While Scranton plans to seek a state grant to fund a $315,000 renovation of the Lookout, its telescope that was hit by a vehicle and removed for repairs should be back in place soon at the scenic overlook on East Mountain.

Scranton City Council’s agenda for its weekly meeting Tuesday has a resolution from the administration of Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti to authorize the city to apply for a Local Share Account grant to fund repairs to the stone foundation and walls of the Lookout, built in 1938.

Council voted 5-0 last Tuesday — with council President Gerald Smurl, Bill King, Mark McAndrew, Jessica Rothchild and Tom Schuster all in favor — to introduce the resolution. The legislation now comes back to council for a second vote on adoption.

“I’m glad to see us acting quickly in putting in this grant application and I hope the city is successful in receiving it,” Rothchild said. “I think we all want to see the Lookout be fixed up and renovated and we need this money to help us get there.”

The Lookout along Route 307 was constructed under the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal program established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to help create jobs during the Great Depression. For 87 years, the roadside attraction along Moosic Street (Route 307) has offered panoramic vistas of Scranton and West Mountain, and beyond.

In recent years, the site has suffered from vandalism knocking loose many of the stone blocks of the structure and tagging it with graffiti.

The Works Progress Adminstration (WPA) built the stone wall around the Lookout on East Mountain in 1938. The cornerstone of the wall has been vandalized, in addition to other sections of the overlook on Rt. 307 in Scranton. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

Earlier this month, city engineer Reilly Associates estimated that stonework repairs and installing security cameras, lighting and other facets at the Lookout would cost $314,768. The work would include repointing masonry of the stone walls; additional stone repairs; repaving the parking area; stone sidewalk repairs; additional lighting; guiderail transition replacement; security cameras; mobilization; and traffic control.

Previously, in July, a car hit the telescope and broke its base, and the binocular viewer was sent to Tower Optical in Connecticut for repairs.

For about 15 years, the telescope was kept at the Lookout under an arrangement with the Architectural Heritage Association, a local preservation civic group, said former Mayor Wayne Evans, who is a member of that association. The group has paid the lease of about $500 a year to have the telescope stationed at the Lookout and has kept it free to the public to use, unlike other stationary telescopes at tourist destinations that are coin-operated, Evans said in a phone interview Monday.

“It was really more of a community donation more than anything else,” Evans said. “We look for opportunities to quietly help in the preservation world. It’s a small cost to pay it forward.”

The city plans to install safety measures to ensure that the returned telescope will not get hit again by a vehicle. The city engineer also suggested trying to get the Lookout placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

On its website, Tower Optical says it has made its “iconic binocular viewers” since 1932 and the viewfinders “have cemented themselves as a piece of American history” as fixtures at scenic destinations across North America, including the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Niagara Falls and the Golden Gate Bridge.

In Scranton, “The Lookout is historic and the view is historic as well,” Evans said. “On a clear day, as they say, you can see forever.”

Vehicles are parked at the Lookout on East Mountain in Scranton. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)A snowy viewfinder and view of Scranton at the Lookout scenic overlook along Moosic Street (Route 307) on Feb. 21, 2011. (TIMES-TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO)