run/Walk' at 9 a.m. Sunday, with all proceeds going toward improving borough parks, Mayor Bob Bennie said. With a route beginning at the Moosic Youth Center on Main Street, the course will take runners past multiple borough parks before looping back for a celebration. So far, the race has raised close to $40,000 from sponsors alone, said Councilwoman Marilyn French, who is also the chairwoman of the race. 'It blew us away,' French said of the support. 'I was like praying we would get to $10,000.' At least 151 people registered for the race, with registrations costing $30 each, she said, adding to the total amount raised. Organizers do not yet have a final breakdown, she said. Fidelity Bank was the presenting sponsor, she said. The idea for the 5K came from a group of moms talking while their kids were at baseball practice over a year ago, French said. Moosic's Santa Parade gets a lot of engagement, so they discussed other seasonal events for the community, she said. 'We were thinking, 'What could we do that's not around a holiday that would get the community engaged and excited that would benefit the parks?' ' she said. That led to the formation of a committee and plans for Moosic to host its first borough-run 5K. Going through a list of Moosic's parks, French envisioned potential improvements, from making the William T. Quinlin Sports Complex, 230 Rear Spring St., more accessible with a walking trail and teener league field upgrades, to getting new backboards for the basketball court at Ken Smerdon Field off Water Street, which currently does not have backboards for its basketball court. Addressing Edmond Piaski Memorial Park on Elm Street is also a top priority, she said, explaining the borough wants to give everything a facelift but make a larger investment into Piaski Park. * Edmond Piaski Park in Moosic on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * Edmond Piaski Park in Moosic on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) Show Caption 1 of 2 Edmond Piaski Park in Moosic on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) Expand The small neighborhood park needs updated Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant playground equipment along with new fencing, French said. 'It's a cute little park in a neighborhood that has a lot of kids,' she said. 'The last thing we want to do is get rid of it. … It's one of the smaller ones that we can make a big impact on quickly.' She hopes to improve Piaski Park this year. Moosic will also seek grant funding for its parks, but the fundraiser is a way to make an immediate impact, she said. In addition to the race, there will be festivities on Main Street on Sunday, including a DJ, food vendors, ice cream from Fidelity Bank's ice cream truck, coffee, basket raffles and a fire safety house for kids to go through from the Fire Department, French said. Bennie noted the significance of the race route taking runners past other Moosic parks that the fundraising could improve. As runners begin the race at the Moosic Youth Center, they will wind down Main Street and Minooka Avenue to Felter Field, pass by the Moosic High Alumni Memorial and Piaski Park on Elm Street, travel up Spring Street to Mary Ann Nawrocki Park and then loop back around to end at the youth center, according to a race route description. The 5K is a way for Moosic to get extra revenue to designate specifically for its parks without risk of having the funds redirected to items like paving, sewers or other maintenance, Bennie said. 'These dollars go specifically to green spaces,' he said. 'This way it could go right toward the park and improve the quality of life for the residents.' To register for the race, visit Preregistration costs $30 and ends Thursday at 11:59 p.m. Race-day registration will be $35, and organizers can't guarantee T-shirts for those who register that day. Organizers ask race-day registrants to pay with cash. The borough plans to make the 5K an annual event.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Developer seeks to convert Archbald junkyard to data centers
A junkyard on the Eynon Jermyn Road in Archbald could become data centers. A developer filed a zoning application with the borough April 10 looking to convert the Highway Auto Parts auto salvage yard into the 'Archbald Data & Energy Center.' The proposed data and energy center would consist of three two-story data center buildings, each under 70 feet tall with roughly 150,000-square-foot footprints; two sites for equipment yards and ancillary buildings; a one-story, 20,000-square-foot office and operations building; and a roughly 211,000-square-foot equipment yard for electrical substations, switch equipment and related items, according to zoning documents obtained by The Times-Tribune on Tuesday via a Right to Know Law request filed with Archbald. The zoning application lists a 1.6 million square foot impervious area, which would include buildings and pavement, across a 3.75 million square foot lot. The proposed data center site would be adjacent to the Highlands at Archbald housing development. The Highlands at Archbald sign along Eynon Jermyn Rd. in Archbald on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) The data center buildings are anticipated to have concrete walls and