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Pa.’s ugly budget fight gets personal Capitol gripped by growing feud By Marc leVy aSSoCiateD PreSS
SPRUCING UP THE SQUARE
Wilkes-Barre’s W lk B ’ P Public bl Square S could ld soon see a ffacelift lf By Bill Wellock Staff Writer
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ILKES-BARRE — More than four decades after the redesign of Public Square, the same architecture firm that designed it is going back to the drawing board. The square is ripe for an upgrade, said Larry Newman, executive director of Diamond City Partnership, a not-for-profit downtown management organization that focuses on revitalization. And bit by bit, the city and Diamond City Partnership hope to give it one. Exactly how and when that work will happen is still uncertain, although the city has earned a $200,000 grant for work and recently signed an agreement with Bohlin Cywinski Jackson for design work. “We’re still planning because it’s going to be based upon what we can do,” said City Administrator Ted Wampole. Nicholas Snyder, an architect with BohlinCywinskiJacksonandamember of the Greater Wilkes-Barre
Chamber of Commerce, is one of the people who’s been discussing how to improve the site. The firm, then called Bohlin and Powell Architects, redesigned the square in the ’70s after the city was flooded from Hurricane Agnes. Snyder,39,wasbornjust asthe downtown improvements the firm designed were nearing completion. At that time, founder Peter Bohlin was a young professional not far into his career. Now, he’s known as an architect who has won the American Institute of Architects’ highest award and who designed the Apple Store in New York City and Bill Gates’ home near Seattle. “Peter has a clear memory of how wonderful it was to be in downtown Wilkes-Barre after the completion of thePublicSquareandhowdowntown declined in the 90s, so despite his deep connection to the original design he worked on early in his career, he is excited to see downtown beginning to grow again and to be able to re-visit the design 40 years later and help refresh it,” Snyder wrote in an email. Please see Square, Page A5
Warren ruDa / Staff PhotograPher
Above: Nicholas Snyder and Peter Bohlin discuss the Public Square project at the headquarters of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in Wilkes-Barre. Top: The fountain on Public Square could be costly to fix and properly maintain.
More inside Square symbols: Designs carved into some of the stones on Public Square are a hidden secret of the downtown. Page A5
HARRISBURG — The feelgood bipartisan spirit that Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf tried to instill last year in Pennsylvania’s Capitol is gone, stomped to bits in an increasingly ugly budget stalemate. Now, the Capitol seems gripped by a feud that is perhaps less partisan than it is regional and personal. To a significant degree, that feud is between the huge Republican majorities that run the House and the Senate. It is also inside of those majorities, pitting southeastern Pennsylvania moderates against anti-tax conservatives who hail from much of the rest of the state. “There’s so many factions, just so many factions,” said Sen. Don White, R-Indiana. “Everybody from the southeast. It’s More geographical. inside It’s about Some commitments experts made. It’s a skeptical of real mess and state’s plan I’ve never to improve seen anything public like it in my schools. 17 years.” Page A14 N e a rly three months into the fiscal year, lawmakers are grappling with how to resolve state government’s largest cash shortfall since the recession, now a projected $2.2 billion gap in a $32 billion budget. The finger-pointing was on stark display late Wednesday night, right after House Republican leaders defied weeks of urging by Wolf and Senate leaders to agree to a plan that relied, in part, on a $500 million-plus tax package. Please see BudgeT, Page A6
Dallas teachers readying for possible strike later this week Negotiations will be held Thursday with the strike currently set for Friday. By Michael P. Buffer Staff Writer
the CitizenS’ VoiCe file
Dallas teachers walk the picket line last year. The union is readying for another strike this week in the ongoing contract dispute.
The clock is ticking as teachers for the Dallas School District get ready for another strike Friday. Leaders with the teachers union, the Dallas Education Association, plan to meet with school district negotiators Thursday, “but we told them yesterday that we will meet everyday, all day if neces-
sary, to avoid a strike,” union President Michael Cherinka Jr. said Friday in an email. The ongoing contract dispute resulted in a divisive teachers strike in November and December. Teachers have been working without a union contract since September 2015.
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