WB Area sells Coughlin site, moves further on new stadium

WILKES-BARRE — The Wilkes-Barre Area School Board approved the sale of the Coughlin High School site — original building, annex, adjacent field and a small lot across the street — for $1.65 million at Monday’s regular meeting. The purchaser is City Mills LLC.

The board also took another step toward construction of a new stadium, hiring Apollo Group, Inc. as construction manager, and voted to keep any tax increase in 2021-2 within a state limit.

District Solicitor Ray Wendolowski said the person behind City Mills is Mendy Gansburg, a New York developer doing the conversion of the former Citizen’s Bank Building at the corner of Franklin and South Market Streets into mixed use with apartments. Wendolowski said he believes Gansburg has similar plans for the Coughlin site.

Wendolowski also said the deal makes the assessed value the same as the purchase price, with the assessed value increasing once renovations and construction are done. No tax breaks are involved in the deal, and the property goes on the tax rolls as soon as ownership is transferred.

The offer for the school is close to the asking price. When the board agreed to put it up for sale, City Brokers Real Estate in Edwardsville listed the 136,282 square foot building and related lots totaling about 3.2 acres at an asking price of $1.8 million.

New AUNs

In a related move, the board approved a plan to restructure district configuration so the state would assign new “Administrative Unit Numbers” to the new high school and the former Mackin building currently used to house two grades of Coughlin. The four grades were split between the Coughlin annex and Mackin when the board closed the original building for asbestos abatement.

The initial plan had been to raze that building and the annex to make room for a new school consolidating Meyers and Coughlin, but the Wilkes-Barre Zoning Hearing Board denied a needed permit, and the district decided to consolidate grades 9-12 of all three existing high schools into a new building in Plains Township.

That school will require a new AUN anyway. Mackin has been operating under the Coughlin AUN ever since the grades were split. Once Coughlin is officially closed, Mackin will require an AUN of its own.

While AUNs in state data can be used in lieu of school names to pinpoint specific schools, new AUNs withing a district are largely a procedural move for state book keeping.

Stadium price tag

The school board has not yet approved construction of a new stadium at the high school site, but it did previously give Borton Lawson architects the green light to develop design plans, necessary before a preliminary cost could be set. Apparently, enough design work has been done to give the potential project a price tag of $15.14 million.

The number is embedded in the agreement with Apollo Group, Inc., which will be paid 1.3% of total cost — about the same percentage paid to the company as construction manager of the new high school. Apollo has been contracted as district construction manager for all projects for many years.

Wendolowski again noted the agreement with Apollo does not mean a stadium has been approved. Once plans are completed, by law the board would have to approve the actual construction, including awarding of contracts.

Also related to the new high school, the board agreed to have Atlantic Testing Laboratories conduct more non-invasive testing for possible cracks in walls at an estimated cost of $15,250. The company was hired to do initial testing after some cracks were found in the tops of new walls when roof support structures were put in place. While those problems have been mitigated, Wendolowski said the additional testing is to make sure no other issues were missed.

Tax vote

The vote regarding taxes was related to the state law known as Act 1, which used money from legalized gambling to give homeowners school property tax breaks. Each year the state sets a maximum increase for each district based on a complex formula. If a board passes a resolution to stay within the limit, it has several months more time to prepare a preliminary budget. If a board considers exceeding the limit it must get tax exemptions or voter approval, which requires a preliminary budget much earlier in the year. Wilkes-Barre Area’s limit this year is a 4.3% increase.

And the board approved taking about o.155 acres of land by Eminent Domain at a cost of $7,750 dollars related to widening and turning lane additions at the junction of the North Cross Valley Expressway and Maffett Street in Plains Township. The State Department of Transportation mandated the changes to accommodate increased traffic to the nearby new high school. Wendolowski said the owner of the land, Russin Properties LLC, was amicable in negotiations, and that using Eminent Domain instead of negotiating a regular sale avoided the need to subdivide the sliver of property from the rest of Russin’s adjacent land.

During the public comment section, Superintendent Brian Costello read a lengthy letter from a resident frustrated with paying extra for day care for his child and paying full property taxes even as the district stays in remote-only learning. Costello noted new state recommendations that districts consider letting elementary students into a hybrid learning mode with some taking in-person classes at the start of the second half of the school year, and said he is hopeful the district will bring at least some students back in February.

Wendolowski also read a letter from Sam Troy, who reiterated a recommendation the district reduce administration and staff salaries during the pandemic and use the savings to create a COVID-19 relief fund for struggling district taxpayers.