Luzerne County administration releases letter to citizens about roads and bridges

In response to frequent complaints about the state of roads and bridges, Luzerne County Manager Randy Robertson and Engineer Lawrence Plesh publicly released a letter to citizens Thursday.

Posted on the main page at luzernecounty.org, the letter says the county has received 700 emails about the conditions of roads since Robertson started overseeing the county June 13.

Robertson said he can’t recall more than a day passing without a call or email complaining about a county road or bridge. In his meetings with area legislators, all have reported the most frequent concern they hear from county residents involve roads and bridges.

“Mr. Plesh, our county engineer, and I will be one of the first to affirm, several of our county roads and bridges are in need of repair,” Robertson said in the letter.

A current condition assessment of all county roads came up with a grade of 3.23 using a rating that considers a grade of one as good and five as bad, the letter said.

But the letter makes the case that the “element missing in every phone call and email” is a discussion of the money and resources needed to repair and replace roads.

For background, it presented some facts, saying the county:

• Owns approximately 120 miles of roadways and 297 bridges.

• Employs 11 in the county road and bridge department, compared to 21 workers eight years ago.

• Pays equipment operators $31,500, which is less than the approximately $40,000 compensation for counterparts in neighboring Lackawanna and Schuylkill counties. Equipment operators require a commercial driver’s license (CDL), and commercial positions requiring a CDL have starting salaries ranging from $45,000 to $55,000 or more depending on the hours and location.

• Has only three direct funding sources for road repair and maintenance — Liquid Fuels, state “K-Route” allocations and the county’s general fund.

The letter notes county council’s termination of a $5 vehicle registration fee, saying it reduced the amount of funds available for infrastructure work this year.

Council halted the vehicle fee the end of 2021 after the county collected and spent enough to obtain a one-time $2 million state match.

While repairing and maintaining county roads and bridges remains a priority, the staff is “not postured to ‘make up’” for the loss of funds that had been available a few years ago, it said.

“We feel it is imperative you know as much about the current situation as we do,” it said.

Pending projects

The letter says funding has been or will be appropriated this year to address projects that include:

• Base repairs to sections of St. Mary’s, St. John’s and the Hobbie/Wapwallopen roads in Dorrance and Hollenback townships.

• Resurfacing of Hillside Road in Kingston and Jackson townships, West County Road in Sugarloaf Township, Kirby Avenue in Fairview Township and Sweet Valley Road in Ross and Union townships.

County council had voted this year to use $2.46 million of approximately $8.9 million in discretionary federal American Rescue Plan funding to fix roads.

With other prior earmarks factored in, the county has about $3 million remaining in this flexible “lost revenue” portion of American Rescue funds.

Earlier this week, Councilman Brian Thornton proposed council use this remaining $3 million to fix county-owned roads.

Thornton said an additional $7 million would be available for county roads and bridges if the county earmarks the $3 million from American Rescue funds and $4 million from a new casino gambling-funded infrastructure fund.

Up to $55 million will be available from the casino-funded pot, but council had tentatively agreed to first set aside an estimated $51 million to replace the county-owned Nanticoke/West Nanticoke Bridge over the Susquehanna River.

Council recommends how infrastructure money will be spent.

Councilman Kevin Lescavage said he will be proposing the county hold off on the Nanticoke/West Nanticoke Bridge and address other county roads and bridges first. The county could bring most other infrastructure up to standard with this approach, he said.

The Nanticoke/West Nanticoke span was downgraded to a 15-ton weight limit in 2020 due to issues found in an inspection. The county has no funds set aside to cover this expense, and officials have said it would take at least a decade, possibly much longer, for the bridge to receive federal and state funding allocations based on the large number of infrastructure requests. The next inspection may result in lower weight limits and/or a future closure, the county administration has said.

Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.