Pocono News Section

Table Games Bill Means Big Things for Monroe College Expansion Plans

Table Games Bill Means Big Things for Monroe College Expansion Plans - Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 6:33PM EST

Reported by: Eric Deabill
Thursday, Jan 7, 2010 @ 06:33pm EST
TANNERSVILLE, MONROE COUNTY - The table games bill, which was signed into law Thursday afternoon by Governor Ed Rendell, means big things for a college campus in the Poconos.

The Monroe branch of Northampton Community College will get $48 million over the next 20 years. That money will be used for a big expansion project. The money comes after voters turned down a referendum question which asked them to pay for the project.

Students Alfred Johnson and Levaughn Nesbitt can tell you first-hand, their school is overcrowded.

"It is very overcrowded. This community room where classes are held gets noisy. The library, sometimes we don't have access to computers," Johnson said.

"This school, we don't have the resources necessary to accomodate the amount of students that we have," Nesbitt said.

That's why news that million from the table games bill will be coming here is so welcome. The money will be used for a new 72 acre campus in Pocono Township.

"This is the biggest thing to happen to us in so long and it's going to be so important," Monroe County commissioner Suzanne McCool said.

"I think the fact that it's going to be at the center of the county and easily accessible and become a community center as well as an educational resource is the thing that really sticks out," Dean Matt Connell said.

When looking at the plan though, the other thing that sticks out, is that local State Representative Mario Scavello voted against the table games bill. He says he's very much in support of the expansion plan, but hates the political red tape.

The bill that was passed in Harrisburg sends more than $6 million of gaming revenue out of Monroe County. Scavello says that money should be staying in Monroe County.

"Those dollars should not be leaving this county, any of those dollars, because the infastructure problems are here in the growing county," Representative Scavello said.

State Senator Bob Mellow helped allocate some of the funding from Monroe County for the new medical college in downtown Scranton. That is located in neighboring Lackawanna County.

"Isn't it incredible that we're developing the area as a region and how much the medical college would mean to the region?" Mellow said.

Scavello says Monroe County is the only county in the state with a casino that is being forced to share its gaming funds. Senator Mellow says he simply fought for the projects that meant the most to him.