Heated discussion on Horton Street sinkholes dominates Wilkes-Barre City Council meeting

WILKES-BARRE — The regular voting meeting of Wilkes-Barre City Council briefly devolved into a shouting match Thursday as tensions ran high over two sinkholes on Horton Street that opened up more than a month ago and are still being worked on.

During the public comment section of the meeting, Jason Carr, who owns rental properties near the two subsidences, called the situation a “disaster” and said his insurance policy on one of the properties was recently canceled “because of the risk involved.”

“Right now, there are sidewalks falling into the hole as well as telephone poles,” Carr told council.

He accused the city of ignoring known issues with the sewer lines on the street for years and asked council if any financial assistance would be provided to residents on the street who had to go to the laundromat because their water hasn’t yet been turned back on.

“Absolute disgrace. Complete mismanagement,” Carr said.

Carr also accused Mayor George Brown of having a “secret meeting” about the Horton Street situation, referring to a community meeting that the city held at Crisniks on Barney Street on July 28.

Brown responded to Carr’s statements by saying they were “not exactly correct.”

The mayor said work on the sinkholes has been ongoing for weeks.

Brown said that the city had ordered a special liner months ago for the sewer line that goes down Horton Street. The line is a large and deep terra cotta combined sewer and stormwater line that services about half of the city and is over 100 years old.

Wilkes-Barre had previously identified the area for emergency repairs in order to replace the outdated system and were waiting for the parts to come in before the first sink hole opened up on June 25.

The city was approved on June 24 for a loan of $500,000 from Luzerne County for the emergency infrastructure work.

Brown said it then took several weeks to clean residue out of the sewer line. The mayor said before the rainstorm on Wednesday, work was expected to be completed within a week and a half so that the gas and water company could begin their repairs.

However, that has since been slightly pushed back due to the weather, which allowed sewage to get back into the pipes.

Brown also addressed Carr’s accusation that the meeting at Crisniks was a secret.

“There was about 100 people at that meeting. So if was secret, I don’t know how about 100 people got the word. Mr. Carr, if you didn’t get the word, I can’t help that,” Brown said.

Carr, who was sitting in the back of the room at this point, began speaking over the mayor, which prompted Chairperson Tony Brooks to bang the gavel, shouting at Carr to “stop it.”

“Don’t raise your voice to me,” Carr shouted back at Brooks. After some back and forth, Carr said, “It’s wrong.”

“You’re wrong,” Brooks responded.

After order was restored, Brown went on to say that the meeting at Crisniks went on for several hours and was also attended by his staff, members of the sanitary authority, and representatives PA American Water.

“The reason I had the meeting with the residents of Horton Street was because I felt it was necessary for them to know what was going on. It wasn’t fair for them to not to understand what was going on,” Brown said.

Several other residents also brought up maintenance issues on various roads, including Beth Anne McTavish, who addressed the council about a wastewater basin on Darling Street where she lives that constantly gets blocked when it rains.

McTavish said she recently had her car totaled because it was completely flooded due to a recent storm.

“Why can’t I park in front of my house? Do you park in front of yours? Do you have to move your car every time the weatherman says downpour or the forecast says rain? I have been dealing with this inconvenience for the past 30 years, and I am not the only one to have my car flooded,” she told council.

City Administrator Charlie McCormick said he knew the drain had been cleaned out several times and urged McTavish to send her insurance documentation to the city’s attorney for review.

Agenda items

Council at Thursday’s meeting approved the following items:

• Urging U.S. Senators Dave McCormick and John Fetterman, along with U.S. Representative Rob Bresnahan, to support and vote for legislation to assist disabled miners, including legislation to increase monthly black lung benefit rates.

• Temporarily suspending the hours of operation of city parks for the Night Golfing event from sunset until the event is concluded. The event will be held at the Hollenback Golf Course on Aug. 23 and Sep. 6.

• Authorizing the proper city officials to execute any and all necessary project documents to award the Police Headquarters Replacement Project to the lowest responsible bidder, M & B Electric LLC, for the amount of $135,500.00.

• Authorizing the proper city officials to take any and all necessary actions related to accepting the insurance package submitted by Risk Strategies which includes, but is not limited to, Property, Inland Marine, Boiler & Machinery, General Liability, Business Auto, Fidelity Bond, Crime, Public Officials/EPLI, Law Enforcement, Firefighters Professional, Fiduciary Liability, GL & Prof. Health Dept., and Cyber Liability for a total annual premium of $1,040,155.00.

• An amendment to the reserved parking ordinance to allow residents who have a handicapped placard to be eligible for a reserved parking space. The ordinance previously stated that only those with a disability plate may be eligible.