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Public questions ARP spending as mayor cites reports and $1.2M Horton Street cost
Summary
A resident pressed Wilkes‑Barre officials for transparency about ARP allocations and a recent $6 million bond; Mayor George Brown said ARP uses were voted and reported publicly and said Horton Street repairs cost about $1.2 million, defending a sewer fee increase.
A resident urged the Wilkes‑Barre City Council to explain how federal ARP funds and a recent $6 million bond were spent, saying the public has a right to know whether the money was used appropriately. "Maybe somebody public official used some of it to buy a car or a house," the speaker said, raising concerns about oversight.
Mayor George Brown replied that "every use of the dollars was passed by this council" and that quarterly federal reports were filed documenting expenditures. He said the county retained a consultant to help assess whether projects qualified for ARP funds, but "the city did not do that," and the county arrangement was not an audit of city spending.
The exchange turned to the city's capital needs and revenue choices. When asked whether the $6 million bond covered projects such as Horton Street, the mayor said Horton Street alone cost about $1.2 million and defended a recent sewer fee increase, saying many sewer lines are more than 100 years old and repairs are costly. "If that meant a $50 increase, then I'm sorry that that was necessary," he said.
The resident repeated broad concerns about rising costs and asked whether an independent audit had been commissioned; council members and administrators directed the resident to right‑to‑know procedures for records requests and noted that ARP projects and votes were documented in prior public meetings. The meeting record does not show the council authorizing an independent audit of city ARP expenditures during this session.
Next steps noted during the meeting included officials offering to provide public meeting minutes and project documentation; no formal motion to commission an external audit was recorded.