flat roofs, according to the plans. The Archbald Data & Energy Center is the third data center development proposed for Archbald in recent months, and the second involving James Marzolino, who signed the Archbald Data & Energy Center zoning permit application. Marzolino, of Five Up Realty LLC, 805 Enterprise St., Dickson City, previously signed a memorandum of purchase and sale agreement Oct. 15 to buy a 186.21-acre parcel just north of the junkyard on the opposite side of the Eynon Jermyn Road. For that development, a New York City-based firm, Western Hospitality Partners, operating as Archbald 25 Developer LLC, submitted plans to Archbald looking to build 'Project Gravity' — a six data center campus that would span the wooded area from the Eynon Jermyn Road to Business Route 6. Attempts to reach Marzolino were unsuccessful Wednesday. Highway Auto Parts currently still owns the property. According to an addendum in the Archbald Data & Energy Center's zoning application, Marzolino would remove the junkyard and its facilities to build the data centers and associated buildings, access points, interior roads and other improvements. The 86.1-acre site is approximately 40% covered by an auto salvage yard and retail sales building; the salvage yard currently accepts, stores and cannibalizes automobiles and light trucks, using heavy machinery and regular deliveries and shipments of junk automobiles and parts, according to the addendum. The addendum estimates the data center development would employ 50 to 60 workers, compared to fewer than 30 at Highway Auto. Daily traffic would be limited to service employees, technicians and engineers who operate and maintain the data center. Upon zoning approval, the developer would submit a land development plan including detailed site plans with locations of all improvements, as well as grading, utilities, stormwater management facilities and erosion and sedimentation controls. The data centers would be built as close to the center of the parcel as possible to maximize the distance of the buildings from the residential neighborhoods to the east and south of the parcel, with the proposed plan calling for 200-foot buffers with appropriate setbacks from that buffer area, according to the addendum. The project will maintain or supplement the existing vegetation for the buffer. With the proposed data center next to his Highlands at Archbald development, which includes housing and a Club at the Highlands venue with a nine-hole golf course, Ken Powell, the owner of Powell Developments, does not believe the data centers will impact his Highlands development. 'We've sheltered ourself from the junkyard right from day one,' he said in a phone interview Tuesday, explaining he used barriers, banks and trees to separate his properties from the junkyard. 'It's not like they're going to be seen from our place.' He did raise concerns about noise, though he hasn't heard anything definitive about the proposed data center. 'From the way I look at it, it's not going to be any worse conditions than I had with the junkyard,' Powell said. 'If anything, it creates jobs, and it brings money into the area.' The site for the proposed data center falls into a C-2 general commercial zoning district, and data centers are currently principally permitted uses in C-2 zones in Archbald. For principally permitted uses, the borough's zoning officer will issue a permit if a developer's zoning application meets all of the requirements contained in Archbald's zoning ordinance, according to the zoning ordinance, which the borough adopted in March 2023. Archbald Borough Council is now looking into applying stricter zoning to data centers by making them conditional uses rather than principally permitting them. Conditional uses require written approval from borough council following a hearing, according to Archbald's zoning ordinance. That means data center developers would have to attend a public hearing, which would be advertised in The Times-Tribune's legal notices, where borough officials and residents could ask questions. Should council decide to approve the conditional use, borough officials could tie conditions to their approval. However, until council adopts that amended zoning legislation, any data center to apply with the borough will be grandfathered in under the current zoning, even if Archbald council later applies more stringent requirements. Archbald was first approached during a January council work session by a firm looking to invest an estimated $2.1 billion for 'Wildcat Ridge AI Data Center Campus' totaling 17.2 million square feet, plus about 1.2 million square feet of commercial space, across nearly 400 mountainside acres along Business Route 6 and Wildcat Road, or Route 247. That development would encompass 394 acres bounded by a PPL access road across from Terrace Drive to its west, continuing east along Business Route 6 until its split with Wildcat Road, and then moving up Wildcat for more than half a mile. The data center campus would consist of 14 three-story-tall data center buildings, each with a 126,500-square-foot footprint, according to conceptual plans for the project. Because hundreds of acres of that property are zoned for resource conservation and residential housing, Archbald Borough Manager Dan Markey said Wednesday that the borough would have to rezone the land or grant a potential data center overlay. Otherwise, a zoning application would be rejected. Then, Western Hospitality Partners submitted a sketch plan ahead of the borough's April 2 planning commission meeting for a second data center campus known as Project Gravity. Although smaller than the first proposed data center, Project Gravity would be built on just over 186 acres between Business Route 6 and the Eynon Jermyn Road, with entrances on either road. A sketch plan for the project calls for at least six two-story data center buildings, each with a 135,000-square-foot footprint. Project Gravity has since submitted its preliminary land development plan and zoning application, Markey said. 