NANTICOKE -- An anti-drug youth groups need for a new, larger home, and a volunteer fire company's pride collided Wednesday evening.
City council reviewed a draft of a lease that would turn both floors of the Stickney Fire Station over to the growing Greater Nanticoke Area Drug Task Force, a youth group with more than 100 members.
The group meets in the basement of the St. Francis Church but has outgrown that space, said Jim Samselski, a leader of the youth group.
Council member John Bushko advocated leasing both floors of the building to the group for 10 years for $1.
The kids could use that building, he said. Its underutilized.
To make room for a recreation area in the building, council members said a fire engine stored on the ground floor would be moved to the citys main fire garage.
It was a proposal that rankled John Barton, a member of the 30-member Stickney Fire Co.
Have you ever heard of esprit de corps? he asked Bushko.
Moving the engine, an object of pride for the company, would affect the morale of the company, he argued.
Were held together with rubber bands now, he said. We bought a fire truck with our own money to help the city out, and now theyre throwing us out of our house. Hows that for gratitude?
Council moved to meet with the fire company before the lease is finalized for the May 25 meeting.
In other business:
Joe Lach, Plymouth Township solicitor and advocate for the revitalization of downtown, implored council to reel in the citys General Municipal Authority.
The authority, which controls a $1.5 million grant set to expire on May 31, has made a mockery of efforts to redevelop the city by its lack of candor and most recently holding a patently illegal meeting at which the public was excluded, he said.
Lach, as a member of the South Valley Partnership, a nonprofit organization pushing for the development of Nanticoke and surrounding communities, offered the authority the assistance of the partnerships city planner at an hourly rate.
Council approved a $700,000 bond issue to refinance municipal debt. Council member Bill Brown, who reports on finances for the city, said the city is getting a handle on its overdue bills.
We should be current by the end of this month, Brown said, referring to a shrinking list of vendors waiting for overdue payment from the city.
Distributed by the Associated Press
