Lackawanna County commissioners award $200,000 to help animal shelter

Borys Krawczeniuk, The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.
·4 min read

Feb. 1—The Griffin Pond Animal Shelter will soon get financial rescue from Lackawanna County.

The county commissioners voted Wednesday to award a $200,000 grant to the Humane Society of Lackawanna County, which runs the shelter in South Abington Twp. The money will come from the county's $40.7 million share of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding.

An agreement between the county and shelter says the shelter can use the money to pay staff and pay for food, medicine and supplies, but the cash infusion comes with a catch: The commissioners get to appoint a shelter board member. Board of Commissioners Chairman Jerry Notarianni said they intend to appoint county chief financial officer David Bulzoni.

"If we were going to give them a big chunk of money, we wanted representation so we know things are going in the right direction," Notarianni said.

In an interview, development director Sherry Crolly said the shelter has already taken in 246 animals this year and has struggled financially since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

"Basically, the financial trend that we're on right now, the shelter can probably stay open a couple of years, and then that's it," Crolly said.

In December, the shelter stopped accepting animals from people who live in towns that refuse to pay its $110 fee for each animal dropped off. Last month, after taking in almost 200 rabbits from a Covington Twp. home, shelter officials appealed to the public for money.

County chief of staff Brian Jeffers said officials hope Bulzoni's presence can help come up with a permanent solution to the shelter's financial struggles because the county needs a thriving animal shelter. He did not rule out the county helping again in the future.

"We're trying to come up with something where we don't have to put the burden on all the municipalities forever," Jeffers said. "But we just haven't come up with an idea yet."

Deputy chief of staff Traci Harte, who brought up concerns about the shelter's viability, agreed.

"I would love to be able to figure out a formula to make the municipalities ... pay their fair share," she said.

In other business, the commissioners:

—Authorized the Scranton-Lackawanna Health and Welfare Authority to issue $15 million in tax-free municipal bonds to fund an expansion at Marywood University.

Marywood plans to expand its O'Neill Center for Healthy Families by 15,000 square feet to create "much needed, large-tiered classrooms and interprofessional labs and learning spaces." Construction is expected to start in March with a May 2024 completion date, according to a Marywood document attached to the commissioners' meeting agenda.

The center houses classes for students in the school's nursing, nutrition and dietetics, exercise science, respiratory therapy and physician assistant programs.

—Authorized an application to a state municipal assistance program to help in the creation of the Northern Lackawanna Planning Association. The association members are Carbondale city, Mayfield and Jermyn boroughs and Carbondale and Greenfield townships. Long in the works, the towns want to develop a comprehensive plan that covers all of them, including a regionwide zoning ordinance. The authorization includes a county commitment of $15,000.

—Assigned the responsibilities of monitoring the county's American Rescue Plan money to Brenda Sacco, the county's economic development director.

—Approved a six-month agreement with Mountains Edge Recovery Center LLC, Uniondale, for drug and alcohol abuse treatment services. The agreement expires June 30.

—Approved an agreement to have Reed's Generator Service LLC., Jackson Twp., to maintain backup electricity generators at the County Courthouse, the Jefferson Gateway, the Government Center, the Criminal Justice Center and the future Department of Health building. The cost is $4,850 a year plus the actual cost of repairs.

—Awarded a $225,670 contract to fix the G.C. Smith Road retaining wall in Elmhurst Twp. to T. Brennan Heavy Equipment Inc., Fell Twp.

—Awarded a $787,164.50 contract to replace the Willow Street Bridge in Dalton to Pioneer Construction, Honesdale.

—Reappointed Drew Simpson, council representative and area manager for Northeast Pennsylvania Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, to the county Workforce Development Board through Jan. 31, 2026.

—Reappointed Kevin McDonough, Scranton; Charles Jefferson, Scranton; and Aaron Whitney, South Abington Twp., to the county Redevelopment Authority board. Their terms expire Dec. 31, 2027. They also appointed John J. McNulty, South Abington Twp., to fill the unexpired term of Kevin Mitchell until Dec. 31, 2024.

—Appointed the first members of the newly created county Literacy Committee. They are Patricia Hein, Scranton; Colleen Judge, Carbondale; attorney James Mulligan, Moosic; Dr. Sabine Charles, Clarks Summit; Sandie Lamanna, Clarks Summit; Donna Salva, Dalton; and Traci K. Harte, Clarks Summit.

Hein's term expires Dec. 31, 2024. Judge's, Mulligan's and Charles' terms expire Dec. 31, 2025; and Lamanna's, Salva's and Harte's terms expire Dec. 31, 2026.

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9147; @BorysBlogTT on Twitter.