'Until the law is changed, the borough has to follow the law as it is written,' Markey said of Archbald's current zoning allowing data centers as principally permitted uses.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Johnson College's diesel programs might move to off-campus site in Scranton
SCRANTON — Johnson College's diesel programs might relocate to a site on North Keyser Avenue in Scranton, the college president said. Marelli Realty LLC seeks a variance from the city Zoning Board to construct a 100-foot-by-70-foot building at 1646 N. Keyser Ave. for use by Johnson College's diesel program. The board will hear the application Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Scranton City Hall, according a public notice of the board's agenda published in The Times-Tribune on May 2 and Wednesday. College President and CEO Katie Pittelli, Ed.D., said the plan calls for Marelli Reality to construct the building on a vacant lot on North Keyser Avenue and lease the structure to Johnson College. 1646 N Keyser Ave. in Scranton on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) The college currently teaches a two-year Diesel Truck Technology Associate Degree program and one-year Diesel Preventative Maintenance Technician certificate program at the main campus at 3427 N. Main Ave. in Scranton, Pittelli said in an email. If a new building on North Keyser Avenue gets zoning approval, the college would move the diesel programs from the main campus to the North Keyser Avenue site, freeing up space for other programs at the main campus, she said. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 3% growth in the diesel industry until 2033 with demand widespread and needed in construction, large transportation fleets and agriculture, Pittelli said. 'This field is growing due to the overall increased demand for commercial transportation and due to the ever-changing, complex technology,' Pittelli said. 'As technology continues to evolve, the industry will need the highly skilled technicians who are well-versed in maintaining and repairing these complex pieces of machinery.' The college's Diesel Truck Technology program prepares students as entry-level technicians with the latest information on diagnosis, repair procedures, preventive maintenance and necessary safety applications in diesel technology, according to the college website. The program graduates more than 20 students each year who have an immediate impact on the diesel truck industry, especially in Northeast Pennsylvania. The current diesel technology building at Johnson College in Scranton on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)The current diesel technology building at Johnson College in Scranton on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) The college currently has diesel program labs at Five Star Equipment in Dunmore and Simplex Industries in Scranton, as well as Commercial Driver License (CDL) classes at Road Runner CDL Academy in Taylor and at Johnson College at the CAN DO Training Center in Hazle Twp. The college's Aviation Technology program runs at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport. A diesel site on North Keyser Avenue would be a location for that program, and not a full campus, like the main campus on North Main Avenue in Scranton or its Hazleton campus, she said. * The current diesel technology building at Johnson College in Scranton on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * The current diesel technology building at Johnson College in Scranton on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * The current diesel technology building at Johnson College in Scranton on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * 1646 N Keyser Ave. in Scranton on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) Show Caption 1 of 4 The current diesel technology building at Johnson College in Scranton on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) Expand
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bucktown Market brings new business opportunity to Dunmore
