Coming Soon: Wiles-Barre Scranton Airport Rental Car Wash
PITTSTON TWP. — A new $7.74 million center for cleaning and fueling rental cars at the local airport shouldn’t cost car renters any more money, officials said Thursday.
The $3.25 that airport-based rental-car companies now charge for each rental day should remain the same, said Chris Teich, project manager and president of project delivery for Conrac Solutions, the developer.
Teich said the charge should suffice in helping pay off the private loan that will finance the project with no taxpayer money required.
He outlined the project at a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport board meeting.
Conrac hired L.R. Costanzo Co. Inc. of Scranton to build the center, known as a quick turnaround, on land across from the airport’s cellphone parking lot on Old Navy Way Road.
Construction will cost almost $6.18 million, with the rest representing project management, permit fees and other costs.
The land includes an abandoned building that housed Verizon offices and an existing maintenance center owned by rental-car company Avis Budget. L.R. Costanzo will demolish both. The other rental-car companies — Enterprise/National/Alamo and Hertz/Dollar — wash and fuel their cars miles away.
The center will have room for 250 cars with an 11,000-gallon, above-ground fuel tank, fence and guardrails, Teich said. The rental companies will store about 75 cars in a parking lot farther up Old Navy Way Road and across from the center. A “special-purpose entity” will lease the project lots from the airport, Teich said.
L.R. Costanzo will also enclose a walkway in the separate lot where customers return rental cars to protect them from bad weather.
The rental companies will staff the center, Teich said.
“This is going to take a lot of traffic off the (roads) because two of the rental car companies have to go off site,” he said.
Demolition is scheduled to begin in October with construction completed by the end of October 2021.
In other business, the board:
¦ Reorganized and appointed Lackawanna County Commissioner Debi Domenick as its chairwoman and Luzerne County Councilman Tim McGinley as its vice chairman. A six-member board made up of three people from each county oversees the airport.
¦ Honored airport Public Safety Director George Bieber, who will retire Jan. 31 to take a job as operations director for a new drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic near Lake Scranton in Scranton. Airport officials heaped praise on Bieber, 65.
Airport Director Carl Beardsley Jr. said when he took his job, he noticed Bieber knew everyone in the terminal and always helped.
Board member C. David Pedri said Bieber exemplified the meaning of the term “customer service.”
“I saw him help a mother of four who was bringing her children in here one time. The kids were crying. George stopped everything he was doing (and said), ‘Let me help you out,’?” Pedri said. “Everybody was treated with respect.”
Bieber accepted the award with humility.
“I loved it,” Bieber said of his job. “I had a great time.”
¦ Honored Tia Toney, airport assistant financial director, for 15 years of what Beardsley called “outstanding service and dedication.”
¦ Said it would consider Dupont resident Lou Posly’s request to remove a gate at one end of Lidy Road if Dupont Borough Council officially asks. Posly, who first asked several months ago, said opening the gate will improve emergency-vehicle access and allow Lidy Road residents easier access to Interstate 81. Airport officials said they met with Dupont officials, who so far haven’t asked to remove the gate.
Contact the writer:
570-348-9147;
@BorysBlogTT on Twitter
———
©2020 The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pa.)
Visit The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pa.) at thetimes-tribune.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
