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WILKES-BARRE — Like so many others, Eric Negron remembers the flowing fountain on Public Square.
But now, as co-owner of King of Kings Gyros, Negron’s stake in Wilkes-Barre’s Public Square falls on something else.
“Foot traffic,” said Negron, 28, whose family also owns and operates the nearby CheeseSteak Factory on East Market Street. “Anything that could increase foot traffic, I’m all for.”
The square — and potentially its trademark centerpiece — are in store for an upgrade. Last month, city officials agreed to pay $16,500 to the National Resource Network for assistance in securing the funding needed to perform the face lift.
Since opening the gyro shop in 2011 with his brother, Jason, and father, Ed, Negron said he has seen the area around the square evolve over the past four years. Sprouting up nearby were apartments in the Luzerne and Citizens Bank buildings and a King’s College dorm at the former site of the Ramada Inn.
Negron said the addition of students and residents bodes well for the businesses’ bottom line.
“More people that move downtown means more mouths to feed,” he said.
But if he was in charge of the blueprints, Negron said he’d make sure the water would once again be flowing on the square.
“Right now it’s fine but when I was growing up the fountain was a trademark,” he said. “I’d like to see that again.”
Mark Bronsburg, owner of Mimmo’s Pizza — a staple of the square since 1982 — said any improvements would help create foot traffic. But Bronsburg said the biggest supplier of foot traffic no longer stops there.
City buses.
Opened in 2010, the James F. Conahan Intermodal Transportation Center replaced bus stops around Public Square. That, Bronsburg said, stifled pedestrian activity in the area.
“That put people on the square. It took people right to the square and it dropped them off on the square,” he said.
In an interview with the Times Leader last month, City Administrator Greg Barrouk said moving the buses to the Intermodal was “a big deal” but provided more parking around the square.
Bronsburg said he’s known people his own age that have never been to the 33-year-old restaurant.
“Why? There’s no reason to come here,” he said.
Bronsburg said seasonal events like the Fine Arts Fiesta and Farmer’s Market are sure-fire ways to draw people to the area.
“They need a lot more events like that,” he said.
The city’s ability to procure funding from public and private sources, Negron said, only helps officials use its own funding for addressing other issues.
Safety, he noted, was “number one.”
“It’s good that the city is getting outsourced funding for this,” he said. “It’s a win-win situation for everybody.”