Businesses Moving Back into Progress Plaza | News

In Bradford County crews are in the process of finding a contractor to repair a county office building that was flooded in Towanda.

Almost two months ago, the Progress Plaza Building in Towanda took on about five feet of water.

The Susquehanna River flooded the building, and left 13 businesses and agencies without a place to work. The contents of some of the offices were washed away.

"That would be everything that the school had, furniture and computers, things like that, and the Social Security office lost all of its contents," said Progress Authority Executive Director Anthony Ventello.

Now, the first floor is completely gutted and cleaned. Renovation will begin soon.

In the meantime, the displaced tenants are making do. The Social Security office reopened this week on the building`s top floor. Lackawanna College lost about 60 computers, and is using classrooms down the street.

"I only saw pictures from the outside, and it looked there was a lot of water, almost to the top of the door. So, I figured it was pretty bad," said Lackawanna College student Lauren Beers.

"It was complete, there was five and a half feet of water in all our classrooms, all our offices, everything was wiped out," said Professor Mike Noone.

The plaza was also home to a transit authority office and bus stop. People waiting for the bus typically would wait inside, but for now they must wait outside.

"I hope that they will get around to it, get it fixed up, so we can get back in, but somebody said it's going to take six weeks," said Dorothy Wood of Wyalusing.

Contractors will also make changes to the building to prevent this kind of devastating damage in the future.

"We're looking at moving electrical switch boards to higher floors, taking our primary elevator controls and putting those on an upper level, and whatever else we can do," said Ventello.

Officials said they are aiming for work at Progress Plaza to be finished by January. Then the remaining tenants can move back in.