DUNMORE — Bucktown Market — a new marketplace selling everything from swords to cleaning products, and trains to Harley-Davidson parts — presents a new opportunity for local vendors. 'Everything is different,' co-owner Joseph Fernandes said. ' After Sugerman's (Marketplace) closed, it left hundreds of vendors without anywhere to go — many who spent five to 10 years there. Our first calls were to the people we knew were up there.' The new market at 1237 Prescott Ave. in the borough gave some vendors a reason to start selling their goods again, Fernandes added. 'This has changed a lot of people's outlook,' he said. 'People who felt defeated are reinvigorated. And some people came out of retirement because it's right in their backyard.' This building, constructed in 1919, which originally served as a silk mill now gives artisans a chance to sell handmade crafts. * The inside of Bucktown Market in Dunmore on Monday, May 5, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * Pokémon cards in a vendor's booth at Bucktown Market in Dunmore on Monday, May 5, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * A vendor's booth at Bucktown Market in Dunmore on Monday, May 5, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * Bucktown Market in Dunmore on Monday, May 5, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * A vendor's booth at Bucktown Market in Dunmore on Monday, May 5, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * Co-owner Gabrielle Percival hold Monkey the goat in Bucktown Market in Dunmore on Monday, May 5, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * Co-owners Gabrielle Percival and Joseph Fernandes at Bucktown Market in Dunmore on Monday, May 5, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) Show Caption 1 of 7 The inside of Bucktown Market in Dunmore on Monday, May 5, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) Expand Dunmore Mayor Max Conway praised the owners for taking the initiative to bring the new business into the borough. 'It gives folks who don't have the ability to get an actual storefront an opportunity to get their products out in front of folks, which I think is a big benefit,' he said. 'And from what I was told, they're going to try to make it bigger and better and I understand there will be food on the weekends. It seems like a nice way to spend a Saturday or Sunday morning and afternoon, looking at antiques and crafts people are selling.' While the revitalization around Dunmore Corners gets a lot of attention, Conway also feels good about progress happening in other areas of town. 'We have Schiel's Market which took over for Riccardo's in that section of Dunmore, which has been a huge hit, and now we have this (market), and we have Schautz Stadium right there, too,' he said. 'To see (development) kind of sprouting out in other neighborhoods is such a positive for the borough and the people who live here.' Bucktown Market first opened its doors this past weekend and both Fernandes and the approximately 30 vendors were overwhelmed by the support. 'We had a bigger turnout than we expected and all our vendors were very pleased with it,' he said. 'This is nine months in the making — a lot of late nights and planning and expenses, but this (past) weekend made it all worth it.' The monthly rent cost for vendors breaks down to about $30 per day, Fernandes said. 'We try to keep it as economical as possible,' he said. In addition to hosting a food truck on weekends, Fernandes noted plans are in the works to conduct events like a mobile petting zoo with mini-animals, including goats, ponies and donkeys. He also believes some vendors appreciate the social aspect of the market as much as making sales. 'Everyone really gets along well,' Fernandes said. 'They're all talkers and they just love to be here. It's like a little community. We really want to get people interested in their personal stories because everyone in here has a really great story, and I think that will appeal to a lot of people.'
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Senior housing projects progress in Dunmore, roughly $21 million investment
Two senior housing projects will add nearly 90 apartments and personal care units to Dunmore Corners, representing an estimated $21 million investment into Dunmore's downtown. Construction of the four-story Bucktown Center at East Drinker and South Apple streets is nearly complete, creating 37 one-bedroom apartments — each about 800 square feet — and three two-bedroom apartments, said Marty Fotta, chief operating officer of United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The Bucktown Center, which also has 5,500 square feet of first-floor commercial space currently available to lease or buy, is set to begin moving in residents by the end of June, said UNC President and CEO Lisa Durkin. On going construction at the Bucktown Center senior apartment complex in Dunmore on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) A block away, the Dunmore Personal Care Residence at Chestnut and Calvin streets is set to break ground by July to construct a 48-unit personal care home that is scheduled to be completed in fall 2026 under a 14-month construction timeline, said Dunmore native Michael Kelly, president of Scranton-based Senior Health Care Solutions. While United Neighborhood Centers will operate the nearby Bucktown Center, Kelly is also the developer behind that project. The Bucktown Center is an estimated $12 million project, and the Dunmore Personal Care Residence is about a $9 million project, he said. * A lot on the corner of Chestnut and Calvin St. that developer Mike Kelly plans on constructing a 48-unit personal care facility in Dunmore