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Officials expected to seek financial assistance from Luzerne County for work.

SCRANTON – Lackawanna County commissioners have announced they are in the process of organizing a public meeting with their counterparts in Luzerne County to discuss repairs to PNC Field in Moosic.
“We’re in the process of completing the scheduling,” said Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien during the commissioners’ meeting on Wednesday.
He did not announce a date for the meeting but said it would take place at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport. O’Brien said the date and time, once confirmed, will be posted on the county Web site, www.lackawannacounty.org.
Luzerne County minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said he received a tentative meeting date of Sept. 10.
Lackawanna County minority Commissioner A.J. Munchak said the meeting will be “informal.” Afterward, it is expected, Munchak said, that officials will “decide what’s next” concerning repairs to PNC Field.
It is not yet know if stadium officials will be part of the meeting, Munchak added.
The Times Leader reported on Thursday that Lackawanna County commissioners are expected to seek substantial financial assistance from Luzerne County for the repairs.
Munchak, reached after the report was published, would neither confirm nor deny the report.
The two counties have unresolved issues about the stadium and the shared Triple-A baseball franchise.
A franchise in this case is a claim to house a Triple-A team, and the franchise owned by both counties is currently filled by the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees.
While Luzerne County has a stake in the franchise, it has no ownership in the stadium, which is run by the Lackawanna County Multi-Purpose Stadium Authority.
The original franchise purchase agreement specified that franchise sale proceeds were to be split equally between the two counties, after reimbursing the stadium authority $345,000 for its cost to bring the franchise here 22 years ago.
However, Munchak believes his county is owed more. He said in a recent letter to Luzerne County Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla that Luzerne County has “not contributed one single penny for its operation” since 1986.
In other business, commissioners joined with Jeff Zerechak, director of the Lackawanna/Susquehanna Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse, to proclaim September as “National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.”
Normally, such a designation would highlight the societal benefits of substance abuse treatment programs and recognize contributions by treatment providers while also promoting recovery from substance abuse, but with the current state budget impasse, such county programs may be in jeopardy.
“We’re really in trouble,” said Commissioner Michael Washo, commenting on the situation.
Washo encouraged county residents to contact their state legislators. He urged that cutbacks threaten other county programs as well.
Washo said county officials have been in touch with elected officials about their concerns in failing to pass the budget.
In other business, O’Brien said the county has no plans to conduct natural gas drilling at the 840-acre Merli-Sarnoski Park in Fell Township, which was suggested by Munchak at an earlier meeting as a way to generate county revenue.