Luzerne County and Lackawanna County officials are continuing to hammer out terms in a new partnership agreement that the Federal Aviation Administration is requiring so the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton International Airport can continue to receive FAA funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re waiting to see what kind of changes Luzerne County is going to make to it,\u201d Donald Frederickson, Lackawanna County general counsel and airport co-solicitor, said after Thursday\u2019s bi-county airport board meeting.<\/p>\n
The counties signed an agreement in 1968 to share ownership of the airport, which has an Avoca mailing address and is primarily in Pittston Twp. in Luzerne County. Both counties will probably approve the new partnership agreement in January, Frederickson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe FAA would like to have it done as soon as possible,\u201d Frederickson said.<\/p>\n
The FAA wants a single federal sponsor of the airport for the purposes of federal grant administration and compliance. Under the current agreement, both counties are sponsors. The name of the new partnership entity would be \u201cAVP Bi-County Partnership,\u201d according to an initial draft.<\/p>\n
Luzerne County council members expressed various concerns with the proposed partnership agreement at a meeting on Oct. 14 and noted Lackawanna County\u2019s unwillingness to provide funding to pay law enforcement officers at the airport. That dispute was resolved last month.<\/p>\n
![\"BJ](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766367607_46_CVC-L-AIRPORT121825.jpg\")
BJ Teichman, acting director of the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton International Airport, is discussing an agenda item at the bi-county airport board meeting at the airport in Pittston Twp. on Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025.(Michael P. Buffer \/ Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n
At the meeting on Oct. 14, airport Assistant Director BJ Teichman said the counties need to approve a new partnership agreement by Jan. 1 to avoid losing FAA funds. Teichman is currently the acting director while Carl Beardsley is on a \u201chealth sabbatical.\u201d Beardsley is expected to return as executive director in the future.<\/p>\n
During Thursday\u2019s airport board meeting, Luzerne County Controller Walter Griffith asked why Lackawanna County officials did not attend a Luzerne County Council work session on Dec. 9 to discuss the new partnership agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was some consternation by a member of council that he sent questions to this board and didn\u2019t get answers,\u201d Griffith said.<\/p>\n
During the Dec. 9 work session, Luzerne County Council Vice Chairman Brian Thornton complained he never received financial information he requested from Lackawanna County.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo reply, crickets,\u201d Thornton said. \u201cWe\u2019re expected to sign a partnership, a financial long-term deal regarding hundreds of millions of dollars over the future, and they won\u2019t answer our questions. Who would go into partnership in business with the other side when they say I don\u2019t want to tell you anything I have?\u201d<\/p>\n
Also during Thursday\u2019s meeting, the airport board voted 5-1 to approve a contract with the Benecon Group LLC to administer health insurance for 47 airport employees in 2026. Airport employees have been receiving health insurance through the countyies\u2019 health plans, and the airport has been paying health insurance premiums to the counties.<\/p>\n
The contract with Benecon allows the airport to pay employee insurance costs directly. An auditor suggested the change in October because the airport directly pays employee wages, Teichman said.<\/p>\n
Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan voted against the Benecon contract because he received information about it just prior to the meeting. The airport board voted to add the Benecon contract to Wednesday\u2019s meeting agenda at the start of the meeting \u2014 a move Griffith claimed violated the state Sunshine Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo much for transparency, folks,\u201d Griffith said.<\/p>\n
Frederickson disputed Griffith\u2019s assertion about the Sunshine Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to go with the Supreme Court and not you, Walter,\u201d Frederickson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luzerne County and Lackawanna County officials are continuing to hammer out terms in a new partnership agreement that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,883,803,139,28,4487,50,178,180,179,802],"class_list":{"0":"post-67208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-lackawanna-county","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-local-politics","11":"tag-luzerne-county","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-pittston-township","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-scranton","17":"tag-scranton-headlines","18":"tag-scranton-news","19":"tag-top-stories-cvc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67208","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=67208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}