Yesterday, I sat down with Easton Mayor Sal Panto, Jr., who is seeking a second term at the helm. Today and tomorrow, I'll bring you our discussion.
Q. There are some who've called your new bus station, the one at the Cinema Paradiso, a risky and frivolous project. Are they wrong?
Panto: "Yes. They are wrong. They are misinformed. I think what happens is a lot of people think that we're building a high school sports Hall of Fame for the national high school coaches' association, and that's the furthest thing from the truth. What we have is roughly $10 million worth of grants to build an intermodal project. The size of the parking deck is going to be 375 cars, it takes up the entire back portion.
"We originally were going to just build a parking deck. But once we realized that if we build a parking deck, there's no place to build new buildings on the front because there's no place to do construction setup, we realized the project had to be done in its entirety.
"Originally, there were two building lots set up in the front. Now there's one building lot in the front, and the City is building a 45,000 sq. ft building. Only one floor of that will be rented by the High School Hall of Fame, not the whole 45,000 sq. ft.
We are also not spending City dollars on the buildout. That's their own $10 million nut."
5 comments:
Another great project in Easton to add to so many that are happening in the downtown and in the neighborhoods. We've come a long way baby!!! (oops showing my age,,)
We have done a similar project in Hazleton, although the parking garage has been delayed due to funding cutbacks. We have a bus station for local transit and intercity like Beiber or Trailways. Plus the station was designed to look like a railroad station and built alongside the track that goes through the downtown. They designed it to possibly serve as the station for passenger trains if they ever come this far again.
It will bring back memories for we old timers of the days of the Greyhound station and the Terminal Hotel. I think part of the outside waiting deck that went with the Terminal Hotel is still there if I remember correctly. I have a photo of my mother and Dad taken on that platform when Dad was leaving after being home on leave around 70 years ago
Mr. Coleman, Thank you for a very nice story.
I love Sal Panto. He is a very nice man and a good mayor.
If this project does not meet expectations, what if any does the taxpayer have to pay?
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