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University is seeking federal grant money to help build a new field house.
WILKES-BARRE – An official from Misericordia University on Wednesday asked the Luzerne County commissioners to funnel federal grant money to a field house construction project.
John Risboskin, vice president of finance and administration at Misericordia, told the commissioners the university is expanding its campus with the construction of a field house for its new football program.
The 21,000-square-foot field house and significant infrastructure changes on campus are supported partially by a $3 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant, which has been matched by the university.
“This grant requires a municipality to be part of the application and Misericordia asks the commissioners that the county be that municipality as you have done for two previous grants,” Risboskin said.
Risboskin asked that the commissioners at their Sept. 22 meeting approve a cooperation agreement stating that the university will be responsible for administering the grant and will reimburse the county for any related expenses.
The proposed field house will be utilized by students involved in field hockey, football, baseball, men’s and women’s soccer and men’s and women’s lacrosse.
In other business, Trula Hollywood, director of the Agency on Aging for Luzerne and Wyoming Counties, asked the commissioners to approve a contract for a coordinator of the Aging and Disability Resource Center – an all-encompassing referral service.
“In other words, it’s sort of like the ‘No Wrong Door’ concept. If you educate different agencies about the other agencies, then nobody will pick up the phone, call and hear, ‘Well, we don’t do it. Call somebody else,’ ” Hollywood said.
The program budget is $40,000 and the coordinator would be hired at $25 per hour at a maximum $15,250.
Hollywood asked to go move forward without a request for proposals, but Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla said advertising an RFP would be necessary.
Dave Parsnick, executive director of the county 911 system, asked the commissioners to approve the installation of radio tower equipment to solve communication problems with Nescopeck area emergency responders. The fixes will cost about $41,000, to be paid for with funding from the 911 wireline surcharge.
WHAT’S NEXT
Luzerne County Commissioners next meet at 10 a.m. Sept. 22 in their meeting room in the courthouse, 200 N. River St., Wilkes-Barre.