A bigger prison and more debt

WILKES-BARRE — Luzerne County officials are poised to spend more than $2.5 million to design a new prison even though construction on the jail may not begin for years.....Minority Commissioner Stephen Urban does not believe the county is financially stable enough to afford the expense to design a new prison. He plans to vote against the contract next Wednesday."There is no money to do this," Urban said. "We spent $500,000 to design a (juvenile detention) center once. Look what happened there."Urban and former commissioner Tom Makowski voted to design a new juvenile detention center and borrowed $8 million to cover construction costs. The facility was never built, then Skrepenak and fellow majority Commissioner Todd Vonderheid entered into a 20-year, $58 million lease for a juvenile facility in Pittston Township.

Another brilliant way to waste money. Design a building that is not going to be built anytime soon. Who can anticipate changes in the building code or future state mandates that will make any design obsolete.