on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * A rendering of the Dunmore Personal Care Residence at Chestnut and Calvin streets. Construction is set to begin this summer, wrapping up in the fall of 2026. (Courtesy of Michael Kelly, president of Senior Health Care Solutions) * A rendering of the Dunmore Personal Care Residence at Chestnut and Calvin streets. Construction is set to begin this summer, wrapping up in the fall of 2026. (Courtesy of Michael Kelly, president of Senior Health Care Solutions) Show Caption 1 of 3 A lot on the corner of Chestnut and Calvin St. that developer Mike Kelly plans on constructing a 48-unit personal care facility in Dunmore on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) Expand Earlier this month, Kelly held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for his Tunkhannock Rehabilitation and Health Care Center at 27 West St., Tunkhannock, opening a 52-bed 'state-of-the-art center' to provide long-term care in Wyoming County, according to Kelly. His Tunkhannock facility will have hotel-like amenities with private rooms and baths, common and private meeting rooms, a bistro cafe, recreational activity rooms, a physical therapy gym, a media center, dining areas and an interactive nursing station, according to Kelly. Kelly's firm, Senior Health Care Solutions, has developed 25 facilities across Northeast and Central Pennsylvania, including about 13 in Lackawanna County. Though he has since sold them, Kelly previously operated facilities in Blakely, Dunmore, Jessup, Old Forge, Scranton and Throop. Both Kelly and Fotta noted the demand for senior housing in the Dunmore area. United Neighborhood Centers opened applications for the Bucktown Center at the beginning of the year, and so far, they have received more than 150 applications, Fotta said. Kelly expects to open applications for his nearby personal care residence in early spring 2026. The developments cater to baby boomers, Kelly said, pointing to the demand for private accommodations. 'Our parents, grandparents, they were used to sharing bathrooms and rooms,' he said. 'Everybody wants private accommodations anymore. … You don't want to dine at a table with 30 people, you want to live personally within yourself.' At the Bucktown Center, where rent will be around $900 to $1,000 per month including all utilities, apartments will have a living room, a kitchen and dining room area, a bedroom and washer and dryer hookups, Fotta said. The units are also accessible with amenities like easy-to-enter showers and grab bars 'to make it really comfortable for the seniors who are going to live there,' he said. Tenants must be 62 or older. Although they are private, independent-living apartments, there will be shared community spaces like balconies overlooking Drinker Street and a large community room, Durkin added. At the Dunmore Personal Care Residence, residents will have access to a bistro cafe and bar, a recreational activity room, a physical therapy gym, a media center and multiple dining areas, Kelly said. Outdoors, there will be a patio and a wheelchair-accessible garden. The residence will be staffed by licensed practical nurses and aides, and it will offer on-site doctor's visits, in addition to providing transportation to off-site medical visits, medication administration and access to therapists and social work, among other services, Kelly said. 'You move into here, and all your needs are met, and if you have some physical maladies, we take care of that for you,' Kelly said. 'It's peace of mind for your kids, it's peace of mind for yourself that you're safe.' Residents at the personal care home will be able to come and go as they please, he said. Though it depends on need, the average room will be about $3,500 to $4,000 per month, which is all inclusive, including food, beverages, care and laundry, he said. 'I think it's low for the industry,' Kelly said of the rate. 'We'd like to be as affordable as possible for the elderly.' Dunmore Mayor Max Conway lauded the 'tremendous development' happening in Dunmore Corners in recent years, including the senior housing projects. 'This is real money we're talking about,' he said. 'These aren't some smaller investments that are being made.' Conway believes the new housing will provide a boost to nearby businesses with new clientele from not just the incoming residents, but also their visiting family and friends. 'We're only going to see more development up there,' he said. Because of the requirements for the Bucktown Center under the Pennsylvania State Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program, United Neighborhood Centers will have to quickly move residents in in June when the facility is complete, Durkin said. As a result, she asked the Dunmore community for some patience if there are any traffic holdups from moving trucks. 'In the long run, this is going to be a community asset that really contributes to the neighborhood and the vibrancy of the beautiful town of Dunmore,' Durkin said. Anyone interested in applying to live at the Bucktown Center can email housing and property manager Debra Reese at dreese@ and any businesses interested in occupying the first floor can contact Joy Hubshman, the director of community housing development, at 570-346-0759 or jhubshman@
