DICKSON CITY \u2014 The borough\u2019s second zoning hearing on three natural gas power plants proposed on Bell Mountain ended in less than two minutes Wednesday due to a missing environmental assessment.\n<\/p>\n
Dickson City Power \u2014 a trio of Archbald-based limited liability companies tied to Kriger Construction Inc. \u2014 applied with the borough in March to build natural gas power plants on the mountainside above Business Route 6, totaling 600 megawatts of electricity. Dickson City\u2019s zoning ordinance requires that power generation facilities must include an environmental assessment alongside their application. The planning commission then has 30 days to review the assessment. Dickson City Power did not submit the assessment with its application.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe municipality and the public are unduly burdened and denied effective participation under the (Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code),\u201d a stipulation presented by the borough states.\n<\/p>\n
The stipulation allows Dickson City Power to remedy that by conducting the assessment and providing it to the borough for the planning commission to review. The zoning hearing board will then resume its hearings on the project.<\/p>\n
![\"Dickson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/STT-L-DICKSON-0724-3.jpg\")
Dickson City Power Attorney Frank Hoegen accepts a stipulation with the borough during a brief zoning hearing on Dickson City Power\u2019s proposal for three Bell Mountain power plants in the Dickson City Borough Building on Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY \/ STAFF PHOTO)<\/p>\n
Borough Solicitor Bill Jones announced the stipulation at the start of Wednesday\u2019s hearing in front of a crowd of about four dozen people.\n<\/p>\n
Attorney Frank Hoegen of Hoegen & Associates in Wilkes-Barre agreed on behalf of Dickson City Power. Zoning Hearing Board Solicitor Frank Marcin then announced there would be no hearing.<\/p>\n
\u2018Can\u2019t live next to it\u2019<\/p>\n
As the crowd trickled out of the Borough Building, Bell Mountain resident Tim Pfleiderer said he had been waiting for testimony from the project\u2019s environmental expert. He is one of half a dozen residents who gained party status last month, allowing him to cross-examine Dickson City Power\u2019s witnesses. He pointed to a folder of documents and questions he prepared.<\/p>\n
Pfleiderer is the closest neighbor to any of the proposed power plants. He lives on McLean Street, about 841 feet from the westernmost facility.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they put that in 841 feet from my property, they\u2019ll cut my property price, my value down to nothing,\u201d he said, worrying about the noise and air emissions. \u201cYou can\u2019t live next to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pfleiderer, a certified U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration trainer and electrician, said he spent several years working in a power plant.<\/p>\n
The mountain needs to be studied, he said, contending there are timber rattlesnakes, protected plants and migrating bats.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to get the (Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection) up there to look at it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
About the project<\/p>\n
Operating as Dickson City Power One, Dickson City Power Two and Dickson City Power Three, the developer proposes power plants across three properties:\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Dickson City Power Three applied for a 100-megawatt power plant on land behind the former Kmart that is now storage units at 1011 Business Route 6. This is the closest development to Pfleiderer.\n<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Moving east, Dickson City Power One\u2019s power plant, the largest of the proposals, would generate 400 megawatts above Cold Spring Road. Plans also show a 20.6-acre substation directly above the power plant.\n<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0The easternmost power plant, from Dickson City Power Two, would generate 100 megawatts above the Circle Drive-In.
\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/STT-L-DICKSON-0612-8.jpg\")
A site plan marked with parcel sizes appeared on an easel during a zoning hearing in the Dickson City Borough Building to consider special exceptions for three natural gas power plants on Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY \/ STAFF PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n
The Dickson City Zoning Hearing Board held its first hearing<\/a> on the proposals in June.\n<\/p>\n The power plants coincide with the locations of four data centers proposed by Dickson City Development LLC, another firm linked to Kriger Construction.<\/p>\n The zoning hearing board rejected<\/a> the data centers in May. The denials are being challenged<\/a> in court.<\/p>\n \u2018Concerned for our whole region\u2019<\/p>\n The plans in Dickson City mirror a proposal in Archbald, where other Kriger Construction-related companies<\/a> want to build Essential Energy natural gas power plant on Eynon Jermyn Road, with Project Boson data center across the street. Hoegen represented Essential Energy during a conditional use hearing Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n Three of the core members of the Stop Archbald Data Centers movement came to Dickson City on Wednesday to support their neighbors \u2014 co-founder Tamara Misewicz-Healey, John Kura and Meg Nudelman.\n<\/p>\n Misewicz-Healey, who cross-examined an Essential Energy engineer Tuesday, said they want to be a support system for Dickson City residents. She also personally wanted to see how Dickson City Power\u2019s presentation and arguments compared to Archbald.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happens in Dickson City also impacts us,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m concerned for our whole region.\u201d<\/p>\n Air pollution and noise cross borders, and the communities share the same watershed and energy supply, Misewicz-Healey said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important we all stick together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Kura and his wife, Janessa Bednash, are Jermyn residents but joined the data center fight in Archbald, becoming core members of Stop Archbald Data Centers when the group formed in late October.<\/p>\n What one town does affects all of the communities around it, Kura said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re all so small and close that the repercussions are felt by all of us,\u201d he said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t just one town over here fighting something, and we don\u2019t have to worry about it. We\u2019re all in this together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DICKSON CITY \u2014 The borough\u2019s second zoning hearing on three natural gas power plants proposed on Bell Mountain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2117,2116,1099,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-250341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-archbald","tag-data-centers","tag-dickson-city","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Residents](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/STT-L-DICKSON-0724-1.jpg\")
Residents attend a brief zoning hearing on Dickson City Power\u2019s proposal for three Bell Mountain power plants in the Dickson City Borough Building on Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY \/ STAFF PHOTO)<\/p>\n