Comment on Proposed funding plan unveiled for River Common park in Wilkes-Barre

The River Common recreation area in downtown Wilkes-Barre deserves more attention and appreciation, several officials said during a Monday announcement of proposed new funding. “Look at this beautiful park,” said Larry Newman, head of the Diamond City Partnership downtown revitalization alliance. “It is high time that we as a community took full advantage of this asset — this gift that we have been given as a community.” The Luzerne County-owned park along the Susquehanna River underwent a $23 million revamping unveiled in 2009 that included a new 750-seat amphitheater, fishing pier/landing, and extensive landscaping. Critics have complained the park is insufficiently maintained and underutilized. The county is responsible for park maintenance, which has declined due to the elimination of an outside landscaping contract to save money and past county building and ground layoffs that have made it more difficult for staffers to keep up with mowing. Beefing up programming has always been a challenge because the county relies on the all-volunteer Riverfront Parks Committee to arrange, oversee and obtain funds for events. Monday’s gathering formally announced that King’s College and Wilkes University have each agreed to provide $20,000 annually for the next five years to help fund existing and new events if county council pledges $10,000 of its natural-gas recreation funding per year during the same period for trimming, weeding, manicuring and other park maintenance. In addition to the county’s $10,000 earmark, the county operational services division must continue handling grass cutting, garbage collection, light fixture upkeep and other basic maintenance, according to the proposed cooperation agreement. Council members are scheduled to vote on the $10,000 allocation along with outside requests for natural-gas recreation funding at their Oct.