MINERSVILLE - The borough council is planning to vote tonight in support of a variance that allows the owner of two pharmacies in Pottsville to construct a new one on the site of a restaurant that burned down last year.
"The variance has to change because there are set-back requirements, but what they want to do is build on the same footprint as the previous buildings were located. I believe council will go along with that move in order to get a new business into Minersville," Borough Manager Joseph Bass said Monday.
The council's December meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight at borough hall.
The Schuylkill County Zoning Hearing Board will have the final say on the "dimensional variance" at its next meeting, Jan. 5 at the county courthouse, Susan Smith, county planning director, said Monday.
Carmen DiCello, Pottsville, owner of Towne Drug and Yorkville Drug Store in Pottsville, is planning to construct a new pharmacy on the site of the former Wynn-Ann Restaurant, 100 Sunbury St.
DiCello said Monday the new business will be called "Minersville Pharmacy," and he's planning to construct a one-story building with a drive-through window and a 10-vehicle parking lot.
DiCello said he's planning to hire a building contractor in January and hopes the new pharmacy will be open by mid-2012.
"Hopefully, it will be no later than July," DiCello said.
The last independent pharmacy in the borough was DeGutis Pharmacy, 245 Sunbury St. It closed in 2008.
"Currently, there isn't a pharmacy in downtown Minersville. The closest is the Rite-Aid at King's Village Shopping Center," Bass said.
When Degutis closed, its customers came to Pottsville hoping to find another independent pharmacy dedicated to customer service, DiCello said.
"So we started looking at the possibility of opening a store in Minersville," DiCello said.
The Wynn-Ann Restaurant was severely damaged in a fire April 24, 2010, which authorities ruled was arson.
In March, the borough council announced it was planning to donate the building to a new local nonprofit redevelopment group, the Minersville Area Community Improvement Organization.
"But they didn't have their 501c3 at the time, so the borough went ahead and sold the property to Mr. DiCello," Bass said.
On Aug. 22, the borough sold the building at 100 Sunbury St. to D&H Real Estate Partnership, owned by DiCello and his wife, Bonnie, for $7,500, according to the online Schuylkill Parcel Locator.
"But we had to buy a total of three small properties to build the pharmacy we wanted to build," DiCello said.
So D&H Real Estate also purchased 104 Sunbury St. on July 28 from Union Bank and Trust Co. for $5,000, and 106 Sunbury St. on July 21 from Joseph E. Szeliga and Heather L. Price for $5,000, according to the Schuylkill Parcel Locator.
Looking ahead, Bass said he hopes the new Minersville Pharmacy is a building block for the borough's downtown.
"We're hoping this is a new spur for other businesses to take a look at downtown Minersville, to either expand or start new businesses here," Bass said.