Pocono News Section

City Officials Get First-Hand Look at New Rink

City Officials Get First-Hand Look at New Rink - Tuesday, October 6, 2009 at 3:45PM EST

Reported by: Dave Skutnik
Tuesday, Oct 6, 2009 @ 03:45pm EDT
WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY Ð Monday on Eyewitness News we gave you an exclusive sneak peek into the new Ice-A-Rama on Coal Street in Wilkes-Barre.

Tuesday city officials got their first-hand look inside, and also talked more about the next phases of the massive project.

"Excited!" That one word summed up 5 years of work for Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton.

"We sat in many, many, many meetings over the past 5 years making sure that this facility was done correctly. We could have easily just put down a sheet of ice and said let's go play some hockey and do some ice skating. But we wanted to make sure we had a state of the art facility," said Leighton.

Construction on the rink area should be done just after Thanksgiving. Right now the steel is going up for office, locker room and store space. That should be ready by next summer, when the Penguins will make Coal Street their permanent new home.

Neighbors like Norm Zapusek of Norm's Pizza say he and his customers are loving the new view. ÒComing down Coal Street it's always been deteriorating, you can see the tennis courts need work, the basketball courts, the kids are playing, but the hoops are down, so this will be great. I think the children will be able to play full court basketball, driving by we'll be able to see a lot of activity and I think it's going to be a wonderful thing," said Zapusek.

The final phase of this massive project will be a massive one itself. Coal Street will be widened to four lanes. That project is expected to start next spring and be completed in early 2012.

"I think it's going to help tremendously with more traffic coming and a lot more people recognizing that we're here. Because a lot of people don't realize that we're here so I'm expecting a little bit more business coming our way," said Zapusek.

That's the dream city leaders have had for the last 5 years, that a little bit of ice would turn into cold, hard cash for city businesses.

The widening of Coal Street is a two part project. Part one runs from Route 309 to Wilkes-Barre Boulevard.

Part two, which would connect Coal Street with downtown Wilkes-Barre at Union Street, is still at least several years away from starting.